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Show GEFFHOY'S TRIALS. 65 L'Eau, or water of suffering, but the pious Spaniards name it River of Souls, which your unpoetic but practical race have shortened to Purga-tory. We soon entered the grand cafion where the stream cuts its way through a high and barren table- land, running in a deep gorge, with almost perpendicular sides. Sometimes these crowd in upon the stream, and fallen rocks choke up its bed, producing a series of beautiful cascades ; again, the cliffs recede, and leave a little oval valley, inclosed by red and yellow walls, rich in grass and timber, and often abounding in game. At length we reached a gorge too narrow and difficult for pass-age, and were compelled to turn into a side gulch and climb the almost perpendicular cliff, at least six hundred feet in height. All day we toiled along a series of rocky offsets, again and again lifting our horses over the rocks by means of ropes attached to their bodies, and at night- fall camped upon the high mesa. Thence we followed only the general course of the Las Animas until we arrived at our "*' destined post, which was in a large grove of cot-tonwoods just below where the Taos trail crosses the stream. North and east were the sandy des-erts, southward the tierras templadas that skirt the heads of the Cimarron and the Colorado tributary to CASON DE LAS ANIMAS - the Canadian ; but westward a more fertile plat rose even to the foot of the Huaquetories, which your people now call the Spanish Peaks. There we kept close guard upon the trail, expecting to capture some of the enemy's scouts, but beyond that and herding our stock, were free from care. Grass, game and pure water were abundant, and in a few days every man felt equal to a hundred Mexicans. Again songs were heard, and merriment reigned around the camp- fire; again did we hear of that glorious future in Mexico. All the omens were propitious ; the restored mountaineers had good dreams, and the birds again flew in unison with their brightest hopes. " Doubts of my companions, which had slumbered in time of toil and trouble, returned amid abundance, but were happily set. at rest by a circumstance that soon occurred. One day our guards hailed a small . party, who fled northward, but were captured after a sharp chase of sev-eral miles. They proved to be two Americans and an Englishman, with two Mexican guides and servants, on their way from Santa Fe to Fort Lancaster, and thence to the States. Having been successful |