On the 16th of August a party of about sixty Apaches visited Las Vegas and solicited powder and ball in exchange for furs. Captain Judd, who was in command, held a "talk" with them, and became convinced that their intentions were anything but pacific. Several of them were recognized as having been among the Indians who had falsely treated for peace at Taos, and had afterwards been engaged in numerous murders and robberies along the frontier. Captain Judd refused to grant their request for ammunition, and after their departure to their camp, about half a mile from the town, he ordered Lieutenant Burnside to follow them there, and arrest the chiefs.

Lieutenant Burnside, at the head of twenty-nine men, came up with the Indians before they had reached their camp, and advancing within short range of their arrows, halted his detachment, in the hope that the Indians would surrender. Instead of so doing, they delivered a flight of missiles from their bows and rifles, and then fled at a hand-gallop over the rough hills and ravines. A charge, with his command deployed as skirmishers, was at once ordered by Lieutenant Burnside, who gallantly led his men against the flying but resisting foe. A hand-to-hand conflict ensued, in which the sabre was the only weapon used by the troops, who followed their foes more than nine miles, capturing three prisoners, and killing, it was believed, at least twenty warriors. Lieutenant Burnside was wounded by an arrow just below the ear, and several of his command also received arrow wounds. He was warmly commended by Captain Judd for his bravery, and Colonel Washington, who then commanded the military department of New Mexico, in transmitting a report of the affair to Major-General Jones, then adjutant-general of the army, said: "The troops serving in New Mexico

are entitled to much consideration for the prompt and cheerful manner in which they have performed their arduous duties, as well as for their conduct in chastising the hostile bands which infest it, on every occasion which has been presented."

Before the gallant conduct of Lieutenant Burnside was known at Washington, it had been determined to send a cavalry force to New Mexico, and orders had accordingly been forwarded, relieving him from further duty, and assigning the men comprising his detachment to companies serving in their vicinity. This was accordingly done, and Lieutenant Burnside, having settled his accounts and turned over his arms and horse equipments to the Ordnance and Quartermaster's departments, left for Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, where he joined his regiment.

Resuming the routine duties and drills of garrison life, Lieutenant Burnside found relaxation in the neighboring city of St. Louis, with its old French families, its wealthy merchants, and its numerous visitors from Kentucky. Fond of ladies' society, the young officer was soon a favorite escort among the Missouri and Kentucky belles, and one night he went with a bevy of them to a public ball. On arriving at the hotel where the ball was given, Lieutenant Burnside learned that some disreputable persons had obtained admission to the floor, and proposed to the ladies of his party that they should content themselves with a view of the gay scene from the gallery of the ballroom. This they did, to the annoyance of some of the young residents, who had hoped to enjoy dancing with the ladies, and a newspaper published the next day made some sneering remarks about the military snob who thought that the society of St. Louis was not sufficiently refined for his lady friends to mix with.

66

Lieutenant Burnside was much incensed when he read this, and believing with Dr. Johnson that "a free press should always be accompanied by a free cudgel," he determined to chastise the writer. Having first obtained a fortnight's leave of absence, he went to the office of the newspaper, where he found the writer of the article and cowhided him well. He then left secretly for Indiana, and the constables sought him at the barracks in vain when they went to arrest him for assault and battery. Some of the leading citizens interfered, the complaint was withdrawn, and the pugnacious lieutenant returned to his duty.

TARY HEADS OF THE PARTY - RIVAL EXPRESSES SENT WITH
DISPATCHES ΤΟ WASHINGTON - INVENTION OF A BREECH-
LOADING MUSKET- PROMOTION VISIT TO INDIANA-A LOVE
EPISODE.

T

HE treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo having provided for a joint commission for running and marking the boundary between the United States and Mexico, Hon. John B. Weller was appointed on the part of the United States, and Gen. P. D. Condé on the part of Mexico. On the accession of General Taylor to the presidential chair Mr. Weller was removed, and General Fremont was appointed as his successor. Before he had rendered any service, however, General Fremont was elected a United States Senator from California, and then the Hon. John Russell Bartlett, of Rhode Island, was appointed commissioner on the part of the United States. Mr. Bartlett met the Mexican commissioner, General Condé, at El Paso on the 1st of December, 1851, and they commenced the important work entrusted to them.

The following May the commission established its headquarters at Santa Rita del Cobre, where copper-mines had

been profitably worked until the Apaches drove the Mexicans away. There having been some misunderstanding between the officers of the army detailed for service on the commission and the citizen commissary, the Secretary of the Interior had requested the Secretary of War to detail an officer of the army as quartermaster and commissary.

Lieutenant Burnside was accordingly detailed for this duty, and ordered to report to Colonel Graham, of the corps of engineers, the principal astronomer of the commission, at San Antonio, Texas. This old Spanish town, hallowed by the gallant defense of its mission-church by Crockett, Bowie, and others in the struggle for Texan independence, was the central point for freight-trains, drawn by mules and oxen, which transported the commerce of that portion of the continent. A large portion of the inhabitants at that time were Mexicans, the women having their heads enveloped in "rebosas," or mantles, and plying their fans with inimitable grace. The men, wearing broadbrimmed" sombreros," jackets thickly studded with silver buttons, and trowsers open at the outside from the hip down, displaying ample drawers of white linen, were much given to drinking and gambling.

The Mexicans distilled a potent spirituous liquor, which they called aquardiente, from the bulbous root of the agave mexicana, by a process which reminded Lieutenant Burnside of the Rhode Island clam-bakes - using wet grass instead of sea-weed to cover the bulbs while being roasted on heated stones. The laborers were peons, of Indian and Mexican descent, and were generally held in servitude for the payment of debts which they had been encouraged to contract early in life. When such debtors grew old and unfit for labor, they were released with much ceremony from their pecuniary obligation, and thenceforth became beggars.