On the trail of horse thieves

By Jim Warren

Rancho Los Presenos , Texas

January 4, 1851

Dear Mom,

After spending a great Christmas with the Bluntzers, our New Year's Eve celebration wasn't all that spectacular. The day after Christmas the ranchers finally arrived and told the Sgt. that the hostiles had raided a small ranch near Trinidad Lake just a couple of days before, so we struck out right away in that direction. They stole about 40 horses and mules, but luckily no one was killed. We are going to check the Laredo road to see if we can cut off their trail. Usually when they get that many horses in one bunch they can take off north with them to try and get back home before we can catch them.

The same day we left Lipantitlan, a norther blew in while we were camped for lunch at the Agua Dulce crossing. It really got cold in a hurry and began to rain a little later, so we made it in to Los Presenos and holed up for the night. Well, the norther got colder and the rain got worse so we are still here. Valentin said there is no way we can track Indians. The rain has washed out their tracks and besides, they are holed up somewhere, too. But, as soon as it quits raining and they take off again, all their sign will be fresh and easy to follow. So we're waiting.

You can't imagine a worse place to spend a few days waiting for Indians to break camp and celebrating New Year's Eve! This rancho is a mustang camp. The owner's name is Maximo Farias but he still lives in Camargo, Mexico and never comes up to the ranch. They have six or eight workers who stay here and catch wild horses. They usually break them to ride because the Spanish ponies are too small to do good draft service. Then they drive them to Corpus, Laredo , and San Antonio to sell. They also breed them to a bunch a jacks and produce good riding and plowing mules.

Valentin says the word "mustang" is the English version of the Spanish word "mesteños," which is what they call the wild horses. I never thought about it but he says there weren't any horses in the New World until the Spanish brought them over in 1494. They also brought in the cattle because the nearest thing to beef over here was the buffalo.

Anyway, they rode horses on all their expeditions and drove cattle with them to eat along the way. Then they would turn some loose to see if they would increase, and they certainly did! The only bad thing about all this is that the Indians got mounted when the horses became available, and now they can go wherever they please and raise cane and be 100 miles away before you know it. Before that they had to travel afoot.

Presenos is only about 25 miles southwest of Lipantitlan so we haven't made much progress since leaving camp. I better quit this rambling and get to work. Valentin is putting beef tallow on cartridge box to keep the powder dry in this weather, and I'm going to do mine, too. These paper cartridges sure don't hold up very well in damp weather, and if we ever catch up with the hostiles I don't want my musket to misfire. Write soon.

Your son,

Henry

Calaveras Lake , Texas

January 11, 1851

Dear Mom,

Well, it finally quit raining and we got away from Los Presenos. They day before we left a group of traders from Laredo came by on their way to Corpus. They said they had not seen any Indian sign on the Laredo road, so the Sgt. decided the hostiles were either headed south for Mexico or they were hiding out, waiting to make another raid and get some more horses before heading back to their home range. He said we would go straight to Rancho Trinidad and see if we could pick up any sign there.

The going was pretty slow because of the recent rains. Everything has turned to mud. At least we aren't burdened with wagons to get stuck and break down. Our pack mules move along right smart and don't hold us up at all. As you can see, we only made it to a small lake called Calaveras. It is only about seven miles south of Presenos, but San Fernando Creek was running bank full and we had to go upstream about four miles to cross the Chiltipin and then the San Diego creeks before they join to form the San Fernando. Then we turned south again and stopped at Rancho San Fernando to ask about hostile activity. They hadn't seen any Indians, but were on the lookout since hearing about the Trinidad raid. Rancho San Fernando belongs to a man named Marcelino Lopez, and it is a lot more hospitable than Presenos., being a regular cattle ranch instead of a mustang camp.

I didn't get to tell you why it was so drab at Presenos -- besides the weather. Since the owners never visit the camp, the vaqueros live pretty primitive. They have thrown up a few jacales and some brush arbors they call "ramaderas" for shade in the summer. They don't do anything but catch and break horses and breed mules. Some of them are riding the brush every day checking their horse herd. They call it their "caballada." They usually turn loose a few tame mares to lure the wild horses in. Then every day they have to ride out and check the herd to keep the tame horses from taking off with the wild bunch. After they see that a few wild ones have taken up with theirs, they try to capture them.

They have two means of capture that Valentin says are the most effective. One is to get all their hands and any neighbors together for a rodeo. They all get mounted on their best horses and carry along two or three good stout ropes. One rider leaves before daylight to locate the herd, then he comes in to report the location and everybody mounts up and heads for the spot. They usually break up into four groups and slip up on the herd from all directions. They ease along until the herd gets wind of them and starts to run, then they all spur up and everybody tries to rope a wild horse before they can get away. Valentin says it's a pretty wild spectacle, with horses running in every direction and squealing and riders yelling and brush breaking! Some of the horses are so wild they never give up and either choke to death or break their necks.

The other method sounds better to me. What they do is build a brush fence around the water holes and leave only one opening into it. Then they put some gentle mares in the pen and feed them every day for about a week so they get used to coming up every evening to feed. Whichever water hole they find mustang sign around, they then close the openings at the other water holes so they have to water at the one they are going to trap. After feeding a few days to get the horses coming good, they spring the trap! If the horses are staying in the pen at night the vaqueros just slip up in the dark and seal the opening, but usually the wild bunch won't stay overnight, so they wait until the horses go into the pen and then everybody rides like crazy to block the opening until the gate can be put up.

The bunch at Presenos must know what they are doing because they had about 150 head ready to go to Laredo when we were there. I bet the hands who drive them to Laredo come back with a big case of hangover after being at Presenos for a year or so!

I've got to quit now. Write when you can.

Your son,

Henry

(Jim Warren is an archaeologist living in George West.)