The marvellous country, or, Three years in Arizona and New Mexico.: Containing an authentic history of this wonderful country and its ancient civilization ... together with a full and complete history of the Apache tribe of Indians .../ By Samuel Woodworth Cozzens. Illustrated by more than one hundred engravings.

A SENSITIVE ALCALDE.
honestly made by trade with the emigrants. "Jim" would
ride unti he met a train with three or four foot-sore oxen
following it; these he would trade his horse for; then he
would stop in his journey long enough to give the cattle a
rest, and afterwards trade them for the next ones he met;
and so on until he procured a good drove.
But "Jim," seeing we had nothing to trade, pushed ou,
and with considerable alacrity, when we told him of old
Penningi,ton's camp. Two days more brought us to the town
of La Mesilla, where for the present, kind reader, I propose to leave you, after asking you to refresh yourself with
a delicious draught of E1 Paso wine, which we will draw
from a huge leathern bottle made of an untanned ox-skin,
the hair side being, of course, the outside, and which the
worthy Don Anastacio Berella, the alcalde of the town,
assures us is the only proper way of preserving the flavor
of wine and preventing its tasting of the cask. It was thi
same alcalde whom, a few days after our arrival, we invited
to dine with us, and who returned an answer to the effect
that "he had plenty to eat at home"; evidently considering
our invitation an insinuation that we supposed him to be
out of chilli and tortillas. In reply to which Dr. Parker
remarked, that "'twas ever thus" his motives had been
impugned by every one, from the time he had attempted to
climb a tree to avoid making entertainment for a bear, until
he had voluntarily offered to entertain one.
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