Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1842-09-15
EATING HORSE FLESH; SUFFER
INGS OF THE SANTA re. AID
VENTURES.

VENTURES.
Mr.. Kendall, of the Picayune, in his
notes of the Santa Fe expedition, gives
the following as sample of misery to
which the poor fellows were reduced,
before they fell into the hands of tie Alex
leans:
The evening of the 10Th, and we had
lost all traces OF a road That passage
must be forced through the high chain Of
mountains and rough hills before US,
was evident enough. Although We were
not aware Of it at the time, they proved
to be spurs of the Rocky Mountains !;
and, as the sun gradually sank behind
them, cod breeze sprang up from the
northeast. 1t was the first raw cold wea-
Their we had bad and, in our then weak
and exhausted situation, we felt it more
sensibly.
1--WE journeyed on until we came TO a
deep, dry gully, at the foot Of the noun
lalns; aud there encamped for the night
10 90 further without something to eat,
was impossible. The wild ami haggard
looks, the sunkeE eye, tleshleM faces of
the men, too plainly showed that some
sustenance must be Immediately proyid-
ed. A horse formerly belonging to Ho "
| land, and which, in the early part of the
campain, had been one of the best ami
mails along. was uvw fvuud to be so poor
and badly broken down, that it was re-
solved upon to shoot him, and divide his
flesh among the different messes. AS
they led the once proud and gallant horse
up to execution, the words of an old nur-
sery song-one that had neither heard
nor thought of for will not say how
many years, but since was a boy--came
rushing to my recollection:
Poor old horse! let him die
He's old, he's cold, he's lazy, dull, and slow,
He eats my hay, and he tramples all my straw;
He's neither fit to go, nor in the cart to draw
SO Well whip him, kill him, skin him. and to
the huntsman let him go
Poor old horse! he must die!
Il do not give this from any intrinsic
merit it may possess; and | will not say
that have quoted the author right, aud
altho' he has probably been dead for a
century. and consequently unable 10 cor
rect it; | have simply given the verse to
show the wel-known eccentriclteS OF
memory, by which man is often placed
in situations, Or is witness to scenes,
which suddenly awaken and bring to his
recollection the long forgotten associa-
lions of childhood.
But to return to my narrative. The
horse was killed, and, in quicker time
than it takes me to tell it, his hide was
off, and his flesh distributed. have be-
fore stated that the meat of young mus
tang is excellent--an old broken-down
horse is another affair. 1t was as tough
as lndla-rubber, and the more piece Of
it was masticated, the larger it became in
the mouth. Poo: as it was, however,
and hard to swallow, | am confident that
many man in the crowd ate four or five
pounds of it, half cooked and without
salt-I know that swallowed my share.
That fell 'mean while eating this food, l
will not pretend to deny; and buzzard,
who sat perched upon dry limb of
cotton wood above, appeared to look
down upon Us reproachfully, as he saw
us devouring the food legltimateIy be-
longing to him. There was something,
too, like honest Indignation expressed in
the countenance of wolf, who sat quiet
ly watching our operations from the adj
joining prairie but at the time we were
hungry enough to have made a meal even
of him, had he fallen into our hands. A
man never knows what he will eat until
driven by u weeks starvation"