| Title: | Earl of Ava, [Mexico?] to the Marchioness of Dufferin & Ava |
|---|---|
| ID | 945 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Earl of Ava, Archibald/12 |
| Year | 1893 |
| Sender | Archibald, Earl of Ava |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | army officer |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Mexico |
| Destination | Europe? |
| Recipient | Hariot, Marchioness of Dufferin & Ava |
| Recipient Gender | female |
| Relationship | son-mother |
| Source | D/1231/G/2/100: Deposited by Lady Hermione Blackwood |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, Northern Ireland |
| Doc. No. | 9808242 |
| Date | 04/04/1893 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by LT, 11:08:98. |
| Word Count | 590 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | [----?] House 4th Apl 93 [1893?] San Pedro [Chih-----? Mexico My dear Mama Tomorrow I leave for the railway & get to El Paso for on 11th where my letters are waiting. The post is so uncertain here that I am glad I did not attempt to have them forwarded. I have had a good time & have got rid of that cough which is a blessing. I've shot some duck & snipe though it is too late in the year really for it. Uruston who is Scobells partner has shot numbers of bear but they are not out yet. This is a huge ranche [ranch?] in a mountainous country the ranges being divided by rolling plains on which are thousands of cattle. Delaval Beresford is thirty miles off buried in the mountains. We rode over & stayed a couple of days. The cattle business here has not been a passing one the last few years owing to bad prices & want of rain, but they are hoping for a change Their spring "round up" begins on the 15th of the month & there will be 25,000 head cattle gathered together. This land not being fenced, as it mostly is in the States now, there is a lot of work to be done cutting out etc. Scobell is fencing his land now & so will turn other ranch's cattle off. They are short of horses or else I think I would have stopped here instead of going to Texas. I have seen a small "round up" both of cattle & horses. The mexicans are celebrated for their riding & lassonig [lassoing?]. They never call it by the later name bere they always use [---?] and "roping". It is very pretty to see them going full gallop after something swinging the rope & then seeing the loop settle on the animals head. Also to see them "forefooting" which means catching the animals by the forefeet instead of round the neck. You see a colt going full galop & next minute it describes a couple of somersaults in the air, & the loop drawn tight above his fillocks. The young mexicans begins roping as soon as he can walk practising on the pigs and dogs. Delaval Beresford is very like Bill but taller. He is working very hard & making the business pay, but I should be sorry to bury myself as he has done miles away from the track of everyone. He evidently intends stopping in this country for good. Last Sept a band of Apaches murdered a mexican family within 15 miles of him & the same lot are still in the mountains. They come down here every year & steal horses & its impossible to catch them. This country is full of mormons & their wives - driven from the States, but I haven't seen many of them myself. The expressions of some of the western americans are much to the point and at first one cant understand half they say. They hate the Easterner's & though they are rough have better manners than the latter I should say. I can only judge by the people I saw in the trains who did nothing but chew tobacco & spit on the floor & never took their clothes off by their appearance. These western men wear clean shirts and respect the floor of the house. They like Englishmen too & the drummers seemed to me to hate them, all jealousy. I will write again from El Paso when i get my letters. Ever dear Mama your [-----?] Archie. |
