America's First True Cowboys

Long before cattle or cowboys first appeared in the American West, men were herding livestock in Spanish Mexico. Conscripted by wealthy Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century, these Native American vaqueros became spectacular riders and ropers as they mastered the art of cow herding. Three hundred years later, they taught the inexperienced settlers of the American West how to round up cattle, bring down a steer, and break a wild bronco. It was from the vaqueros that cowboys derived their distinctive clothing, saddles, and lingo - words like lasso, dally and buckaroo. But it is the cowboy whose fabled reputation we remember, while the vaquero has all but disappeared from history.

Russell Freedman tells the fascinating story of the vaqueros in this dramatic account of the first true cowboys, illustrated with evocative paintings and drawings.

(hardback, 70 pages)

Excerpt from the book:

Cattle roundups on the open range began in Mexico during the 1520s and continued for the next four hundred years. They were called rodeos, from the Spanish word rodear, which means "to go around" or "to surround or encircle." And that's exactly what happened to the free-roaming, far-ranging, fast-running cattle.

Vaqueros from neighboring ranches sometimes joined together in a rodeo. Each ranch sent a team of riders, who often came from a great distance. A really big roundup might cover hundreds of square miles, last for weeks, and involve three or four hundred vaqueros along with tens of thousands of head of cattle.

The men rode onto the plains and fanned out. They flushed cattle from their hiding places in thickets, gulleys, and ravines and sent them trotting across the countryside toward a central roundup ground.

Bawling and bellowing, animals began to bunch together, forming a great milling herd as the circle of horsemen tightened around them. Finally, their wild instincts flaring, the cattle kicked up their heels and broke into a frenzied headlong stampede.