La Primera

That post on the Aztec Skull Rack got me thinking about Cortez and that got me thinking about Ian Tyson’s magnificent song “La Primera” — about the first Spanish horses that came with the Conquest and  became the seed of wild Mustang stock that still lives on today.

Here’s a very nicely done Youtube video of the Pryor Mountain Mustangs of Montana featuring the song:

It was a long hard voyage to the Americas
in 1493
I was afraid that I would die of thirst
The little mare beside me died
and was put into the sea, but I survied
I swam to shore, I am La Primera

When Cortez sailed for Mexico
from that island in the sun
there were 16 of us sorrels, blacks and bays
one of them was my first born
he was called the Coyote Dun
he survived and conquered all of Mexico

Chorus: I am a drinker of the wind
I am the one who never tires
I love my freedom more than all these things
The Conquistador, Comanche and the cowboy
I carried them to glory
I am La Primera- Spanish mustang
Hear my story

The Comanches were holy terrors
when they climbed upon our backs
when the grass was high
they would raid for a thousand miles
but the Texans had revolvers
when they came back from the war
The buffalo had gone away
the Comanche moon was waning

So it’s come along boys and listen to my tale
We are following the longhorn cow
going up Mister Goodnight’s trail you see
Those cowboys they were kind to us
we listened to their sad songs
all the way to the far Saskatchewan

Chorus:

High in the Pryor Mountains
first light of dawn
Coyote Dun walks beneath the morning Star
he became an outlaw…his blood was
watered some, but the flame still burns
into the new millennium