Chapter 179 - The Loyalists of Antioquia

That night, the group was finally able to sleep well and eat their fill. A couple of cows had been slaughtered, and for the first time in weeks, the camp smelled not of damp cloth, sickness, or fear, but of roasted meat and wood smoke. Krugger considered staying in the valley for a few more days to buy additional cattle. From what he had seen and heard during his travels, cattle were far more abundant in the Americas than in Europe. With fewer people and vast open land, cows were often raised freely, grazing on native grasses. They were leaner than European cattle, with less fat and less meat per animal, but they were far cheaper to feed—and far easier to acquire in numbers.