W. P. Webb heard it in Uvalde, Texas ( “Miscellany of Texas Folk-Lore,” in J. Frank Dobie, ed., Coffee in the Gourd (Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, 1923), p. 45. This is the earliest text in print:

As I rode in the town of Fort Griffin in the spring of ’83,
An old Texas cowman came riding up to me,
Saying, “How do you do, young fellow. And how would you like to go
And spend one summer season in the hills of Mexico?”

“It’s being out of employment,” to the drover I did say,
“For me to go to New Mexico depends upon the pay.
But if you pay good wages and transportation too,
I wouldn’t mind to go along and spend a month or two.”

“Oh, yes, we pay good wages, free transportation too,
But if you get homesick, Fort Griffin bound to go,      [line missing                                                                              
I’ll never loan you a horse to ride from the hills of Mexico."

“O listen to that old driver’s talk, O listen what a gag.”
It’s ten or twenty cowboys, all stout able-bodied men.
Our trip it was a pleasant one ------
Until we reached old Boggus Creek out in old Mexico.

Now our pleasures have all ended and our troubles have begun.
The first hailstorm we had on us, Gosh, how those cattle run.
They run through thorns and thickets, our lives they had no show,
For there’s no worse hell on earth than the hills of Mexico.
                                                       [lines missing
Go home to wives and sweethearts, tell others not to go                                 
To the God-forsaken country of old New Mexico.


Fort Griffin, in north-central Texas, was established as a cavalry post in 1867. The town of that name sprang up nearby and gained an unusually violent reputation. It quickly began to fade after the fort was closed in 1881.