I chose the title "Boggy Creek," because that's the title in Lomax & Lomax. "The Hills of Mexico," however, is more appropriate.

J. Evetts Haley, “Cowboy Songs Again,” in J. Frank Dobie, ed., "Texas and Southwestern Lore" (1927):

                      THE HILLS OF MEXICO

I found myself in Griffin in the spring of ’83,
When a noted cow driver one morning came to me.
Says: ‘How do you do, young fellow? Say, how’d you like to go
And spend one summer pleasantly out in New Mexico?’

I being out of employment, to the driver thus did say:
“A-going out in New Mexico depends upon the pay.
If you pay to me good wages, transportation to and fro,
I believe I’ll go along with you out in New Mexico.”

“Of course I’ll pay good wages, and transportation, too,
Provided that you stay with me the summer season through.
But if you do get homesick, and want to Griffin go,
I will even loan you a horse to ride from the hills of Mexico.”

With all this flattering talk he enlisted quite a train,
Some ten or twelve in number, ‘strong, able-bodied men.
Our trip was quite a pleasant one, over the road we had to go,
Until we reached old Boggy Creek out in New Mexico.

Right there our pleasures ended—our troubles then begun;
The first hailstorm that came on us, Christ, how those cattle run!
In running through thorns and stickers we had but little show,
And the Indians watched to pick us off of the hills of Mexico.

The summer season ended, the driver could not pay.
The outfit was so extravagant he was in debt today.
That’s bankrupt law among the cowboys. Christ, this will never do.
That’s why we left his bones to bleach out in New Mexico.

So, now, we’ll cross old Boggy Creek and homeward we are bound;
No more in this cursed country will ever we be found.
Go home to our wives and sweethearts—tell others not to go
To that God-forsaken country they call New Mexico.”

The Lomaxes (1938) print a very similar text, titled “Boggy Creek,” “from H. Knight, Sterling Texas.” Knight’s version includes a come-all-ye opening:

Come all you old-time cowboys and listen to my song,
But do not grow weary, I will not detain you long;
It is concerning some cowboys who did agree to go
To spend one summer pleasantly on the trail to Mexico.


Haley adds:

"Among the songs which found life along the Goodnight-Loving Trail worthy of perpetuation is one called ‘The Hills of Mexico.' No mention of the name of the trail is made in the song but there are two geographical references which make the route certain. The driver started his herd from Fort Griffin, and the cowboy tells of his troubles upon Boggy Creek, more generally known as the Delaware, which flows into the Pecos in southern New Mexico. And it was while driving over this Goodnight-Loving Trail with a cowman from Mason County, in the early eighties, that [Haley's source] James Mullens [of Roswell, N.M.] learned the ballad."