A donkey. Spanish. A word frequently used by Southey. See N.E.D. It is told of a “tenderfoot” freight clerk in the West, that, being instructed to inquire for a missing burro, he reported, “No chest of drawers here; but there is a donkey without any label.”
1862. I espied ‘Old Knick,’ in his bright coat, perfectly at home in this wild, rocky region, wherein bearded miners, fierce Pah-Utes, brazing (? braying) burros, and immense shoals of smaller fry, as lizards, horned toads, scorpions, and tarantulas, do roam.—Knick. Mag., lix. 107 (Jan.).
1862. A train of six burros, vulgarly called “Jacks,” rolled out yesterday, heavily loaded for the Southern mines.—Rocky Mountain News (Denver), May 10.
1862. We noticed a packtrain of some twenty buros (sic) in the streets yesterday, fitting out for the Arkansas diggings.—Id., Nov. 27.
1878. I noticed a miserable little burro, no bigger than a good-sized ram, staggering under an entire bedstead, piled up and strapped together on his back.—J. H. Beadle, ‘Western Wilds,’ p. 236.
