i6 Audubon's Western Journal 



Leaving the Rio Grande at Roma, the company 

 took the main road to Chihuahua, passing through 

 Monterey, Saltillo, Buena Vista, Parras, and Ma- 

 pimi and reaching Parral June i8. Cholera still 

 followed them and here claimed another victim. 

 Mr. Audubon had been twice attacked but had 

 been able to resist the disease. At Parral the com- 

 pany left the highway and struck across the moun- 

 tains to Sonora. On the western slope towns were 

 few and far between. Ures was reached August 

 22 and Altar September 9. Leaving Altar they 

 entered a desert inhabited only by Indians living 

 on lizards and grasshoppers. At the Pima vil- 

 lages on the Gila they reached the line of General 

 Kearny's march, which had become the southern 

 emigrant route. The march through the Gila val- 

 ley to the Colorado proved the most trying part 

 of the journey. With supplies for the men 

 exhausted, without grass for the mules, and with 

 little water for either, the limit of endurance was 

 almost reached. Crossing the Colorado, the com- 

 pany turned northward through the desert to the 

 mountain passes and then southward to San Diego, 

 whence they followed the trail to Los Angeles. 

 Here Mr. Audubon decided to send the greater 

 part of the company to San Francisco by sea, while 

 he, with ten of the men, drove the mules through 

 by land. Crossing the coast range the route now 

 followed the Tulare valley and the San Joaquin 



