Disaster in Rio Grande Valley 79 



had decided to go home. I continued on my way 

 to see Col. Webb and get his ideas on the course 

 to be pursued. I received his orders and left at 

 two o'clock that night with his son, Mitchell, and 

 Lieut. Browning; regained the company, called 

 the men together, read their agreement to them, 

 and said all I could to remind them of the obliga- 

 tions they were under to go on and fulfil their 

 contract, but almost universal refusal met my 

 appeal. Only twenty-one agreed to go on; what 

 a falling off from ninety-eight! Out of those who 

 agreed to go on two were cooks, two teamsters, 

 two servants, and some few who said they did not 

 care for the company, they only wanted to go to 

 California. Can it be wondered at that I doubted 

 such men? I left them all to reconsider their 

 position, and went off to think over my own 

 troubles, and make up my mind how to act. In 

 half an hour I returned and told the men my 

 determination. "I have thought of my position 

 in the company, I have done all I could in the 

 interests of the company, but now I am going home. 

 I am not old enough to preach to you, but should 

 you go home, let contentment and gratitude for 

 what you have be gained by the hardships and 

 sorrows you have endured, and may God bless 

 those who go on, and those who return." So ended 

 "Col. Webb's California Co." 



Fortune, always fickle, now changed. No 



