Mexico to the Mountains 99 



through them. We bought a beef, killed it, and 

 our meal was speedily cooked and eaten. Looking 

 day after day on the same desolate scene, rendered 

 so only by the want of rain, rarely camped in 

 shade, this journey becomes wearisome beyond 

 belief. 



The broad plain on which this rancho is situated 

 once grazed six thousand head of horse, all owned 

 by one person, but when the Spanish government 

 was given up for no government, which is the case 

 now, Indians and Mexicans supplied themselves 

 with stolen horses in abundance. 



June 1 3th. From La Zarca to Cerro Gordo the 

 country is flat and uninteresting, barren in most 

 places of all but musquit bushes. Every mile or 

 so for the first few leagues we crossed a beautiful 

 little brook, which was, however, gradually 

 absorbed by the thirsty sand, a water hole and bed 

 of sand appearing alternately, until the water 

 wholly disappeared. We made two days' journey 

 of it, going the first day eighteen miles, where we 

 found good grazing on partially dry grass, better 

 for horses and mules than corn alone, which half 

 the time has been all we could get for them. Our 

 most serious trouble now is the sore backs of our 

 mules produced by the pack saddles, which were 

 made in our own country, and are too broad for 

 the backs of the Mexican mules. Cerro Gordo is 

 a miserable den of vagabonds, with nothing to 



