Through Arizona to San Diego i6i 



fuel was placed on them. We had heard that 

 Captain Thorn^ with a hundred emigrants was 

 just behind us, and we thought this might be his 

 camp; but when morning came and a long line of 

 dark objects met my eyes as I left my tent, I won- 

 dered if they could be mules, so regular in their 

 distances and march. I soon saw it wias a proces- 

 sion of a hundred and fifty squaws, each carrying 

 the provisions like a pack mule for her husband, 

 who, hero-like, armed with spear, shield and bow, 

 proudly bore himself and his quiver, made of 

 wild-cat, cougar, or other skin, full of arrows, on 

 to the wars of the Maricopas and Apaches, so it was 

 said; probably the object was to assist the Yumas 

 against the Americans. Of this we had no proof, 

 for all was quiet, owing no doubt to the good effect 

 produced by the appearance of the Americans, and 

 the prompt shooting of a party of Texans who had 

 shot one or two Yumas Indians for not making the 

 right landing. Such summary proceedings never 

 occurred again. We also heard that Lieut. Coats 

 [Couts]^ said that he had been the main cause of 



^ Herman Thorn, soldier in the Mexican War, distin- 

 guished himself in the battles of Churubusco and Molino del 

 Rey, and was made captain. He was drowned October 16, 

 1849, ^s stated later in the text. 



^ Cave Johnson Couts, a Tennessean and West Pointer, went 

 to California in 1848 as first lieutenant of dragoons in Graham's 

 battalion. He resigned his commission and married the pretty 

 daughter of a prominent Spanish family in 1 851, settled in Cali- 

 fornia and acquired considerable property, and died in 1874. 



