[ 26] ee 
most suspicious circumstances on the nearest rancho, had been made pris- 
fc er 
found, which were also taken to our camp. ‘They were examined there by 
some of the officers; and as only strong circumstantial evidence, but no di- 
rect proof, was found against them, they were acquitted. Some friends of 
the deceased, I understood afterwards, dissatisfied with the decision, fol- 
lowed, the Mexicans on their way home, killed four or five of them, and 
burnt their ranchos. . 
San Francisco is a small village on the Rio Grande. No steamboat was 
in sight, but we were informed that there were several in Reynosa, 39 miles 
below, . We left, therefore, San Francisco in the evening, and marching 
all night, we arrived next morning, on 
June 2, in Reynosa, a small town on the Rio Grande. The river is here 
quite considerable, about 200 yards wide, and six or more feet deep. .’Ehe 
banks are low, sandy, barren, and covered with chaparral, like the sur- 
rounding plains.. A barometrical observation which I made here, about 10 
feet above the level of the water, gave an elevation above the sea of 184 
feet, so that the fall of the river from here to the mouth, a distance by water 
of from 300 to 400 miles, would on an average be one foot in two miles. 
‘The long wished for sight of steamboats at last greeted our eyes; two were 
lying in the river, and others were coming up. The Roberts and the Aid 
were engaged for our regiment, and everybody prepared for embarking. 
Our wagons had to be driven back to Camargo, and all our riding animals 
sent by land, through Texas, to Missouri; but as the latter was considered 
tantamount to a loss, most of us gave their horses away for a trifle, or made 
them run off. A great many of these animals, after a rest of some months, 
would have been better for service than imported ones, yet unused to the 
climate and country; but as there was no provision made for it, the men 
as well as the government suffered a loss. 
. On June 3, i 
near the river the soil. seemed to be very good; but very few set- 
| seen; the chaparrals seemed:to grow, 
