PERSONAL ACCOUNT. 



11 



ployed, and, witli the exception of one or two, none were fitted for the service oa which tluy 

 were engaged; most of them ignorant of the first pnnciples of surveying, and cmhnuha in 

 feuds with eacli other, and arrayed in hostility cither to the comiiiissioiicr or to the hrad of the 

 scientific corps. 



The commissioner was absent on an exiicdition into Sonora, the commission was in debt, 

 and not one cent was at my disposal to prosecute the survey. Beyond running an erroneous 

 line a degree and a half west of the del Norte, and starting a party, with limlt'-l mtans, under 

 Lieutenant Whipple, to survey the Gila, and another to survey the Kio del Norte from the 

 point established by the commissioner, notliing had been done. 



The situation was one of extreme embarrassment; but finding oflicers and men sufficient who 

 were willing to undertake the work upon credit, I immediately established an obscrvaturv at 

 Frontera^ one at San Elceario, and another at Eagle Pass, and placed two eurvejing pfirtioj? in 

 the field in addition to those already out. In carrying out this dosigii T was much aided hy 

 Mr. Magoffin, an influential and wealthy citizen residing near El Paso, with whom I had made 

 the campaign in 1840, which resulted in the conquest of that country. 



Clear and distinct representations were made of the condition of things to the J)opartnient of 

 the Interior, and recommendations made to reduce and re-organize the comiui>sion which had 

 been formed by the preceding administration on a scale pre})08terou8 in magnitude and absurd 

 in principle. It was oppressed with a multitude of officers, qiiarterma^fors, coTiimi.ssarips, 

 paymasters, agents, secretaries, sub-secretaries^ — all officers wholly unl^nown to any well rcn-u- 

 lated surveying corps^ and worse than useless by the conflict of authority which these officers 

 engendered, and the enormous expense which the payment of their salaries and personal expenses 

 entailed on the commission. 



more 



1 I can safely say that not 

 running: and markins: the 



Q *-«v* ^^^.^^s.S^ 



be 



that done by the first commission — the completion of the line from the initial point on the 

 Pacific to the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers. 



At the same time that I wrote a full account to the Department of the Interior of the con- 

 dition of affairs in the field^ and urged the necessity of immediate re-organization and relief in 

 money, I despatched a special messenger, Mr. Edward Ingraham, with thirteen rifles, through 

 the Indian country, in the direction of the Pimo villages on the Gila, to see if any intelligence 

 could be had of the commissioner^ with a letter to him representing in urgent terras the neces- 

 sity for immediate aid. I entertained the reasonable expectation that from one or the other 

 of these sources help would be obtained ; and so believing, I did not hesitate to make all the 

 necessary purchases to prosecute the work. 



Although the Eio Bravo, from El Paso to its mouth, has been frequently mapped, it will 



^ 



surprise many to know, that up to the time when I commenced the survey, by far the largest 

 portion of it had never been traversed by civilized man. This surprise will, however, cease 

 when the reader reaches that part of the report which treats of the physical geography of the 

 country, and his eye rests on the sketches by which it is illustrated. He will then see the 

 impassable character of the river ] walled in at places by stupendous rocky barriers^ and esca- 

 ping through chasms blocked up by huge rocks that have fallen from impending heights, where, 

 if the traveller should chance to be caught in a freshet, inevitable destruction would be the 

 consequence. 



