12 



PERSONAL ACCOUNT. 



The plan adopted for the survey was to touch the river at convenient intervals, accessible to 



wagons, determine those points astronoroicallj, establish depots for the surveying parties, and 



connect the intervening spaces by lineal survey. I attended in person to the astronomical work 



. and the establishment of the depots. Lieutenant Michler, and assistants Von Hippel and 



Chandler, were placed in charge of the three surveying parties, and to their able assistance 



difficulties 



secution of this work. Superadded to the physical 



men 



mo 



commissioner from 

 t. Some of them 



momen 



States 



m 



places 



When at Presidio del Norte, about one-third of the way down the river, the men, dis-nsted 

 with long-deferred -promises to pay," became very mutinous; and on one occasion, °I was 

 obliged to put down a riot in my camp, single-handed, and at the risk of being shot by an 

 insubordinate fellow, insane from the effects of the intoxicating mezcal. Shortly after, a whole 

 party rebelled and refused to proceed further. Fortunately, at this 



moment 



mail 



oi the Interior, authorizing me to draw on the department for a limited amount of funds At 

 this time, there was passing from Chihuahua to San Antonio a return merchant train with 



i, which I obtained and turned over to the person acting as disbursing -agent. 



Witli this sum 



Duncan) 

 Mr, CI 



party, which vvas wrecked in the Canon of the Rio Bravo, one hundred and twenty miles aLove 



the mouth of the Pecos, 

 the mouth. 



mean time, Mr 



At this stage of the work, just one year after my return to it, I received the first letter or 

 notice of the commissioner, who sent me a check for twelve thousand dollars, which was handed 

 over to Mr. Tansill, the disbursing agent, who, before he completed the negotiation of the note 

 received notice that it was dishonored. The work wps nf fin o 



same 



receiving intelligence that the check for five thousand dollars was repudiated at Washington, 

 which I had drawn upon the faith of the written order of the Secretary of the Interior, and 

 which had been cashed by an unsuspecting and honest American merchant. 



I considered that any attempt to push the work further, under the circumstances, was not 



was suspended except that of myself and personal assistants : 



commissioner 



checks 



Camp near Fort Duncan, October 30, 1852. 



one for |12,000, the other for $8,000. The merchants here 

 fused to cash them, alleging that similar drafts had been protested in Washington. 

 Unfortunately, a few days afterwards, notification was served on me, through one of the 



idmg houses here, that a small draft drawn by me, under the authority of the Secretary of the 



