SUBSEQUENT ESCORTS, 81 



This escort under Major Riley, and one com- 

 posed of about sixty dragoons, commanded 

 by Captain Wharton, in 1834, constituted the 

 only government protection ever afforded to the 

 Santa Fe trade, until 1843, when large escorts 

 under Captain Cook accompanied two diffe- 

 rent caravans as far as the Arkansas river. 



Of the composition and organization of 

 these trading caravans, I shall take occasion 

 to speak, from my own experience, in the fol- 

 lowing chapter 



