I 



23 



[7] 



^ > 



At this moment we discorere'd coming towards us, at full speed. 

 Bent's spy-guard. All thought they had met the enemy; I was 



* ordered to ride forward to meet them, foljowed by Mr. Fitzpatrick 

 and two dragoons. It proved. to be a false alarm; they had missed 



■ their road, and were galloping baclc'to regain it. 



The hills are composed principally of basalt and a porous vol- 



• canic stone, very hard, with metallic fracture and lustre, traversed . 

 by dykes of trap. The lava is underlayed by sand stone. From 

 the uniform height of these hills, one would think they originally 

 formed the table land, and that the valleys had been formed by 

 some denuding process, and their limits determined by the alternate 

 existence or non-existence of the hard crust of volcanic rocks. .^ 



' Matters are now becoming very interesting. Six or eight Mexi-* 

 cans were captured last night, and on their persons was found the 

 ■proclamation of the Prefect of Toas, based upon that of Armijo, 

 calling the citizens to arms, tor repel the '«. Americans, who were 

 coming to invade their soil and destroy their pro;)cr/i/ an d hb er t\ cs ', ^ 

 ordering an'enrolment of all citizens over 15 and under 50. It is 



d 



M 



Colonel Kearny assembled these prisoners, altogether some ten oi 

 twelve, made a speech to them, and ordered that, when tie real 

 guard of the army should have passed, they should be released. 

 •These men were not deficient in form or stature; their faces ex- 

 pressed good nature, bordering on uliocy ; they were mounted oh 

 little donkies and jennies, guided by clubs instead of bridles.^ 

 . Two more Mexicans, of a better class, were captured to-night, 

 or rather tjiey came into camp. Their story was, that they had 

 come out by order of the alcalde of the Moro town to look out for 

 their standing enemies, the Euta%vs, who were reported in the neigh- 

 borhood. That they had heard of our advance some time since, 

 but believed us to be at fhe Rayada, 22 miles back; but seeing our 

 wagons, and having faith in the Americanos, they rode w-.thout hesi-. 

 tafion into our camp. When they said they had faith in us, the 

 colonel ordered them to shake hands with him. They were ordered 

 to be. detained for a day or two/for it was quite evident to all they 

 were spies, who had come too suddenly into the httle ravine m 



which we were encamped. , 



They appeared w^ell pleased, and one of them, after proceeding 

 a few steps with the guard, turned back and presented the colonel 



with a fresh cream cheese. • j i 



p.The grass was interspersed with a 'great variety of new and beau- 

 tiful flowers— the Oenothera; Stanley pinnatifidaj anemone Penn- 

 sylvania; eriogonum tt)mentosum; erysinum, Arkansanum, &c. &c. 

 The hills were sparsely covered with cedar and pifion. Antelopes 

 and horned froths in abundance, but no other animals were seen. 



Height of this camp 6,946 feet. 



August 12.— The elder Mexican was discharged, giving him two 

 proclamations; one for the alcalde, another for the people of his 

 town. A message was sent to the alcalde to meet us at the cross- 

 ing of the Moro, with several of his chief men. The other JSleXi- 

 can was retained as a ffuide. About 12 o'clock the advance was 



