I 



[7] 



24 



^L- 



f- ' 



sounded, and the tolonel, with Sumner's command, marched 20 

 miles, and halted in a beautiful valley of fine grass and pools of 



k 



f. 



cool water, where the w^jld liquorice (glycyrrhiza lepidota) grew * 

 lentifully. The stream, where flowing, is a tributary of the 



lorQ. * . 



From the drift wood, Ac, found in its w^ide, well-gfassed bed, I 

 .^infer it is subject to great freshets. In cr'ossin'g from the Ocale to 

 xthe valley of the Moro, the mountains^ become more rolling; and S 

 as we approached the Moro, the valley opened out, and the whole 

 country became more tame in its appearance. . ■ 



Ten miles up the JMoro is the Moro town, containing, we were 



informed, 200 houses, 

 * It is off the lower road; but a tolerable wagon road leads to the 

 village from our camp of last night. 



The plains were strew^ed with fragments of brick-dust colored 

 lava, scoriee and slag.; the hillsj'to the left, * capped with white 

 gran\ilar quartz. The plains are almost destitute of vegetation; 

 the hills bear a stunted grow^th of pifion and red cedar? Rains have 

 fallen here recently, and the grass in the bottoms is good. ' The 

 grama is now found constantly. We saw to-day some ground 

 squirrels, with stripes on their sides: in their habits, resembling the 

 common prairie dog. A flight of birds was seen to the south, but too 

 distant to distinguish. We were attracted to the left by *an object' 

 which was supposed to be an Indian, but, on coming vip to it, it was 

 discovered to be a sand-stone block standing on end and topped by 

 another shorter block. A mountain man, versed in these signs, 

 said it w^as in commemoration of a talk and friendly smoke between 

 . some two or three tribes of Indians. 



The latitude of the place, from 7 observations on polaris, is 35^ 

 54' 21'', and the longitude, deduced from the local time'^by 7 alti- 

 tudes of alpha lyrffi in the west, and 11 of O in the east, w^as 6A. 

 ^9?;^. 495, ■ . 



The height above the sea 6,670 feet. 



August 13. — At 12 o'clock, as the rear column came in sight, the 

 call of "boots and saddles'' was sounded,, and In 20 minutes we 

 ■were off. We had not advanced more than one mile wlien Bent, 

 of the spy-guard, came up with four prisoners. They represented 

 themselves to be an ensign and three privates of the Mexican 

 army, sent forward to reconnoitre and ascertain our force. T.hej 

 said 600.' men were at the Vegas to give us battle. They told 

 many different stories; and finally delivered up 'a paper, being an 

 order from a Captain Gonzales to the ensign, to go forward on^the 

 .Bent's Fort road to ascertain our position and numbers. They 

 Were corss-examined by the colonel, and detained. 



As soon as we commenced the descent into the valley of the 

 Moro creek, some one reported a company of Mexicans at the 

 crossing; Colonel Kearny ordered me to go forward with twelve of 

 the Laclede rangers, and reconnoitre the party, and if they attempt- 

 ed to run, to pursue and capture as many as we could. As Lieu- 

 tenant Elliot and myself approached this company, they appeared 

 .to be motionless, and on coming up, we found them to consist of 



