468 . Ex. Doc. No. 41. 



1 



dicular, and atout thirty feet above the stream; the men sprang in 

 and hunted some distance up and down the bed of the '^arroyo,'' 

 but there was no water; we could go no further, and were forced 

 to camp here. As the valley around seemed destitute of grass, we 

 let our mules run free, and tried to make our supper, but you may 

 be sure it was a very dry ope* At last we heard. the grateful sound 

 of dogs barking, and some of the men came in and said that they 

 had seen lights not far ojEF, so we sent for some water; but the men 

 were absent so long that we could not wait for their return. It 

 was now 10 o'clock; we had been travelling since five this morn- 

 ing without food, without one drop of water, and had marched 

 about twenty-five miles, so that w^e did not lack appetites. As 

 there w^as no /wood, we gathered some. of the dry branches of the. 

 artemisia; and, having made a fire, roasted a fore quarter of mutton, 

 which two of us despatched without much difficulty, and then sank 

 down to rest, with the intention of drinking deep draughts in the 

 morning. 



October 19. — No sooner did the first rays of" light dawn than we 

 started off for the village; all the water the men had brought, they 

 had drunk through the night; as our mules were still loose we could 

 not wait for them to be caugh^t and saddled, but started off on foot; 

 and after a walk of a mile, we entered the village of Moquino. 

 Here we were very well rec^^ived by one of the inhabitants who 

 gave us some delicious milk, and his wife sat down and made cigar- 

 ritos for us. 



This town is situated on a rocky hill that on one side is perpen- 

 dicular, and about twenty feet high; the place contains near three 

 hundred and fifty inhabitants. * 



I had given orders for the wagons to start early, but they did 

 not reach the town until near noon. The mules had run off some 

 distance in search j^f water and grass; and, in addition, some rascally 

 Mexicans had stolen the ropes from their necks. 



As our animals were much jaded by the toilsome marches we had 

 made in the last three days, through the deep sands of the valleys, 

 we concluded it would be best to remain here all day and let them. 



We had encamped by the side of the Rio Pojuate, close to the 

 town of Moquino, and four miles south of the village of Cibolleta, 

 Tirhich is also upon the same river. The country around consists of 

 high masses of sandstone, overspread by a bed of volcanic rock. 

 Near Moquino several huge masses of this rock jut into the sky, 

 and from tiie valley narrowing up to the foot of these peaks there 

 is a blackish mas9»of detritus of dark purple rock. 



The people of the town pressed around our camp, bringing eggs, 

 milk, and cheese made of goats milk. They seemed scarcely to 

 believe us, when we told them of the road by which we had come- 

 and said it was "un camino diabolo." They asked us if we had 

 Bot noticed a fresh trail that crossed our route. This recalled to 

 our minds that we had seen such a trail, and our having stopped to 

 examine it. When we told them of it, they said that it was the 



trace of a war party of fifty Navajoe Indians, who could not, 



