Ex. Doc. No. 4r 553 



commodated.) The oxen I used in mule wagon's; packed those 

 unfit for draught, and also, though very lightly, the poor extra 

 muUs. The detachment went in command of a lieutenant, who re- 

 ceived orders to report, for ultimate instructions, to the officer 

 commanding in the territory. A calculation showed that by 

 these measures, with increased means of transportation, the loads 

 were reduced 20 per cent.; and also that the rations (or half ra- 

 tions) of the battalion w^ere increased by eight days. Then, and 

 only then, could I begin to see my way to the end, with confidence. 



After these two weedings of the old, the feeble and sickly, 

 from the battalion, lads and old grey-headed men still remained. 



The numerous guides and hirelings you sent to me, I found at 

 the lowest village; they had been idle for weeks;_ and I found I 

 was to venture, with my wagons, into a wide region, unknown \.(P 



any of them. ' 



The river route improved greatly, and, opposite, was apparently 

 a practicable gap in the mountain barrier, between mine and the 

 Chihuahua road, (the fine but badly watered stretch known as Uie 

 Jornada del Muerto.) About thirty miles lower, and in the vici- 

 nity of a point called San Diego, the mountains, which so far had 

 confined the road to the river, break off, and then I turned short 



to the 



ded with a profusion of isolated mountains, of volcanic origin. My 

 method, now, was this: Leroux, with five, six or seven others, wou d 

 get a day in advance, exploring for water, in the best practicable 

 direction; finding a spring or a puddle,. (sometimes a hole in nearly 

 inaccessible rocks,) he would send a man back, who would meet 

 me, and be the guide. This operation would be repeated until his 

 number was unsafely reduced, when he would await me. Of re- 

 turij to take a fresh departure. This was the plan, but, ever var} - 

 ing and uncertain, attended, of course, with much anxiety; and, 

 sometimes, the inconvenience of neglect or tardiness on the PJ" ^^ 

 t"he guides, making the road, once or twice, to vary from the better 

 course, which a more thorough examination, in the first instance, 



would have discovered. , ^ . , ^, „^f^ 



Such, with some vicissitudes of risk and suffering, and --he acc;; 

 dental aid of a little confused information from a trading part>^e 

 encountered, was the manner of my progress for about 250 "i'^«^' 

 from the Rio Grande to the San Pedro, a tributary of the Gila, but 



1 anticipate. ^ ^^^ ^^ t.x r.^rr. thp 



Thus I reached the Ojo de Vaca, about 26 miles south from the 

 copper mines, on an old road to Yanos, used for _ transporting the 

 ore."^ To the west appeared a vast prairie opening, beU^^\^-" 

 mountains; it was the course; but the principal guides ^ad f c^ h i. 

 dread of iJ, founded upon vague information, from .I«<^ ^^^^ f f 

 destitution 'of water; and watering places might ^xist, and not be 

 found bv us They had explored about 2o miles of it, finding an 

 out of the way and^nsufficient hole of water, ten -^K^^f^^'^i,. 

 I ascended a high peak, and, there taking the bearings of dis 

 tant landma^U -Sch'the; professed to^-wearnesly consulted 



with them and the interpreter, who had latelj passed througa 



