554 Ex. Doc. No. 41. 



Sonora, as to the best course to be taken. They were deceived 

 themselves, as I believe, and so deceived me, as to the di- 

 rection of Yanos; and gave a decided opinion as to the unsafety 

 of venturing into the prairiej and, also, that it would be best to 

 take the Yanos road, and thence, by an old trail, a road formerly 

 used to connect the presidios or frontier garrisons, Yanos, Fron- 

 teras, Fruson, &c. 



The next morning, having reluctantly assented, I took the Yanos 

 road. A mile or two convinced me (and them) that its general di- 

 rection was very different from their representations; and east of 

 south. I then took the responsibility of ^turning short to the right, 

 and ordered them to guide me to the water hole. I had some 

 confused information of water to be found in the direction of 

 ^an Bernadino. Mr. Leroux had been very decided that it would 

 be necessary to go by this southern point, even if I ventured* that 

 far on the unknown prairie. I then marched 40 miles without 

 water, except a drink for part of the men, w^here I had hoped to 

 ^n^ enough for encamping. The battalion were not prepared for 

 it, and suffered much. These were anxious circumstances, and the 

 responsibility I had taken weighed heavily upon me; their safety 

 and my success seemed both doubtful. Fortunately a large spring 

 was reached the second night, after a continuous march of thirteen 

 hours; and when men and mules were at the point of exhaustion, 

 for the weather was quite warm. 



I was joined here by a party of New Mexicans, who had been 

 trading with the Apaches. I purchased twenty-one mules of them, 

 giving a check on the assistant quartermaster tit Santa Fe, I 

 also hired one of . them to conduct Leroux to the ^mountain 

 valley,^ where they had left the Apaches, and sent him to seek 

 an Indian guide. A day or two after, w^e found a trail leading to- 

 ward San Bernadino; and the fourth day, early, just after Chabon- 

 naux, the only guide then present, had very unwarrantably gone off 

 hunting, we fell into what was believed to be the trail or road from 

 Yanos to Fronteras; and it immediately led us to a precipitous and 

 rocky descent, of perhaps a thousand^ feet, amongst broken, wild 

 and confused mountain peaks, which extended as far as could be 

 seen from our great height. I soon found the trail could not be 

 made passable for the wagons; and I hunted myself for a more pro- 

 mising descent, and, in fact, saw a part of the proper one; but very 

 inaccessible from the mountain height on which I then was. My 

 next care was to seek the nearest ground suitable for a camp- for- 

 tunately I found water about a mile off. All pronounced the 

 country before us impassable for wagons; T, nevertheless, imme- 

 diately organized a large working party, under Lieutenant Stone- 

 man, and sent him to make a passage. That night Leroux ar- 

 '/^i ^"'^''',S an Apache chief, whom he had got hold of with 

 diaculty, and probably great addrcssj so shy were they found. 

 Next morning, it was owing to Leroux's decided assertions and 

 arguments that there could be and was no other known pass but 

 the horse trail, that I did not insist on his thorough examination. 

 He even asserted, but was mistaken, that he.Aad examined the 



A 



