558 Ex. Doc. No. 41. 



CISCO met me with your letter from Warner's ranche; he brought 

 with him seven mules found on the Gilaj and, altogeiher, I 

 obtained, at the villagesj twenty, which had belonged to the clra- 

 oons. They were not sufficiently recruited to be of much service. 



traded the Indian goods, and every spare article, fpr corn. 

 After feeding it several days, I brought away ^twelve quarts for 

 each public animal, which was fed in very small quantities, ' 

 , With the aid of a compass, and closely estimating the distances, 

 I have made a rude sketch of my route from the point on the Rio 

 Grande, where our roads diverged, to their junction, near the vil- 

 lages. It is herewith submitted- I have good reason to be- 

 lieve that, even with pack mules, better time can be made on my 

 route than yours; and the mules kept in good order^ for mine im- 

 proved on the greater part of it. On the 27th December, (aftf.r 

 making the forced march, without water, across the bend of the 

 Gila,) in consequence of the information received in your letter, I 

 determined to send my useless guides express, to give you informa- 

 tion of my approach, &cj hoping thus, as I said, to meet orders 

 at Warner's ranche on the 21st of January, and to be of service to 

 your active operations. I also sent for assistance in mules, under- 

 standing that you had placed a number of them in that vicinity. 



Sixty or seventy miles above the mouth of the Gila, having more 

 wagons than necessary, and scarcely able to get them on, I tried 

 the experiment, 'with very flattering assurances of success, of boat- 

 ing with two ponton wagon beds, and a raft for the running gear. 

 I embarked a portion of the rations, some road tools, and corn. 

 -The experiment signally failed, owing to the shallowness of the 

 water on the bars; the river was very low. In consequence of the 

 difficulty of approaching the river, orders mistaken, &c., the 

 flour only, was saved from the loading, and the pontons were floated 

 empty to the crossing of the Rio Colorado, where they were used 

 as a ferry boat. I passed that river oh the 10th and 11th of Janu- 

 ary, On the first day and night, the loading of the wagons, and 

 many men, were boated over. On the morning of the 11th, the 

 mules were driven two miles, from grassj then drew the wagons 

 through the long ford of a mile, nearly swimming. The w^agons 

 were then loaded in the Willow thicket, and I marched 15 miles over 

 the sandy road, to the first well, the same day; a great effort and 

 labor. But as there was no food for the mules on this side, I deemed 

 it so necessary that I forced it, against every obstacle; marching, it^ 

 fact, when one company's wagon was in a hole in the middle of the 

 river; the sheep and rear guard on the opposite bank. In the well 

 I found no water; and, when obtained by digging deeper, it was in 



quicksand, and quite insufficient for the men. I. had another well 

 dug; and, against hope almost, when considerably below the water 

 level of the old one, that of the river water suddenly boiled up. - 

 I viewed this, as in other instances, a Providential deliverance. 

 It was the most trying hour of my long military service. That 

 water failing, the next well would also; and all the circumstances 

 well considered^ it will be found that on obtaining it not only de- 



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