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Ex. Doc. No. 41. 559 



V 



pendecl my military success, but the lives of very many, who justly 

 could hold me responsible. 



When of no real use to me, some wagons, which were broken on 

 the march; were left^in order to save the mules. At this first well 

 I left three, because the mules were unequal to drawing them. I 

 had then remaining one for each company, and two others. I sent 

 forward a strong party ' to the next well, to prepare it and 

 dig another. I arrived there the second day /soon after noon; and, 

 during my stay, until 11, a. m-, the following morning, I could not 

 obtain enough of water. There I left two more wagons. (Arrange- 

 ments were made for sending for all these wagons, the moment I 

 arrived at the first ranche.) 



I then took the direction of the ^^pozo hondo,'' the deep tveli ; 

 sending a party through tlie first day, and arriving, before noon, the 

 second. Although a second deep well had been dug, the water was 

 insufficient even for the men to drink. I had spent the night with- 

 out water, and thirty miles of desert were still before me; the men 

 way-worn and exhausted, half fed, and many shoeless. But I met 

 there a relief of mules and some beeves. Mr. Leroux had sent back 

 fifty-seven mules, which were chiefly young, unbroken, and as 

 wild as deer, and the cattle, in one body, (and by poor hands.) So 

 a day's time had been lost, and twenty of the mules- 



1 immediately had a beef killed, for a meal; a drink of water 

 tssued to the men; the wild mules caught, by their Indian drivers, 

 with the lasso, thrown, haltered and harnessed; the {5oor animals, 

 'which then had not drank for thirty-six hours, struggling despe- 

 rately during the whole process, w^hich lasted above two hours, 

 under a hoi sun. Then I marched ur4til an hour after dark, and 

 halted to rest, until two o'clock in the morning. I had chosen a 

 spot where there was some large bunch grass, w^hich was cut for the 

 niules. There was no moon, but, at two o'clock, the battalion 

 marched aj^ain; and, at mid-day, having come IS miles more, after 

 long ascending its dry bed, mei the running waters of the Carizita. 

 The most of the animals had been without water about fifty hours- 

 Here there was but little grass; and I marched, next day^l5 

 ^iles, through the sands, to the Bajiocito; the poor men staggerw^, 

 utterly exhausted, into camp. At^this time there shmald have been 

 half rations of flour for nine days; but, owing probably to inevi- 

 table wastage, the last of it was eaten here. I rested a day, and re- 

 ceived, at evening, a letter from Commander Montgomery. It ad- 

 vised me of your march to Pueblo; of the tardy arrival of 

 iny express, and of communication with you being cut off. 



Next day, I encountered extraordinary obstacles to a wagon road, 

 and actually hewed a passage, wiih axes, through a chasm of solid 

 I'ock, which lacked a foot of being as wide as the wagons. Two 

 of them were taken through in pieces, whilst the work was going 

 on. So much was I retarded that I encamped, at dark, on the 

 naountain slope, making but seven miles, without water, and with- 

 out beino- prepared for it. San Philippi was six miles on this side, 

 but there was a ridge between, so rough with rocks, that, after 

 much labor, it took extreme care to get the w^agons over in day- 



