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Ex. Doc. No. 41 



579 



sons — some 



womenj 



they ride small but fine horses. Th 



roads leading from this mountain to Sono 



e 



ra 



high 



eej they carry a 



and 



fired by the feel rather than the arms. 



Trading mules is dull work with the 



the west of the Del Norte; 



, - . and California show 



Whence they camej they are partly clothed. Uke the Spaniards, witH 

 wide drawers, moccasins, and peggings to the kn 

 knife frequently in the right legging, on the outside; thefr mocca- 

 sins have turned up square toes; their hair is long, and mostly they 

 have no head-dress; some have hats, some hive fantastic helmets: 

 they have some guns, but are mostly armed with lances and bows 



arrows; their arrows pointed with stone points about this 



size. Carson remarked yesterday, that he never 



knew how fine a weapon the bow and arrow was 



- un,til he had, them fired at him in the night; at that 



time they are more* sure than -firearms, for they are 



The vegetation westward 

 from the copper mines grows thinner until we get to the sierra Del 

 Burro, which is a mountain, covered black with forest growth. The 

 ^.pine is found hereabouts, live oak, (three kindsj) the grama grass, 

 and other fine grasses, some resembling timothy. A rain storm 

 passed by the heads of the Gila last night; it is the first we have 

 seen since we left Santa F6, although high winds and heavy light- 

 ning betokened distant storms once or twice before, we have not- 

 yet been sprinkled upon. ~" 



Apaches. Red Sleeve, Black Knife, and Lasady, are the three 

 principal chiefs of the Apaches on 



Gomez is the head man of those on the east of the Del Norte'. 

 There is another band about southwest of this; on the Purgatory 

 mountain is another band. The Apaches near Taos are of the same 

 (Slock with these; their whole people have not been together for a 

 long time. The general gave Red Sleeve and two other chiefs 

 .papers to show he had talked with them, and that they had prom- 

 ised perpetual friendship with the Americans; they seemed all 

 anxious to conciliate the Americans; and they did not forget the 

 Shawnees. The copper mines are in their country, which lies north 

 ot the thirty-second degree of north latitude. 



Marched at 12, meridian, and descended a narrow, winding val- 

 ley, with. a bjrisk running stream two or three feet wide meander- 

 ing through it, with a few trees occasionally, and very tall grass; 

 "vre found two small patches where the Apaches had made corn. 

 •The hills were high on each side, composed of rugged masses of 

 volcanic rock, and very few trees. We followed this creek for five 

 ^iles/and fell upon the famous Gila, a beautiful mountain stream 

 about thirty feet wide and one foot deep ^.i .u^ ^^i^.i^ttoj 

 blear water and pebbly bed frixiged with trees and hemmed in by 

 V£iountainSj the bottom nof more than a mile wide. 

 beaver, the b<?ar, the deer, and the turkey, besides the tracks of 

 herds of Indian horses, were plain to be seen on the sand. We 

 came down the river two. and a half miles more, about south, and 

 'encamped at the head of one of its canonj^, preparatory to along 



Northward from where we 



on the shallows, with 



The signs of 



journey over rocky' hill 



is an 



s 



to-morrow. 



"Struck the rivef 



open country lying west of a very 

 JtiuJiQtain, called the Gila mountain, in which it is said the salt 



high 



