89 | Ty 
he determined to remain for the day. Most of the mules belonging 
to my party have travelled 1800 miles, almost continuously: Two -. 
or three times they have all appeared on the eye of death; but a 
mule’s vitality seems to recuperate, when life'seems to be almost 
extinct, so I am in hopes the day’s rest will revive them sufficiently _ 
to enable them to undertake what will be the most distressing part _ 
of the journey. From information collected from the Indians and » 
others, it appears that we shall meet with no more grass from this 
‘spot to the settlements, estimated 300 miles distant. 
This has been a gloomy day-in'the dragoon camp. The jornada 
 cost.them six or eight mules, and those which have survived give » 
little promise of future service. The howitzers make severe . 
draughts on them. Yesterday, within five miles of the river, Lieu-~ 
tenant Davidson was obliged to hitch his private mules to them. 
An order has been given to-day to dismount one-half the command 
and reserve the animals for packing. 
_ From all accounts there is no difficulty in following the route of — 
the river from camp 97 to this place, and the journey is but a trifle 
longer; I would, therefore, recommend parties in our rear to get a 
-Coco Maricopa guide and keep the river. 
Remains of an old zequia, and the plains covered with broken 
pottery. About us there are signs of modern Indian tenements, and 
the zequia may possibly have been the work of their hands. : 
know the Maricopas have moved gradually from the gulf of Cali- 
fornia to their present location in juxta position with the Pimos. 
‘Carson found them, so late as the year 1826, at the mouth of the 
Gila; and Dr. Anderson, who passed from Sonora to California in 
1828, found them, as near as we could reckon from his notes, about 
the place we are now encamped in. The shells found to-day were, 
in my opinion, evidently brought by the Maricopas from the sea. 
They differ from those we found among the ruins. ; : 
Observed for time to-night and obtained the rates of my chrono- — 
¥ 
> 
and the signs and symbols intended doubtless, 
some great event. One stone bore on it what mig Pe 
. alittle stretch of the imagination, to be a mastadon,a horse,a dog, 
» 
