‘ - “While we alt at this place, Defeser; one of our ieebinen’ whose 
steady good conduct had won my regard, wandered off from the-camp, and 
ver returned to it again; ‘nor has he since been heard of. 
March 24.—We resumed our journey with an sete stock of provisions — 
“and a large cavalcade of animals, consisting of 130 horses and mules, an 
about thirty head of cattle, five of which were milch cows. Mr. Sutter 
a furnished us also with an Indian boy, who had been trained as a vaquero, 
~ and who would be seryiceable in mapaging 0 our cavaleade, great part of 
which were nearly as wild as buffalo and who was, Dewaie very anxious. 
‘to go along with_us. {Our direct course*home was ; but the Sierra _ 
-_would force us south,’above five hundred miles of crag ite toa pass at 
diseovered by Mre Joseph Walker, of whom I have alrea 
e name it might therefore appropriately bear. To reach it, our course 
ae the valley of the San Joaquin—the river on our right, and the lofty 
ssable Sierra on the left. From that pass we were to move 
tbanhes rdly, having the Sierra then on the right, and reach the “Spanish 
il,” deviously freee rom one watering place to another, which constitut- 
he Pacific, to Santa Fé of New Mexico. From the pass to this trail was 1 
miles. seolowip eet trail through a desert, relieved by some fertile plains 
ated. by the recurrence of the term vegas, until it. turned to the right 
‘ jo rose ne 4 mera’ our course would be northeast until we regained the 
] 
f at the head of the Arkansas. This conrse of travelling, forced - 
Age us by the Structure of the country, would occupy a computed distance » 
+ fewen be seen upon it; and the names of places along it, all ‘being 
“Spe pish or Indian, “indicated that it had been but little trod by "American 
feet. Though long, and not free from hardships, this route presented some 
*: © points of attraction, in tracing the Sierra Nevada—turning the Great Basin, 
perhaps crossing its rif on the south—completely solving the problem of 
- any river, except the Colorade, from the Rocky mountains on that part of 
_our continent—and s€eipg the southern extremity of the Great Salt lake, 
of which the nope part bed been examined ae year before. 
Y am ntlemen, 
=, a 
mountains, continued delightful for travellers, but unfavorable 
turists, whose crops of wheat began to wear a yellow tinge 
— Ne travelled for 28 miles over the. yu ae Pai 
y, and halted in a beautiful bottom at the of the 
its name from another Indian tribe’ livin = 
: oo% 
vee wind a Lie 
to “re feet. in eight aod with 
e ¢ na eee ee i <a 
ya Mitel, ™ “9248. 20. 32 
_the head of the San Joaquin river. This pass, reported tebe good, was” 
y 
the route of the caravans from Puebla delos Angeles, near the coast of — 
ost in arriving at the Eutah lake, and thence to the Rocky — 
two thousand =e before a reached the head of the Arkansas; nota ~ 
“ive in its alley. ‘Our ce oo nee trough a sieve co sty, admirabl iY sulted” ae 
ae gt nged- 
summer heat of the vaiey to ibe Paks mornings a ae days 
th ht oe crass Sgt i sein! fertile ;. 
# 
