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261 [ 174 ] 
and all the night in cooking wii? eating. There was no part of the animal 
‘for which they did not ‘find some use, except the bones. In the afternoon 
we were surprised by the sudden appearance in the*camp of two Mexi- 
vans—+a man anda boy. The name of the man was Andreas Amines 
and. that of the boy, (a handsome lad, 11 years old,) Pablo Hernan 
They belonged ‘to a party consisting of six persons, the remaining four 
-being the wife of Fuentes, the father and mother of Pablo, and Santiago 
Giacome, a resident of New Mexico. With a cavaléade of about thirty 
horses, they had come out! from Puebla de los Angeles, near the coast, 
_under the guidance of Giacome, in advance of the great caravan, in order 
to: travel more at nee and thin better grass. “Having advanced as 
their camp, y, shovititig as pee ailenneed, aida pro eerah flights of arrows. 
Pablo and Fuentes were on horse ouard at the time,and mounted, accord- 
ing to the'custom of the country. One of the principal objects of the In- 
dians was to get possession of the horses, and part of them immediately 
surrounded the band; but, in obedience to the shouts of Giacome, Fuentes 
drove the animals over and through the’assailants, in spite of their arrows ; 
and, rege the rest’to their fate, carried them off at speed across 
plain. Knowing | that they would be ‘pursued by the” Indians, without 
Gieatoaciaspiian,: and this morning left them ata watering place on 
pret ,called Agua de Tomaso. Without giving themselves any time for 
rest, they hurried on, hoping to meet the Spanish caravan, when they discov- 
- ered my camp. ° I received them kindly, taking them i into my own mess, and 
oahee them such aid as'cireumstances might put itin my power to give. 
25.—We left the river abruptly, and, turning to the north, regained 
in a few miles the main trail, (which had left the river sooner than our- 
_selves;) and ‘continued our way across a lower ridge of the mountain, 
Broweh a niiserable tract of sand and gravel. We'crossed at intervals the 
beds of dry gullies, where in the season of rains and melting snows 
there ‘would be brooks or tah ner set at one of these, where there was 
 nolindication of water, were several freshly-dug’ ~sttie in which there was 
water at the ne om twe fst These holes had been dug by the wolves, 
rhose keen se: had scented the water mint the dry sand. 
Thayswane nice ti woe wells, narrow, and dug straight down, and we “got 
pleasant water outof them: ‘eed d 
‘The cou country had now a: sumed the character of an elevated and mot 
tainous desert; its general features: ence black, rocky ridges, bald, an 
= destitute of timber, with sandy basins between 
Bs are: by ‘gullies, the plains tleee are weed with beds of 
© pebbles or rolled stones, destructive to our soft ote 3, 
e 
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