ARISPB. 
269 
the non-commissioned officers a sergeant, who was an 
Apache Indian. This man had long been in the Mexi- 
can service, where he was well treated. He exhibited 
much intelligence, and being familiar with the haunts 
of his people, was to guide the Mexican soldiers in 
their campaign. 
The camp equipage and simple fare of these sol- 
diers presents a striking contrast with what an Ame- 
rican brigade would deem necessary. Each man, be- 
sides his musket, forty rounds of ammunition, and a 
blanket, carries rations for six days, the daily ration 
consisting of two pounds of pinole (coarse wheat or 
Indiana meal) ; half a pound of dried beef, and half a 
pound of panoche, the coarse brown sugar of the coun- 
try. The beef is cooked on the coals before starting, 
and the pinole requires no other preparation than stir- 
ring with water, and sweetening with panoche. Cook- 
ing utensils are, therefore, unnecessary, and a tin or 
coarse earthen cup is all that is required. Every man 
carries a sheath or jack-knife ; and even this may be 
dispensed with, for the meat is dried in long strips, 
and pulled to pieces with the teeth and fingers. Be- 
sides what these soldiers carried, there were some sixty 
pack mules, laden with camp equipage for the officers, 
tents, ammunition, provisions, and corn, a very small 
train for a body of four hundred men, about to traverse 
a desert country, where no supplies could be procured. 
The inhabitants just now are very poor, as they 
have not yet begun to realize any thing from their 
crops. Estimating their returns at the usual rate, 
they expect to obtain about twelve thousand bushels 
of corn and wheat the coming harvest. For their pre- 
