RIO SAN PEDRO TO SANTA CRUZ. 
379 
CHAPTER XVIL 
RIO SAN PEDRO TO SANTA CRUZ. 
The valley of the San Pedro - Decide on going to Santa Cruz for provisions 
and mules — Departure of General Conde — Leave the San Pedro — Take 
the trail of the Mexicans — Deserted Indian village — ’Leave the trail — 
Wild horses— Santa Rita Mountain — Beautiful valle}^—- Progress ar- 
rested — Critical situation — ^Mr. Thurber goes in search of Santa Cruz— 
Arrival of Colonel Graham — ^Ruined hacienda of Calabasa — ^Wild 
scenery — On short allowance — ^Return of Mr. Thurber — ^Retrace our 
steps towards the San Pedro — ^Mustangs— Camp on the Babocoraori — 
Arrival of Mexican 'soldiers — General Conde loses his way — Sufferings 
of his party — ^Mexicans hunting cattle on the San Pedro — The father 
■and friends of Inez Gonzales arrive — Set out again for Santa Cruz — 
Meeting of the captive girl and her mother — ^Arrival at Santa Cruz. 
September 9th. The valley of the San Pedro River 
near our camp was any thing but luxuriant. • It con- 
sists of a loam, which if irrigated might be productive ; 
but as the banks are not less than eight or ten feet 
high, irrigation is impracticable, except by digging a 
canal a very long distance. The grass of the vicinity 
is miserably thin and poor, growing merely in tufts 
beneath the mezquit bushes which constitute the only 
shrubbery, and in some instances attain a height of ten 
or twelve feet. Low hills approached within a mile of 
the river on the east side, and on the west within a 
quarter of a mile of that distance. Finding it impossi- 
