TO SANTA CRUZ. 
389 
Mexican arriero accompanied them to take care of 
their animals, and render such aid as they might stand 
in need of. Within an hour after this had been deter- 
mined on the party were off ; and as they believed 
they could reach Santa Cruz before night, they took 
with them merely a supply of bread for a couple of 
days. When they had left, we removed from the dense 
thicket around us, and retraced our steps about half a 
mile ; we then pitched our tents between two spurs of 
the mountain, where we could not be discovered, 
except from the front. The cotton- wood trees in the 
spot where our march was arrested were the largest 
we had ever seen. I measured the girth of one, about 
five feet above the ground, and found it twenty-eight 
feet. Its limbs spread full forty feet on every side, 
and a large party might have encamped beneath its 
ample shade. 
In the afternoon we were surprised by the 
appearance of a man on horseback coming at full 
speed towards our camp. He proved to be Guada- 
lupe, one of Colonel Graham’s servants, who, greatly 
to my surprise, informed me that the Colonel was fol- 
lowing my trail on the way to Santa Cruz ; that he 
was very short of provisions ; and that he (Guadalupe) 
had hoped to reach there in advance and obtain some, 
in case I could not furnish them. 
September lUh. We now found ourselves very 
short of provisions ; for, relying on the Mexican’s 
assurances on the San Pedro that we were within 
twenty -five miles of Santa Cruz, I had provided myself 
with only five days’ supply of flour, and three of meat, 
with other necessaries for a week. As soon as I dis- 
