144 ALAMO MUCHO TO 
For the finale of this melancholy affair I refer the 
reader to the accompanying note.* 
* While the party were engaged in searching for Colonel Craig and 
the Sergeant, the express rider from Fort Yuma, on his way to San 
Diego, overtook them; which gave Dr. Webb an opportunity to send 
intelligence to that place, Vallecito, Santa Isabel, etc., ete., relative to the 
probable fate of Colonel Craig, in order that suitable measures might 
be taken to apprehend the deserters, should they present themselves 
there. 
As soon as the news was coe by Colonel Magruder, command- 
ing at San Diego, he sent expresses to the various “iRenry posts and 
settlements, and aroused the Indians in Southern California, whereby he 
was enabled to establish a cordon across the country with a view of 
intercepting the murderers. The routes are so few, and the watering 
places so well known, that this object was easily attained. A reward, 
too, was offered the Indians, to induce them to thoroughly scour the 
country and prevent the escape of these men. It was not many days 
before a party of Indians engaged in this duty discovered two men with 
muskets; and believing them to be the murderers, all but two concealed 
themselves. One of these Indians was a chief, an exceedingly shrewd 
man, who desired to secure his prize without bloodshed. They, there- 
fore, professed friendship for the men, and proposed to buy their muskets ; 
an offer which the deserters gladly accepted, money being more impor- 
tant to them now than weapons. They were accordingly paid eight dol- 
lars each, and the cunning Indians thus became possessed of their arms. 
But one of the deserters being still in possession of a large revolver, it was 
necessary to disarm him of this before they could make sure of their pris- 
oners. The Chief, therefore, manifested a great curiosity as to this sin- 
gular weapon, and asked the man to let him examine it. Not suspect- 
ing the object of the Indian, who he supposed had never seen a re- 
volver before, he unhesitatingly handed it to him for inspection. The 
Chief no sooner had it in his possession, than he stepped back and pre- 
sented it to the breast of the deserter. The two Indians now gave the 
war-whoop ; whereupon the rest of the party, numbering some twelve or 
fourteen, sprang from their hiding-place, and at once surrounded the 
prisoners. 
They were conducted to the Mission of San Diego, and there surren- 
