outfit; to beg this and pretend to wish to "Swap” for that 
One old scamp had the audacity to nud 0 e me with his elbow 
and order me to bring a pail of f, Agua” (water ) We treated 
them as coolly as possible; kept our rifles within reach 
and held such manner of pow-wow with them as we could. 
Traded some matches for some arrows, and gave them some , 
bread to eat. be watched them so closely that they failed 
to steal anything, and saw them depart with a feeling of great 
relief. These fellows come more nearly up to my notion of 
what fiends of hell ought to be than any mortals I 
have seen .We mounted double guard for the night determined to 
protect ourselves to the utmost. Think I recognized wo of the 
Indians as the same we met on the 25th, of July between the 
Mancos Gamp and LaPlata mines. The party xxxx has doubt¬ 
less been following us since that time and will perhaps be 
lying in wait for us until we get cut of this South West 
corner. They are cowardly scamps who would not dare to &4eal 
- where- they could found out., * or harm us persenahly 
if it were liable to endanger themselves. They know that we 
sleep and eat and work by our needle guns and they move with 
great caution in consequence, 
August 6th - 
Moved camp nine miles up the San Juan to the ford, ho In¬ 
dians in sight - they had moved out on the 5th. - perhaps 
