MIRAGE.—SCARCITY OF GRASS AND WATER.—LOSS OF MULES. 
13 
As the sun mounted, the mirage, only seen once before since leaving the plains of the 
Arkansas, now began to distort the distant mountains, which everywhere hounded the horizon, 
into many fantastic shapes. The morning was sharp and bracing, and I was excessively 
hungry, having given my breakfast, consisting of two biscuits, to my still more hungry mule. 
I was describing to Mr. Warner how much more pleasant it would he to he jogging into Wash¬ 
ington after a fox hunt, with the prospect of a hot breakfast, when up rose to our astonished 
view, on the north side of the Gila, a perfect representation of the Capitol, with dome, wings, 
and portico, all complete. It remained for full twenty minutes with its proportions and outline 
perfect, when it dwindled down into a distant butte. 
We went on briskly to the Gila, whose course, marked by the green cotton-wood, could he 
easily traced. It looked much nearer than it really was. We reached it after making forty 
miles from our camp of yesterday. 
Our poor brutes were so hungry they would drink no water, hut fell to work on the young 
willows and cane. After letting them bite a few minutes we moved down the river five 
miles farther, to a large and luxuriant patch of paspalum grass, shaded by the acacia and 
prosopis. 
. My eyes becoming sore with dust, I took a large object for my southern star to-night, the 
planet Saturn. Sixteen circum-meridian altitudes of Saturn, and nine altitudes of Polaris, give 
the latitude of the camp 35° 59' 22". 
November 15.—In the morning the general found the mules so much worsted by the forty- 
five miles’ journey without food or water, that he determined to remain for the day. Most of 
the mules belonging to my party have travelled 1,800 miles, almost continously. Two or three 
times they have all appeared on the eve of death; hut a mule’s vitality recuperates when life 
seems to be almost extinct, so I am in hopes the day’s rest will revive them sufficiently to 
enable them to undertake what will he the most distressing part of the journey. From informa¬ 
tion collected from the Indians and others, it appears that we shall meet with no more grass 
from this spot to the settlements, estimated to he three hundred miles distant. 
This has been a gloomy day in the dragoon camp. The jornada cost them six or eight mules, 
and those which have survived give little promise of future service. The howitzers make severe 
draughts on them. Yesterday, within five miles of the river, Lieutenant Davidson was obliged 
to hitch his private mules to them. An order has been given to-day to dismount one-half the 
command and reserve the animals for packing. 
From all accounts there is no difficulty in following the route of the river from camp 91 to 
this place, and the journey is but a trifle longer; I would, therefore, recommend parties in our 
rear to get a Coco Maricopa guide and keep the river. 
Our trail crossed the remains of an old acequia, and the plains were covered with broken 
pottery. About us there are signs of modern Indian tenements, and the acequia may possibly 
have been the work of their hands. We know the Maricopas have moved gradually from the 
gulf of California to their present location, in juxtaposition with the Pimos. They were found 
so late as the year 1826 at the mouth of the Gila; and Dr. Anderson, who passed from Sonora 
to California in 1828, found them, as near as we could reckon from his notes, about the place 
we are now encamped in. The shells found to-day were, in my opinion, evidently brought by 
the Maricopas from the sea. They differ from those we found among the ruins. 
Observed for time to-night and obtained the rates of my chronometers; that of chronometer 
No. 183, 12s. per day, showing a very satisfactory consistency in rate since leaving the 
mountains. 
November 16.—The valley on the south side continues wide, and shows continuously the 
marks of former cultivation. On the north side the hills run close to the river. 
After making ten miles we came to a dry creek, coming from a plain reaching far to the 
south, and then we mounted the table-lands to avoid a bend in the river, made by a low chain 
of black hills coming in from the southeast. The table-land was strewed with fragments of 
