514 BOBBERS AND MURDERERS IN OUR CAMP. Book IIL 
journeying from the interior of Sonora, by El Altar, to the 
Gila river, and of whom four had perished on the road 
from want of water. He had himself been several davs 
without food and water,, and had but yesterday met with 
four other travellers from California. It was possible that 
the man had originally belonged to Walker's expedition 
against Sonora, which not long before our journey through 
the Gila territory, had come to a tragical end ; but the 
good looks and the slight hunger of the man were suspi- 
cious, as being inconsistent with his statements. The 
remarks of an old Indian also were singular, and I re- 
gretted not being able to understand them fully. What I 
believed he said was, that a few miles off in the desert, a 
dying man was lying near the road, who belonged to this 
party, and to whom they had promised help, which they 
purposely avoided giving. Farther down the river, a few 
days later, we met three more adventurers. They also told 
us that a fourth belonging to their party had been killed on 
the road, and that we should probably find his body. He 
had been missed by them, and when found was dead and 
covered with blood. It struck me that some murder was 
at the bottom of all these tales, probably committed upon 
one of their fellow travellers. After the last-mentioned 
three had been entertained by us, and assisted from our 
stores, they repaid our hospitality by getting possession of 
one of our best mules at the rear of our caravan, by a 
falsehood. Riding past the muleteers they said that they 
were to choose a mule, having bought one of Mr. K., and 
having selected one they took it away. Our people re- 
cognised one of these three men : he was a notorious 
character from Texas, who had joined Walker's expedition 
against Sonora, and he even boasted to one of our men that, 
with some others, he had taken a small town in Sonora, and 
