path: root/75650-0.txt

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75650 ***






  REPORT

  TO

  HON. A. V. BROWN, POSTMASTER GENERAL,

  ON THE

  OPENING AND PRESENT CONDITION

  OF THE

  UNITED STATES OVERLAND MAIL ROUTE BETWEEN SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS,
  AND SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA,

  BY

  I. C. WOOD, SUPERINTENDENT.


                               WASHINGTON CITY, D. C., _March --, 1858_.

SIR: In compliance with your request, I beg leave to submit the
following report, showing the present condition of the mail stage
line running semi-monthly between San Antonio, Texas, and San Diego,
California, containing also extracts from the journal of my trip over
the line and back.

I have here grouped together observations, made from time to time,
along the road, of the soil, climate, distances, deserts, mountains,
supplies of wood, water, and grass, arable land, pasturage, and
general character of the road we stage over. I have endeavored to
avoid inserting anything except what I learned from the experiences of
my trip; but the statements of the distances and altitudes are from
government surveys, as I had neither time to measure the road nor to
ascertain its altitudes.


_Extracts from my journal._

_June 12, 1857._--The late James E. Birch entered into a contract with
your department for the transmission of a semi-monthly mail to and from
San Antonio, Texas, and San Diego, California. I had been laboring in
connexion with Mr. Birch during the period in which the great overland
mail letting was pending, and, in compliance with the understanding
between us, I took charge of the execution of this contract.

_June 15._--To-day I despatched a man from New York, with instructions
to proceed at once to San Antonio, Texas, and there to purchase a
suitable outfit with which to take the first mail, namely, that of July
9th, through to San Diego. That he might be able to transport the mail
through in proper shape, and in schedule time if possible, I wrote
a full authority for him to act in any emergency which might arise
on the road, and also gave him the cash necessary to carry out these
instructions. Never having travelled the road, I was of course unable
to give specific directions to the first conductor, but depended, in a
great degree, on his discretion.

_June 20._--By the mail steamer to California to-day I forwarded full
instructions to Mr. R. E. Doyle, of San Francisco, accompanied by an
authority from Mr. Birch to him, in virtue of which he was to take the
management of that portion of the mail line running west of Tucson. I
instructed Mr. Doyle to start the first mail, if possible, on the 24th
of July, from San Diego.

[I subsequently learned, and insert the facts here to make my report
more connected, that these instructions reached Mr. Doyle on the 13th
of July; the steamer for San Diego would sail on the 18th, thus leaving
him only five days for making his preparations. Mr. Doyle agreed to
take an interest, and to advance the money needed to commence service
on the Pacific end of the line. The purchase and shipment of the
necessary saddles, bridles, blankets, rations, arms, &c., as well as
the selection of the first conductors and guard, was a work requiring
more than five days. The first outfit, all but the animals, was shipped
to San Diego on the 18th; the steamer arrived there on her usual time,
namely, July 21st, leaving three days only in which to purchase the
required animals. The difficulty in finding suitable mules proved
greater than was anticipated, and the outfit, though nearly complete,
could not be made ready to leave at 6 a. m. of the 24th, according to
contract. The first mail for San Antonio left San Diego on the 9th of
August; relays of animals having previously been sent forward to Fort
Yuma.]

_June 23._--From the 12th, the date of the signing of the contract,
up to this date, I had been engaged in the necessary preliminary
preparations for my journey to San Diego; also in making such purchases
as I deemed indispensably necessary to be made in New York. My
purchases in New York were limited, in comparison with the requirements
of the line. I hardly knew myself what I wanted; therefore I determined
to make the bulk of my purchases in San Antonio, where I hoped to get
some reliable information as to my new duties.

To-day Mr. Birch gave me my authority to act for him, which authority
was made out in the form of a common letter, addressed by him to me,
instead of a power of attorney. His purpose was to convey to me the
most unlimited powers. I enclose a copy of this document.

                                         NEW YORK, _June 23, 1857_.

  DEAR SIR: I have taken a contract with the Postmaster General to
  carry the United States mail between San Diego and San Antonio twice
  a month for four years, a copy of which contract you have been
  furnished with. I wish you to take charge, for me, of the fulfilment
  of this contract, and of any additions that may be made to it, as
  my general agent for the purpose. After making all preliminary
  arrangements which you deem proper, I desire you to proceed to the
  line of the route, put it into operation, and perform the service.
  You are authorized by me to make all the contracts, and do all things
  you may deem necessary or proper for the purpose, having the same
  authority in the premises that I would myself if present. To carry
  out the above, I hand you certificates of deposit--

    Ten of $1,000 each     $10,000 00
    Forty of $200 each       8,000 00
    Cash                       800 00
    Advanced James Mason     1,200 00
                           ----------
                            20,000 00
                           ==========

  To be distributed on my account.

    JAMES E. BIRCH.

  Mr. I. C. WOODS.

_June 24._--I left this morning for San Antonio, _via_ Chicago,
Cairo, and New Orleans. The only assistant I took with me was a young
gentleman of liberal education, who was acquainted with English,
French, and Spanish, as well as the German, his native language. I have
since found that it is an indispensible requisite to the economical
management of our line that all mail conductors and agents should speak
the Spanish language; we make a point of this now in selecting men for
our service.

_July 5._--Having been detained on the way by business and railroad
accidents, I only reached New Orleans the night before last, missing
the mail connexion to Indianola. To-day I received a telegraphic
communication from Mr. Birch, informing me that he would leave New York
that day per steamer for California. It had been agreed between us that
we were to meet in San Diego as soon as I could reach there.

[In the course of my journal I shall refer again to this appointment,
though I deem it proper to mention here that I never saw Mr. Birch
after we parted on the 23d June. He was lost in the Central America
September 11th, three days after I reached the Pacific.]

_July 7._--We were due in Indianola this morning at daylight, but
unfortunately grounded in a fog on a sand bar at the entrance of the
bay, which lost us the connexion with the coach for San Antonio. This
delay prevented my attending in person to despatching the mail of the
9th from San Antonio, as I had much desired to do.

_July 11._--Reached San Antonio to-day at 4 p. m.

_July 13, Monday._--As my letter of authority will show, Mr. Birch gave
me eighteen thousand eight hundred dollars in hand. After deducting
the cost of some purchases of arms and clothing made in New York, I
have, on reaching San Antonio, about seventeen thousand seven hundred
dollars. With this money I commenced operations at once. To-day I hired
a corral and office, also commenced making arrangements for men, in all
of which I was very kindly assisted by Mr. G. H. Giddings.

_July 16._--Busily engaged in purchasing mules and the necessary
articles to fit out the mail trains. To-day I hired Captain Henry
Skillman as a conductor to take the mail of the 24th through to the
Pimos villages, with which country he is very familiar. After this
first trip through he is to run regularly on the Arizona section.
Captain Skillman is, I believe, well known to your department as the
first contractor for the mail between San Antonio and Santa Fé.

_July 19._--To-day I despatch an extra train with stores for the road,
and under instructions to go as far as Fort Lancaster, three hundred
miles from here, and then to return. By this train I sent relays to be
used by the up mail of the 24th, which is to be under charge of Captain
Skillman. Nine mules were to be left at Fort Clarke, and eighteen at
Fort Lancaster.

[This train was attacked and captured on Devil’s river by the Indians.
I have referred to it more particularly in the course of my journal.]

_July 22._--Mr. Giddings’ mail in from El Paso; they met our mail of
July 9 getting along safely, though slowly.

_July 24._--Punctual to the hour named in the contract, 6 a. m., I
this morning despatched the mail coach from the Plaza with the through
mail to San Diego. The postmaster made up mails also for all the
intermediate military posts on our route, although supplying them was
not at first contemplated in the contract. Desiring to manifest, from
the first, a spirit of accommodation to all parties, we were happy to
take charge of anything the postmaster chose to send. This mail was
the second _through mail_ which had left San Antonio, being at the
same time the first that had been sent forward in a coach. This outfit
consisted of--

One coach and harness.

Six men, well armed with rifles, and a Colt’s pistol to each.

Four saddles and accoutrements.

Ropes, hopples, shoeing tools, shoes and nails.

Cooking utensils, and numerous minor articles.

Provisions for thirty days, calculated to last to the Pimos villages
and back to El Paso.

Thirty-six mules; of these, twenty-seven had been sent forward on the
road as relays.

Also six hundred dollars in cash to purchase supplies on the route.

[It was twenty-one of these mules which were captured on Devil’s river
by the Indians; see journal of June 19 and August 2.]

[To insure this mail getting through in schedule time, if possible, I
gave Capt. Skillman authority to act for the line in any emergencies
which might arise. The reputation which he enjoyed in San Antonio
fully warranted me in entrusting this pioneer coach to him, and I
subsequently found him every way qualified for the service he had
undertaken, as some interesting incidents connected with his trip will
prove hereafter.]

[I will here add a brief sketch of the manner in which I had planned to
send the mail through to San Diego. In my instructions of June 20 to
Mr. R. E. Doyle, I had requested him to make all his arrangements to
send the mails from San Diego as far east as the Pimos villages. In my
plan of operation, taking San Antonio as the starting point, I would
work westwardly, while with his plan of operation, with San Diego as
the basis, he would work eastwardly, I proposed to make the connexions
between the two systems at the Pimos villages. I calculated that
Captain Skillman would reach these Pimos villages about the 17th of
August, (he reached there August 20;) furthermore, that he could meet
there the mail of August 9 from San Diego, and then he would return to
El Paso in time to make the through connexion there with the mail train
from San Antonio, which train I undertook to have in waiting. Owing to
circumstances entirely beyond my control, and likely to arise only in a
pioneer trip, the mail from San Diego failed to make the connexion at
the Pimos villages by thirty-six hours. It was a part of the plan that
Captain Skillman should purchase a complete new outfit of mules at El
Paso, which he was unable to do.

At Cook’s Wells he overtook the mail of July 9 from San Antonio,
waiting for an escort. The two trains proceeded together under charge
of Captain Skillman as far as the Pimos villages, at which point the
conductor of the mail of July 9 pushed on to San Diego with both mails,
reaching his destination at 11 a. m. August 30. I have found no reason,
as yet, to alter the system of mail connexion referred to in this note,
though the place where we now join the eastern and western management
is at Tucson, Arizona Territory. One hundred miles west of the Pimos
villages each carrier now delivers the mails, and retraces the road
with the return mail.]

_July 29._--Since my arrival in San Antonio, I had made every possible
exertion to procure mules adapted to the purpose of staging. I drove
about the country myself, and sent agents to purchase wherever we heard
of any good mules for sale. As yet, the right kind come in slowly.

[There was another view which I took of my position as superintendent
of the line, and one which governed me throughout in all my exertions.
It was this:

An understanding existed between Mr. Birch and myself, that your
department desired to have the new mail service commence at once, and
to have it pushed, if possible, to an early and vigorous success. It
had been from the first determined to spare neither money nor labor, if
either, or both combined, could by any possibility produce the desired
result. I had determined to go myself over the road and back again, in
as short a period of time as was consistent with the proper discharge
of my duties as superintendent. I had planned to leave San Antonio on
the 1st of August for El Paso, with a train consisting of coaches,
mules, rations, arms, men and general equipment, to be placed on that
portion of our road situated in Arizona Territory, between El Paso and
the Pimos villages.

I had further planned to reach El Paso in season to purchase the
necessary mules with which to carry forward, in person, the mail for
San Diego of 9th August. This mail I estimated would overtake me on the
21st or 22d at the last named place.]

_July 29._--After examining the subject thoroughly for several days
past, I saw but one way in which to bring about the results I had in
view within the time required. This was to purchase or hire the entire
stock of mules and coaches used on the San Antonio and Santa Fé line,
owned and run by G. H. Giddings, of San Antonio. Mr. Giddings had
treated me with every possible consideration, and during the time I had
been in San Antonio had rendered me as much assistance as though he had
had a personal interest in the success of the enterprise. On the 26th I
opened to him the matter of this purchase which I desired to make, and
to-day made a conditional purchase of all the mules, coaches, and other
property used on his mail route. The bringing of this property under my
superintendence, in conjunction with the stock I had already purchased,
would enable me to perform our mail service of twice a month, and also
Mr. Giddings’ contract of once a month, with less stock than if the two
lines had been run separately.

One of the most advantageous features of this arrangement with Mr.
Giddings was his agreement to go to El Paso with the mail of August 9,
there to remain as agent of this line during my necessary absence in
California.

_July 31._--This morning I despatched the train of coaches, men, and
supplies, referred to July 29. I shall take this train with me, and
distribute it along the road wherever it is needed, principally to the
west of El Paso.

This train, the fourth that had gone from San Antonio, and the third
one I had sent off, consisted of three coaches and harness; seventeen
men well armed with rifles, and a Colt’s pistol to each; thirty-eight
mules; about four thousand pounds weight of rations, and equipments for
the upper end of the line; ten saddles and accoutrements; also all the
smaller articles usually sent forward in one of our mail trains.

_August 1._--Up to this date my personal luggage had not reached me
from the coast, partly owing to my haste in leaving San Antonio, and
partly to its not having been sent forward from Lavacca as speedily as
it might have been after I had left it. Up to this date I have only
seen my baggage once since leaving it at Lavacca the 9th of last July.
It met me at El Paso, where I was compelled to leave it for want of
room in my coach. To-day I left in the Santa Fé mail coach to overtake
the train I sent out yesterday. We would travel together for several
hundred miles.

Before I left San Antonio I completed the outfit for the up mail of
August 9, in which mail Mr. Giddings was to come to El Paso, and the
arrival of which I was to await there before proceeding westward on my
journey.

The conductor of our train was compelled to remain all night in
Castroville. This detention was in consequence of the herder having
got intoxicated, and permitted six of our mules to stray. It was
not prudent to go on and leave them behind in this condition, so we
remained, in the hope of finding them in the morning by daylight.

Castroville is a very pretty town picturesquely situated on the west
bank of the Medina river.

We found our road thus far to be an excellent one, though dusty at this
time. The country through which we passed was parched and the grass
dry, yielding but little nutriment to animals. It must be taken into
consideration that southwestern Texas has had a partial drought for
three successive seasons; this last year was the worst of all. Corn
in San Antonio, and in the surrounding country, is now brought from
New Orleans and from Mexico. We pay two dollars per bushel for all we
consume. In seasons of good crops corn sells in and about San Antonio
at fifty cents per bushel. Made 25 miles to-day.

[When I came back over this road in January the whole country was full
of water; the river was barely passable, the roads were muddy and
tedious all the way from Fort Clarke to San Antonio, and the prospects
of a crop were excellent.]

_August 2._--Left Castroville at 4 a. m.; an hour afterwards we
found five of our six missing mules grazing quietly by the road side
unguarded. I thought at the time that this losing of mules was very
strange, but I have since found it quite a feature in our business, and
one that it is impossible to prevent. Animals are left behind because
the mail cannot be detained waiting for broken down mules to recruit,
or to find strayed stock. About 8 a. m. I met Captain Wallace, whom I
had despatched from San Antonio on the 19th in charge of the train with
relays for Captain Skillman. (See journal of that day and July 24.) All
that now returned of a fine outfit was the conductor and one man on
borrowed mules. A drizzling rain was falling, the two discomfitted mail
men were wrapped in sombre looking blankets. One of them had his arm
in a sling from a wound received in the fight, and indeed their whole
appearance was well calculated to give their narrative of the loss a
gloomy coloring to any one not familiar with Indian depredations.

The particulars of this disaster, as I gathered them from the two
men, were as follows: The train was getting along finely on its way
to Fort Lancaster, being at the time of the attack eighteen miles
north of _Fort Hudson_. The Indians appeared suddenly on all sides
of them from the chapparal, and commenced firing at the mules in the
coach, the loose mules being a few hundred yards ahead. The frightened
animals ran into a mezguer, turned short round, and broke the pole. As
this accident prevented his keeping up with the _mulada_ ahead, the
conductor, who was driving at the time, jumped from the box, called
to a young man by the name of Clifford to follow him, and went to the
assistance of the men driving the herd. Clifford was either surrounded
by Indians, or wounded so that he was unable to get away from the
coach, and died fighting hand to hand with the Indians. The conductor
got the _mulada_ turned off from the road for the purpose of making
a detour to escape his pursuers; but the chase was so hot, and one
saddle mule having to be double mounted, they were compelled to betake
themselves to running and leave the mules and property to their fate.

We lost coach and harness, twenty-one mules, provision and equipment,
one hundred dollars in money, and one box of personal property valued
at some hundreds of dollars, belonging to a sergeant’s wife at Fort
Lancaster.

The Indians were supposed to be Camanches.

At Fort Hudson the conductor found a scouting party, of the second
cavalry, from Fort Clarke. They had been on the Rio Grande, examining
well known Indian trails which lead into Mexico. Captain Whiting, the
officer in command of this scouting party, immediately started on the
trail of the Indians who had captured our train. A party of infantry
was kindly sent out by Lieutenant Fink, commanding at Fort Hudson, for
the purpose of burying young Clifford and of bringing in the broken
coach, if worth preservation.

Captain Whiting overtook the Indians and recaptured nearly all our
mules, though many of them we found were ruined for stage purposes.

The accident was rather a disagreeable one to come upon us, in the
outset of our enterprise. It seemed to place a number of great
obstacles in my way. I hardly knew how to prevent its being repeated,
or whether such attacks were to be of common occurrence. I knew not
where to look for mules to replace those stolen, as good stage animals
were not plenty in or about San Antonio. That which seemed another
risk presented itself in the fact that Captain Skillman was only a
few days behind Wallace’s train; this naturally suggested the thought
that perhaps the Indians would remain concealed among the cañons of
Devil’s river until he came along, and cut him off. On the other hand
there seemed a chance that they would let a mail party like his pass
unmolested, preferring to try us because we had a large _mulada_, and
presented a temptation worth fighting for. However, I consoled myself
with this fact that I had left a good outfit in San Antonio for the
mail of August 9, and that furthermore I had then with me a strong
party of men, sufficient, in my opinion, to guard the relays and
property under my charge. I had time to consider as to my course before
passing Fort Clarke. Commending my discomfited conductor to a surgeon
at once, and promising to send such instructions from Fort Clarke as
were rendered necessary by his loss, we went on our way.

Our route to-day has been over an excellent road passing through
a country adapted to grazing, or capable of being cultivated to
advantage, in seasons when rain enough falls to insure a crop. We
camped at midnight five miles this side of “Uvalde.” Made a distance of
58 miles to-day.

_August 3._--Left our camp at 5 a. m. During the morning we passed a
government train under charge of Captain John E. Pope, topographical
engineers. Captain Pope is _en route_ for the Llano Estacado, near the
32d parallel of latitude, to experiment as to the practicability of
procuring water there by means of artesian wells.

[When I returned over this portion of our road in January, I found
that Captain Pope was at his camp near the mouth of Delaware creek. I
consider it an excellent thing for this section of country that our
government should undertake to establish or disprove the opinions
expressed by many scientific men upon the question of obtaining water
by means of artesian wells in the Llano Estacado of Texas, and on the
high table lands of Arizona and New Mexico. I refer to this matter
again in treating of the present watering places on our route, and in
presenting my ideas of the proper method of securing an adequate supply
of water at intermediate points.]

We cooked our breakfast this morning under the trees just outside of
the tower of Uvalde. We have tin plates, tin cups, knives and forks,
iron spoons, a gunny bag as a table cloth, and one seat in the shape of
a water keg among eight of us. Camped for the night at 8 p. m. Made 42
miles to-day.

_August 4._--Left camp at 3 a. m. Reached Fort Clarke at 5 a. m. Left
Fort Clarke at 1 p. m.

I wrote to Mr. Birch to-day, informing him of my progress up to this
point, calling his attention particularly to the attack on Captain
Wallace, which resulted in the loss of that complete outfit. I further
advised him of having drawn on him at 90 days’ date for the sum of five
thousand dollars, payable at the Bank of Manhattan Company, New York,
at which I knew he kept his account. I requested Mr. Birch to remit
this money at once from California to the cashier of the bank, as our
agent at San Antonio would need money to purchase new stock with which
to replace those stolen by the Indians; this letter I addressed to
Sacramento, the city which would be his headquarters during his stay in
California.

[Desiring to make this draft the basis of a further credit for our
agent in San Antonio, I enclosed it to the firm there who had agreed to
make advances to the line. I requested them to continue such advances
according to promise, and further desired them to collect this draft of
$5,000, passing the same to the credit of the line on open account. In
consequence of Mr. Birch’s death this draft was not paid at maturity,
but returned protested to Texas, and is supposed to have been in the
mail on board the steamer Opelousas, which was lost in the Gulf.]

Before leaving San Antonio I procured an order, which General Twiggs
gave me very cheerfully, requesting the commanders of the military
posts in his division to give me an escort for the mail whenever I
asked it. I did not deem it necessary at this time to ask for one, as
I had with me twenty well-armed men. Under any circumstances, however,
when we were required to make mail speed, this order for an escort
would prove useless, inasmuch as by its terms I was required to furnish
transportation to the soldiers. We could not do it and make mail time.
To escort a train of supplies for us, at any time, such an order would
prove very acceptable, when the speed is about one-half that of the
mail.

In this same order of General Twiggs, of which I regret not having a
copy, he gave us permission to place our mules in the government herd,
and also to keep an hostler with them at each of the military posts.

Camped for the night, at 10½ p. m.; made 42 miles to-day. August 5.
Left camp at 4.40.

Leaving Fort Clarke may be properly described as leaving the
settlements for the Indian country. This fact in connexion with the
recent accident to our train made us all now doubly cautious on our day
and night guards.

At noon to-day we saw Indian signs around a water hole; these signs
consisted of pony tracks, unshod hoofs, and moccasin prints; they were
presumed by our most most expert frontier men to be only a few hours
old. Camped for the night at 8 p. m.

Made 41 miles to-day.

_August 6._--Left camp at 4 a. m.

[After this day I did not note the precise hour of leaving camp in the
morning, or of camping at night, because the jolting, or some other
cause, had put my own watch out of order. Our hours, however, were
much the same as they have been stated until passing the Tucson, west
of which a large portion of the work was night service.--See Journal,
Sept. 1st to 18th.]

In carrying the mail we do not drive all the time from our morning
start to the night camp. We stop four times during the day; twice for
our two meals of breakfast and dinner; breakfast after the morning
drive, dinner about 4 o’clock. We also stop once for a nooning, and
once about sunset to graze the mules, at which hour they seem to feed
best.

We stopped half an hour to-day at Camp Hudson, situated at the second
crossing of the San Pedro, or the Devil’s river; here I found the
remnant of our coach, with the pole and ten spokes broken, the bars
gone, the top all stripped, a bullet hole through the body from a gun,
carbine, or some piece carrying a heavy ball, and fired by the Indians.
Made 42 miles to-day.

_August 7._--To-day we crossed the Llano Estacado at the narrowest
part. By my schedule of distances you will perceive it is only thirty
miles from Howard Springs to Live Oak creek, and only a portion of the
distance can be properly called the _staked plain_; in fact this is
about its southern termination. Camped about midnight. Made 52 miles
to-day.

_August 8._--Our morning drive brought us about breakfast time just
outside the lines at Fort Lancaster. I learned that Captain Skillman
had purchased a pair of mules here, and gone on in good condition. We
have had a fine road, with abundance of good grazing, all the way from
Fort Clarke to this post. Now that we have been a number of days on
our journey, we find that many of our mules are becoming foot sore or
tired; these are such as are new to the service, and they become, by
the time the night drive is over, very much fatigued. Mules, with us,
have to go through a period of hardening and a process of acclimation
before they become adapted to the purposes of prairie staging. The
speed at which we trot them, their hard work, the drinking of different
kinds of water at different stopping places, all try the constitution
of the animal, while even eating corn, which we feed to them at all
times, whether on the road or at stations, is something to be learned.
On the journey up from San Antonio to El Paso we change the limestone
water of the coast for the water impregnated variously with vegetable
matter, alkali, or sulphur. This change is found to affect men as well
as all descriptions of stock, and mules often times give out when hard
driven immediately after drinking either the waters of the Pecos or
those of any of the watering places between that river and Fort Davis.
Coming down the road from El Paso to San Antonio, reversing the course
of this change, the water is not found to have the same effect. Took in
a supply of corn, for which we paid $2 50 per bushel. Made 28 miles,
camping on the Pecos at 8 p. m.

_August 9._--To-day we passed a freshly made grave which marked a
spot which had recently been the scene of a battle between a party of
soldiers and the Indians. I gathered the following particulars: The
soldiers, under a sergeant, were escorting a mail which, previously
to the letting of our contract, had been once a month transported by
the quartermaster’s department to and from Fort Davis and Fort Clarke.
While the soldiers were at dinner, a few Indians came into their camp,
under the protection of a white flag, asking for something to eat.
As it turned out from their subsequent attack, this visit was a ruse
to ascertain the strength of the party, as well as to form an idea
of their vigilance. The soldiers treated them well, gave them some
trifles, and the Indians partook of their hospitality. At parting
they shook hands and went off on the road ahead, leaving the soldiers
without the slightest suspicion of any danger. A few hundred yards from
their camping place, as the wagon was descending a short steep hill
into a gully which runs from the mountains to the Pecos, the soldiers
were attacked by the Indians, and the sergeant was mortally wounded at
the first fire. They retreated, fighting as well as they were able,
while four of them carried the wounded sergeant; but an overwhelming
number of the Indians pressed upon them so closely that, at his earnest
request to save themselves and drop him, as he would only embarrass
their efforts, they left the sergeant the prey of the Indians and
gathered around the wagon. They were finally compelled to abandon the
property, with the result, usual in such cases, of not being followed
by the Indians, who only wanted the plunder. The soldiers came into
Fort Lancaster, distant about forty miles.

The policy which requires government officers to respect a white flag
in the hands of Indians has led to a number of massacres on the road.
The policy of the mail men is, never, under any circumstances, to allow
them near us, and much less to risk the danger of having them actually
in camp. They have repeatedly tried the ruse of endeavoring to approach
under the protection of a piece of dirty cotton cloth tied to a spear,
but we send a ball over their heads so soon as they come within rifle
range, after which warning they keep aloof.

Made 44 miles to-day.

_August 10._--Made 45 miles to-day, without anything having happened of
particular interest.

_August 11._--Camped to-night a few miles east of Fort Davis,
preferring to arrive there at breakfast to-morrow morning. Our mules
were suffering yesterday and to-day from the effects of drinking the
sulphur waters, which mineral impregnates nearly all the springs and
creeks from the Pecos to Fort Davis. We are now rapidly ascending the
table land of western Texas, where copious rains have been falling for
some time. The grass is abundant and excellent in quality, but rather
young for working mules that are compelled to make speed. The grass,
combined with the sulphur water, compelled us for a day or two to be
cautious not to overwork our stock. We avoid trouble by shortening our
drives.

We made only 34 miles to-day.

_August 12._--At 3 a. m. this morning, accompanied by two men, I took
the mail on to Fort Davis in my own light carriage, drawn by four
mules, leaving the three heavy coaches and stock to come on at their
leisure. Fort Davis is about 4,500 feet above the ocean; and before
getting so far on my road even as this post, I had found the coaches,
of which we had purchased eleven for the line, so heavy as to be
unfit for the service. [The continual ascent of the roads, together
with the weight the mules were compelled to haul, had fatigued them
so much that I deemed it necessary to change them, if possible. To
borrow some government mules for the trip to El Paso seemed to be an
excellent plan, if I could procure such a privilege. I would then
leave those I had here to be used as relays for the next up mail.
From the information I had obtained, I had not the least doubt but
that I could purchase plenty of mules in El Paso to use in stocking
the upper portion of our road. I made application to Colonel Sewall,
the commanding officer at this post, who, upon reflection, decided to
loan me the mules I wanted. I made an arrangement which I considered
a very favorable one, and it certainly was a great advantage at the
time, but it afterwards proved a prolific source of trouble to me. To
sustain my application for mules, I represented to Colonel Sewall my
exact position; that I was the superintendent of the road and also sole
agent for the contractor; that I was engaged in stocking and putting
in running order this pioneer mail. I further took the liberty of
stating how great an interest your department felt in the enterprise.
I proposed to leave my forty-two mules at the fort, and that he should
loan me thirty-six of theirs to take our coaches to El Paso. I stated
to him my plan of purchasing on the Rio Grande all the mules I needed,
and that I would return his at once with the first down mail. To this
arrangement he assented, sending a corporal and two men with me to take
charge of the mules.

I may as well mention here that, on reaching El Paso, I found myself
in a position where, in consequence of inability to purchase mules, I
had either to stop the mail until I could collect them in the towns up
and down the valley and over the river, or else to take some of these
Fort Davis mules further on my journey. Believing myself justified,
under the circumstances, in deviating my promise as to the time of
returning the mules, I took fourteen of them with me to Tucson; the
balance, twenty-two in number, I returned at once to Fort Davis by the
corporal. Of these fourteen so taken, seven were returned to Fort Davis
during the period of my stay on the Pacific, while the other seven were
replaced from our own herd, by virtue of an agreement which allowed
Colonel Sewall to take such of ours as he wanted, to replace any of his
mules which might be missing. Colonel Sewall was so indignant at my not
sending back the whole number of his mules at once, that he wrote to
all the posts along our line, requesting them to refuse me any favor,
alleging, as his reason, my bad faith to him. He further desired the
officers to continue such refusal until the mule transaction should be
settled to his satisfaction. This request gave the line considerable
trouble at Fort Fillmore, during my absence. On my return to Fort Davis
I was unable to appease Colonel Sewall, though I explained to him
the whole transaction, as I have endeavored to do here. He refused
to order the quartermaster to withdraw his offensive letter to the
posts on the line, although this was the point I particularly urged
for his consideration, as injurious to our interests. I feel now, as
I did at the time of taking the mules--which I did not do without
reflection--that the circumstances justified my course; that the
interest of the overland mail to the government was above the value
even of the whole number of mules borrowed, and that, under these
circumstances, I should have been forgiven for not keeping my promise.]

_August 13._--Left Fort Davis at 5.40 a. m. Early this morning I met
the mail from Santa Fé, and, in accordance with the agreement between
Mr. Giddings and myself to incorporate our two stocks, so as to perform
the tri-monthly service, I sent back a portion of my own party, with
orders to return as far as Fort Clarke. One great advantage of this
additional force to the party going down was the greater protection
the mail would receive in passing through that portion of the Indian
country so recently the scene of depredations.

Made 29 miles to-day.

_August 14._--Our government mules, fresh and corn-fed, took us along
at a much more rapid pace than we have been in the habit of travelling
during the course of the past week.

We made 60 miles to-day.

_August 15._--Our second drive to-day was for a mile or more, through a
long and narrow cañon, with the mountains bordering the Rio Grande on
the east. This cañon led us into the valley of the river, at a point
one hundred miles below where our road leaves it in going westward.
After crossing the valley, and making a camp on the banks of the river,
our road to-day turns abruptly northward. We encountered a terrible
thunder storm at noon, it being the first heavy rain we have had on
the road. August is one of the rainy months throughout this portion
of the Rio Grande valley and Sonora; we may, therefore, expect many
such storms before reaching the coast range of mountains which form
the climatic boundary between California and Arizona. After a thorough
drenching, we started at two o’clock, in a bright sunny afternoon, and
drove slowly up the Rio Grande. Through this particular portion of the
valley the rainy season is an advantage to the otherwise sandy road.
Along here, animals which are fatigued from a tedious or rapid journey
through Texas must be well treated or they give out. Fifty miles above
here, in the neighborhood of San Eleazario, and, indeed, at all the
Spanish towns along the river, the road is made much worse by the
rains. The corn and wheat fields are all cultivated by irrigation, and
the irrigating ditches, called _acequias_, liable to be overflowed from
the rain, cross the roads in many places. Camped to-night on a slough
of the river.

Made 40 miles to-day.

_August 16._--The road proving so very muddy in some places, and heavy
from sand in others, besides finding it was growing more and more muddy
as we proceeded, I took my light four-mule carriage, with a change of
animals, left all our heavy coaches and baggage, and started on with
the mails. We reached the _presidio_ of San Elearan at 7 p. m. to-day;
there we changed our mail, and then pushed on, after dark, for Socorro,
where the conductor, with his train, was waiting to take the mail
through to Santa Fé. Our drive from San Elearan to Socorro was at a
slow walk through mud and water all the way, caused by the recent rains
overflowing the ditches. Many portions of the surrounding country were
covered with water like a lake.

Made 43 miles to-day.

_August 17._--Rained all night, showering during the morning. I went
nineteen miles to-day, to Franklin, El Paso. The Santa Fé mail went on
to its destination. The quartermaster at Fort Bliss very kindly gave me
the use of his blacksmith shop in which to repair one of my wagons, by
which timely aid I was enabled to place it in a pretty decent condition
for service. Looked about me for mules to complete my outfit for the
Pimos villages, but much to my disappointment could find none suited to
our service. Mules are scarce at El Paso.

_August 18._--Another rainy day, with occasional sunshine. Found an
abundance of very excellent fruit at El Paso: pears, peaches, and
particularly grapes. The heavy train came in to-day.

_August 19._--A beautiful day; I find some difficulty in purchasing the
required corn for my mules. Last year the corn crop of this valley was
a partial failure, in consequence of which the corn at present in use
here is brought from Chihuahua; I pay equal to about $2 50 per bushel.
I find it impossible to purchase mules and get them here in season to
be of use for the next mail going west, due here on the 21st or 22d. To
insure that the next mail shall go forward with despatch, I deemed it
best to-day to send the train up the river with directions to proceed
as far as Fort Fillmore, 50 miles above El Paso, there to await the
coming mail. Our mules need shoeing, and some other preparations are
required for the journey. I have bought all the mules I could find,
and lastly borrowed fourteen from the herd of government mules which
I brought from Fort Davis. The others I returned in charge of the
corporal who came up with me, (see journal, August 2.) I purchased
to-day a pair of large Missouri mules, and at once sent my small wagon
and nine mules down to the Presidio, 25 miles below El Paso, with
directions to receive the up mail there, and bring it with all speed to
Fort Fillmore; this I planned to save time.

_August 20._--Was engaged all day in preparing the way, as far as
possible, to have the business of the line run smoothly during my
absence, I stored my two heavy coaches to wait the chances of the
future.

_August 21._--Early this afternoon an express came in from Captain
Holliday, who was _en route_ to Fort Fillmore, for the purposes stated
under date of August 19. He wrote me that his wagon had broken down,
with the further prospect of being scarcely able to reach the post with
it. I immediately purchased a private carriage, the only one in El
Paso any way suited to our purpose. By the kindness of Colonel Reeves,
commanding Fort Bliss, who loaned me a team, I was enabled to despatch
the carriage for Fort Fillmore this evening. I had no mules at Franklin
with which to send it up. At 10 p.m. the mail and Mr. Giddings came in
from San Antonio, having left there August 9, the contract day. Our
coach arrived here with a broken pole which is by no means a small
obstacle in this remote country, particularly when the accident chances
to happen after dark and no other carriage is to be obtained, while the
mail must go on. By splicing we made it answer our present purpose,
though consuming nearly all night in preparations.

_August 22._--Left El Paso at three o’clock, a. m., and found the roads
heavy all the way along the river. Succeeded in reaching Fort Fillmore
at six o’clock, p. m., after a day’s work of forty-two miles. I found
the train encamped ready for departure, only waiting my arrival with
the mail. We examined the Rio Grande to-night, preparatory to crossing;
found the river not fordable, and also found there would be too much
risk in attempting to ferry over in the night; thus we are unwillingly
compelled to remain encamped on the east bank until to-morrow morning.
Another source of trouble was my carriages; I found that neither of
those I now had were fit to go on the road. Those we had originally
purchased, two of which I brought up with me, were too heavy for the
mules, while the two I now had were not strong enough to carry the
required loads. In this dilemma I despatched two men to Las Cruces, six
miles above Fort Fillmore, giving them orders to purchase at any fair
price, if suited to our purpose, a second-hand carriage which we heard
was there for sale. My messengers returned about two o’clock in the
morning with an old ambulance, which answered a good purpose all the
way to San Diego. By setting the axletrees of one of my other carriages
I thought to secure two, which would answer a temporary purpose. Made
44 miles to-day.

_August 23._--We commenced crossing the river at about sunrise. Our
method was this: we placed all our baggage and mails in skiffs, and
ferrying them over in the first place, then swam our mules, and lastly
the carriages were crossed, by placing the wheels of one side of the
carriage on one skiff, and those of the other side in another skiff,
and poling them along; on reaching the other side we pulled the
carriage up the steep bank by man power.

At the town of Mesilla, which is situated some four miles from the
ferry, I had to purchase yet another carriage in place of one of mine,
the axeltrees of which proved entirely too light. This made four
carriages I had purchased since arriving in the Rio Grande valley,
before getting two which were even temporarily fit for carrying
the mail. We finally got away from Mesilla at 11 o’clock, a. m. In
consequence of the muddy state of the roads across the valley, which
was here one continuous cornfield for some half dozen miles, we made
very slow progress. The _Mesa_, so called, rises very abruptly after
you cross the valley, and we pass to the left of this _Mesa_ through
some one of its numerous cañons or gorges. The only road accessible
at this time to wagons was so dimly defined that we missed our way
and consumed all of the afternoon in trying to get to the top of the
_Mesa_, and ended in being compelled to return to the village of
“Pechacio,” where we passed the night. Made 8 miles to-day.

_August 24._--Left Pechacio village at daylight, this time with another
guide; reached the top of the _Mesa_ through a cañon and road some
three miles long. We are now crossing the _jornada_ of 65 miles,
between La Mesilla and Cook’s wells. We found the road somewhat muddy,
the result of the recent rains. We had a fearful thunder storm at noon
to-day, and in about half an hour every one was wet through to the
skin; afterwards the sun came out warm and pleasant and dried us to a
cheerful temperature again. To-day our conductor, Captain Holliday,
who is an experienced voyageur on the plains, discovered a natural
tank in the rocks. He was first attracted to it by noticing a pair of
doves which flew over his head and alighted there. [This tank held
enough to water all of our mules, and on my return trip in November, I
learned that the same conductor had found water enough for his mules
every trip during the intermediate period. I state this incident as
one illustrative of the probable chances of finding places adapted to
natural tanks. Doves and a species of small sparrow are said to be sure
signs of water.]

Camped at 8½ p. m., making 48 miles to-day.

_August 25._--Started at daylight this morning, and breakfasted at
Cook’s spring, in a drizzling rain, which lasted at intervals all day.
This spring is at the foot of the eastern slope of the Sierra Madre
mountains. By examining the table of distances, it will be noticed
that the Rio Mimbres is eighteen miles westward from Cook’s spring.
We breakfasted at Cook’s spring, and dined several miles west of the
Mimbres. This speed made over the mountains will, I think, convey a
good idea of what must be the nature of our roads through the Sierra
Madre. Passed the Rio Mimbres just before dinner; we had to be very
cautious in crossing, else the force of the current would have upset
our carriages; the stream was so much of a flood that we had to have
one of the men plunge into the water and hold up the lead mules by a
rope fastened to their heads. The force of the current and depth of
water took them off their feet for a distance of a few yards. A few
weeks later, one of our mail trains going west was camped two days
on the eastern camp of the Mimbres, unable to cross. We stopped at
Cow spring for a couple of hours, about sunset, to graze our animals;
camped for the night at the mouth of a cañon leading up to the Burre
mountains; camped at 10 o’clock 30 minutes, making fifty-five miles
to-day.

_August 26._--Started at daylight. About 8 o’clock this morning, coming
down through one of the many cañons leading from the Burre mountains,
we found the mail coach which Captain Skillman had taken from San
Antonio standing in our road. My first thought was, that another train
had been cut off by the Indians, but an examination soon showed the
nature of the accident; one of the hind wheels had evidently crushed
down, and the two forward ones were gone. The wagon stood propped up
carefully in the middle of the road. We concluded that Capt. Skillman
had gone on with his two forward wheels, making what travellers term
a “cache” among the surrounding rocks of all his spare articles. This
we afterwards found to be the case. We stopped here only about as long
as it takes to write the fact, then rolled away over the plaza on our
journey. About sunset, we had a small sample of what might be suffered
for want of water, if men were ignorant of the road. We had brought
water from where we breakfasted to answer for our dinner uses, but the
day had been very warm, and all of us had drunk very freely, until our
canteens had become low. We were deceived by some wagon tracks into
turning off from the main road, losing considerable time in finding
our way back again, both men and mules being very thirsty. We found
water in wagon ruts and holes in the ground. Down went men on the
ground, mules and men both drinking in the same manner from the same
holes. More accurate information as to distances, and the consequent
preparation we now make for any portion of our journey, where we know
there is a long stretch without water, does away with any danger from
thirst, so far as the men and passengers are concerned; the mules
sometimes have to go all day without water. Camped at 11 o’clock.

Made 43 miles to-day.

_August 27._--Off at 5.30 a. m. Crossed the Saur river this morning;
found it quite a stream, and the land swampy on both sides, with plenty
of water at the crossing. I had a splendid shot at a fine flock of wild
ducks. At 4 p. m. we camped for dinner in the Chiracahui mountains at
what is termed Apache Spring. Here we met the train of Paymaster Major
Brice, _en route_ for Fort Bliss. He had been paying off the troops at
Fort Buchanan.

Showery this afternoon. About noon we saw the tracks of Captain
Skillman’s two wheels; he was returning eastward; he took a different
road from the one we came. I regretted missing him. This pass through
the Chiracahui mountains is the most tedious of any we have on our road
through Arizona, though this is only slow by comparison with the pass
through the Sierra Madre. Though slow, the road is excellent, excepting
for a short distance and the climbing of a number of steep hills.

From the Rio Saur to Dos Cabesas Spring is thirty-two miles. We made
this in seven hours driving time. We breakfasted at the Saur; made two
camps in the distance, making our last drive for the day after we had
passed Dos Cabesas spring. Camped at 12 o’clock, midnight. Made 47
miles to-day.

_August 28._--Harnessed at 5.45 a. m. To-day we left the main travelled
road, now in use by the troops, and by trains of supplies _en route_
to Fort Buchanan. This road turns southward before coming to the San
Pedro river, crossing that stream higher up than we do. The main road
is in nearly a due west course till we reach the river; then we turn
northward six miles before coming to the ford. This cut-off is not so
well defined as the road we had been travelling. Our route lies through
Tucson, to which place there has been but little direct trade; and as
this was only the second mail coach which has come over the road, we
found the way by no means very clearly marked out. We did not deem it
prudent to cross the San Pedro river to-night, as the recent rains had
swollen it to a much higher point than usual. Camped for the night on
the eastern branch of the San Pedro at 11.15 p. m. Made 42 miles to-day.

_August 29._--Crossed the San Pedro as soon as it was light enough
to see. About 10 o’clock this morning, as we were making our second
drive for the day, I saw a party approaching us mounted on mules. Rode
forward to meet them. They proved to be the mail party from San Diego,
who left there 9th August with an outfit of saddle mules and pack
animals. Our agent had reached San Diego with men and supplies on the
21st of July, in ample time to have started the mail of the 24th, if
he could have procured animals.--(See Journal of June 20.) This mail
had been twenty days in coming from San Diego to our place of meeting,
forty miles east of Tucson. Our mail had been twenty days coming twice
the distance. I had sent positive orders in my letters, per steamer
of 20th June, to San Francisco, that the mail should be started in a
coach, if possible, but that at all events it was only to be sent as
far east as the Pimos villages.--(See Journal of July 24.) Mr. Birch
had deemed it best in San Francisco to alter this plan, and ordered
complete outfits to be sent from San Diego, to go through to San
Antonio. I ordered this mail party back, to return with me to Tucson,
as nothing was to be gained by their continuing on. At 8 o’clock I
mounted my mule, and went on to Tucson with two men. We reached there
at 2 o’clock in the morning. My purpose in hastening on in advance of
the train was to lose no time, but to purchase mules at once, with
which to proceed to San Diego with the through mail. I wished also, if
possible, to buy some description of vehicle, in which to send the mail
back to El Paso. Train camped in a drizzling rain at 11 o’clock.

Made 49 miles to-day.

_August 30._--Commenced operations at daylight. I found here Mr. Tivey,
formerly of Texas, a surveyor from California, who was _en route_ for
Santa Fé. He had with him a wagon which would suit our purpose, also
a dozen of good mules; he had been waiting some weeks for company. I
made an arrangement with this gentleman by which he loaned the mail
party his outfit, and agreed to accompany them to La Mesilla. This he
did, partly for the consideration of protection, but principally from
public spirit and a desire to see the new mail line go into operation
at once; besides, having been an extensive traveller himself in new
countries, he had a good idea of the obstacles to be overcome in our
early organization. The wagon and mules belonging to Mr. Tivey, added
to those mules I had brought on which were in condition to return,
made a respectable outfit to use in sending the mail back to El Paso.
I made up another outfit for myself by taking the inferior of the
two carriages I had brought from La Mesilla, purchasing seven mules,
and selecting five more from among those belonging to the San Diego
party, whom I had turned back. To aid me in taking the mail through to
its destination, a distance of 469 miles, I took two Americans and a
Mexican, making four of us in the party, as we should soon be beyond
the point where the Apaches are in the practice of roaming, and,
therefore, so strong a party as came from La Mesilla to Tucson would
be unnecessary. For the first time since coming on to the road I took
command of the mail party. To make the needed connexion here between
the eastern and western divisions of our road, I made two arrangements
of mail parties. I detailed two men to come on slowly to the Pimos
villages, with instructions to await there the next mail from San
Antonio. On receiving the mail they were to push on with all speed for
Yuma, 180 miles from Pimos, where I would leave further instructions.

I took with me two other men, whom I also proposed leaving at the
Pimos under instruction to return to Tucson with the next mail going
east, which mail would have left San Diego August 24. At Tucson they
were to deliver the mail to the present train, which would wait as
long as possible. Got away about noon, and in the night met with a
disagreeable accident: the perch of our carriage broke. We spliced
it with mezquit branches and ropes, but, in the first gully we went
through, we broke down again even worse than before. This second
accident happened at 2 o’clock in the morning; our carriage was a
complete wreck, but in any view of the case it was apparently best to
camp until daylight; we could then see whether the damages could be
repaired or the carriage would have to be abandoned. Camped about 3
o’clock in the morning. Made 36 miles since leaving Tucson.

_August 31._--At daylight we commenced repairing damages. I found that
by taking out one of the standards to the top of the carriage, and
wrapping that and a piece of broken whiffle tree tightly with raw hides
soaked soft in water, the coach promised well for a temporary purpose
with a light weight. To lighten us I left on the road our agent for the
Pimos station whom I had with me, also the two men who were to return
to Tucson with the mail. I then proceeded on my journey towards San
Diego. Camped about 12 o’clock on the banks of the Gila river. Made 40
miles to-day.

_September 1._--Off at daylight this morning; reached the first
village of the Pimos about sunrise, and there I bought the corn
necessary for our mules, a little wheat for same purpose, and a few
beans, also a pair of chickens. (Wheat should be fed sparingly, and
soaked before using.) Our barter consisted of cotton cloth and a few
bells, both of which I purchased in Tucson. Camped for breakfast at
the Maricopa wells, which we have since selected as the site for our
station; remained at the wells until 3 p. m. waiting for our agent
to come up whom I yesterday left behind on the road. Finally he came
along, and we prepared for a start. While camping at the wells I was
witness to the largest Indian battle of the times. The Yuma Indians,
aided by the Mojaves and Tonto Apaches as their allies, attacked the
Maricopas just before daylight this morning. The Maricopas and Pimos
are allied strongly together. The former being comparatively few in
numbers, are rather under the protection of the more numerous Pimos.
The Maricopas are the more western of the two tribes, and as the Yumas
approached from down the river, their villages were consequently the
first attacked. Some warriors and their families were killed, and their
huts fired before the presence of the Yumas was known. We saw the huts
blazing and thought they were signal fires. Besides warriors on foot,
every Indian that could get a horse was in the fight, many of them
going a half dozen miles to reach the battle ground. One aged chief,
whose wife had been killed by the Yumas, rode furiously up to our camp,
foaming at the mouth, and begged of us in good Spanish to aid them
against the Yumas; of course we declined. When the battle was over he
refused to speak or understand a word of Spanish.

The principal fight was along the bank of the Gila, not half a mile
from our camp. One hundred and four Yumas left their villages at the
junction of the Gila and Colorado, led on by a young and ambitious
chief, whose new dignity required some striking act to dazzle his
people. He and ninety-three of his warriors were killed within an half
hour, on the side of a hill in plain view from the spot where I was
reclining under a tree.

At this place the river makes what is termed “the big bend” of the
Gila; the road lies nearly due east and west, while the river makes
a horse shoe, probably four times as long as the distance from the
Maricopa to Tazotal, at which place the road touches the river again.
By the schedule of distances you will perceive it is forty miles from
Maricopa to Tazotal.

We started from Maricopa Wells at 3 p. m. and drove all night, reaching
Tazotal for our breakfast camp a little after sunrise.

Made 69 miles to-day.

_September 2._--After breakfast this morning we made a drive of ten
miles, and then lay by to avoid travelling during the hottest part of
the day. The four of us take turns in sleeping and herding mules. Fed
our animals on the Mesquit beans, of which there is a great abundance
along the Gila river. Started from camp at 3 o’clock p. m.; about
sunset met the mail party of August 24, from San Diego, equipped in
the same excellent manner for the service as the party of August 9.
The train I had come on with from El Paso, together with the addition
made by Mr. Tivey, was waiting at Tucson for this mail; to expedite
its progress, I had brought two men to the Maricopa station to take it
back to Tucson, (see journal of August 30,) but I had also left orders
with these men not to wait any longer than sunset to-night, as the
conductor and train must return to La Mesilla at once to be in time to
bring westward, from El Paso to Tucson, the mail of September 9, from
San Antonio. In view of these orders, together with the certainty of
not being able to make the connexion at Tucson, I turned this party
back to Fort Yuma. I gave instructions to the conductor of this mail to
equip himself and two men for a light service of three days’ duration,
and to be in readiness to take the next mail, namely, that of September
9, from San Diego, and carry it with all possible speed to Maricopa
station, at which place the carriage, or an escort for Tucson, would
thereafter be waiting to receive it. We drove until 10 p. m., then
camped on the banks of the Gila, waiting for the moon to rise before
attempting to cross. Moon rose nearly full, and at about 12 o’clock we
crossed and recrossed the Gila, leaving ourselves on the southern bank
from which we started. Drove until about three o’clock in the morning.

Made 40 miles to-day.

_September 3._--Started at daylight. Camped about four hours at noon
to rest ourselves and animals. Started at four o’clock, and drove till
dark. Started again at ten o’clock, p. m., and drove till two o’clock
in the morning.

Made 56 miles to-day.

_September 4._--Off at daylight; we should have made a good morning
drive, but our carriage stuck in a mud hole, and we had to lighten it
by stripping and wading in; even then we hauled it out with difficulty.
It had been raining on the Gila during the past few weeks, and the
road in many places is gullied, while mud holes are common, and I
noticed considerable standing water. We reached Colorado city, opposite
Fort Yuma, at 11 o’clock p. m., here we changed a few of our mules,
took the mail for San Diego from the quartermaster, and repaired our
coach with additions of leather and raw hide. These operations consumed
the balance of the night, and it was daylight when we hitched up for a
start.

Made 49 miles to-day.

_September 5._--Crossed the Colorado about sunrise over an excellent
ferry, then drove to Cook’s Wells to breakfast, 20 miles. We remained
encamped at Cook’s Wells to rest ourselves and animals till nearly
sunset, and then started to cross what is considered the worst portion
of the Colorado desert, namely, a distance of twenty-two miles through
heavy sand from Cook’s Wells to Alamo Mucho. This journey consumed the
night. We reached the Alamo Mucho wells at daylight.

Made 42 miles to-day.

_September 6._--To-day we pushed all day long to get over the desert,
and reached Indian Wells about sunset, twenty-two miles from Alamo
Mucho; our road was much better than that of last night. Here we
expected to find water for ourselves and stock, but an encampment of
Yuma Indians had used it nearly all up, and we could only procure
enough for our own dinner; none was to be had for the mules, so we
tried to console them with a feed of corn. The want of water left us
no resource but to push on for Carissa creek, thirty-two miles more.
We travelled all night and reached Carissa creek about sunrise in the
morning. This portion of the road is by no means a bad one.

Made 52 miles to-day.

_September 7._--We found our fourteen animals were now very much
fatigued. They have had no sleep from Fort Yuma to Carissa, while many
of them have come with me all the way from Tucson in less than eight
days; they had had no water for twenty-four hours, that is, from Alamo
Mucho to this place, Carissa; here they filled themselves at once with
the medicated waters of the creek, and thus destroyed their appetites,
so that they would not eat a proper quantity of hay or grain. At 9
o’clock, when we left, they were very tired, sleepy, and unwilling to
go. Under these circumstances, I decided to select the best animals
from among our _mulada_, and push on over the coast range of mountains
to San Diego with the mail, taking only one man with me; the coach
would come the longer road, by way of San Ysabel. I put this decision
in execution about 9 o’clock in the morning, and reached Vallecita at
2 p. m., where we procured something to eat, but could get none of the
Indians to guide us over the mountains, as I had confidently calculated
upon being able to do. There was no resource left us but to push on
alone; so, taking minute directions where to find the best trail, we
recommenced our journey, expecting to climb the mountains in time to
reach Lassator’s ranch, in one of the valleys, by or before sunset.
Our tired animals proved unequal to the required speed, so that after
climbing the steep mule path which led up the mountain for several
miles, we camped on our trail, in the middle of a splendid table land
covered with pine trees, situated near the top of the mountains.

The moon came up about 11 o’clock, giving enough light for us to
keep the trail; once we chased a star for a mile, thinking it was a
light in a hut; finally reaching the ranch without accident, or much
detention on the way, at 2 o’clock in the morning. Tried to procure
horses at once to proceed on to San Diego, but the animals were all
turned out in the valley grazing and could not be had before morning.
We reluctantly went to bed; and, once in the hay-stack, we slept
soundly till daylight.

Made 36 miles to-day.

_September 8._--At 9 o’clock a. m. we left Lassator’s ranch with fresh
animals, this time mounted on horses. After a toilsome day’s journey
down the mountains, we reached San Diego at 10 o’clock p. m., bringing
the first through mail which had reached here in schedule time. I had
come myself from San Antonio to San Diego in thirty-eight days.

_September 9._--This morning I despatched the mail from San Diego
in charge of two men, with directions to deliver it at Fort Yuma to
the party I had left there, who would in turn carry it to the Pimos
villages at Maricopa station, or at Tucson, where a coach would be
in readiness to carry it on to La Mesilla, at which last place a
second coach would carry it to the Presidio of San Eleazario. Each
of these parties going east, after delivering their mail, were under
instructions to wait and bring back a return mail over that portion of
the road allotted to them. [These were the arrangements I had made _en
route_, and up to this date they have insured the prompt delivery of
the mails at each end of our line.]

When Mr. Birch and myself parted in New York, on the 23d of June,
we made an arrangement to meet in San Diego as soon as I could get
there; I would then have travelled across the continent, and thus be
able to report understandingly about the route, with estimates of
expenditures made up to that time, obligations incurred, and promises
given. Together we could then estimate for the future, and Mr. Birch
was to give me, in San Diego, all the money I needed in retracing my
steps to San Antonio, at which latter place he would again meet me
on my return. With this understanding, I had promised all along the
line, to whomsoever should aid us, that I would return from California
with the coin to pay up all obligations. Mr. Giddings also made use
of this promise for me during my absence. Under my understanding of
this agreement, I was not only very much surprised but embarrassed, on
reaching San Diego, to hear of Mr. Birch’s departure from San Francisco
per mail steamer of August 20. Neither did I find here any advices
as to his movements; furthermore, the coast steamer had left for San
Francisco on the 6th, two days before my arrival, and would not be here
to leave again until the 21st. Thus I was compelled to entire inaction
towards placing the Pacific end of our line in good condition until I
could send to San Francisco for coaches, harness, provisions, general
equipment, and money. My time, from the 9th to the 21st, appeared to be
nearly or quite useless to the line, except in scouring the country for
mules, which proved to be not particularly plenty in that section of
California.

[Had not Mr. Birch been lost in the Central America September 11, no
trouble would have arisen from his not having met me according to
agreement. He could have explained everything satisfactorily, and
shown, in my opinion, that he had otherwise planned well for the
maintenance of our credit.]

_September 13._--To-day I despatched a party of our men with a wagon
and saddle mules, under instructions to examine very carefully the
mountain passes eastward of San Diego, that we might find, if possible,
a better and shorter route for a road than the present circuitous one
by way San Ysabel. The county surveyor very kindly accompanied our
party, giving us the benefit of his experience; so also did one of the
county supervisors, thus showing the great interest which the citizens
of San Diego felt in the success of an overland mail. [Our party
returned on the 18th, reporting having found a trail which, in their
opinion, could be made an excellent road with a moderate outlay of
labor.]

_September 21._--To-day I despatched a messenger to San Francisco by
the steamer, with instructions to make, as far as possible, all needful
purchases of supplies for the western end of the line, and to bring
them to San Diego by return steamer. I leave at the earliest possible
moment to retrace my steps over the road, as I had promised to be back
about October.

_September 24._--I contracted to-day for hay and straw to supply
stations we had made on the desert, at Vallecita and Carissa creeks.

_September 29._--To-day I despatched a train, consisting of a coach
and wagon, destined for our mail station at Maricopa wells; they were
loaded with rations for the men who remain there permanently.

_October 4._--Despatched a relay of ten mules over the mountains to
meet and accompany the train of September 29.

_October 6._--Steamer arrived from San Francisco this morning, having
on board for us all the supplies our agent had been able to obtain.
Commenced at once preparing for my return trip.

_October 17._--To-day I despatched two coaches, with complete outfits
of animals and other necessaries. One of the coaches is to run between
Carissa creek and Fort Yuma; the other is to run between Fort Yuma and
Maricopa wells. I despatched these coaches to-day in order to have
them at their stations in readiness to take through any passengers for
Arizona or San Antonio which might come from San Francisco by steamer
of the 18th. We had advertised in the California papers that we were
ready for passengers as follows:

  _Office of the San Antonio and San Diego Mail Line._--This line is
  now ready to ticket passengers through from San Francisco to New
  Orleans, _via_ San Diego, Fort Yuma, Tucson, Mesilla, Fort Filmore,
  El Paso, and San Antonio, as well as to all intermediate stations.
  Also to Santa Fé and Albuquerque, (New Mexico.) For rates of passage,
  and further information, apply at the office of the company, Kearny
  street, (opposite Plaza.)

                                         C. McLAUGHIN, _Agent_.
                                         R. E. DOYLE,
                             _Superintendent Western Division_.

_October 22._--This morning I despatched two more coaches and fourteen
animals heavily laden with every description of supplies for the line.
They go round to Carissa creek by the road, while I shall take the
shorter mountain trail to-morrow.

_October 23._--Left San Diego on horseback this morning, accompanied by
Mr. Doyle and one of my through passengers, of whom I had several.

_October 25._--Passed the day in the mountains at our corral, branding
a mulada of seventy-five animals, which I had purchased for the line.

_October 27._--Reached Carissa creek, the place of rendezvous, early
this afternoon, with our _mulada_; found the coaches waiting. My party
now consisted of twelve men, with three coaches, seventy-two animals,
and everything necessary for our stage purposes. Our progress to Fort
Yuma was slow. We left Carissa creek the 28th October and reached the
fort November 2d; the delay arose from the fact that fifty-nine of our
animals strayed away, detaining us two days in finding them in the
desert.

_November 5._--To-day the mail came in from the east, bringing to
me the melancholy news of Mr. Birch’s death. This intelligence very
naturally alarmed the parties at Colorado city, who had been furnishing
our men with supplies. Feeling myself perfectly sure that Mr. Birch’s
death would have no influence in disarranging the affairs of the
line, I assured the parties of my determination to continue, as I had
planned, to San Antonio, and to see that the business was properly
cared for. Mr. Doyle, who had accompanied me thus far from San Diego,
joined with me in assuring our creditors here that we would both
continue in as vigorous a superintendence as ever of the interests of
the mail.

The Steamer General Jesup came up the river to-day with a cargo for
the quartermaster at the post. This steamer is one of two boats owned
by Johnson & Co., who are the government contractors for transporting
all supplies from the mouth of the river to Fort Yuma. This boat would
be a credit to her owners and builders by comparison with steamboats
anywhere.

_November 7._--Left Fort Yuma to-day; had with me two of the coaches
with which I originally started, loaded with supplies; I had also
seventy-nine of the mules. Left coach and relays at the fort.

_November 9._--To-day we left Peterman’s station, (on the bank of the
Gila,) consisting of a log house and excellent corral, built since
I passed here. Peterman told me he had built this station, which
he intended making his permanent residence, in order to obtain the
business of the mail line. I purchased of him several tons of mezquit
beans, besides contracting for a supply of hay.

The soil in this neighborhood is excellent. Already this enterprising
pioneer has contracted with a party of Mexicans to build a main
irrigating ditch from the Gila, with branches sufficient to enable
him to cultivate several hundred acres of land. The Mexicans are now
at work. I made such arrangements for him, by writing to an agent at
Fort Yuma, as would secure the necessary barley for seed, making at
same time a conditional purchase of all his crop. He felt confident
of gathering a good harvest the present season. Peterman originally
came up here from Fort Yuma to execute a contract for several tons of
mezquit beans, made with the parties who are contractors for hauling
the ore of the Arizona Copper Mining Company to Fort Yuma. From the
fort this copper ore is carried by steamer to the mouth of the Colorado
river; thence by sailing vessel to San Francisco.

Had conversations with two other men to-day, who said they were half
determined to open stations on the Gila for our accommodation; they
anticipated also the chance of selling supplies to emigrants, and
trading for cattle.

_November 11._--Came this morning to the ford where the road usually
crosses the Gila. One of our men stripped and swam across the river.
I could see plainly that the current was too swift and the volume of
water too great to justify the risk of attempting to cross our coaches
without unloading them. We preferred making a long detour over the
hills rather than attempt fording. The bottom of the river at these
fords is a sort of quicksand, likely to prove troublesome when the
river is swollen by rains, as it is now.

_November 12._--Came to the other ford of the Gila at Oatman flat, but
preferred not to attempt to cross.

_November 13._--To-day we were on the _jornada_ between Tezotal and
Maricopa station; found plenty of water, the rains having been recent
and very heavy.

_November 14._--Beached our station at the Maricopa Wells to-night,
after getting bogged in the mud and having to send to the station for
assistance. No one could see the road, for the night was very dark. The
sagacious instinct of my mule here did me good service. Giving her the
reins, she took me through mud holes, around pools of water, on the
road direct to the station, where she remembered having been fed with
corn a few weeks before.

At the station to-night we numbered so large a party that many of us
had to sleep out of doors; what with mail men waiting to go to Tucson,
mail men waiting to return to Fort Yuma, Maricopa agent, our herdsman,
three passengers for Tucson, seven through passengers, cook, and one
or two travellers who always make our station their stopping place,
added to my own party, and all of us particularly well armed, we felt
ourselves to be rather formidable enemies to the Apaches.

_November 15._--Quite a change has taken place since my passing here on
the 1st of September. At that time I left two men, with two mules and
accoutrements, a few rations, a little cotton cloth, and a few beads
for barter, also a little money. Now I found a comfortable house built
by putting upright poles in the ground, thatching them with tules, and
covering the sides with the same. The agent had also put up a decent
brush corral in which to keep our animals safe at night, for we are
liable here to inroads from the Tonte Apaches.

Had a conference to-day with the Indians, who had been for a number
of weeks around our post enquiring anxiously for my coming. They now
squatted to have a smoke and get some presents. They informed me
through an interpreter, who spoke very decent Spanish, that all the
grass and the water and the land around us belonged to their tribe;
that I must pay them for protecting as well as for feeding all of the
many mules they saw grazing about there daily, which they found it
convenient to consider as mine personally. I had promised them, when
going west, that on my way back we would have this talk, and as far
as possible prepared myself for them at San Diego. I gave such of
them special presents as had particularly aided our agents during my
absence. I fed the principal, gave all the warriors plugs of tobacco,
beads, and cotton cloth, and presented the head chief and interpreter
with suitable presents of shirts and fancy colored handkerchiefs.
About sunset, finding that the talking, smoking, and feeding was over,
and realizing the certainty of procuring no more presents to-day, the
Indians shook hands with us and went off. Such of them as had horses
rode them bare back, but the bulk of the warriors were footmen.

_November 16._--Left the Maricopa station, on our way to Tucson, with
three coaches, forty-nine animals, and twelve men. To-day met the mail
of October 24 from San Antonio.

_November 17._--Reached Tucson at 11½ p.m. Found train from La
Mesilla waiting for the mail.

_November 19._--Started from Tucson with three coaches, forty-six
animals, and sixteen men, including our passengers. I also had in
charge the mail of November 9 from San Diego, for which I had waited
at our Maricopa station. I was now retracing my steps to La Mesilla,
through the same country I had passed over in August, and, with a few
unimportant variations, by nearly the same road. Then it was the rainy
season, with showers almost every day; now it was the commencement of
winter, with occasional northers. On both trips I found the gramma
grass excellent in quality and abundant in quantity. There is plenty of
water for our purposes, with wood enough for cooking, and comfortable
sleeping on the ground in our blankets.

_November 24._--I met Mr. Hutton at Ojo La Vaca; he is engineer of the
El Paso and Fort Yuma wagon road expedition, and was examining the
country very carefully to select the best line for a road, and was
progressing finely.

_November 25._--Met the mail coach going west with the mail of November
9, from San Antonio; also passed to-day the working party of Colonel
Leach’s expedition, who were building a road up the cañon, from the
valley of the Rio Grande to the top of the Mesa.

_November 26._--Reached Mesilla at 10 a. m., and immediately despatched
the mail for San Diego by a messenger in waiting to carry it to
Buchanan, one hundred miles below the Mesilla, where the train was
waiting to carry it on to San Antonio. We have stocked this one hundred
miles along the Rio Grande valley chiefly with horses; when we have a
light mail we can express it through. I remained in the valley of the
Rio Grande, passing to and fro in the course of business, from November
26 until December 24.

During my absence in California, Mr. Giddings had done every thing
possible for the line; I must say he could not have done more if he
had been an owner. Furthermore, I am satisfied that few men could have
done so well for us. At his agency in El Paso he came in contact with
the mail men, who were running from San Antonio to that place, and did
much to place things in order which had been neglected at San Antonio.
On leaving Mr. Giddings I had promised him, upon the faith of the
understanding that Mr. Birch was to meet me at San Diego, that I would
bring back with me the cash necessary to pay up all claims against the
line; but, as before explained, Mr. Birch did not meet me, I could not
reach the supplies of money required, and was consequently compelled to
return to the Rio Grande empty handed, relying on selling my drafts to
cancel large amounts due to creditors in the valley. When I crossed
the Rio Grande going west, on the 23d of August, I had twenty-four
mules and two poor carriages; fourteen of these twenty-four animals
belonged to Fort Davis.--(See journal, August 12.) When I recrossed
the same river, November 27, coming east, I had left behind me quite a
different state of things.

The mail line had now nearly or quite two hundred head of mules west
of the Rio Grande, stationed at San Diego, Carissa creek, Fort Yuma,
Peterman’s, Maricopa wells, Tucson, and La Mesilla. At each of these
places agencies or stations had been established, with abundant
supplies of grain everywhere. We feed corn to all our working mules. I
had made contracts for hay wherever the grass was likely to be short
the coming winter. We had thirty-five mail carriers and agents along
this part of the line; all well-armed border-men, carefully selected
for their familiarity with this kind of service. We had seven coaches
on the road, and three more building in San Diego, so that we could
already take passengers through from ocean to ocean in stage coaches.
I felt that I had carried out in spirit the agreement with your
department to place a creditable service on the line, besides having
complied with the letter of the contract in carrying the mail.

I was met here in the valley by unexpected difficulties, which should
not have been thrown in the way of the line.

The following advertisement was put in the San Antonio papers and came
to El Paso about the time of my arrival:

                                      SAN ANTONIO, _November 20, 1857_.

  Whereas Julia A. B. Birch, of Swansea, in the county of Bristol and
  Commonwealth of Massachusetts, administratrix of the estate of James
  E. Birch, of the town and Commonwealth aforesaid, has sold, assigned,
  transferred, conveyed, and set over unto Oltes H. Kelton, of
  Charleston, South Carolina, for a good and sufficient consideration,
  all the stock of the mail lines and post routes from San Antonio;
  Texas, to San Diego, California, and from El Paso to Santa Fé, in
  Texas, so far as the said James E. Birch, deceased, has any interest
  in the same; and whereas the said Oltes H. Kelton has appointed
  the undersigned his agent and attorney, by power of attorney duly
  acknowledged, to take charge of and superintend his entire interest
  in said routes, as his sole agent: Now, this is to notify all whom it
  may concern, that all contracts and acts made by any person otherwise
  than those that I may appoint, touching the interest of said routes,
  will be treated as a nullity.

                                      ABNER BARROWS.

[Mr. Giddings also received a letter from Mr. Barrows, stating that
Mr. Kelton had appointed him as sole agent in Texas, at the same
time requesting Mr. G. to continue in charge of the line at El Paso,
sending the mail forward to California as he had been doing under my
superintendence. This was an awkward dilemma. It seemed clear to myself
and friends that if I gave up my situation of superintendent the line
must stop. If I once discarded the charge, the property would be seized
by the creditors. Wages were due to the men, and accounts had been
made with merchants for advances of every kind. A line through remote
settlements must have a good credit. In this aspect of things, having
received no letters from Mrs. Birch nor any of her friends, and no
revocation of my authority having reached me, I applied to Simeon Hart,
esq., of El Paso, to advance me the necessary funds to carry on the
line until I could reach New York. I exhibited to Mr. Hart my original
authority from Mr. Birch, together with all the subsequent facts since
his death, so far as I knew them. I consider that we are indebted to
Mr. Hart for the present existence of the line. He went in person to
the different merchants whom we owed for advances, recommended them to
take my drafts on New York, stating that he had examined the matter
and was perfectly satisfied. Mr. Hart himself did more: he loaned the
line ten thousand dollars, which enabled me to not only pay up the more
pressing claims of the mens’ wages, but all the outstanding obligations
of the line, excepting the drafts before referred to on New York, and
the amount due to Mr. Giddings. When I turned my back on the Rio Grande
valley, the credit of the line stood well. I felt satisfied that I had
done right; I am now more than satisfied.]

_El Paso, December 24._--The mail of December 9 came in from San Diego
at 10 a. m.

_Presidio, San Eleazario, December 25._--Mail from San Antonio came in
at 1 a. m. I reached our lower station on the Rio Grande, a new place
which we have named Birchville, at 8 p.m.; I was _en route_ for San
Antonio. Here I found that the up mail of December 9 had been caught
in a snow storm west of Fort Davis. Five mules had been chilled so
they were unable to go on with the train. The conductor was compelled
to leave the coach and nearly all the mules at Fort Davis, coming on
to Birchville with six mules only, bringing the letter mail. He was
most fortunate in being able to borrow a buggy for this purpose. The
conductor who brought up this mail of December 9 should have returned
at once to San Antonio with the down mail; but as he was unable to do
so for the reason which I have stated, I carried out an intention which
I had formed at El Paso, and determined to take the mail through to
San Antonio under my own charge. I had a coach and twenty-two mules,
and four passengers. To perform the actual labor of this trip, I had
two clerks of mine now out of employ by my discharge. Mr. Giddings
accompanied me, with two hired men.

_December 26._--Birchville, at 10 a. m., weather very pleasant.

_December 27._--In our second drive this morning we ascended the cañon
leading from the valley of the Rio Grande to the high table lands of
this portion of western Texas. We found a change of climate apparent
at once. The whole of our journey, from the summit of this pass till
we reached Devil’s river, in the course of which we had descended from
this table land, was cold and uncomfortable, though by no means to the
extent of any personal suffering; I may except very cold fingers, while
driving, before sunrise.

_December 29._--To-day we reached Fort Davis. The officers’ quarters,
with good oak wood fires, looked more comfortable than our camping
on ground; but, for fear of catching cold by the change, I preferred
to continue sleeping out of doors.--(See journal of August 12 for my
interview with Col. Sewall.)

_December 30._--Met an extra of ours going up to Birchville--coach,
mules, and complete outfit to take their place in the line. Gave orders
for the conductor to take the newspaper mail from Fort Davis, which
had been left behind by the last up mail in consequence of the snow at
Birchville. He would meet another coach and send it forward to El Paso.

_January 3._--We reached Fort Lancaster at 7 a. m., changed our mail,
and started again at 11 a. m. It commenced snowing as we left Fort
Lancaster, and continued to snow so rapidly that I deemed it prudent to
stop about 3 o’clock p. m. We halted in a cañon 9 miles from the fort,
on the edge of the Llano Estacado. It was not safe to attempt to cross
this bleak plain in the face of a snow storm, with the road obliterated
by the snows. We might have lost our way, or our mules might have
perished from being chilled through by standing exposed, after heating
themselves in the exertion of hauling the coach. I therefore made a
halt and camped for the night. We then drove the mules into a cañon,
where they would be partially sheltered from the wind and storm by
bushes, made a fire, cooked our dinner, set the guard, and then went to
bed, with the snow falling at intervals all night long.

_January 4._--A fine morning, with the sun bright and pleasant, the
ground covered with snow to the depth of several inches, rendering it
almost impossible to roll our coach to-day. The snow would have clung
to the hoofs of our mules and to the tire of our coach so as to render
our progress very slow. Under these circumstances I deemed it best to
send the mail forward on mules in charge of one of the two hired men,
accompanied by a passenger equally familiar with the road, who very
kindly volunteered to accompany the mail and rider. They each took
a riding mule, also a third mule packed with the mail, provisions,
and a few small articles. These animals they were to change at Fort
Clarke, with yet another change, if possible, at Dharris. (They made
the trip to San Antonio in good order and in time, delivering the mail
at 6 a. m. the morning of the 9th.) This morning, after the mail was
gone, I sent our mules back to Fort Lancaster with directions to have
them well fed with grain, returning them to our camp by night with an
additional supply of grain and provisions if the snow melted so that
we could proceed. In the course of the afternoon, the weather looking
threatening, I sent one of my clerks, who volunteered to go on foot,
to the quartermaster with a request that he would send out a team of
mules and haul us back to the fort; this request he promptly acceded
to, and we reached there about 10 o’clock at night. Having despatched
the mail, there was now no cause for our immediate haste; I, therefore,
determined to recruit my animals at Fort Lancaster before continuing
our journey. With this view I remained there for three days.

_January 7._--This morning we left Fort Lancaster the second time. We
had for company a party under escort to Fort Hudson. This evening we
met the mail coach which left San Antonio December 24. It had been
detained several days by high water in the Medina river at Castroville,
being afterwards caught in the same snow storm that had delayed our
coach; like us they were compelled to lie by and wait a day or two for
the snow to disappear. As they had but commenced their journey to
Birchville, they could not send their mail forward on pack animals as
we did. Again, as the up mail contains newspapers it is much heavier
than the down mail.

Nothing of special interest occurred on the road to San Antonio
differing from the usual routine which I have sketched from day to day.
I staid at Fort Hudson and at Fort Clarke long enough to attend to the
business of the line at each of those posts. I did this in the absence
of any one to take my place, though I was yet in doubt as to my own
position.

_January 17._--Reached San Antonio to-night.

_January 18._--Received to-day a revocation of my authority from Mrs.
Birch, the revocation dated the 26th of last October; I ceased at once
to act for the line and prepared to come north, giving the new local
agent every information the limited time permitted.

_January 19._--I left for Washington.

The question is frequently asked as to whether we have a well defined
road all the way from San Antonio to San Diego. To this I answer that
it is as plain a road as any stage route over which a mail is carried
in coaches for your department. An emigrant would find it as impossible
to miss his way when once on our road either going to or returning from
California, as he would if traveling in a country where guide posts
marked every cross-road.

An examination of my table of distances will show four military posts
between San Antonio and Birchville; from Birchville to La Mesilla we
have a settled country all the way; from La Mesilla to Tucson, we have
not at present any military posts, but I am informed that the War
Department contemplates placing two forts in this portion of Arizona,
immediately on the completion of the Fort Yuma and El Paso wagon road.
In the whole distance of 460 miles from Tucson to San Diego, one
hundred and fifteen miles is the longest distance at present between
any of our mail stations.

An emigrant passing over our route will meet or be overtaken by a mail
party four times every month, while from our mail conductors he can
always obtain the reliable information as to road, wood, water, grass,
camping places, with directions where to find safe valleys in which to
feed his stock for a few weeks, and transmit messages, letters, or any
desired intelligence from friends before or behind him. I have received
many expressions of satisfaction from emigrants I met on the road,
and, also, from others in California, who, last season, on the trip,
realized, in a small way, the advantages of the mail, in these respects
to overland emigration.

When camping, after a drive of about ten miles, we unharness in the
middle of the road, and from one end of our route to the other, from
San Antonio to San Diego, the road can almost be measured by the ashes
of our camp fires.

From Fort Hudson, in Texas, to Tazotal, on the Gila, a distance of
1,200 miles, nearly the whole of our route is over an elevated, dry
country. When but a small amount of labor was requisite at first to
make a road suited to staging, only a portion of this has ever had any
labor bestowed on it beyond that of passing trains. From San Antonio
to El Paso, a distance of 651 miles, the road was opened in the year
1849, by a government train of several hundred wagons, _en route_
to El Paso; since that time, the continual passage of government
and freighting trains, as also of the Santa Fé and San Antonio mail
coaches, had beaten down an excellent road, before the labors of the El
Paso and Fort Yuma wagon road expedition commenced.

That portion of our route situated between El Paso and the Pimos
villages has never had even a government train to open it. Col.
Leach’s labors will be of great service in straitening it, finding new
watering places, enlarging others, and in constructing tanks, if the
appropriation will admit of such an expenditure. A consultation of the
items of my own journey, where I have put down each day’s advance, will
tend to show the excellent condition of our roads, for we used a coach
all the way from San Antonio to San Diego, sometimes drawn by six,
never by less than four mules.

There are a number of formidable looking ranges of mountains upon all
the maps, running across Arizona, north and south, which look to be
barriers almost impassable without a great expenditure of time and
money. Our road we found to be _through_, rather than _over_, these
mountains; although they appeared formidable at a distance, yet, on
approaching, they generally proved to be isolated buttes, with our road
winding around them by easy grades through the valleys, or else passing
over some low span or saddle, no way impeding staging. These passes in
the mountains seemed to be formed by nature on purpose for a road. The
speed our coaches are making through these mountain ranges is the best
evidence of their easy and expeditious passage. By my journal of August
25, it will be noticed that the speed we made from Cook’s spring,
through the Sierra Madre mountains to and beyond the Mimbres river, was
21 miles in five hours; through all the other mountain passes we made
much the same rate of speed.

Having formed my ideas of mountains and mountain roads from a pretty
extensive experience among the Sierra Nevada of California, was
very forcibly struck by the fact of not meeting a regular chain of
mountains all the way from San Antonio until I reached the coast range
of California, eighty miles from San Diego. I wish to call particular
attention to the distinction between ranges of mountains like the
Alleghanies and Sierra Nevada, and the system of isolated buttes
scattered over portions of our line and around which we pass by valley
roads well adapted to speed. The mountains south of the Gila, and its
immediate neighborhood, do not interfere with our road; they come up
close to the river in many places, but leave an ample passage way for
our road around the bases. These mountains are mostly what the Mexicans
term _Mesas_; high hills, flat on their tops. It appears as if the
plain had formerly been level with the tops of the hills, some hundreds
of feet higher than it is now. This same appearance of Mesas is found
along the Pecos.

On the 15th of November, looking northward from our station at the
Maricopa Wells, I could plainly see that the high mountains to the
north of the Gila, standing in a bold relief against the sky, were
covered at their summits with a cap of snow, glistening in the pleasant
sun of the valley, where we were. Abundance of rain had fallen
throughout the Gila valley this season, but no cold weather had come
as yet; we naturally concluded that the rain of the valley was snow on
the tops of the mountains. In the day time we found it so pleasant that
bathing was our constant practice, though the nights were cool and damp
from heavy dews. I am informed that all or most of these valleys north
of the Gila have a rich soil, capable of sustaining a large population.
I trust, on some future trip, to be able to explore them, as they are
situated within what is likely to become a portion of the new Territory
of Arizona, through the whole length of which our line passes. It was
among some of the valleys to which I refer, that John R. Bartlett,
esq., found evidences of a race of men long since extinct, who must
have been superior to the present Indians of the country.

At present we have no good road directly over the coast range of
mountains from Lassator’s ranch to Vallecito on the desert, but the
enterprise of the people of San Diego will secure us one at an early
day. When I came over the mountains on my way east, there was a large
working party of Indians, under Mr. Lassator, diligently using the
means which had been subscribed in the county for a road over the
mountains.

Wood, water, and grass, are the emigrant’s necessities in crossing our
continent. Over our route we have enough of these for all purposes of
staging or emigration. Through the country over which we pass, though
there is enough water for emigration and staging, yet there is but
one river not usually fordable; I refer to the Colorado of the West.
This is a great deal in its favor as a stage road. If it were a heavy
timbered country, it would not be likely to be so well grassed, as
it would be sure to have large rivers troublesome to cross, and need
an immense labor cutting down timber to open a road. As to grass, it
is wonderfully provided all the way to our Maricopa station. Wood is
generally scarce on our route. From San Antonio to San Felipe creek,
a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, there is an abundance of
wooded country; post oaks and mezquit flats are quite numerous. Along
Devil’s river, for a distance of twenty miles, there is plenty of wood.

At Forts Lancaster and Davis, oak wood is hauled from a distance
of seven miles to supply the military posts. Along the Rio Grande
universally the fuel is the root of the mezquit tree, a sort of
underground forest; it burns with as hot a fire as hickory wood, and
makes superior charcoal. Cotton-wood is used along the Rio Grande
valley, being the fuel used in some places. We found wood scarce all
the way from the Rio Grande to the Maricopas; from thence to Fort Yuma
along the Gila abundant; then it is scarce over the desert; at the
watering places, however, enough can be found in spots not remote from
the wells; once among the San Diego mountains there is wood enough.
Over these portions of our road where we find no wood at the springs
or watering holes, and for want of time cannot wander off among the
mountain gulches to look for it, we secure enough for all purposes of
cooking from the great abundance of roots generally found just cropping
out of the ground; these make an excellent fire.

An examination of my table of distances will show no want of water
along the route; all my measurements are to and from well known
watering places. From San Antonio our road is extremely well watered
until we reach the head of the San Pedro or Devil’s river, a distance
of 218 miles; going west thence, we have a jornada of forty-four
miles; thence another of thirty miles, between permanent roads, on
to the Pecos. In the rainy season there are plenty of places in this
distance where the water stands in natural tanks in the rocks, or in
cañons. This stretch of forty-four miles is the longest we have on
the road between permanent water stations; it forms however no great
obstacle to staging. We haul water for ourselves in kegs, and the
mules, having to go about twelve to sixteen hours without it, do not
suffer in consequence. We have no scarcity of water in Arizona for our
present purposes.--(See schedule of distances.) Our watering places on
the desert west of Fort Yuma are by no means far apart, but the supply
is limited at all times. It will be a matter of absolute necessity to
enlarge them before the overland emigration of this spring reaches the
desert. The improvement of those now used, as well as the digging of
others, will be very easily accomplished.

I am of opinion that the chances of procuring water by boring artesian
wells on the elevated table lands, over which our road runs, may
be considered as very limited. At any rate, as a practical mode of
procuring water for us, it will not do. Supposing Captain Pope should
demonstrate the feasibility of boring these artesian wells, even then
private individuals cannot afford to make them, neither can they wait
for government to do so. We should be compelled, in staging across the
continent at a rate of speed necessitating the erection of stations,
to adopt the old Mexican method of building tanks wherever the natural
formation of the country admits of it which it does in numerous places
along our road.

As for grass, the country through which our road runs is unequalled as
a grazing country, in the opinion of practiced men acquainted with the
subject. I have heard farmers pronounce the gramma and mezquit grass
nearly equal to clover. There is a peculiarity of the grass of this
section which adapts it most admirably to our purpose; when appearing
dried up and dead, it contains life and nutriment; an examination will
show this on plucking it. When the rains come, instead of our having
to wait wholly for new grass to spring up, we find the old dried grass
renewing its life, becoming green again, until in a few days the
country is covered with an excellent crop of grass, as good as if it
had been growing many weeks.

Many of the finest ranches or grazing farms in the State of Sonora
were once located in what is now called Arizona; the buildings are at
present deserted; the inhabitants have fled from the Apaches, who stole
their cattle, as far as possible destroyed the buildings, and murdered
or carried into captivity the inhabitants.

The section of the country along the Gila river is commonly pronounced
by emigrants the worst portion of the whole southern road across our
continent; but even along this river, though it is not superabundantly
supplied with grazing lands, no one need let their animals suffer for
the want of food. Travellers must take some care in examining to the
right and left of the road. To those who have just been passing over
the finest grazing lands in the world, where a range of a few hundred
yards would suffice for their teams anywhere along the road, the Gila
naturally seems a desert. As a fair illustration of the grazing in
Arizona, I would state that an overheated horse or mule will actually
founder on the rich gramma grass as he would on clover. On nearly all
the hills found along the Gila river spots of gramma and quinta or
bunch grass are scattered in places. Young willows also grow along the
river banks, which are good food for animals. A weed much liked by them
and very nutritious is found in many places along the bottoms. Mules
are also fond of the fallen leaves of the mezquit tree. By crossing
the river and making a little exploration, spots of good grazing can
be found on the north side of the Gila. Lastly, there is in the season
an abundant supply of excellent food for animals in the mezquit beans
which are found on our road along the Gila, from Tezotal to Fort Yuma.
These beans fall from the tree as soon as ripe; animals will leave
their corn to eat them, as I have proved.

The Indians make a kind of flour from these beans by roasting and then
pounding them; they contain a large portion of saccharine matter, so
much so that the Pimos manufacture from them a species of syrup. They
commence falling in August; we found a great many under the trees in
November, after the emigration had passed down the river.

On my return trip from San Diego I brought my mules into our Maricopa
station in a much better condition than when I left Fort Yuma with
them. My practice was this: while one of my two teams of mules was
working in the coaches for a couple of hours at a walk, I would have
the other team under charge of an experienced man, either ahead or
behind the coaches, eating their fill of grass, beans, or whatever they
could find. At the end of two hours we would change teams, giving the
other set of mules their chance for loitering behind to eat.

Sometimes emigrants who are going to California pasture their cattle
on the bottom lands of the Colorado river for a few weeks before
attempting to cross the desert; others again put on at once, in order
to reach as soon as possible the excellent grazing on the coast range.
We keep a mulada at Fort Yuma for our changes, which we send out every
day to feed in the river bottom, under charge of a Mexican herder,
bringing them in at night for safety.

In crossing the Colorado desert of ninety-five miles from Fort Yuma
to Carissa there is but little for animals to eat. In some few places
arroyos make up to the northward, containing mezquit trees full of
beans, but these are limited in number, while they are not situated at
the watering places.

In the mountains near Carissa, or at Vallecito, good grazing commences
again. I am assured by men familiar with this section of country that
good hay can be cut on the mountain sides, a few miles south of the
present desert, and hauled on to the line of our road at a fair price.
Mezquit beans can also be procured sufficiently near the road to be
sold to travellers at reasonable rates. One advantage of our road is,
that any emigrant who may be _en route_ to California can now leave his
stock in Arizona to recruit, while he takes passage for San Diego or
along the road to explore for himself the country over which he intends
to pass.

The country we stage over is a grazing and mineral country, rather
than an agricultural one, though I found no lack of grain along the
road. In seasons of rain an abundance of grain is raised all the way
from San Antonio to Fort Clarke; from there to Birchville there are
no settlements, and the grain has to be hauled from either end to the
military posts between these two points; along the Rio Grande the whole
country is capable of cultivation. Wheat, corn, beans, pumpkins, and
onions of very superior flavor are all raised in great abundance by the
Spanish population.

Flour of an excellent quality is made at a mill on the Rio Grande, a
couple of miles above El Paso; it is owned and managed by Simeon Hart,
esq., who is the contractor for supplying with flour all the forts in
that section of the country.

In many places along the Rio Grande our road lies through cornfields
miles in length. At Tucson we found no difficulty in purchasing corn
and barley for our mules; flour from wheat grown in the Santa Cruz
valley, and ground at Tucson by the Mexicans; also beans and onions.

At Maricopa station we bought, of the Indians, flour, beans, peas,
green and dried pumpkins, chickens, eggs, corn, and wheat. At Fort Yuma
every thing has to be imported. There is a considerable importation
there of flour, pinola, pounded parched corn, jerked beef, and sugar,
called pinoche, all of which comes on pack animals from Sonora; no
doubt a large trade will spring up from this when Colorado City becomes
of consequence. Nearly everything is now brought from San Francisco by
way of the Gulf of California and steamer up the Colorado river.

Arizona ought to be supplied through Guyamas, a Mexican port on the
Gulf of California.

Ours is emphatically a stage road. If it were a rich agricultural
country all the way from San Antonio to San Diego, it would be
impossible for a stage line to cross it in schedule time until some
remote day, when the whole distance shall have been settled, and towns
built at convenient distances, with good roads connecting them. Our
present road would be called a superior one in any State for thirteen
hundred miles of its length, and a fair road the remainder of the
distance, save twenty-two miles of sand in the Colorado desert, from
Cook’s Wells to Alamo Mucho.

In the valley of the Rio Grande I had an application from an old
mountain man, who wanted a situation as guide. This man had trapped
beaver in all the principal streams falling into the Gila and Colorado
rivers. He said the trappers pronounced our present route across
Arizona a good one at all seasons of the year.

I had a good opportunity of knowing the nature of the climate we have
to contend with. Leaving San Antonio in August, and going directly
through, I passed over the road in the hottest months of the year.
Then, leaving San Diego October 23, and spending nearly three months
returning, I experienced the winter weather over the same country. It
was very warm in San Antonio in July; but when we had once commenced
ascending to the table lands of Texas, the heat became comparatively
moderated, with nights particularly pleasant. In going down the Gila,
where we were descending toward the level of the sea, the heat was
very great, so much so that, for comfort, and having a full moon, we
travelled by night and lay by during the middle of the day. In my
experience of the heat on the Gila, which looks so formidable, as
marked by the thermometer, I suffered much less with that instrument
indicating a hundred and over than I have suffered in the Atlantic
States with the thermometer at 85 or 90. The air was pure and clear,
the heat produced a copious perspiration, and gave no feeling of
oppression in breathing.

In my plans for returning across the continent, the recollection
of the hot days along the Gila, or on the Colorado desert, never
present themselves to me as any serious inconvenience. The heat does
not oppress animals any more than it does men. Our mail carriers,
who regularly cross the desert, frequently complain of the blinding
influence of the sun reflected in their eyes from the bright sands; I
never heard any of them complain of unpleasant effects from the heat,
and we have a number of men employed who have traversed this desert
for several years past. In returning to San Antonio, through Arizona
and Texas, I experienced the northers a number of times, having been
delayed once by snow; but none of our party ever suffered anything
more than the natural annoyances incidental to wet feet and damp
blankets. I make here some few extracts from my journal about the cold
I experienced on our route:

_December 5._--At El Paso have had a week of cold weather, with an
occasional strong north wind during the time. Ice formed in a pond 100
feet across in the rear of the house; ice also made in the acequias,
but the river was barely skimmed over once very early in the morning.
Only once in a great many years, in El Paso, has the ice been thick
enough to put up a few tons in an ice house.

_December 9._--The mail coach came into El Paso from Tucson, and the
conductor reported a norther, accompanied by snow, in the Mimbres. It
fell on them the same day we had a norther at El Paso, the 5th, as
above; the snow melted as it fell, so that by making a longer morning
drive than common he reached the shelter of the trees at the Mimbres;
none of his mules were chilled by being exposed without blankets, after
unharnessing. The same conductor reports a snow squall on the previous
trip, without any detention in either case to the mail, and without the
snow lying on the ground at all; it melted as it fell both times.

A letter per this mail from our train going west reports the weather
cold enough in the night to freeze water in the canteens, but no one
suffering from cold by sleeping on the ground. During the day it was
bright and warm, forming a pleasant contrast to the night.

At El Paso, December 9, we received advices of the northern wagon
road expedition having returned for the winter. I consulted Colonel
Leach, superintendent of the El Paso and Fort Yuma wagon road as to
his movements; he assured me he had no intention of going into winter
quarters, but, on the contrary, should continue on the road through
the winter months; in fact, he deemed them the best suited to his
purposes of shortening and improving the road.

The surgeon of Fort Lancaster, who keeps a meteorological journal, said
they had not as much snow in that part of Texas during the whole of the
past six years taken together as had fallen during the present winter.
The snow which fell on the 3d had so far disappeared from the ground as
to allow the animals to graze sufficiently, but I waited in order to
accompany a detachment of mounted infantry going on a scout as far as
Fort Hudson.

_January 6._--The snow had entirely disappeared.

_January 7._--We camped to-night on the Llano Estacado, about half way
across it; there was not a particle of snow on the ground. We found one
advantage from the snow, it had melted and run into a natural stone
tank, giving us abundance of water for ourselves and stock; it will
last some weeks. An expense of a few hundred dollars in building up the
sides of the tank would make it capable of holding several millions of
gallons of water.

The Llano Estacado is here very narrow; we cross the extreme southern
portion of it immediately south of us. Not a mile distant, I saw the
cañons and broken gulches running eastward to the Devil’s river, and
westward to the Pecos.

I never had a case of sickness among either men or passengers during
my whole trip, excepting a little annoyance from an over indulgence
in fruit in the valley of the Rio Grande. The salubrious air must be
conducive to health. Such is the purity and clearness of the atmosphere
that the stars shine at night with a brilliancy unknown in this section
of the country; cloudy days or nights are an exception, and the stars
at night actually give light enough to enable us on our night drives,
of which we have a considerable number, to find the road. It can be
seen, for some distance ahead of the mules, very plainly.


_Climatic boundary on the west._

_October 24._--The coast range of mountains, which approaches the sea
in San Diego county, is the climatic boundary between California and
Arizona. Our stock is kept at Lassator’s, 48 miles, nearly due west,
from San Diego, in a beautiful valley among the mountains; in San Diego
they have a charming climate the year round, while among the mountains
snow falls occasionally during the winter, which in the valley below
turns to rain. The snow remains on the ground but a day or two. In
California there is no rain from March until October, but showers
occasionally fall in these valleys during the summer months, when it is
the rainy season in Sonora.

The exploring party I sent over the mountain on the 15th of September
were rained on all one night. We saw clouds to the westward, but not
one drop of rain fell upon us.

By reference to my journal it will be noticed that rain fell on us at
intervals all the way from the opening of the Rio Grande valley until
I came near to Fort Yuma. While the coast along the Pacific was, in
September and October, parched with a drought, compelling rancheros to
send their cattle into the mountains; our contractor was cutting hay to
send over to our station on the desert. Lassator’s is twelve miles from
the top of the coast range, which we there descend by a mule path for
several miles on our way to Vallecito, though a good road can be made
with a moderate amount of money. After crossing the desert, emigrants
usually give their stock a run of the excellent grazing valleys in
these mountains, before proceeding further on their journey.

It is hardly possible for me to do more than sketch a few of the
changes which our road has produced in the country through which we
pass.

The War Department uses the facilities offered by our line for a
regular semi-monthly correspondence with seven military posts.

Persons interested in mining pursuits are now looking with great
interest towards the silver and copper mines of Arizona. Our mail not
only carries the correspondence which takes the money to the mining
parties, but regularly bring reports of their success, while passengers
are, all the while, taking our line to Arizona; our stations afford
stopping places, and our agents information to all who prefer their own
mode of conveyance; such travellers are numerous.

The newly appointed consul for Guyamas takes our stage as far as
Tucson, starting from San Antonio, Texas.

Our line is already forming the basis of a new State, rich in minerals,
half way between Texas and California.

  Very respectfully,

                                                  I. C. WOODS,
                              _Superintendent S. A. & S. D. Mail Line_.

  Hon. A. V. BROWN,
  _Postmaster General_.


Accompanying this please find the measurements from point to point
on the whole road from San Antonio to San Diego, with names of the
watering places.


_Table of distances, and from one watering-place to another from
starting point._

  From San Antonio to Leon river                       6.53
  From Leon to Castroville, “Medina” river            18
  From Castroville to Dharris “Saco” river            25.28
  From Dharris to Ranchero creek                       8.38
  From Ranchero creek to Sabinal creek                 3.94
  From Sabinal creek to Camanche creek                 5
  From Camanche creek to Rio Frio                      8.46
  From Rio Frio to Head of Leona “Uvalde”              6.08
  From Uvalde to Nueces                                9.04
  From Nueces to Turkey creek                         10.27
  From Turkey creek to Elm creek                      15.23
  From Elm creek to Las Moras river, Fort Clarke       7.13
                                                      -----  123.34
  From Fort Clarke to Piedra Pinto                     7
  From Piedra Pinto to Maverick creek                  8.86
  From Maverick creek to San Felipe                   12.61
  From San Felipe to first crossing of San Pedro
    or Devil’s river                                  10.22
  From First Crossing to Painted Caves                 2.54
  From Painted Caves to California Spring             15.73
  From California Spring to Willow Spring              2
  From Willow Spring to Fort Hudson, or second
    crossing of San Pedro or Devil’s river            16.39
                                                      -----   75.35
  From Fort Hudson to Head of San Pedro or
    Devil’s river                                     19.50
  From Head of river to Howard Springs                44
  From Howard Springs to Live Oak creek               30.44
  From Live Oak creek to Fort Lancaster                3
                                                      -----   96.94
  From Fort Lancaster to Pecos                         4.29
  From Pecos Crossing to Pecos Spring                  6
  From Pecos Spring to Leaving of Pecos               32.26
  From Leaving of Pecos to Arroyo Escondido           16.26
  From Arroyo Escondido to Escondido Spring            8.58
  From Escondido Spring to Camanche Spring            19.40
  From Camanche Spring to Leon Hole                    8.88
  From Leon Hole to Hackberry pond                    11
  From Hackberry pond to Limpia creek                 32
  From Limpia creek to Fort Davis                     18.86
                                                      -----  157.53
  From Fort Davis to Point of Rocks                   10
  From Point of Rocks to Barree Springs                8.42
  From Barree Springs to Deadman’s Hole               13.58
  From Deadman’s Hole to Van Horn’s Wells             32.83
  From Van Horn’s Wells to Eagle Springs              19.74
  From Eagle Springs to first camp on Rio Grande      31.42
  From first camp on Rio Grande to Birchville         35
                                                      -----  150.99
  From Birchville to San Eleazario                    24.80
  From San Eleazario to Socorro                        5.45
  From Socorro to Isletta                              3.10
  From Isletta to El Paso                             14.14
                                                      -----   47.49
  From El Paso to Cottonwood                          22
  From Cottonwood to Fort Fillmore                    22
  From Fort Fillmore to La Mesilla                     6
                                                      -----   50
  From La Mesilla to Cook’s Spring                    65
  From Cook’s Spring to Rio Mimbres                   18
  From Rio Mimbres to Ojo La Vaca                     17
  From Ojo La Vaca to Ojo de Ynez                     10
  From Ojo de Ynez to Peloncilla                      34
  From Peloncilla to Rio Saur or San Domingo          18
  From Rio Saur to Apache Springs                     23
  From Apache Springs to Dos Cabesas Springs           9
  From Dos Cabesas Springs to Dragon Springs          26
  From Dragon Springs to mouth of Quercos cañon       18
  From mouth of Quercos cañon to San Pedro crossing    6
  From San Pedro to Cienega                           20
  From Cienega to Cienega creek                       13
  From Cienega creek to Mission San Xavier            20
  From Mission to Tucson                               8
                                                      ----   305
  From Tucson to Pico Chico mountain                   5
  From Pico Chico to first camp on Gila               35
  From first camp on Gila to Maricopa Wells           29
                                                      ----    99
  From Maricopa Wells to Tezotal, across Jornada      40
  From Tezotal to Ten-mile camp                       10
  From Ten-mile camp to Murderer’s grave               8
  From Murderer’s grave to Oatman’s Flat,
    1st crossing of Gila                              15
  From Oatman’s Flat to 2d crossing of Gila           25
  From 2d crossing of Gila to Peterman’s station      32
  From Peterman’s station to Antelope Peak            20
  From Antelope Peak to Little Corral                 24
  From Little Coral to Fort Yuma                      16
                                                      ----   190
  From Fort Yuma to Pilot Knob                         7
  From Pilot Knob to Cook’s Wells                     13
  From Cook’s Wells to Alamo Mucho                    21.94
  From Alamo Mucho to Indian Wells                    20.94
  From Indian Wells to Carissa creek                  32.24
                                                      -----   95.12
  From Carissa creek to Vallecito                     18
  From Vallecito to Lassator’s ranch                  18
  From Lassator’s ranch to Julian’s ranch              7
  From Julian’s ranch to Williams’ ranch               7
  From Williams’ ranch to Ames’ ranch                 14
  From Ames’ ranch to Mission San Diego               16
  From Mission to San Diego                            5
                                                      -----   85


_Recapitulation._

  San Antonio to Fort Clarke                         123.34
  Fort Clarke to Fort Hudson                          75.35
  Fort Hudson to Fort Lancaster                       96.94
  Fort Lancaster to Fort Davis                       157.53
  Fort Davis to Birchville                           150.99
  Birchville to El Paso                               47.49
                                                     ------  651.64
  El Paso to La Mesilla                                       50
  La Mesilla to Tucson                                       305
  Tucson to Maricopa                                          99
  Maricopa to Fort Yuma                                      190
  Fort Yuma to Carissa                                        95.12
  Carissa to San Diego                                        85
                                                           --------
         San Antonio to San Diego                          1,475.76
                                                           ========


_Itinerary of my own journey across the continent._

  August 1.--From San Antonio to Castroville                 25 miles.
         2.--From Castroville to 9 miles east of Uvalde      46   ”
         3.--From camp to 11 miles west of Turkey creek      40   ”
         4.--From camp to near San Felipe creek              40   ”
         5.--From camp to 10 miles east of Fort Hudson       35   ”
         6.--From camp to 10 miles west of San Pedro         44   ”
         7.--From camp to 6 miles east of Live Oak creek     53   ”
         8.--From camp to 6 miles above Pecos spring         28   ”
         9.--From camp to Escondido creek, 8 miles east of
          the spring                                         44    ”
        10.--From camp to 10 miles west of                   46   ”
        11.--From camp to Limpia creek                       33   ”
        12.--From camp to Fort Davis                         19   ”
        13.--From Fort Davis to 7 miles west of Dead Man’s
          Hole                                               42   ”
        14.--From camp to 8 miles west of Eagle Springs      51   ”
        15.--From camp to 10 miles south of Birchville       49   ”
        16.--From camp to Socorro                            40   ”
        17.--From Socorro to Franklin, El Paso               17   ”
        18, 19, 20, 21.--In El Paso.
        22.--From El Paso to Fort Fillmore                   44   ”
        23.--From Fort Fillmore to Picacho village, 6 miles
          west of Mesilla                                    12   ”
        24.--From Picacho village to 9 miles east of Cook’s
          Spring                                             50    ”
        25.--From camp to mouth of Burro Mount cañon, near
          Ojo de Ynez                                        55    ”
        26.--From camp to 9 miles east of River Saur         43    ”
        27.--From camp to 9 miles west of Dos Cabesas
          Spring                                             50    ”
        28.--From camp to ford of San Pedro river            40    ”
        29.--From camp to Mission San Xavier                 53    ”
        30.--From Mission San Xavier to 30 miles west of
          Tucson                                             38    ”
        31.--From camp to 1-mile camp on Gila                40    ”
  Sept.  1.--From camp to Tezotal                            69    ”
         2.--From Tezotal to second crossing of Gila         58    ”
         3.--From second crossing to Antelope Peak           52    ”
         4.--From Antelope Peak to Fort Yuma                 40    ”
         5.--From Fort Yuma to Alamo Mucho                   42    ”
         6.--From Alamo Mucho to Carissa creek               53    ”
         7.--From Carissa creek to Lassator’s                36    ”
         8.--From Lassator’s to San Diego                    49    ”
                                                             -----
                                                             1,476  miles.

Making the trip personally from San Antonio to San Diego in
thirty-eight days.


[From the San Antonio Herald.]

_A few notes and distances from San Antonio to San Diego._

The following information in relation to the distances from this place
to San Diego, has been obtained from the superintendent of the S. A.
& S. D. Mail Stage Company, who has passed over the route and back,
and the statements as to distances and the nature of the route may be
implicitly relied on:

1. The distance from San Antonio to El Paso is 652 miles, and the
character of the route is so well known to most of our readers that
we deem it unnecessary to enter into any description of it. Grass and
water are considered sufficiently abundant. The road passes by a number
of the military posts, and though Indians are occasionally met with,
they have seldom made any hostile demonstrations, and have never, but
once, made an attack upon the train.

2. From El Paso to Messilla Valley in the Gadsden Purchase, the route
running up the east bank of the Rio Grande to Fort Fillmore, (N. M.)
where it crosses the river into the Messilla Valley, the distance is 50
miles.

3. From Messilla Valley to Tucson the distance is 305 miles. This
portion of the route is remarkably fine travelling, with good grass
and water. The streams on this section are the Mimbres and San Pedro,
both fordable, and usually crossed with but little trouble. The Apache
Indians are met with occasionally on this route, yet the mail party
which here consists of eight men, has never been attacked in making
some thirty-two trips over the route.

4. From Tucson to Maricopa Wells, (Pimos Villages,) is 99 miles.
On this portion of the route the mail is carried by two men. Very
few Indians are seen, and they are harmless. The Maricopa Wells are
at the further end of a beautiful and fertile valley, occupied by
the Pimos Indians, who raise corn and other grain in considerable
quantities.--(See Journal.) On this portion of the route, and indeed,
throughout the entire distance from San Antonio to San Diego, the road
is well defined, and is a finely beaten level track, with just enough
gravel for the most part to make it pleasant travelling.

5. From Maricopa Wells down the river Gila to Fort Yuma is 190 miles.
On this portion of the route the grass, though not abundant, is yet
sufficient for the maintainance of trains and herds.--(See Journal.)
Few Indians on the route, and they not dangerous. The mail train
between these points consists of three men. Fort Yuma is situated on
the west bank of the Great Colorado of the West, and just opposite
the junction of the Gila with that stream. There is a splendid large
ferry-boat on the Colorado here, sufficient to cross a six-horse stage.
The river is about as large as the Ohio at Wheeling. This portion of
the road is travelled considerably by Californians who carry on mining
operations in the Gadsden Purchase. It is the opinion of all who have
seen that region that it possesses the finest silver mines in the
world, together with fine quantities of gold on the streams north of
the Gila. These mines are now little known and but slightly valued,
because of the proximity of the Indians, and their remoteness from
mining facilities.

6. From Fort Yuma to Carissa creek is 95 miles. This section embraces
the “great bugbear” known as the “Great Colorado Desert.” Between the
two points there are three watering places on the direct route, whilst
there are others that may be reached by a slight deflection. The mail
party here consists of two men.

7. From Carissa creek to San Diego is 85 miles, its whole extent. This
is by a new route, and at present not open to wagons its whole extent,
but which, by a little work in the mountain passes, can be made an
excellent road. The mail is now carried over this new route. The old
route, over which the stages have to pass, is 125 miles. Over this
section the mail is carried by a single person.

* * * * *




Transcriber’s note

Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice.
Inconsistencies in italics, spelling, and hyphenization have been
standardized.

Spelling has been retained as originally published except for the
changes below.

  Page 14: “during the moring”               “during the morning”
  Page 14: “in charge of the coporal”        “in charge of the corporal”
  Page 17: “paying off the trooops”          “paying off the troops”
  Page 18: “made two arragements”            “made two arrangements”
  Page 30: “Department contemplate”          “Department contemplates”
  Page 35: “nature of the climate wit”       “nature of the climate we”
  Page 35: “go ee directly through”          “going directly through”
  Page 35: “hottest months gof hn”           “hottest months of the”
  Page 37: “drop of rain feel upon us”       “drop of rain fell upon us”




*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75650 ***