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Show [ 23] 86 or I will take the turkey and you may take the buzzard." The In-dia' n replied, ''You never once sa1' d tur k ey t o me. " November 27 .-We now moved our camp to a more sheltered position, where we had plenty of cotton wood trees, and at once commenced building houses, having procured adobes for the chim. neys from the ruins o_f Val ver_de. . November 28.-This mornmg I got a httle sapsucker, "sitta Carolina," a biro thaJ is often seen creeping on the under side of l imbs of trees that extend horizontally; they have three toes runeing forward, and only one backward, but their bill resembles that of a woo'dpecker. We heard, this morning, of the death of two of the volunteers who were encamped near us. These men had gone off from camp five or six miles without any weapons, when they were attacked by the Navajoes, who shot them down with reed arrows, and then beat out their brains with rocks; and the Indians drove off 800 sheep. A party of thirty immediately went out in pursuit of the murderers. By the last advices they had not overtaken them. We heard to-day, that General Wool had joined General Taylor, and that they had taken Monterey. The person bringing this news, formerly an officer in the English army, had come direct from the city of Mexico. He is now at Senor Algier's camp. During the morning I saw Mr. Glasgow, formerly 'our consul at Mazatlan. He had received 'a letter from some friends in Chihuahua, con· firming the news of the battle of Monterey. We also learned that 700 Mexicans had come up from El Paso, and had arrived in sight of our camp on the day the volunteers reached here, and seeing the latter, had retired. 1 Durit g the morning I went out to see some mules that were brandeu with the letters" u. s.," when the drivers showed me a certificate sig~ed by Lieute~ant Sto~eman, dated in the vicinity of the copp_er mmes, on th~ Grla. Thts gave us news of the safetf of Captam Cook, but obhged us to let the mule drivers retain their mules. November 29.-A day_ of cold drizzling rain, during which Mr. R. F. Ruxton, the .&lghshman previously mentioned entered our camp. He told us that after the battle of Monterey' there was an armistice for six we~ks; that General Taylor .had been ordered to advance upon Tamptco, and that Santa Ana had ordered his troops t~ fall back on San Luis Potosi, where he was concentrating all his . f~rces. Some of the traders seem to think that he will be able to ra1se an army of 30,000 men. Mr. R~xton brought a paper from the English minister, desiring all .Amencan officers to extend every facility to English traders on t~elr route to Chihuahua; also other papers in which it was stated t at ~raders of. all nations would be per~itted free egress, even ~mencans, provided they ca_me with Mexican drivers. We also heard a.t twent~-one. of Mr. Spier's men-this Spier forced his way to Chi.huahu.a m spite of pursuit by the United States dragoons-had r enshed I~ the mountains, of hunger anu thirst, whilst endeavoring 0 escape mto Texas; and that Gimeral Armijo had gone to Durango; 87 [ 23] 0 t. the cura of El Paso, had led the troops that came to that r tz, 1 f Ch'h cap t ure the wagons of the trade.r s; and that the peop e o .1 ua-hua had made six copper field pieces. . . . ]'{, vember 30.-To-day we employed much of our time m build- • 0 }though there was a drizzling rain that was unfavorable for ~~~~:; yet we accomplished the filling in of the warp of. light poles b weaving with rushes. This afternoon we had a festive scene at tle camp of a trader from Missouri, who still hael some fine. claret wine and some good old brandy. We had many tales of Wild adventures of prairie life, and hair-breadth escapes. V:' e h:ard ?f Mike Fink who with two other desperadoes, for a hme hved m the Rocky' moudtains. There Mike would shoot a tin cup off the head ,of one of the trio for some trifling bet. One ?ay, under t~e wager of a keg of whiskey, Mike fired away at the tin cup .and h1s friend dropped. "Thert>," said Mike, "I've lost the whiskey, I shot a little too low." True, the bullet had entered between the eyes of the cup bearer. Shortly after this oc~urrence, Mike had an altercation with the second man, and, remarkmg that he had one of the best rifles that was ever shot, the other drew a pistol and killed Mike dead; and this man, on his way to S~. Louis, to stand his trial, jumped overboard and was drowned m the waters of the Missouri. Thus, ·as the narrator stated, perished three of the most desperat~ men known in the west. Many more tales were told, of Glass, of Colter, and others, but one only I will relate, as it throws some light on the character of the New Mexicans. A few years ago the Mexicans had been endeavoring to defeat the Apaches; not succeeding, they persuaded a party of 140 to come into Chihuahua, under the pretence of making peace with them . Having given them plenty of aguardien te, they fell upon the intoxicated Indians and killed them; one woman ran to the church, hoping to be protected by the sacredness of the sanctuary. The instinct that compelled her to seek safety here was awakened, not· only for the preservatio~ of · her own life, but for that of another yet unborn; but nought avails: they seize her, they drag their victim to the gran~ P?rch ~nd cut .her to pieces, tearing out a liv~ng child; t~:Y baptize 1t, w1th fiendish mockery, and then its 'Soul IS sent to JOln that of the dead mother !-,-and now, at this very moment, many of the scalps of these unfortunate beings hang dangling in front of the church, a choice offering to the saints. These are deeds of the descendants of those who came to erect the blessed symbol of the cross, who, with such holy horror, cast down the idols of the Aztecs, and abolished the horrid rites and execrable sacrifices of the pries~s of Huitzilo polchili. . We,. th1s evening, received a dispatch from Capt a in Walton, of the M1~souri volunteers, desiring all the traders to combine at some one pomt for their better defence, as he had received information that rendered such a movement necessary. J?ecember 1.-The month came in with much wind, scattering the ~h~ge of the cottonwood trees, and rustling through their boughs. f unng the morning we had an alarm of Mexicans, but it originated rom the approach of a "mulada" that belonged to some of the • |