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Show CHAPTER XVIII. FROM MOQUI TO THE COLORADO. IT was still eight hundred miles to the end of the Thirty- fifth Parallel Road. But universal testimony agreed that the desert grew worse all the way, till one should cross the Sierra Nevada and enter settled California. Nor was it possible to go unless one had a large party well armed. It was but three hundred miles to the Mormon settlements, and some four hundred farther to Salt Lake City. That way, then, was my easiest and cheapest route out of the wilderness. Navajo parties were scattered along the route, and we should doubt-less have plenty of company. My guide from Defiance returned there, carrying with him an immense roll of manuscript which I had pre-pared at odd hours since leaving that post. He left Moqui June 24th ; Mr. Keams, agreeably to my written request, sent another Indian on to Wingate with my letters; there they caught the semi- monthy military express to Santa Fe, and thus my communications of June 24th appeared in the Cincinnati Commercial of July 13th a marvel of aboriginal mail service. The last day of my stay at Moqui, came the father and sister of my new guide, the former en route to Utah, and the latter merely on a friendly visit to the Moquis. My guide arrived on the 23d, and presented his nelsoass, which read as follows: " To all whom it muy concern : " The bearer, a Navajo Indian, with his father, have permission to accompany J. H. Beadle, Esq., to the Mormon settlements. They are good Indians, and I trust any one who meets them will treat them kindly. THOMAS V. KEAMS, Clerk Navajo Agency, June 21, 1872. Acting Agent." For convenience sake I christened him John, the universal title for Indians and Chinese. The loud rattle of the Moqui bellman roused me betimes on the morning of the 25th, and immediately I heard the long resonant cry of Chino on the summit of the highest house, chanting the order of the day's work, according to their custom. In this morning call he also recites any special events expected to occur, and doubtless set forth my intention to depart, for long before the bellman and guard ( 287) |