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Show NAVAHO EXPEDITION pects, I have spoken relatively-that is, in relation or contrast with the other portions of the country in which these exceptions have occurred, and not in relation to our more favored domain in the States. Conclusion Before concluding my journal, I think it proper to bring to the notice of the department the expediency of having the country examined west of the Pueblo of Zuni, for the ascertainment of a wagon route from the former point to the Pueblo de los Angeles, or, failing in this, to San Diego. The route from Santa Fe to Zuni-a distance of two hundred and four miles-is, with a very slight application of labor, practicable for wagons; and the guide, Carravahal, who has been down the Rio de Zuni to its junction with the Colorado of the West, says it continues practicable all the way along this tributary to the point mentioned. Mr. Richard Campbell, of Santa Fe, since my return has informed me that, in 1827, with a party of thirty-five men and a number of pack animals, he traveled from New Mexico to San Diego by the way of Zuni and the valley of the Rio de Zuni, and found no difficulty throughout the whole distance.178 He further states there is no question that a good wagon route, furnishing the proper quantum of wood, water, and grass, can be found in 178 Richard Campbell arrives late but is one of the most interesting individuals to appear in Simpson's narrative. He is the Jose Ricardo of Robert Cleland's reckless breed, the Richard Campbell who "reached New Mexico at least as early as 1825." (This Reckless Breed of Men, 264.) Cleland finds him, on April 27 of that year, entering "six bales of mixed goods, valued at about 800 pesos, in the National Customs House at Santa Fe. A year later, in company with John Pearson, Julian Green, Lucas Murray, and Ewing Young, he applied for Mexican naturalization, and his name appeared frequently thereafter in New Mexican affairs." A trader or trapper who wished to remain in New Mexico at that time was tolerated only on condition that he become a Mexican citizen. Simpson's informant is not to be confused with Robert Campbell, one of General William H. Ashley's company, who helped to pioneer the Rocky Mountain fur trade (1822-26), and on Ashley's retirement joined William Sublette to form a carrying-outfitting-banking firm in St. Louis to supply the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. 160 |
