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Show 501 Ex. Doc. No. 41. traders. We bust(\cl oursrlYe:::; during lhe day in completing the con t ruction of our houses, an,] soon fini h d the thatching of all the wa11s; they already afforded great protection against 111c rude December bla ·t. During the day, a Mr. David, a trader, had some of hi · mules run olf by the Indians. In the evening we learned that Mr. Glasgow and sevrra] of the trader · h;ul :::;tartcd to Santa Fe, hoping to meet Colon 1 Doniphan \ ancl get some positin~ information with refcrencr to the plat:<' where they ·honld be constrained to winter. This morning Mr. l<crford's train moved clown the river, ancl forme<l camp ncar "Fray Cristobal," which is 15 miles below. lYlr . K c r ford is an Eng 1 i h man , an cl haYing an Eng 1 i. h pass p or t , is ·very anxious to go on to Chihuahun, as well as Sefwr A lgi<'r, who i" protcrte!l by a ._pan ish pas. port. The coming of Mr. H uxton, with letter· as uring- foreign('rs that their property would b' protected, has made many of the traders' ery anxious to proceed, for some of them have ag muclJ a~ 150.z000 dollar. worth of goods at stak<.•. This morning we compl<:tccl our "adobe·" chimney, pln:t<•ring it within an<l without with mud, and we have now a compl le structure, save the roof, whi<'h hall be made if we remain here any length of time. M1. Huxton ram(• O\Cr and at a while with us. He snicl that he was going out clrer hunting in the morning, and I told him that Rcymonc1, who was a good . hot, would accompany him, hoping that the latter would hare th good fortune of one who had been very successful in hunting. lVIr. Ruxton said that whil he was at El Paso ~1e met three Americans, who hacl been taken prisoners by the. Mextcans four mo~th.' }H~vious. These person had left the U~ttcd tate. to go to C~ltfo.rni<~, by the way of Sonora; they were se1zrd as spt_c·s, at the mst1gat10n i>f a man whom th<'Y had employed as guHle from anta Fe. The Mexicans had taken a11 that these poor fellows pos ·c eel, and they were now almo. t starving there,. for they allowed them only a handful of" frijoles" and a few "tortillas" each clay. 1\Tr. R. ·aid that he remon trated with SC\ e- \ raJ per.sons, and with tJ.H' cura Ortiz, who acknow]cdgc!l that they were 1gnora~t men, Without any knowledge of the Mexican langu~ tge, ancl m every way unfit ~or spic ; in fact, that it was e' I dent t.hat they were no spte ; still however the e men were detamed, and having tried to make th~ir escape ~hilc Mr. R. was at El Pa o, th<'y were recaptured; all this in direct violation of the treaty between the U nitcd States ancl M l'Xico which stipul~ tes ~or twelve months' notice to Americans and Mexican!:;· bcst< les, It was known to the M('xicans that these men had left b~fore they had any knowledge of the war. . D~~embcr ~.-Again a.nothcr day .of commotion; many going h1thu aHd tluther. .Dunng the mormng, we aw a long train of wagons pa .. . ' belongmg to cfior Porros. All of us arc most anxIOus]~ aw.altlng news of Colonel Doniphan s movements, and are heartily tued of staying here. December 1.-To-day Captain Walton rode down, and expressed Ex. Doc. No. 41. 505 hh; pM;itivc determination to prevent an~ one fro.m goin.g to Chihuahua until Colonel Doniphan ·hou1cl arrtve. Tlu · cvcnwg, ho\~ev~ r 'all the traders aRsemblcd and drC'w up a letter to Capt:un Walton, de irin6 that Mr. Kcrford sh~uld be a11owccl l~ procce~l. His goods have come through the Unttecl tatcs.from I•~uglantl, 1n the original packages, and have bcen,.t~ltls f<~r, free of duty;. an<~ now if th y arc brought into competitiOn wtth the. ~oo<ls o£ th.e othdr traders, it will be ruin~us to them; but 1! .Mr. K · IS allowed to proceed at once, l1c wdl pass on through. Clnhua.hua towards Zacatecas and . Durango. A he has an 1mmrnse stock of goods, this arrangemcn.t was greatly desired. Deccrnbcr 5.-The huntwg party rcturne<l; they hacl been un ucce sful, although they saw many deer and wilcl turk<'ys. To-day we went up to Captain Walton's ('amp, when we found that h had gone clown the riYcr to Yisit his pick t guar1l at "Fray ristobal." On my return I got a fine specimen of the Mexi<'n.n meadow lark, "·turnclla neglecta." Dcccrnber 6.-In accordanc with tl1e arrangcm nt whi~h I yes- 1 rrday made with Captain Wa !ton',' romm i" ·ary, 1 sent up my wagon to-day for some provision . W c obtained all we wanted, except sugar. While at the camp, we heard that one volunteer had been shot by another, in a brawl. We heard to- <lay of the death of Lieutenant Butler, Colonel Doniphan's adjutant. This news ca ·t quite a gloom over our feelings, for he was mueh esteemed by all who knew him. Every mom 'nt we arc expecting a mail, and ardently clc ire to hear the news, to be cnabl d to shape our rour e so as to reach the Unitecl ~ tates by the sp('cclic ·t rout€.'. The evening was 'extreme 1 y un p 1 rasan t; it wa hard to tt' ll whether it was raining or snowing. W cut down some huge cotton woo<l trees, and turned our animal loose to browse upon the tender bark of the twigs. December 7.-During the morning I was bu ily engaged in skinning birds, we had kill 'd eight Mexican blue birds, "sialia occidentali ·." They differ from the blue bircls of the Unit d States, in having the back brown, and the wings lipped with black, and are more delicate in their contour. We find great numbers feeding up~n the mucilaginous berri s of the misletoc, which, in this v1cmagc, grow upon every cotton weo<l tree. . Decembe1· 8.-W e procured several pecimcn of the re<l wing \d fltckcr, "picus Mexieanus." On dissecting them I found their stomachs full of ~nls. In th evening, Mr. Houck, Mr. Kcrford, Mr. Harmony, El Seiior Algier, and El Sef10r Porro~, arrived at our camp; they were going up to sec Captain Walton, in onler to make a more formal repr<'sent ation. December 9.- pent this morning in hunting quails, in the virini~y of the "mesa" below us; procured a female "ortix squamosa," 1n fin~ plumage. There are several coveys of the e birds in the n~tghborhoocl of some sand knoll·; but the ground i · so ovcrgr?w.n w.tth clu,ters of artemisia, ancl th<' birds run so rapidly, that 1t 1s dtffie~lt to s~e anything but tlH•ir track. on the ] oose sand. . Tlus cvenmg, we heard that Colonel Doniphan was approachmg, .. |