OCR Text |
Show .. 570 Ex. Doc. No. 4l. ever went fishing in the Del Norte; be said no; be was afraid the Navajoes would catch him. October I.-Marched at 9; the ox teams being near camp, on their way when we started; passed a succ.ession of v~lJeys, and encamped below Pueb letors, (distance 16 m lies,) o ppos1 te the upper enu of an extensive Bos.que, on the bank3 of the Del N or.te, which runs one and a half mdes to the east of us. The quanttty of ground under cultivation was greater, and the quantity of s.tock on the increase; the plain or bottom of the Del Norte gets wtder. October 2.-Marched at 8. Marched through a country mostly uninhabited; in some places the ground was crusted with cffiorescent soda, and in other places it was for hundreds of ) ards destitute of all vegetation. The beat was excessive; the roads were good, but doubtless, from their appearance, very bad after much rain. The American troops had not yet made their appearance in this quarter, and the inhabitants looked as if they dirt not know what to make of our thus silently marching through their country on our distant pilgrimage to California. We have had a good deal to do with them in the way of trading mules; and they show that the tricks of horse jockeys are not confined to the Anglo Saxon race: their peo p] e ba ve so se ld em been dealt with honorably that they cannot believe any one is dealing fairly with them. 'T•,p.;;~ ......,. ./-. ',, ~-;-h::w. • "'o;;-k s-~ ~-...<,..du....ua ...... ,,~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~---~~~~~~~~~~~- --~ ~--.....:= ~;:;::::=-====-=~======~""::::2:::=~-~ ~-- ...---- ::::::::....--- The mountains below Socora, through which we are to approach the Gila, appear in front of us; from their appearance, one would naturally look for a pass to the Gila in the gap above, instead of going around the one on the left. The apparent distance of mountains is very dec{'ptive; the guesses vary to · day from fifteen to sixty miles about the same mountains. The knobs do not present themselves in ranges yet, nor do they appear much above the general level. The river hills passed to-day are composed of coarse conglomerate, runniug in seamf< with sand, all scarcely of the consistence of stone: pebbles of all the productive minerals mixed with pebbles of lava. The knobs on the right of the Del Norte appear to be composed of peaks of granite. Tbe beat to-day excessive. Encamped opposite La Joztn, in a pleasant grove of cotton- woods. October 3.-Laicl in camp, awaiting the ox teams and some Mexican teams, which had fallen one day to our rear; caught some fine cat fish and so.ft-shell turtle in tht Del Norte. During the day, an ~xpress came 1n from Pulvidera, 12 miles down the river, informIng the general that the Navajoes had attacked the village; and he h~d been .sent by the alcalde to bring the artillery where they were still fightJng when he left; Captain Moore was sent with company "C," in defence of the Mexicans, and orders were sent to-day to Co~onel Doniphan to make a campaign in the Navajo country; exammed minutely the diluvial deposite which fills the valley of the I I ( Ex. Doc. No. 41. 571 Del Norte as far as Tao~; it is alternate seams of gravel ~nd sand, tl deposited on a shore composed of pebbles of hmeston~; :fJP:~:nprirnitive rock scarce; of granite in places; of lava basalttn particular localities, more or less. r October 4.-Marched at 8, taking the ri ~ e r r~ad, and spent mg two hours at a sandy bill, where the confuswn wtth the unbroken Mexican oxen was very great; some half a dozen men at each .team, and then they went every way but the right on.e; came to Pulvtdera, where Captain Moore reported that the N avaj oes had .been thereover one hundred-and hau driven off q.uite a quanttty of stock; but as both oarties appeared to be afratd, there were no _wounds rec~ived; the ·boldness of the Nav.ajoes proceeds from thetr ?onfidence in the cowardice of the Mextcans. The alcalde rode w1th us to camp, five miles on, and sent one of his p eo ple to ~o cora for some Apaches· two came in, (one drunk;) they may be lughly useful to us in getting guides through th.eir t-oun try; the ~en era 1 despatched them to their chief, to meet h1m to-morrow ntght. . ~he general here gave permission to the ptople of New ~extco, . lt~wg on the Rio Abajo, to march against the Navajoes, 1n r etalwt10n for th.e many outrages received at their hands. Saw a fine flock of Amencan partridges to-day; they have no doubt just invaded the country, as I cannot hear of their having been seen b.efore. . October 5.-Took from the alcalde ~erta1~ mul~s whtch he had taken from the citizens as fines for thetr {J"admg wtth the Apaches; these mules the alcalJe had taken as his own property, and seemed to think it a hard case to think that the general should take them as public property; we marched at half past 8, and came to So coro , having heard, just as .we were a~out to leavP camp,.that _the bes~ road to the Gila was dtrectly out from the Del Norte at thts ~lace, all the command express salisfaction at the prospect of so soon getting out of the settl ements, as the Mex~cans, by the want of fairness in dealing, have made every one anx10us.to leave t_hem behind. It will never do to make an offer to a Mextc~n anythmg near the price, as he i.s sure to insis~ upon more, and thtnks you are n?t in earnest even If you send htm off. We hear, at Socora, that stx deserters 'rrom Major Sumner's command at. San ta Fe. have been taken up at El Paso by the Mexicans. The btl Is oppostte to Secora are composed of diluvial drift rocks; back of Soc~ra, west of the Del Norte, the mountains are composed of volcaniC ro cks of .all colors and various character; a white seam of a substance hke magn:sia; in one place, the rocks ~xhibited the appearance of fa.lling into a semi-molten state; the hdls at the base. of the m~untams are composed of fragments of the igneous ro cks tn. a.n undisturbed state, with no appearance of being rounde•l by. attr~t10n .. We had considerable o iscussion ag~nn tlus even wg about the route to the Gila; the guide we engaged had not contemplated the diffi~ulties beyo.ncl the point wht>re he stru ck the Gda, and h~ ln- ~~~~~- -~-~- clines to go 18 miles south of the cop ;.er m1nes; ~•;:;;;"" --:--.;~ we will n0w probably go down the Del Norte |