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Show [ 174 J 262 tomed to the grassy plains of the Sacramento valley. Through tl sandy basins sometimes struggled a ~Canty stream, or occurred a hollcs~ water, which furni heel camping grounds for traveller . Freqnently 1 · e 0 J.O Urney across, snow was . . bl l d . no ur VlSL e on t 1e surroun wg rnountaius. but th. waters rarely rc:lchcd the sandy plain below, where we toiled 'alon en pressed with tl1irst and a burni11g sun. . But, throuO'hout this nakegdn~~~ of ~and and gra~cJ, were many ~eautlful p_lants aud ilowcring ~hrubs whiCh occurred 111 many new spectcs and w1th greater variety than ' had been accustomed to sec in the mo t luxuriant 11rairic countr1·es. t' 1 v.e was a pecu I1. an. ty o [ t l1 1. s c1 c sert. . E ven w~ere no gra~s would. take 'r oolitS the nak ~ d sand would bloom wnh some nch and rare flower which r d' I.t s appropn.a te h orne 1.1 1 t I w an. d an d b arren pot. ' JOUn : catlcred over the plaiu, aud to~erahly_ abundant was a handsome legu. !llmous shrub, three or four feet high, wtth fine bright-pnrpte ftowers. It lS a new psorn!ea, aJJd occurred fret1neutly henceforward along our road Beyond th~ first r~dge, o~u road bore D: little to the ea t of north, to: wa:ds a gap 1~1 a l~1gher. hue of monntams; at:d, afl er travellmg about twenty-five mtles: we arnved at the .llgua de 1oma o-the spring where tbe h~nse~ had been left ; but, as_ we exp cted, they were ()'one. A brief CX<llllln_atlOn of the groumcl convmred u -- that tl~ey had been driven off by the Indtans. Carson and Godey volunteered w1th the I\Jexican to pursue them; and, well mounted, the tlu~e et ofl'on the trail. At this stopping place there were a fe\~ bus he~ and very little gras . It water was a pool; but near by wa · a spnng, whtch had been dug out by Indians or travel· lers. Its wat~r was cool-a great ref~·esh ment to ~1 under a burning sun. lu the cvcumg 1~ uentes returned, h1 hor e havlllg failed; but Carson and Godcy had ontinued the pur uit. I obserV:('d to-night an occultation of a1 Cancri, at the dark limb of the moon, whtch give_s fm~ the lougitude of the place 116° 23 ' .28"; the Iati· t~l~e, by observat_wn, 1s 3_5° 1~' 0 ''. F:om Helv tia to this place, thepo· .Jt_wns ~long the mtervemng lme . are la1d down with the longitudes ob· tamed from the chronon1etcr, whtch appears to have retained its rate re· n!arkabl~ well; but h uceforward, to the end of the journey the few loncrtt~ ldes gt~en are ab. olute, depe11ding upon a sub equent oc~ultation and echpscs of the rttellitcs. . In the afternoon of th. next day a war-whoop wa heard, such as Inchans make when rettll'~lll_1g from a victoriou enterpri"'c; and soon Carson a. .n ~-1 Godcy nppearcd clnvmg before them o. band of hor ~es rccoO'nised by 11 ucntes to b ~ l~art or tlto .. e they had lo t. Two bloody 'calp b dangling fJ~om the e11cl of Gntlcy' oun, announced that th y had ovcrtak~n the In· d.tans as ,w ~!I as th? h_orses. They info~med n~ , that after Fuentes left them, ft.om !he fatlur of !11~ hor, e, they contmueu th , pnr uit alone and towards mghtfall ent~red the mountain , into which the tratlled. After snnset the n!0011 gave It.ght, nnd tltey followed the trail by moon bine nntillatcinthe Htght! wh_el~ It entered a narrow defile and wa .. diaicult to fo llow. Afraid ~f lo~utg It Lll the darkn '~s of the defil -., the\r tied up their hor e. struck no 1t~l", ;~nd lt~y down to sleep iu silenre ~nd in -darkne--s. Here the'y Jay from ~n td~~t.ght .t.dl ttlOrnin o·. At cl.ly}jght th y resumed the pur .. uit, and about ~1 lll.r tso dt~COVt't·ed the hor~cs ~ and. immed1'" telv <.li .. mountin O' and tvingup t 1 1011 ' OWl I, IIley _n ~pt cautiou.:-ly to a rising- aro;llld whit•h int.,~rvcned, from t! 'II( ) ('l'CS' I nf WI l tl . ~ t He 1 1 ~y P 're L\'0d th ~ enc,ullpmcnt of four lotlarsclosc JY tuy pi'O<.'CCd 'd qnictly,and hnL]tl'O( withi •! rhirtror fj :-t yynrJ;:-oft!Jeirob 263 [ 174 J ject, when a movement a~ong th.e horses di_scovered them to the Indians; giving the ~ar shout~ they Hlstantly cha.rged mto the cam_r, regardless of the number which the Jour lodges would ~n1ply. The Indtans received them with a flight of, arr~ws shot frorn the.Ir _long bows, oue of which passed throucrh Godey s sh1rt collar, barely mu~smg the neck· our men fired their rifles ~pon a steady ~im, and. rushed in. Two India:ls were stretched 011 the ground, fatally pwrced WJth bullets; tl:e rest fled, except a lad that was captured. The scalps of the falleu were Instantly stripped oif; bnt in the process, one of them, ~vho had t~o b~Hs through his body, sprung to hi3 feet the blood streamwg from hts skumed head, alld utterinO' a hideous ho~l. An old squaw, possibly his mother, stopped and looked back fron1 the mouutain side she was climbing, threatening and lamenting. The frightft~l specta?le appalled_ the stout _hearts of our m~n; but they did what hurnamty reqmred, and qu~ckl y ternuuat~d the agomes of the gory savage. They were now masters of the camp, wh1ch was a pretty little recess in the mountain, with a fine spring, and apparently safe from all invasiou. Great preparations had been made to feast a large_ partr, for it was a very proper place for a rendezvous, and for the celebratwn of ~uch orgies as robbers of the desert would delight in. Several or the best horses had been killed skinned, and cut up; for the Indians living in mountains, and only coming into the plains to rob and murder, make no other usc of horses than to cat them. Large earthen vessel~ were on the fire, boiling and stewing the horse beef; and several baskets, containing fifty or ixty pairs of moccasius indicated the presence,or expectation, of a considerable party. They released the boy, who had given strong evidence of the stoici .. ·m, or something else of the savage character, in con1mcncing his breakfast upon a horse's head a~ s~or1 ~she found ~~ was not to be killed, bnt only tied as a pri ouer. 1hetr object accompl1shed, our men gathered up all the surviving horses, fifteen in number, returned upon their trail, and rejoined us o.t our camp in the afternoon of the same day. They had rode about one hundred miles in the pursuit and return, and all in thirty hours. Tbe time, place, object, a_nd numbers, considered, this expedition of Carson and Godey n1ay be conSidered among the boldest and most disinterested which the annals of western adveuture, so full of daring deeds, can present. Two men, iu a savage desert, pursue day and uig!Jt an unknown body of Indians into the defiles of an unknown mountain-attack them on sight, without counting numbersand defeat them in an instant-and for what? To punish tlte robbers of the desert, and to avenge the wrongs of Mexican ~ w!Jom they did not kuow. I rep~at: it was Carson and Godey who did this-the former an .llmericun, born m _the Boonslick connty of Missouri; the latter a Frenchman, born in St. Louts-and both trained to western enterprise from early life. By the information of Fuentes, we had now to make a long stretch of forty or fifty ntiles across a plain which lay betw0en us and the next possible ~amp; and we resmned our journey late iu the afternoon, with the intentwn of travelling through the night, and avoiding the excessive beat of tl 1 Je day, which was opp res~ive to our animals. For several hours we travehled across a high plain, passiug, at the oppo::-itc side, through a caiion by t e bed of a creek runuing uorthuHtrdly into a smalllu.ke beyond, and both of them being dry. \\7e hnd a warm, nwonshiuy night; anJ, travelling directly towards tlw north star. we jonrneyed now across an open plain bctwee. n mountain ridges· that on tl1e left being brnkeu, rocky, and bald, accordtng to the iuformat;ou of Carson aud Godey, who had entered here in |
