Chapter I: C. Wood, Superintendent (2)

_August 27._--Off at 5.30 a. m. Crossed the Saur river this morning; found it quite a stream, and the land swampy on both sides, with plenty of water at the crossing. I had a splendid shot at a fine flock of wild ducks. At 4 p. m. we camped for dinner in the Chiracahui mountains at what is termed Apache Spring. Here we met the train of Paymaster Major Brice, _en route_ for Fort Bliss. He had been paying off the troops at Fort Buchanan.

Showery this afternoon. About noon we saw the tracks of Captain Skillman’s two wheels; he was returning eastward; he took a different road from the one we came. I regretted missing him. This pass through the Chiracahui mountains is the most tedious of any we have on our road through Arizona, though this is only slow by comparison with the pass through the Sierra Madre. Though slow, the road is excellent, excepting for a short distance and the climbing of a number of steep hills.

From the Rio Saur to Dos Cabesas Spring is thirty-two miles. We made this in seven hours driving time. We breakfasted at the Saur; made two camps in the distance, making our last drive for the day after we had passed Dos Cabesas spring. Camped at 12 o’clock, midnight. Made 47 miles to-day.

_August 28._--Harnessed at 5.45 a. m. To-day we left the main travelled road, now in use by the troops, and by trains of supplies _en route_ to Fort Buchanan. This road turns southward before coming to the San Pedro river, crossing that stream higher up than we do. The main road is in nearly a due west course till we reach the river; then we turn northward six miles before coming to the ford. This cut-off is not so well defined as the road we had been travelling. Our route lies through Tucson, to which place there has been but little direct trade; and as this was only the second mail coach which has come over the road, we found the way by no means very clearly marked out. We did not deem it prudent to cross the San Pedro river to-night, as the recent rains had swollen it to a much higher point than usual. Camped for the night on the eastern branch of the San Pedro at 11.15 p. m. Made 42 miles to-day.

_August 29._--Crossed the San Pedro as soon as it was light enough to see. About 10 o’clock this morning, as we were making our second drive for the day, I saw a party approaching us mounted on mules. Rode forward to meet them. They proved to be the mail party from San Diego, who left there 9th August with an outfit of saddle mules and pack animals. Our agent had reached San Diego with men and supplies on the 21st of July, in ample time to have started the mail of the 24th, if he could have procured animals.--(See Journal of June 20.) This mail had been twenty days in coming from San Diego to our place of meeting, forty miles east of Tucson. Our mail had been twenty days coming twice the distance. I had sent positive orders in my letters, per steamer of 20th June, to San Francisco, that the mail should be started in a coach, if possible, but that at all events it was only to be sent as far east as the Pimos villages.--(See Journal of July 24.) Mr. Birch had deemed it best in San Francisco to alter this plan, and ordered complete outfits to be sent from San Diego, to go through to San Antonio. I ordered this mail party back, to return with me to Tucson, as nothing was to be gained by their continuing on. At 8 o’clock I mounted my mule, and went on to Tucson with two men. We reached there at 2 o’clock in the morning. My purpose in hastening on in advance of the train was to lose no time, but to purchase mules at once, with which to proceed to San Diego with the through mail. I wished also, if possible, to buy some description of vehicle, in which to send the mail back to El Paso. Train camped in a drizzling rain at 11 o’clock.

Made 49 miles to-day.

_August 30._--Commenced operations at daylight. I found here Mr. Tivey, formerly of Texas, a surveyor from California, who was _en route_ for Santa Fé. He had with him a wagon which would suit our purpose, also a dozen of good mules; he had been waiting some weeks for company. I made an arrangement with this gentleman by which he loaned the mail party his outfit, and agreed to accompany them to La Mesilla. This he did, partly for the consideration of protection, but principally from public spirit and a desire to see the new mail line go into operation at once; besides, having been an extensive traveller himself in new countries, he had a good idea of the obstacles to be overcome in our early organization. The wagon and mules belonging to Mr. Tivey, added to those mules I had brought on which were in condition to return, made a respectable outfit to use in sending the mail back to El Paso. I made up another outfit for myself by taking the inferior of the two carriages I had brought from La Mesilla, purchasing seven mules, and selecting five more from among those belonging to the San Diego party, whom I had turned back. To aid me in taking the mail through to its destination, a distance of 469 miles, I took two Americans and a Mexican, making four of us in the party, as we should soon be beyond the point where the Apaches are in the practice of roaming, and, therefore, so strong a party as came from La Mesilla to Tucson would be unnecessary. For the first time since coming on to the road I took command of the mail party. To make the needed connexion here between the eastern and western divisions of our road, I made two arrangements of mail parties. I detailed two men to come on slowly to the Pimos villages, with instructions to await there the next mail from San Antonio. On receiving the mail they were to push on with all speed for Yuma, 180 miles from Pimos, where I would leave further instructions.

I took with me two other men, whom I also proposed leaving at the Pimos under instruction to return to Tucson with the next mail going east, which mail would have left San Diego August 24. At Tucson they were to deliver the mail to the present train, which would wait as long as possible. Got away about noon, and in the night met with a disagreeable accident: the perch of our carriage broke. We spliced it with mezquit branches and ropes, but, in the first gully we went through, we broke down again even worse than before. This second accident happened at 2 o’clock in the morning; our carriage was a complete wreck, but in any view of the case it was apparently best to camp until daylight; we could then see whether the damages could be repaired or the carriage would have to be abandoned. Camped about 3 o’clock in the morning. Made 36 miles since leaving Tucson.

_August 31._--At daylight we commenced repairing damages. I found that by taking out one of the standards to the top of the carriage, and wrapping that and a piece of broken whiffle tree tightly with raw hides soaked soft in water, the coach promised well for a temporary purpose with a light weight. To lighten us I left on the road our agent for the Pimos station whom I had with me, also the two men who were to return to Tucson with the mail. I then proceeded on my journey towards San Diego. Camped about 12 o’clock on the banks of the Gila river. Made 40 miles to-day.

_September 1._--Off at daylight this morning; reached the first village of the Pimos about sunrise, and there I bought the corn necessary for our mules, a little wheat for same purpose, and a few beans, also a pair of chickens. (Wheat should be fed sparingly, and soaked before using.) Our barter consisted of cotton cloth and a few bells, both of which I purchased in Tucson. Camped for breakfast at the Maricopa wells, which we have since selected as the site for our station; remained at the wells until 3 p. m. waiting for our agent to come up whom I yesterday left behind on the road. Finally he came along, and we prepared for a start. While camping at the wells I was witness to the largest Indian battle of the times. The Yuma Indians, aided by the Mojaves and Tonto Apaches as their allies, attacked the Maricopas just before daylight this morning. The Maricopas and Pimos are allied strongly together. The former being comparatively few in numbers, are rather under the protection of the more numerous Pimos. The Maricopas are the more western of the two tribes, and as the Yumas approached from down the river, their villages were consequently the first attacked. Some warriors and their families were killed, and their huts fired before the presence of the Yumas was known. We saw the huts blazing and thought they were signal fires. Besides warriors on foot, every Indian that could get a horse was in the fight, many of them going a half dozen miles to reach the battle ground. One aged chief, whose wife had been killed by the Yumas, rode furiously up to our camp, foaming at the mouth, and begged of us in good Spanish to aid them against the Yumas; of course we declined. When the battle was over he refused to speak or understand a word of Spanish.

The principal fight was along the bank of the Gila, not half a mile from our camp. One hundred and four Yumas left their villages at the junction of the Gila and Colorado, led on by a young and ambitious chief, whose new dignity required some striking act to dazzle his people. He and ninety-three of his warriors were killed within an half hour, on the side of a hill in plain view from the spot where I was reclining under a tree.

At this place the river makes what is termed “the big bend” of the Gila; the road lies nearly due east and west, while the river makes a horse shoe, probably four times as long as the distance from the Maricopa to Tazotal, at which place the road touches the river again. By the schedule of distances you will perceive it is forty miles from Maricopa to Tazotal.

We started from Maricopa Wells at 3 p. m. and drove all night, reaching Tazotal for our breakfast camp a little after sunrise.

Made 69 miles to-day.

_September 2._--After breakfast this morning we made a drive of ten miles, and then lay by to avoid travelling during the hottest part of the day. The four of us take turns in sleeping and herding mules. Fed our animals on the Mesquit beans, of which there is a great abundance along the Gila river. Started from camp at 3 o’clock p. m.; about sunset met the mail party of August 24, from San Diego, equipped in the same excellent manner for the service as the party of August 9. The train I had come on with from El Paso, together with the addition made by Mr. Tivey, was waiting at Tucson for this mail; to expedite its progress, I had brought two men to the Maricopa station to take it back to Tucson, (see journal of August 30,) but I had also left orders with these men not to wait any longer than sunset to-night, as the conductor and train must return to La Mesilla at once to be in time to bring westward, from El Paso to Tucson, the mail of September 9, from San Antonio. In view of these orders, together with the certainty of not being able to make the connexion at Tucson, I turned this party back to Fort Yuma. I gave instructions to the conductor of this mail to equip himself and two men for a light service of three days’ duration, and to be in readiness to take the next mail, namely, that of September 9, from San Diego, and carry it with all possible speed to Maricopa station, at which place the carriage, or an escort for Tucson, would thereafter be waiting to receive it. We drove until 10 p. m., then camped on the banks of the Gila, waiting for the moon to rise before attempting to cross. Moon rose nearly full, and at about 12 o’clock we crossed and recrossed the Gila, leaving ourselves on the southern bank from which we started. Drove until about three o’clock in the morning.

Made 40 miles to-day.

_September 3._--Started at daylight. Camped about four hours at noon to rest ourselves and animals. Started at four o’clock, and drove till dark. Started again at ten o’clock, p. m., and drove till two o’clock in the morning.

Made 56 miles to-day.

_September 4._--Off at daylight; we should have made a good morning drive, but our carriage stuck in a mud hole, and we had to lighten it by stripping and wading in; even then we hauled it out with difficulty. It had been raining on the Gila during the past few weeks, and the road in many places is gullied, while mud holes are common, and I noticed considerable standing water. We reached Colorado city, opposite Fort Yuma, at 11 o’clock p. m., here we changed a few of our mules, took the mail for San Diego from the quartermaster, and repaired our coach with additions of leather and raw hide. These operations consumed the balance of the night, and it was daylight when we hitched up for a start.

Made 49 miles to-day.

_September 5._--Crossed the Colorado about sunrise over an excellent ferry, then drove to Cook’s Wells to breakfast, 20 miles. We remained encamped at Cook’s Wells to rest ourselves and animals till nearly sunset, and then started to cross what is considered the worst portion of the Colorado desert, namely, a distance of twenty-two miles through heavy sand from Cook’s Wells to Alamo Mucho. This journey consumed the night. We reached the Alamo Mucho wells at daylight.

Made 42 miles to-day.

_September 6._--To-day we pushed all day long to get over the desert, and reached Indian Wells about sunset, twenty-two miles from Alamo Mucho; our road was much better than that of last night. Here we expected to find water for ourselves and stock, but an encampment of Yuma Indians had used it nearly all up, and we could only procure enough for our own dinner; none was to be had for the mules, so we tried to console them with a feed of corn. The want of water left us no resource but to push on for Carissa creek, thirty-two miles more. We travelled all night and reached Carissa creek about sunrise in the morning. This portion of the road is by no means a bad one.

Made 52 miles to-day.

_September 7._--We found our fourteen animals were now very much fatigued. They have had no sleep from Fort Yuma to Carissa, while many of them have come with me all the way from Tucson in less than eight days; they had had no water for twenty-four hours, that is, from Alamo Mucho to this place, Carissa; here they filled themselves at once with the medicated waters of the creek, and thus destroyed their appetites, so that they would not eat a proper quantity of hay or grain. At 9 o’clock, when we left, they were very tired, sleepy, and unwilling to go. Under these circumstances, I decided to select the best animals from among our _mulada_, and push on over the coast range of mountains to San Diego with the mail, taking only one man with me; the coach would come the longer road, by way of San Ysabel. I put this decision in execution about 9 o’clock in the morning, and reached Vallecita at 2 p. m., where we procured something to eat, but could get none of the Indians to guide us over the mountains, as I had confidently calculated upon being able to do. There was no resource left us but to push on alone; so, taking minute directions where to find the best trail, we recommenced our journey, expecting to climb the mountains in time to reach Lassator’s ranch, in one of the valleys, by or before sunset. Our tired animals proved unequal to the required speed, so that after climbing the steep mule path which led up the mountain for several miles, we camped on our trail, in the middle of a splendid table land covered with pine trees, situated near the top of the mountains.

The moon came up about 11 o’clock, giving enough light for us to keep the trail; once we chased a star for a mile, thinking it was a light in a hut; finally reaching the ranch without accident, or much detention on the way, at 2 o’clock in the morning. Tried to procure horses at once to proceed on to San Diego, but the animals were all turned out in the valley grazing and could not be had before morning. We reluctantly went to bed; and, once in the hay-stack, we slept soundly till daylight.

Made 36 miles to-day.

_September 8._--At 9 o’clock a. m. we left Lassator’s ranch with fresh animals, this time mounted on horses. After a toilsome day’s journey down the mountains, we reached San Diego at 10 o’clock p. m., bringing the first through mail which had reached here in schedule time. I had come myself from San Antonio to San Diego in thirty-eight days.

_September 9._--This morning I despatched the mail from San Diego in charge of two men, with directions to deliver it at Fort Yuma to the party I had left there, who would in turn carry it to the Pimos villages at Maricopa station, or at Tucson, where a coach would be in readiness to carry it on to La Mesilla, at which last place a second coach would carry it to the Presidio of San Eleazario. Each of these parties going east, after delivering their mail, were under instructions to wait and bring back a return mail over that portion of the road allotted to them. [These were the arrangements I had made _en route_, and up to this date they have insured the prompt delivery of the mails at each end of our line.]

When Mr. Birch and myself parted in New York, on the 23d of June, we made an arrangement to meet in San Diego as soon as I could get there; I would then have travelled across the continent, and thus be able to report understandingly about the route, with estimates of expenditures made up to that time, obligations incurred, and promises given. Together we could then estimate for the future, and Mr. Birch was to give me, in San Diego, all the money I needed in retracing my steps to San Antonio, at which latter place he would again meet me on my return. With this understanding, I had promised all along the line, to whomsoever should aid us, that I would return from California with the coin to pay up all obligations. Mr. Giddings also made use of this promise for me during my absence. Under my understanding of this agreement, I was not only very much surprised but embarrassed, on reaching San Diego, to hear of Mr. Birch’s departure from San Francisco per mail steamer of August 20. Neither did I find here any advices as to his movements; furthermore, the coast steamer had left for San Francisco on the 6th, two days before my arrival, and would not be here to leave again until the 21st. Thus I was compelled to entire inaction towards placing the Pacific end of our line in good condition until I could send to San Francisco for coaches, harness, provisions, general equipment, and money. My time, from the 9th to the 21st, appeared to be nearly or quite useless to the line, except in scouring the country for mules, which proved to be not particularly plenty in that section of California.

[Had not Mr. Birch been lost in the Central America September 11, no trouble would have arisen from his not having met me according to agreement. He could have explained everything satisfactorily, and shown, in my opinion, that he had otherwise planned well for the maintenance of our credit.]

_September 13._--To-day I despatched a party of our men with a wagon and saddle mules, under instructions to examine very carefully the mountain passes eastward of San Diego, that we might find, if possible, a better and shorter route for a road than the present circuitous one by way San Ysabel. The county surveyor very kindly accompanied our party, giving us the benefit of his experience; so also did one of the county supervisors, thus showing the great interest which the citizens of San Diego felt in the success of an overland mail. [Our party returned on the 18th, reporting having found a trail which, in their opinion, could be made an excellent road with a moderate outlay of labor.]

_September 21._--To-day I despatched a messenger to San Francisco by the steamer, with instructions to make, as far as possible, all needful purchases of supplies for the western end of the line, and to bring them to San Diego by return steamer. I leave at the earliest possible moment to retrace my steps over the road, as I had promised to be back about October.

_September 24._--I contracted to-day for hay and straw to supply stations we had made on the desert, at Vallecita and Carissa creeks.

_September 29._--To-day I despatched a train, consisting of a coach and wagon, destined for our mail station at Maricopa wells; they were loaded with rations for the men who remain there permanently.

_October 4._--Despatched a relay of ten mules over the mountains to meet and accompany the train of September 29.

_October 6._--Steamer arrived from San Francisco this morning, having on board for us all the supplies our agent had been able to obtain. Commenced at once preparing for my return trip.

_October 17._--To-day I despatched two coaches, with complete outfits of animals and other necessaries. One of the coaches is to run between Carissa creek and Fort Yuma; the other is to run between Fort Yuma and Maricopa wells. I despatched these coaches to-day in order to have them at their stations in readiness to take through any passengers for Arizona or San Antonio which might come from San Francisco by steamer of the 18th. We had advertised in the California papers that we were ready for passengers as follows:

_Office of the San Antonio and San Diego Mail Line._--This line is
now ready to ticket passengers through from San Francisco to New
Orleans, _via_ San Diego, Fort Yuma, Tucson, Mesilla, Fort Filmore,
El Paso, and San Antonio, as well as to all intermediate stations.
Also to Santa Fé and Albuquerque, (New Mexico.) For rates of passage,
and further information, apply at the office of the company, Kearny
street, (opposite Plaza.)

C. McLAUGHIN, _Agent_.
R. E. DOYLE,
_Superintendent Western Division_.

_October 22._--This morning I despatched two more coaches and fourteen animals heavily laden with every description of supplies for the line. They go round to Carissa creek by the road, while I shall take the shorter mountain trail to-morrow.

_October 23._--Left San Diego on horseback this morning, accompanied by Mr. Doyle and one of my through passengers, of whom I had several.

_October 25._--Passed the day in the mountains at our corral, branding a mulada of seventy-five animals, which I had purchased for the line.

_October 27._--Reached Carissa creek, the place of rendezvous, early this afternoon, with our _mulada_; found the coaches waiting. My party now consisted of twelve men, with three coaches, seventy-two animals, and everything necessary for our stage purposes. Our progress to Fort Yuma was slow. We left Carissa creek the 28th October and reached the fort November 2d; the delay arose from the fact that fifty-nine of our animals strayed away, detaining us two days in finding them in the desert.

_November 5._--To-day the mail came in from the east, bringing to me the melancholy news of Mr. Birch’s death. This intelligence very naturally alarmed the parties at Colorado city, who had been furnishing our men with supplies. Feeling myself perfectly sure that Mr. Birch’s death would have no influence in disarranging the affairs of the line, I assured the parties of my determination to continue, as I had planned, to San Antonio, and to see that the business was properly cared for. Mr. Doyle, who had accompanied me thus far from San Diego, joined with me in assuring our creditors here that we would both continue in as vigorous a superintendence as ever of the interests of the mail.

The Steamer General Jesup came up the river to-day with a cargo for the quartermaster at the post. This steamer is one of two boats owned by Johnson & Co., who are the government contractors for transporting all supplies from the mouth of the river to Fort Yuma. This boat would be a credit to her owners and builders by comparison with steamboats anywhere.

_November 7._--Left Fort Yuma to-day; had with me two of the coaches with which I originally started, loaded with supplies; I had also seventy-nine of the mules. Left coach and relays at the fort.

_November 9._--To-day we left Peterman’s station, (on the bank of the Gila,) consisting of a log house and excellent corral, built since I passed here. Peterman told me he had built this station, which he intended making his permanent residence, in order to obtain the business of the mail line. I purchased of him several tons of mezquit beans, besides contracting for a supply of hay.

The soil in this neighborhood is excellent. Already this enterprising pioneer has contracted with a party of Mexicans to build a main irrigating ditch from the Gila, with branches sufficient to enable him to cultivate several hundred acres of land. The Mexicans are now at work. I made such arrangements for him, by writing to an agent at Fort Yuma, as would secure the necessary barley for seed, making at same time a conditional purchase of all his crop. He felt confident of gathering a good harvest the present season. Peterman originally came up here from Fort Yuma to execute a contract for several tons of mezquit beans, made with the parties who are contractors for hauling the ore of the Arizona Copper Mining Company to Fort Yuma. From the fort this copper ore is carried by steamer to the mouth of the Colorado river; thence by sailing vessel to San Francisco.

Had conversations with two other men to-day, who said they were half determined to open stations on the Gila for our accommodation; they anticipated also the chance of selling supplies to emigrants, and trading for cattle.

_November 11._--Came this morning to the ford where the road usually crosses the Gila. One of our men stripped and swam across the river. I could see plainly that the current was too swift and the volume of water too great to justify the risk of attempting to cross our coaches without unloading them. We preferred making a long detour over the hills rather than attempt fording. The bottom of the river at these fords is a sort of quicksand, likely to prove troublesome when the river is swollen by rains, as it is now.

_November 12._--Came to the other ford of the Gila at Oatman flat, but preferred not to attempt to cross.

_November 13._--To-day we were on the _jornada_ between Tezotal and Maricopa station; found plenty of water, the rains having been recent and very heavy.

_November 14._--Beached our station at the Maricopa Wells to-night, after getting bogged in the mud and having to send to the station for assistance. No one could see the road, for the night was very dark. The sagacious instinct of my mule here did me good service. Giving her the reins, she took me through mud holes, around pools of water, on the road direct to the station, where she remembered having been fed with corn a few weeks before.

At the station to-night we numbered so large a party that many of us had to sleep out of doors; what with mail men waiting to go to Tucson, mail men waiting to return to Fort Yuma, Maricopa agent, our herdsman, three passengers for Tucson, seven through passengers, cook, and one or two travellers who always make our station their stopping place, added to my own party, and all of us particularly well armed, we felt ourselves to be rather formidable enemies to the Apaches.

_November 15._--Quite a change has taken place since my passing here on the 1st of September. At that time I left two men, with two mules and accoutrements, a few rations, a little cotton cloth, and a few beads for barter, also a little money. Now I found a comfortable house built by putting upright poles in the ground, thatching them with tules, and covering the sides with the same. The agent had also put up a decent brush corral in which to keep our animals safe at night, for we are liable here to inroads from the Tonte Apaches.

Had a conference to-day with the Indians, who had been for a number of weeks around our post enquiring anxiously for my coming. They now squatted to have a smoke and get some presents. They informed me through an interpreter, who spoke very decent Spanish, that all the grass and the water and the land around us belonged to their tribe; that I must pay them for protecting as well as for feeding all of the many mules they saw grazing about there daily, which they found it convenient to consider as mine personally. I had promised them, when going west, that on my way back we would have this talk, and as far as possible prepared myself for them at San Diego. I gave such of them special presents as had particularly aided our agents during my absence. I fed the principal, gave all the warriors plugs of tobacco, beads, and cotton cloth, and presented the head chief and interpreter with suitable presents of shirts and fancy colored handkerchiefs. About sunset, finding that the talking, smoking, and feeding was over, and realizing the certainty of procuring no more presents to-day, the Indians shook hands with us and went off. Such of them as had horses rode them bare back, but the bulk of the warriors were footmen.

_November 16._--Left the Maricopa station, on our way to Tucson, with three coaches, forty-nine animals, and twelve men. To-day met the mail of October 24 from San Antonio.

_November 17._--Reached Tucson at 11½ p.m. Found train from La Mesilla waiting for the mail.

_November 19._--Started from Tucson with three coaches, forty-six animals, and sixteen men, including our passengers. I also had in charge the mail of November 9 from San Diego, for which I had waited at our Maricopa station. I was now retracing my steps to La Mesilla, through the same country I had passed over in August, and, with a few unimportant variations, by nearly the same road. Then it was the rainy season, with showers almost every day; now it was the commencement of winter, with occasional northers. On both trips I found the gramma grass excellent in quality and abundant in quantity. There is plenty of water for our purposes, with wood enough for cooking, and comfortable sleeping on the ground in our blankets.

_November 24._--I met Mr. Hutton at Ojo La Vaca; he is engineer of the El Paso and Fort Yuma wagon road expedition, and was examining the country very carefully to select the best line for a road, and was progressing finely.

_November 25._--Met the mail coach going west with the mail of November 9, from San Antonio; also passed to-day the working party of Colonel Leach’s expedition, who were building a road up the cañon, from the valley of the Rio Grande to the top of the Mesa.

_November 26._--Reached Mesilla at 10 a. m., and immediately despatched the mail for San Diego by a messenger in waiting to carry it to Buchanan, one hundred miles below the Mesilla, where the train was waiting to carry it on to San Antonio. We have stocked this one hundred miles along the Rio Grande valley chiefly with horses; when we have a light mail we can express it through. I remained in the valley of the Rio Grande, passing to and fro in the course of business, from November 26 until December 24.

During my absence in California, Mr. Giddings had done every thing possible for the line; I must say he could not have done more if he had been an owner. Furthermore, I am satisfied that few men could have done so well for us. At his agency in El Paso he came in contact with the mail men, who were running from San Antonio to that place, and did much to place things in order which had been neglected at San Antonio. On leaving Mr. Giddings I had promised him, upon the faith of the understanding that Mr. Birch was to meet me at San Diego, that I would bring back with me the cash necessary to pay up all claims against the line; but, as before explained, Mr. Birch did not meet me, I could not reach the supplies of money required, and was consequently compelled to return to the Rio Grande empty handed, relying on selling my drafts to cancel large amounts due to creditors in the valley. When I crossed the Rio Grande going west, on the 23d of August, I had twenty-four mules and two poor carriages; fourteen of these twenty-four animals belonged to Fort Davis.--(See journal, August 12.) When I recrossed the same river, November 27, coming east, I had left behind me quite a different state of things.

The mail line had now nearly or quite two hundred head of mules west of the Rio Grande, stationed at San Diego, Carissa creek, Fort Yuma, Peterman’s, Maricopa wells, Tucson, and La Mesilla. At each of these places agencies or stations had been established, with abundant supplies of grain everywhere. We feed corn to all our working mules. I had made contracts for hay wherever the grass was likely to be short the coming winter. We had thirty-five mail carriers and agents along this part of the line; all well-armed border-men, carefully selected for their familiarity with this kind of service. We had seven coaches on the road, and three more building in San Diego, so that we could already take passengers through from ocean to ocean in stage coaches. I felt that I had carried out in spirit the agreement with your department to place a creditable service on the line, besides having complied with the letter of the contract in carrying the mail.

I was met here in the valley by unexpected difficulties, which should not have been thrown in the way of the line.

The following advertisement was put in the San Antonio papers and came to El Paso about the time of my arrival:

SAN ANTONIO, _November 20, 1857_.

Whereas Julia A. B. Birch, of Swansea, in the county of Bristol and
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, administratrix of the estate of James
E. Birch, of the town and Commonwealth aforesaid, has sold, assigned,
transferred, conveyed, and set over unto Oltes H. Kelton, of
Charleston, South Carolina, for a good and sufficient consideration,
all the stock of the mail lines and post routes from San Antonio;
Texas, to San Diego, California, and from El Paso to Santa Fé, in
Texas, so far as the said James E. Birch, deceased, has any interest
in the same; and whereas the said Oltes H. Kelton has appointed
the undersigned his agent and attorney, by power of attorney duly
acknowledged, to take charge of and superintend his entire interest
in said routes, as his sole agent: Now, this is to notify all whom it
may concern, that all contracts and acts made by any person otherwise
than those that I may appoint, touching the interest of said routes,
will be treated as a nullity.

ABNER BARROWS.

[Mr. Giddings also received a letter from Mr. Barrows, stating that Mr. Kelton had appointed him as sole agent in Texas, at the same time requesting Mr. G. to continue in charge of the line at El Paso, sending the mail forward to California as he had been doing under my superintendence. This was an awkward dilemma. It seemed clear to myself and friends that if I gave up my situation of superintendent the line must stop. If I once discarded the charge, the property would be seized by the creditors. Wages were due to the men, and accounts had been made with merchants for advances of every kind. A line through remote settlements must have a good credit. In this aspect of things, having received no letters from Mrs. Birch nor any of her friends, and no revocation of my authority having reached me, I applied to Simeon Hart, esq., of El Paso, to advance me the necessary funds to carry on the line until I could reach New York. I exhibited to Mr. Hart my original authority from Mr. Birch, together with all the subsequent facts since his death, so far as I knew them. I consider that we are indebted to Mr. Hart for the present existence of the line. He went in person to the different merchants whom we owed for advances, recommended them to take my drafts on New York, stating that he had examined the matter and was perfectly satisfied. Mr. Hart himself did more: he loaned the line ten thousand dollars, which enabled me to not only pay up the more pressing claims of the mens’ wages, but all the outstanding obligations of the line, excepting the drafts before referred to on New York, and the amount due to Mr. Giddings. When I turned my back on the Rio Grande valley, the credit of the line stood well. I felt satisfied that I had done right; I am now more than satisfied.]

_El Paso, December 24._--The mail of December 9 came in from San Diego at 10 a. m.

_Presidio, San Eleazario, December 25._--Mail from San Antonio came in at 1 a. m. I reached our lower station on the Rio Grande, a new place which we have named Birchville, at 8 p.m.; I was _en route_ for San Antonio. Here I found that the up mail of December 9 had been caught in a snow storm west of Fort Davis. Five mules had been chilled so they were unable to go on with the train. The conductor was compelled to leave the coach and nearly all the mules at Fort Davis, coming on to Birchville with six mules only, bringing the letter mail. He was most fortunate in being able to borrow a buggy for this purpose. The conductor who brought up this mail of December 9 should have returned at once to San Antonio with the down mail; but as he was unable to do so for the reason which I have stated, I carried out an intention which I had formed at El Paso, and determined to take the mail through to San Antonio under my own charge. I had a coach and twenty-two mules, and four passengers. To perform the actual labor of this trip, I had two clerks of mine now out of employ by my discharge. Mr. Giddings accompanied me, with two hired men.

_December 26._--Birchville, at 10 a. m., weather very pleasant.

_December 27._--In our second drive this morning we ascended the cañon leading from the valley of the Rio Grande to the high table lands of this portion of western Texas. We found a change of climate apparent at once. The whole of our journey, from the summit of this pass till we reached Devil’s river, in the course of which we had descended from this table land, was cold and uncomfortable, though by no means to the extent of any personal suffering; I may except very cold fingers, while driving, before sunrise.

_December 29._--To-day we reached Fort Davis. The officers’ quarters, with good oak wood fires, looked more comfortable than our camping on ground; but, for fear of catching cold by the change, I preferred to continue sleeping out of doors.--(See journal of August 12 for my interview with Col. Sewall.)

_December 30._--Met an extra of ours going up to Birchville--coach, mules, and complete outfit to take their place in the line. Gave orders for the conductor to take the newspaper mail from Fort Davis, which had been left behind by the last up mail in consequence of the snow at Birchville. He would meet another coach and send it forward to El Paso.

_January 3._--We reached Fort Lancaster at 7 a. m., changed our mail, and started again at 11 a. m. It commenced snowing as we left Fort Lancaster, and continued to snow so rapidly that I deemed it prudent to stop about 3 o’clock p. m. We halted in a cañon 9 miles from the fort, on the edge of the Llano Estacado. It was not safe to attempt to cross this bleak plain in the face of a snow storm, with the road obliterated by the snows. We might have lost our way, or our mules might have perished from being chilled through by standing exposed, after heating themselves in the exertion of hauling the coach. I therefore made a halt and camped for the night. We then drove the mules into a cañon, where they would be partially sheltered from the wind and storm by bushes, made a fire, cooked our dinner, set the guard, and then went to bed, with the snow falling at intervals all night long.

_January 4._--A fine morning, with the sun bright and pleasant, the ground covered with snow to the depth of several inches, rendering it almost impossible to roll our coach to-day. The snow would have clung to the hoofs of our mules and to the tire of our coach so as to render our progress very slow. Under these circumstances I deemed it best to send the mail forward on mules in charge of one of the two hired men, accompanied by a passenger equally familiar with the road, who very kindly volunteered to accompany the mail and rider. They each took a riding mule, also a third mule packed with the mail, provisions, and a few small articles. These animals they were to change at Fort Clarke, with yet another change, if possible, at Dharris. (They made the trip to San Antonio in good order and in time, delivering the mail at 6 a. m. the morning of the 9th.) This morning, after the mail was gone, I sent our mules back to Fort Lancaster with directions to have them well fed with grain, returning them to our camp by night with an additional supply of grain and provisions if the snow melted so that we could proceed. In the course of the afternoon, the weather looking threatening, I sent one of my clerks, who volunteered to go on foot, to the quartermaster with a request that he would send out a team of mules and haul us back to the fort; this request he promptly acceded to, and we reached there about 10 o’clock at night. Having despatched the mail, there was now no cause for our immediate haste; I, therefore, determined to recruit my animals at Fort Lancaster before continuing our journey. With this view I remained there for three days.

_January 7._--This morning we left Fort Lancaster the second time. We had for company a party under escort to Fort Hudson. This evening we met the mail coach which left San Antonio December 24. It had been detained several days by high water in the Medina river at Castroville, being afterwards caught in the same snow storm that had delayed our coach; like us they were compelled to lie by and wait a day or two for the snow to disappear. As they had but commenced their journey to Birchville, they could not send their mail forward on pack animals as we did. Again, as the up mail contains newspapers it is much heavier than the down mail.

Nothing of special interest occurred on the road to San Antonio differing from the usual routine which I have sketched from day to day. I staid at Fort Hudson and at Fort Clarke long enough to attend to the business of the line at each of those posts. I did this in the absence of any one to take my place, though I was yet in doubt as to my own position.

_January 17._--Reached San Antonio to-night.

_January 18._--Received to-day a revocation of my authority from Mrs. Birch, the revocation dated the 26th of last October; I ceased at once to act for the line and prepared to come north, giving the new local agent every information the limited time permitted.

_January 19._--I left for Washington.

The question is frequently asked as to whether we have a well defined road all the way from San Antonio to San Diego. To this I answer that it is as plain a road as any stage route over which a mail is carried in coaches for your department. An emigrant would find it as impossible to miss his way when once on our road either going to or returning from California, as he would if traveling in a country where guide posts marked every cross-road.

An examination of my table of distances will show four military posts between San Antonio and Birchville; from Birchville to La Mesilla we have a settled country all the way; from La Mesilla to Tucson, we have not at present any military posts, but I am informed that the War Department contemplates placing two forts in this portion of Arizona, immediately on the completion of the Fort Yuma and El Paso wagon road. In the whole distance of 460 miles from Tucson to San Diego, one hundred and fifteen miles is the longest distance at present between any of our mail stations.

An emigrant passing over our route will meet or be overtaken by a mail party four times every month, while from our mail conductors he can always obtain the reliable information as to road, wood, water, grass, camping places, with directions where to find safe valleys in which to feed his stock for a few weeks, and transmit messages, letters, or any desired intelligence from friends before or behind him. I have received many expressions of satisfaction from emigrants I met on the road, and, also, from others in California, who, last season, on the trip, realized, in a small way, the advantages of the mail, in these respects to overland emigration.

When camping, after a drive of about ten miles, we unharness in the middle of the road, and from one end of our route to the other, from San Antonio to San Diego, the road can almost be measured by the ashes of our camp fires.

From Fort Hudson, in Texas, to Tazotal, on the Gila, a distance of 1,200 miles, nearly the whole of our route is over an elevated, dry country. When but a small amount of labor was requisite at first to make a road suited to staging, only a portion of this has ever had any labor bestowed on it beyond that of passing trains. From San Antonio to El Paso, a distance of 651 miles, the road was opened in the year 1849, by a government train of several hundred wagons, _en route_ to El Paso; since that time, the continual passage of government and freighting trains, as also of the Santa Fé and San Antonio mail coaches, had beaten down an excellent road, before the labors of the El Paso and Fort Yuma wagon road expedition commenced.

That portion of our route situated between El Paso and the Pimos villages has never had even a government train to open it. Col. Leach’s labors will be of great service in straitening it, finding new watering places, enlarging others, and in constructing tanks, if the appropriation will admit of such an expenditure. A consultation of the items of my own journey, where I have put down each day’s advance, will tend to show the excellent condition of our roads, for we used a coach all the way from San Antonio to San Diego, sometimes drawn by six, never by less than four mules.

There are a number of formidable looking ranges of mountains upon all the maps, running across Arizona, north and south, which look to be barriers almost impassable without a great expenditure of time and money. Our road we found to be _through_, rather than _over_, these mountains; although they appeared formidable at a distance, yet, on approaching, they generally proved to be isolated buttes, with our road winding around them by easy grades through the valleys, or else passing over some low span or saddle, no way impeding staging. These passes in the mountains seemed to be formed by nature on purpose for a road. The speed our coaches are making through these mountain ranges is the best evidence of their easy and expeditious passage. By my journal of August 25, it will be noticed that the speed we made from Cook’s spring, through the Sierra Madre mountains to and beyond the Mimbres river, was 21 miles in five hours; through all the other mountain passes we made much the same rate of speed.

Having formed my ideas of mountains and mountain roads from a pretty extensive experience among the Sierra Nevada of California, was very forcibly struck by the fact of not meeting a regular chain of mountains all the way from San Antonio until I reached the coast range of California, eighty miles from San Diego. I wish to call particular attention to the distinction between ranges of mountains like the Alleghanies and Sierra Nevada, and the system of isolated buttes scattered over portions of our line and around which we pass by valley roads well adapted to speed. The mountains south of the Gila, and its immediate neighborhood, do not interfere with our road; they come up close to the river in many places, but leave an ample passage way for our road around the bases. These mountains are mostly what the Mexicans term _Mesas_; high hills, flat on their tops. It appears as if the plain had formerly been level with the tops of the hills, some hundreds of feet higher than it is now. This same appearance of Mesas is found along the Pecos.

On the 15th of November, looking northward from our station at the Maricopa Wells, I could plainly see that the high mountains to the north of the Gila, standing in a bold relief against the sky, were covered at their summits with a cap of snow, glistening in the pleasant sun of the valley, where we were. Abundance of rain had fallen throughout the Gila valley this season, but no cold weather had come as yet; we naturally concluded that the rain of the valley was snow on the tops of the mountains. In the day time we found it so pleasant that bathing was our constant practice, though the nights were cool and damp from heavy dews. I am informed that all or most of these valleys north of the Gila have a rich soil, capable of sustaining a large population. I trust, on some future trip, to be able to explore them, as they are situated within what is likely to become a portion of the new Territory of Arizona, through the whole length of which our line passes. It was among some of the valleys to which I refer, that John R. Bartlett, esq., found evidences of a race of men long since extinct, who must have been superior to the present Indians of the country.

At present we have no good road directly over the coast range of mountains from Lassator’s ranch to Vallecito on the desert, but the enterprise of the people of San Diego will secure us one at an early day. When I came over the mountains on my way east, there was a large working party of Indians, under Mr. Lassator, diligently using the means which had been subscribed in the county for a road over the mountains.