Santa Fe, Texas - Narrative of the Texan Santa Fé Expedition, Comprising a Description O (part 9 of 9)

After a hasty breakfast of mush, on the following morning, we were once more upon our journey. A short walk brought us to the banks of the Rio Grande, here some three or four hundred yards in width. The water was cold and waist deep to our men, yet we were obliged to ford it, and when once safely upon the opposite side, we had entered Mexican territory for the first time. I say for the first time, because Texas claims to the Rio Grande, and, sooner or later, this will be her boundary line.

An hour's brisk march along the river banks brought us to Socorro, the last settlement before reaching El Paso. What the exact distance between the iwo places is I have now forgotten, but it cannot be far from two hundred miles. As Salezar had to make a demand on the alcalde for corn and meal enough to sustain us across the long and dreary waste yet to travel, we were permitted to remain at Socorro until the following day. That the inhabitants of this frontier town were a pack of thieving, cheating, swindling scoundrels, we ascertained beyond doubt before we had been in the place two hours. I remember, perfectly well, that a small party of us paid for a supper twice at this place, and that, because we would not pay for it a third time, the master of the house became very much incensed.

When we were at Socorro, a party of Indians, belonging to the large and powerful tribe of Apaches, were encamped in the vicinity. They live, for the most part, in a rough and mountainous country, yet, like the Camanches and Pawnees, are ever on horseback, and are daring and skilful riders. With the inhabitants of the States of Chihuahua and Durango they are at continual and open war, murdering and robbing the inhabitants whenever opportunity offers ; yet with the people of New Mexico they are at peace, and the plunder they obtain in their incursions into the former states is sold to the citizens of the latter, who are ever found ready purchasers ! A pretty state of things, truly, but so it is. I was told that many of the horses of New Mexico really belonged to persons in the former states, and that the purchasers bought them with powder and lead, knowing that it was to be used against their neighbours and brethren ! Armijo and some of his principal officers probably know more about this singular and most unrighteous compact, and of the profits arising from the trade^ with these Indian banditti, than any other persons in Mexico.

While at Socorro, one of the prisoners, who was a Catholic, obtained permission to visit the priest of the place. The real object of the man was, to obtain something in the way of solid assistance - something to eat upon the road - temporal rather than spiritual aid and consolation. The priest gave him absolution and a small bundle of shuck cigars ! I do not mention this circumstance to stigmatize the holy fathers generally of Mexico, for we found a majority of them liberal and enlightened men, and disposed to assist us as far as was in their power.

On the morning of the 29th of October we left Socorro without regret ; for although its name signifies succour or assistance, we found none within its inhospitable gates. We had travelled but a short distance before the head or principal chief of the Apaches, with a small retinue of his warriors, was seen rapidly dashing over a hill, having ridden out especially to see los Americanos, as they called us, who had surrendered their arms to the New Mexicans. At one time the inhabitants of Chihuahua had employed a number of American adventurers in different expeditions against the Apaches, and in every engagement the former were able to bring L L2 about, the Indians were defeated with no little loss. The rifles of the Americans told with signal advantage against the bows and arrows, lances, and ineffective Spanish carbines of their adversaries, fought they ever so bravely ; and now that one of the principal chiefs of the latter had an opportunity of seeing some of the countrymen of their much-dreaded enemies, he did not miss the opportunity.

A more dignified savage in appearance than this chief I have never seen. He was about the mjddle height, strong, and well built, some sixty-five or seventy years of age, and with hair as white as snow. He was dressed in an oldfashioned blue military coat and blue pantaloons ; a huge pair of gold epaulettes graced his shoulders, while his head was covered with a Continental tri-cocked hat, such as was worn by our grandfathers in the days of the Revolution. His countenance was stern, strongly marked, and very expressive, and he was mounted upon a large and powerful gray charger of fine action, and apparently of good blood.

He rode up to the head of the line, in company with Salezar. As we passed in review before him, a ragged, beggared, and emaciated throng, the old man examined us with the eye of an eagle - his thoughts could not be divined. Salezar appeared polite even to obsequiousness in presence of this man, and it was intimated at the time that he stood in much fear lest the old chief might take it into his head to rescue us from his hands, a matter he might easily have accomplished. What would have been our fate had he done so - whether he would have sacrificed us on the spot in revenge for the losses he had sustained at the hands of our countrymen, or taken us to the mountains, is a question I am unable to answer. One thing I do know - had he called for volunteers to act against any part of Mexico, and promised to arm all that came, he might have got them to the full extent of our number. After the last stragglers had passed him, the old chief turned his horse and rode over the hills in the direction whence he came. His followers were dressed much in the general Indian costume - buckskin shirts, leggins, and the usual quantity of feathers and finery. I also noticed, while in Socorro, that the Apaches have the besetting sin of all the aborigines of America : several of them were seen reeling about upon their horses, so drunk that they could with difficulty keep their seats.

After a walk of unusual length across a bend of the Rio Grande - I say unusual, for it was nearly forty miles - we reached, just at dark, a large grove of cottonwoods close upon the river bank. This grove was called the Bosque de los Apaches, or Wood of the Apaches, and afforded us one of the best camping-grounds on the journey. We recrossed the river at an early hour on the following morning, and another long and tiresome march brought us to Fray Cristobal, the last campingground before entering the noted Dead Man's Journey ! This is a well-known stretch of ninety miles, across a large bend of the river.* To avoid many weary miles, a road has been worn directly through the centre of this bend by the travel of years. It is a level, sterile, and desolate plain - a desert with no vegetation save here and there a few stunted thorns, different species of the cactus of dwarf-like proportions, and clumps of one of the smaller kinds of palm, growing to the height of some six or seven feet, with long, coarse leaves

* The Mexicans call this noted stretch La Jornada del Muerto, or The Journey of the Dead Man - our men gave it the name of the Dead Man's Journey, and by that title I designate it.

branching up from the roots, and forming a very mat from the closeness with which they grow together. These clumps were called bear grass by our men, and at a little distance they resembled long and slender bundles of coarse straw. Near the centre of the desert is the Dead Man's Lake,* which, during the spring and early summer, is filled with water ; but when we crossed its bed was perfectly dry.

Immediately on our arrival at the camping-ground of Fray Cristobal, a bleak, sandy point of land formed by a slight curve in the Rio Grande, Salezar ordered that the poorest and most travel-worn of the eighteen oxen given him at San Miguel by Armijo should be killed for the prisoners, taking most especial care, however, that all the better portions - everything really fit to eat - should be reserved for himself and his friends. Poor and tough as was this meat, our men swallowed it with an avidity absolutely wolfish. The scanty meal over, they rolled themselves in their blankets and once more sought such rest as the cold ground might afford them.

During the earlier part of the evening the wind was biting and chilly, but at midnight the weather moderated, and then commenced a violent fall of snow. I drew my blanket entirely over my head, thought of home and its comforts, and while thinking of them fell asleep ; for the snow, as it lodged upon my scanty covering, imparted a warmth to which I had long been stranger.

When morning light came I raised my head and surveyed the scene. Far as the eye could reach the face of nature was clothed in white, the snow having fallen to the depth of five or six inches. My companions were lying thick around me, their heads and all con- cealed, and more resembled logs imbedded in snow than anything else to which I can compare them. No one would have supposed that animated beings were under those little mounds were it not that from many of them a hollow, hacking, and half-suppressed cough proceeded. The two or three nights we had passed within doors, huddled some thirty or forty in rooms scarcely capacious enough for three or four, had given nearly all extremely bad colds - colds they were unable either to guard against or cure.