Capt. Moore and Company C arrived in camp this afternoon. He marched about fifteen miles beyond the Little Arkansas, where he met the caravan. The rains fell on them ten miles on this side, and they were six days making the next nine miles and crossing Cow Creek, which was bridged. The traders stopped on the hills two miles off, near Bent. Company C have had buffalo but two days, and thus they have consumed eight days rations of salt meat, more than the rest of my command. This reduced the stores (as I find by weighing them) to scant nine days supply. If I had not advanced I should have had little or no meat left. The traders (as I expected) brought up the two Fort Scott mules. The creek is not yet fordable and is falling slowly. The traders have brought their wagons down to the crossing point. A hunting party has returned unsuccessful. Ι have but 30 days full rations of flour and have ordered but twelve ounces tto be issued until further orders.

June 24th. Last night some six of the principal traders, including their "Captain", Dr. East, and Senors Armijo and Ortiz, called to consult me on the news. They told me they did not now expect to find the governor at the crossing and they all agreed it would be advisable to go on to Bent's Fort, sending expup for a stronger Mexican force to meet them there; provided I would go with them and await the arrival of that force. They left me at 10 o'clock to reflect on an answer to the question of how long I could promise to stay at that point.

Calculating on cattle to be brought here, for subsistence for 50 or 100 miles on this side of Bent's establishment, when buffalo would probably not be found, and obtaining, (as Messrs. S. Vrain and Bent opine can be done), as many more cattle there as I may need, I agreed, as by my letter, to go on and remain with them-waiting for escort fifteen days, if necessary, and I sent word that under favorable circumstances I could stay five days longer.

This morning they called again and said they were all agreed to await at the crossing (probably a month) for a force to be sent for, and to come from Santa Fe, if I would stay and protect them.

I asked them-the governor having retreated-if they believed they could induce him to come back? If he could raise a sufficient force to return to the same point? They answered no! I then told them I would not remain so long stationary to the extreme privation and discomfort of my command without a more reasonable object. I had announced that I should go to the crossing in any event and then we could only agree, and conclude to go there, result as it might.

Packed up and mounted at 3 o'clock. The companies were then inspected, the squadrons were then assembled, (every soldier in the ranks) and I had a regimental drill. I then marched

a thousand paces down the creek and encamped at 5:30 o'clock. Mr. S. Vrain's wagons have been taken over this afternoon. The caravan is not moving.

June 25th. Sent in letters this morning by Mr. Bent, who goes to Independence (in six days travel). It was 7 o'clock when the caravan was put in motion to the ford. The detachment marched at 8 o'clock and the whole, with the eleven wagons, were over in fifteen minutes. The water is halfside deep, the bottom was found very soft. I marched five miles and encamped on the Arkansas, where there was a few trees, at 11 o'clock, being assured that the caravan could, or would, get no further tonight. We have had no fresh meat for three or four days. The game seems to have deserted the country; but now a solitary lucky () buffalo approached our camp, was chased and killed.

I ascertained this morning that some of Mr. Bent's people at least had communicated with the Texans, which none had given information of, in the week or ten days they were with me. It was about the first of this month that the meeting of the Mexicans and Texan spies took place. The former are reported to have said the governor was at hand. This disagrees totally with his intentions announced to his nephew, Mr. Armijo, in a letter which was shown me. I also now first learned that three Texan spies accompanied Bent's party (wagons) until they came in sight of my tents, when on pretence of hunting (as is reported) they returned or disappeared.

Carson, a hunter, started expup last night (with two mules) to bear a letter to the governor, if at Santa Fe, to advise him (as Capt. East tells me) that I would not wait very long, and they would move slowly (no doubt) up the Arkansas. The man is expected to go to Santa Fe in ten days, but I am told he goes (for fear of Texans) by the left bank of the river and Bent's Fort. This seems senseless, inasmuch as it only anticipates properly one thing, viz: that the governor has retreated the whole route to Santa Fe (which, being a large owner of the caravan, is not probable). Mr. Alvarez told me the governor could raise 1500 militia or Indians in about a week, and march with them to Bent's Fort in ten days. The caravan has arrived near 6 o'clock, and stopped close by.

June 26th. Marched at 6:30 o'clock. Sent an officer in advance with a small hunting party and a wagon. The flat bottom, common to the river and creek, extends 10 or 12 miles from the south of the latter; it is a sandy soil, with a very short grass. At a point of the bluff there is a remarkable sand rock called "Pawnee Rock." Hundreds of names are inscribed on it. Four miles further is Ash Creek, a sluggish stream which becomes nearly dry (ceases to flow) in summer; there is wood on it. It is about 20 miles from Walnut Creek. I watered today at a fine pond, nine miles from Ash. After stopping two hours at Ash Creek, I marched five miles further and crossed the Pawnee

Fork and encamped. Its banks are high and difficult.

It is a bold stream, nearly as large as the Neosho at Council Grove. Its waters are muddy; it is tolerably timbered and heads a days march to the Northeast of the crossing of the Arkansas, or about 60 miles to the Southwest.

There are thousands of buffalo peacefully grazing on a great plain, which gently rises about six miles off into hills. Some were chased by officers and one was slain. The hunting party have brought in parts of three in the wagons; the caravan has not come up. I have marched but 20 miles in a cool day, one of the longest in the year-over an excellent road. Last night and tonight the moschettos are very severe. The tents are thus important, if not necessary, as bars by smoking and then closing them, they become a great protection; there are no flies, but the horses suffer from the moschettos.

June 27th. The caravan came from Ash Creek by 9 o'clock, and were until after 12 o'clock crossing this creek. Then I marched about 7 miles and encamped on a hill near the head of a branch, with tolerable standing water. I am in sight of

the caravan, two miles off at the crossing of a small branch of the Pawnee, where there is fuel but very bad water. I obtained there sufficient dry fuel for all my men. Four buffalo deliberately marched within three hundred yards of the column the last half mile. I had one killed just before we stopped within 200 paces of the camp ground. It was done by a single pistol shot, after a chase of 500 yards. A high wind from the Southeast today. The sandy soil resting on clay is poor; there is nothing but buffalo grass, this very short, and seems as if it could scarcely support an animal, but on close examination I find it bears a grain which is very near the earth. It looks as nutritious as oats and most probably is, from accounts which are given of mules that have lived on it. My camp is one compact sod of it, a much harder one than the blue grass.

In

A picket rope should be 22 feet long, of manilla grass, 7-8 of an inch in thickness; a picket made of good iron, 16 inches long, and weighing 25 ounces, with a ring, answered well. soft ground the wooden picket answered better, but there is much work to band and tip it properly with iron, and every tent of men must have a mallet to drive them into the ground. At the end of the picket rope there should be a fixture of a strap and buckle of harness leather, double, or the outer side in the middle; this trap is to be buckled around one ankle of the horse. Twelve or fourteen inches from the end should be introduced just such another strap and buckle for the other ankle of the fore legs; thus, a halter would be unnecessary on the prairie. Possibly it would be as well to secure the picket rope to the ring of the halter, if the end be continued beyond the tie and be secured by a strap to the horse's leg, so as to confine his head near the ground. When a party of dragoons on a prairie

escapes the disaster of losing (temporarily at least) their horses, if less securely picketed, it is the result of luck or chance, to which a good commander never trusts when avoidable.

in rear. Our

June 28th. I marched at 7 o'clock, the traders then close course was Southwest over high prairie hills, cased with the brown iron sod of well trodden, closely grazed buffalo grass. The route has changed here since my last visit. It seems more away from the river. The old journal does not answer as a guide. I halted at 11:45 o'clock, at a ravine with stagnant water, then marched six miles further (18 in all) to a pool of water in the head of a small ravine, in the edge of the Arkansas and encamped. There is drift wood for fuel; branches called "Coon" Creeks. Here I believed the caravan would stop (as they have) but the grass was entirely eaten up by the buffalo. I sent a man three miles to look for the "Coon Creek" of my recollection; but none, nor better grass was to be found on the road. The traders who use mules and herd them might stop here but I could not; so changing my course fifteen degrees, which made it east of south, I marched four miles to the Arkansas and encamped. There is drift wood for fuel; little patches of dry looking buffalo grass, mixed with the long fresh green grass on the immediate bank, the buffalo have clearly eaten, and not touched the other. Here I had wells dug and came to fine cold water in two feet-the level of the river. In the bottom I passed the true "Coon" Creek with running water and pebbly bottom, but no better grass than I left.

Such is an abstract of the day's progress. The pen of an Irving might fail to paint the interesting sights or to convey an idea of the thrilling interest and excitement of a scene which all witnessed.

THE STRANGEST BATTLE IN HISTORY

For six miles we marched through one "village" of the prairie dogs, whose shrill barkings were incessantly sounding in our ears but their strange antics scarcely attracted attention, when 10,000 of buffalo, dotting the visible world far and near, were seen the whole day around us; each moment a shifting scene of chases by officers or traders, fixing the attention with a new interest. In the afternoon from the brow of a small hill overlooking a ravine and the view beyond we saw hundreds of the huge terrible looking animals grazing and lying about in a state of undisturbed nature 300 yards from us. I instantly determined to give the artillerists a more practical skill, and to obtain more experience of the range, and effects of the howitzers. I directed one at a group, the shell overshot the mark but in ricocheting upset an animal; still they did not fly. Another was discharged which passed in their midst in three or four rebounds, and then exploded, creating a wonderful confusion; still another

was