Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/172

154, down to the Mojave villages, and westward across the desert to San Gabriel.

The Amajabes on the Colorado treated the party well, furnishing fresh provisions, and horses stolen from the Spaniards, and two wandering neophytes guided the sixteen Americans over the desert to the mission, where they arrived in December. The trappers gave up their arms, and the leader was taken to San Diego, where he explained his object, and submitted to Governor Echeandía his papers, including passports from the U. S. government, and a diary. The coming of the strangers naturally excited suspicion at first; but this was removed by Smith's plea that he had been compelled to enter the territory for want of provisions and water, it being impossible to return by the same route; and his cause was still further strengthened by a certificate of Dana, Cunningham, and other Americans, that the trapper's papers were all en règle, and his motives doubtless pacific and honorable. He was therefore permitted to purchase supplies, and undertake his eastward march by a new route; but not, as