Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/169

Rh Following the valley of the Rio Grande for the distance of two hundred and thirty miles below Santa Fé, he there left the river, and marched westward, by the way of the Copper Mines, to the Rio Gila, where he arrived on the 20th instant. He then proceeded down this stream to its junction with the Colorado of the West, a distance of five hundred miles; halting but two days on the road, at the village of the Peños Indians, to obtain provisions and recruit his horses. His course now lay down the Colorado for forty miles, and thence sixty miles across the southern extremity of the great desert of California. His long and toilsome march terminated on the 2nd of December, when he entered one of the frontier settlements of the territory. Hearing that a counter-revolution had taken place in the Californias, he dispatched a messenger to Commodore Stockton, with a letter requesting that a party might be sent out to Open a communication with him. Without waiting for a reply, he moved forward cautiously, and was met on the 5th instant, about forty