Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/356

306 Among the pledges and assurances given by General Kearny to the inhabitants of New Mexico, in order to render them better satisfied with the new form of government which he established, prior to his departure for California in the fall of 1846, was a guarantee of protection against the Indians in their vicinity. The Apaches, as we have seen, were temporarily quieted; and while on his way to the Pacific coast, the general issued an order at La Joya, in October, requiring Colonel Doniphan, of the first Missouri mounted volunteers, then at Santa Fé, but previously instructed to report to General Wool at Chihuahua, to make a campaign with his regiment into the country inhabited by the Navajo Indians. This was one of the fiercest and most implacable tribes west of the Mississippi, occupying the greater part of the territory between the waters of the Rio Grande and those of the Rio Colorado of the West, and its warriors had long been "the terror and scourge" of the northern provinces of Mexico.

Colonel Doniphan left Santa Fé on the 26th of October, and having divided his command into separate detachments, invaded the Navajo country by three routes. This expedition was attempted late in the season, and was not brought to a close until the troops had suffered severely from the intense cold of winter. Their daily march was through drifts of snow which blocked up the valleys, and across mountains covered with ice. Every portion of the Indian territory was visited, and near three-fourths of the tribe, though almost entire strangers to the American name, were collected at the Ojo Oso, where a permanent treaty was made with them. The object of the expedition being attained, Colonel Doniphan returned to the Rio Grande, near Socorro, on the 12th of December. He then crossed