Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/39

 Ewing Young in Far Southwest 27 into the mule trade. Apparently there had been some talk of driving the mules through New Mexico to the United States. Young had planned to trap on the Colo- rado until December and then bring his furs to the coast and sell them, possibly to Cooper, and with the proceeds buy mules. After the Los Angeles affair he gave up the plan and on October 10, 1830, wrote Cooper that he had lost confidence in his men and did not dare to return with them to Los Angeles. He also wrote that he wished to ascertain how mules were selling in Mexico before he engaged in the speculation as he had no idea of taking mules to the United States until peace could be established with the Comanche Indians. 18 From Los Angeles, Young and his party retraced their previous trail to the Colorado and trapped down that stream to tide water, and then up the Colorado and the Gila and over to the copper mines, at that time in the hands of Robert McKnight. At the copper mines Young took the precaution of depositing his furs while he went to Santa Fe to ascertain the situation there before bring- ing them in. At Santa Fe he procured a license to trade with the Indians about the copper mines, and with this subterfuge, returned to the mines and got the furs which according to Carson amounted to some two thousand pounds. It was probably during the month of April, 1831, that Young again reached Taos. Carson gives the date as April, 1830, but as we have seen from documents already quoted, he has evidently made a mistake of a year in his date. Other expeditions to California during the absence of Young. While Young was out on this expedition two other companies from New Mexico and possibly one from the Great Basin made their way to California. The two from New Mexico were led respectively by Antonio Armijo and William Wolf skill. We are unable to say 18 Ibid.