the quartermaster at the post. This steamer is one of two boats owned
by Johnson & Co., who are the government contractors for transporting
all supplies from the mouth of the river to Fort Yuma. This boat would
be a credit to her owners and builders by comparison with steamboats
anywhere.
_November 7._--Left Fort Yuma to-day; had with me two of the coaches
with which I originally started, loaded with supplies; I had also
seventy-nine of the mules. Left coach and relays at the fort.
_November 9._--To-day we left Peterman’s station, (on the bank of the
Gila,) consisting of a log house and excellent corral, built since
I passed here. Peterman told me he had built this station, which
he intended making his permanent residence, in order to obtain the
business of the mail line. I purchased of him several tons of mezquit
beans, besides contracting for a supply of hay.
The soil in this neighborhood is excellent. Already this enterprising
pioneer has contracted with a party of Mexicans to build a main
irrigating ditch from the Gila, with branches sufficient to enable
him to cultivate several hundred acres of land. The Mexicans are now
at work. I made such arrangements for him, by writing to an agent at
Fort Yuma, as would secure the necessary barley for seed, making at
same time a conditional purchase of all his crop. He felt confident
of gathering a good harvest the present season. Peterman originally
came up here from Fort Yuma to execute a contract for several tons of
mezquit beans, made with the parties who are contractors for hauling
the ore of the Arizona Copper Mining Company to Fort Yuma. From the
fort this copper ore is carried by steamer to the mouth of the Colorado
river; thence by sailing vessel to San Francisco.
Had conversations with two other men to-day, who said they were half
determined to open stations on the Gila for our accommodation; they
anticipated also the chance of selling supplies to emigrants, and
trading for cattle.
_November 11._--Came this morning to the ford where the road usually
crosses the Gila. One of our men stripped and swam across the river.
I could see plainly that the current was too swift and the volume of
water too great to justify the risk of attempting to cross our coaches
without unloading them. We preferred making a long detour over the
hills rather than attempt fording. The bottom of the river at these
fords is a sort of quicksand, likely to prove troublesome when the
river is swollen by rains, as it is now.
_November 12._--Came to the other ford of the Gila at Oatman flat, but
preferred not to attempt to cross.
_November 13._--To-day we were on the _jornada_ between Tezotal and
Maricopa station; found plenty of water, the rains having been recent
and very heavy.
_November 14._--Beached our station at the Maricopa Wells to-night,
after getting bogged in the mud and having to send to the station for
assistance. No one could see the road, for the night was very dark. The
sagacious instinct of my mule here did me good service. Giving her the
reins, she took me through mud holes, around pools of water, on the
road direct to the station, where she remembered having been fed with
corn a few weeks before.
At the station to-night we numbered so large a party that many of us
had to sleep out of doors; what with mail men waiting to go to Tucson,
mail men waiting to return to Fort Yuma, Maricopa agent, our herdsman,
three passengers for Tucson, seven through passengers, cook, and one
or two travellers who always make our station their stopping place,
added to my own party, and all of us particularly well armed, we felt
ourselves to be rather formidable enemies to the Apaches.
_November 15._--Quite a change has taken place since my passing here on
the 1st of September. At that time I left two men, with two mules and
accoutrements, a few rations, a little cotton cloth, and a few beads
for barter, also a little money. Now I found a comfortable house built
by putting upright poles in the ground, thatching them with tules, and
covering the sides with the same. The agent had also put up a decent
brush corral in which to keep our animals safe at night, for we are
liable here to inroads from the Tonte Apaches.
Had a conference to-day with the Indians, who had been for a number
of weeks around our post enquiring anxiously for my coming. They now
squatted to have a smoke and get some presents. They informed me
through an interpreter, who spoke very decent Spanish, that all the
grass and the water and the land around us belonged to their tribe;
that I must pay them for protecting as well as for feeding all of the
many mules they saw grazing about there daily, which they found it
convenient to consider as mine personally. I had promised them, when
going west, that on my way back we would have this talk, and as far
as possible prepared myself for them at San Diego. I gave such of
them special presents as had particularly aided our agents during my
absence. I fed the principal, gave all the warriors plugs of tobacco,
beads, and cotton cloth, and presented the head chief and interpreter
with suitable presents of shirts and fancy colored handkerchiefs.
About sunset, finding that the talking, smoking, and feeding was over,
and realizing the certainty of procuring no more presents to-day, the
Indians shook hands with us and went off. Such of them as had horses
rode them bare back, but the bulk of the warriors were footmen.
_November 16._--Left the Maricopa station, on our way to Tucson, with
three coaches, forty-nine animals, and twelve men. To-day met the mail
of October 24 from San Antonio.
_November 17._--Reached Tucson at 11½ p.m. Found train from La
Mesilla waiting for the mail.
_November 19._--Started from Tucson with three coaches, forty-six
animals, and sixteen men, including our passengers. I also had in
charge the mail of November 9 from San Diego, for which I had waited
at our Maricopa station. I was now retracing my steps to La Mesilla,
through the same country I had passed over in August, and, with a few
unimportant variations, by nearly the same road. Then it was the rainy
season, with showers almost every day; now it was the commencement of
winter, with occasional northers. On both trips I found the gramma
grass excellent in quality and abundant in quantity. There is plenty of
water for our purposes, with wood enough for cooking, and comfortable
sleeping on the ground in our blankets.
_November 24._--I met Mr. Hutton at Ojo La Vaca; he is engineer of the
El Paso and Fort Yuma wagon road expedition, and was examining the
country very carefully to select the best line for a road, and was
progressing finely.
_November 25._--Met the mail coach going west with the mail of November
9, from San Antonio; also passed to-day the working party of Colonel
Leach’s expedition, who were building a road up the cañon, from the
valley of the Rio Grande to the top of the Mesa.
_November 26._--Reached Mesilla at 10 a. m., and immediately despatched
the mail for San Diego by a messenger in waiting to carry it to
Buchanan, one hundred miles below the Mesilla, where the train was
waiting to carry it on to San Antonio. We have stocked this one hundred
miles along the Rio Grande valley chiefly with horses; when we have a
light mail we can express it through. I remained in the valley of the
Rio Grande, passing to and fro in the course of business, from November
26 until December 24.
During my absence in California, Mr. Giddings had done every thing
possible for the line; I must say he could not have done more if he
had been an owner. Furthermore, I am satisfied that few men could have
done so well for us. At his agency in El Paso he came in contact with
the mail men, who were running from San Antonio to that place, and did
much to place things in order which had been neglected at San Antonio.
On leaving Mr. Giddings I had promised him, upon the faith of the
understanding that Mr. Birch was to meet me at San Diego, that I would
bring back with me the cash necessary to pay up all claims against the
line; but, as before explained, Mr. Birch did not meet me, I could not
reach the supplies of money required, and was consequently compelled to
return to the Rio Grande empty handed, relying on selling my drafts to
cancel large amounts due to creditors in the valley. When I crossed
the Rio Grande going west, on the 23d of August, I had twenty-four
mules and two poor carriages; fourteen of these twenty-four animals
belonged to Fort Davis.--(See journal, August 12.) When I recrossed
the same river, November 27, coming east, I had left behind me quite a
different state of things.
The mail line had now nearly or quite two hundred head of mules west
of the Rio Grande, stationed at San Diego, Carissa creek, Fort Yuma,
Peterman’s, Maricopa wells, Tucson, and La Mesilla. At each of these
places agencies or stations had been established, with abundant
supplies of grain everywhere. We feed corn to all our working mules. I
had made contracts for hay wherever the grass was likely to be short
the coming winter. We had thirty-five mail carriers and agents along
this part of the line; all well-armed border-men, carefully selected
for their familiarity with this kind of service. We had seven coaches
on the road, and three more building in San Diego, so that we could
already take passengers through from ocean to ocean in stage coaches.
I felt that I had carried out in spirit the agreement with your
department to place a creditable service on the line, besides having
complied with the letter of the contract in carrying the mail.
I was met here in the valley by unexpected difficulties, which should
not have been thrown in the way of the line.
The following advertisement was put in the San Antonio papers and came
to El Paso about the time of my arrival:
SAN ANTONIO, _November 20, 1857_.
Whereas Julia A. B. Birch, of Swansea, in the county of Bristol and
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, administratrix of the estate of James
E. Birch, of the town and Commonwealth aforesaid, has sold, assigned,
transferred, conveyed, and set over unto Oltes H. Kelton, of
Charleston, South Carolina, for a good and sufficient consideration,
all the stock of the mail lines and post routes from San Antonio;
Texas, to San Diego, California, and from El Paso to Santa Fé, in
Texas, so far as the said James E. Birch, deceased, has any interest
in the same; and whereas the said Oltes H. Kelton has appointed
the undersigned his agent and attorney, by power of attorney duly
acknowledged, to take charge of and superintend his entire interest
in said routes, as his sole agent: Now, this is to notify all whom it
may concern, that all contracts and acts made by any person otherwise
than those that I may appoint, touching the interest of said routes,
will be treated as a nullity.
ABNER BARROWS.
[Mr. Giddings also received a letter from Mr. Barrows, stating that
Mr. Kelton had appointed him as sole agent in Texas, at the same
time requesting Mr. G. to continue in charge of the line at El Paso,
sending the mail forward to California as he had been doing under my
superintendence. This was an awkward dilemma. It seemed clear to myself
and friends that if I gave up my situation of superintendent the line
must stop. If I once discarded the charge, the property would be seized
by the creditors. Wages were due to the men, and accounts had been
made with merchants for advances of every kind. A line through remote
settlements must have a good credit. In this aspect of things, having
received no letters from Mrs. Birch nor any of her friends, and no
revocation of my authority having reached me, I applied to Simeon Hart,
esq., of El Paso, to advance me the necessary funds to carry on the
line until I could reach New York. I exhibited to Mr. Hart my original
authority from Mr. Birch, together with all the subsequent facts since
his death, so far as I knew them. I consider that we are indebted to
Mr. Hart for the present existence of the line. He went in person to
the different merchants whom we owed for advances, recommended them to
take my drafts on New York, stating that he had examined the matter
and was perfectly satisfied. Mr. Hart himself did more: he loaned the
line ten thousand dollars, which enabled me to not only pay up the more
pressing claims of the mens’ wages, but all the outstanding obligations
of the line, excepting the drafts before referred to on New York, and
the amount due to Mr. Giddings. When I turned my back on the Rio Grande
valley, the credit of the line stood well. I felt satisfied that I had
done right; I am now more than satisfied.]
_El Paso, December 24._--The mail of December 9 came in from San Diego
at 10 a. m.
_Presidio, San Eleazario, December 25._--Mail from San Antonio came in
at 1 a. m. I reached our lower station on the Rio Grande, a new place
which we have named Birchville, at 8 p.m.; I was _en route_ for San
Antonio. Here I found that the up mail of December 9 had been caught
in a snow storm west of Fort Davis. Five mules had been chilled so
they were unable to go on with the train. The conductor was compelled
to leave the coach and nearly all the mules at Fort Davis, coming on
to Birchville with six mules only, bringing the letter mail. He was
most fortunate in being able to borrow a buggy for this purpose. The
conductor who brought up this mail of December 9 should have returned
at once to San Antonio with the down mail; but as he was unable to do
so for the reason which I have stated, I carried out an intention which
I had formed at El Paso, and determined to take the mail through to
San Antonio under my own charge. I had a coach and twenty-two mules,
and four passengers. To perform the actual labor of this trip, I had
two clerks of mine now out of employ by my discharge. Mr. Giddings
accompanied me, with two hired men.
_December 26._--Birchville, at 10 a. m., weather very pleasant.
_December 27._--In our second drive this morning we ascended the cañon
leading from the valley of the Rio Grande to the high table lands of
this portion of western Texas. We found a change of climate apparent
at once. The whole of our journey, from the summit of this pass till
we reached Devil’s river, in the course of which we had descended from
this table land, was cold and uncomfortable, though by no means to the
extent of any personal suffering; I may except very cold fingers, while
driving, before sunrise.
_December 29._--To-day we reached Fort Davis. The officers’ quarters,
with good oak wood fires, looked more comfortable than our camping
on ground; but, for fear of catching cold by the change, I preferred
to continue sleeping out of doors.--(See journal of August 12 for my
interview with Col. Sewall.)
_December 30._--Met an extra of ours going up to Birchville--coach,
mules, and complete outfit to take their place in the line. Gave orders
for the conductor to take the newspaper mail from Fort Davis, which
had been left behind by the last up mail in consequence of the snow at
Birchville. He would meet another coach and send it forward to El Paso.
_January 3._--We reached Fort Lancaster at 7 a. m., changed our mail,
and started again at 11 a. m. It commenced snowing as we left Fort
Lancaster, and continued to snow so rapidly that I deemed it prudent to
stop about 3 o’clock p. m. We halted in a cañon 9 miles from the fort,
on the edge of the Llano Estacado. It was not safe to attempt to cross
this bleak plain in the face of a snow storm, with the road obliterated
by the snows. We might have lost our way, or our mules might have
perished from being chilled through by standing exposed, after heating
themselves in the exertion of hauling the coach. I therefore made a
halt and camped for the night. We then drove the mules into a cañon,
where they would be partially sheltered from the wind and storm by
bushes, made a fire, cooked our dinner, set the guard, and then went to
bed, with the snow falling at intervals all night long.
_January 4._--A fine morning, with the sun bright and pleasant, the
ground covered with snow to the depth of several inches, rendering it
almost impossible to roll our coach to-day. The snow would have clung
to the hoofs of our mules and to the tire of our coach so as to render
our progress very slow. Under these circumstances I deemed it best to
send the mail forward on mules in charge of one of the two hired men,
accompanied by a passenger equally familiar with the road, who very
kindly volunteered to accompany the mail and rider. They each took
a riding mule, also a third mule packed with the mail, provisions,
and a few small articles. These animals they were to change at Fort
Clarke, with yet another change, if possible, at Dharris. (They made
the trip to San Antonio in good order and in time, delivering the mail
at 6 a. m. the morning of the 9th.) This morning, after the mail was
gone, I sent our mules back to Fort Lancaster with directions to have
them well fed with grain, returning them to our camp by night with an
additional supply of grain and provisions if the snow melted so that
we could proceed. In the course of the afternoon, the weather looking
threatening, I sent one of my clerks, who volunteered to go on foot,
to the quartermaster with a request that he would send out a team of
mules and haul us back to the fort; this request he promptly acceded
to, and we reached there about 10 o’clock at night. Having despatched
the mail, there was now no cause for our immediate haste; I, therefore,
determined to recruit my animals at Fort Lancaster before continuing
our journey. With this view I remained there for three days.
_January 7._--This morning we left Fort Lancaster the second time. We
had for company a party under escort to Fort Hudson. This evening we
met the mail coach which left San Antonio December 24. It had been
detained several days by high water in the Medina river at Castroville,
being afterwards caught in the same snow storm that had delayed our
coach; like us they were compelled to lie by and wait a day or two for
the snow to disappear. As they had but commenced their journey to
Birchville, they could not send their mail forward on pack animals as
we did. Again, as the up mail contains newspapers it is much heavier
than the down mail.
Nothing of special interest occurred on the road to San Antonio
differing from the usual routine which I have sketched from day to day.
I staid at Fort Hudson and at Fort Clarke long enough to attend to the
business of the line at each of those posts. I did this in the absence
of any one to take my place, though I was yet in doubt as to my own
position.
_January 17._--Reached San Antonio to-night.
_January 18._--Received to-day a revocation of my authority from Mrs.
Birch, the revocation dated the 26th of last October; I ceased at once
to act for the line and prepared to come north, giving the new local
agent every information the limited time permitted.
_January 19._--I left for Washington.
The question is frequently asked as to whether we have a well defined
road all the way from San Antonio to San Diego. To this I answer that
it is as plain a road as any stage route over which a mail is carried
in coaches for your department. An emigrant would find it as impossible
to miss his way when once on our road either going to or returning from
California, as he would if traveling in a country where guide posts
marked every cross-road.
An examination of my table of distances will show four military posts
between San Antonio and Birchville; from Birchville to La Mesilla we
have a settled country all the way; from La Mesilla to Tucson, we have
not at present any military posts, but I am informed that the War
Department contemplates placing two forts in this portion of Arizona,
immediately on the completion of the Fort Yuma and El Paso wagon road.
In the whole distance of 460 miles from Tucson to San Diego, one
hundred and fifteen miles is the longest distance at present between
any of our mail stations.
An emigrant passing over our route will meet or be overtaken by a mail
party four times every month, while from our mail conductors he can
always obtain the reliable information as to road, wood, water, grass,
camping places, with directions where to find safe valleys in which to
feed his stock for a few weeks, and transmit messages, letters, or any
desired intelligence from friends before or behind him. I have received
many expressions of satisfaction from emigrants I met on the road,
and, also, from others in California, who, last season, on the trip,
realized, in a small way, the advantages of the mail, in these respects
to overland emigration.
When camping, after a drive of about ten miles, we unharness in the
middle of the road, and from one end of our route to the other, from
San Antonio to San Diego, the road can almost be measured by the ashes
of our camp fires.
From Fort Hudson, in Texas, to Tazotal, on the Gila, a distance of
1,200 miles, nearly the whole of our route is over an elevated, dry
country. When but a small amount of labor was requisite at first to
make a road suited to staging, only a portion of this has ever had any
labor bestowed on it beyond that of passing trains. From San Antonio
to El Paso, a distance of 651 miles, the road was opened in the year
1849, by a government train of several hundred wagons, _en route_
to El Paso; since that time, the continual passage of government
and freighting trains, as also of the Santa Fé and San Antonio mail
coaches, had beaten down an excellent road, before the labors of the El
Paso and Fort Yuma wagon road expedition commenced.
That portion of our route situated between El Paso and the Pimos
villages has never had even a government train to open it. Col.
Leach’s labors will be of great service in straitening it, finding new
watering places, enlarging others, and in constructing tanks, if the
appropriation will admit of such an expenditure. A consultation of the
items of my own journey, where I have put down each day’s advance, will
tend to show the excellent condition of our roads, for we used a coach
all the way from San Antonio to San Diego, sometimes drawn by six,
never by less than four mules.
There are a number of formidable looking ranges of mountains upon all
the maps, running across Arizona, north and south, which look to be
barriers almost impassable without a great expenditure of time and
money. Our road we found to be _through_, rather than _over_, these
mountains; although they appeared formidable at a distance, yet, on
approaching, they generally proved to be isolated buttes, with our road
winding around them by easy grades through the valleys, or else passing
over some low span or saddle, no way impeding staging. These passes in
the mountains seemed to be formed by nature on purpose for a road. The
speed our coaches are making through these mountain ranges is the best
evidence of their easy and expeditious passage. By my journal of August
25, it will be noticed that the speed we made from Cook’s spring,
through the Sierra Madre mountains to and beyond the Mimbres river, was
21 miles in five hours; through all the other mountain passes we made
much the same rate of speed.
Having formed my ideas of mountains and mountain roads from a pretty
extensive experience among the Sierra Nevada of California, was
very forcibly struck by the fact of not meeting a regular chain of
mountains all the way from San Antonio until I reached the coast range
of California, eighty miles from San Diego. I wish to call particular
attention to the distinction between ranges of mountains like the
Alleghanies and Sierra Nevada, and the system of isolated buttes
scattered over portions of our line and around which we pass by valley
roads well adapted to speed. The mountains south of the Gila, and its
immediate neighborhood, do not interfere with our road; they come up
close to the river in many places, but leave an ample passage way for
our road around the bases. These mountains are mostly what the Mexicans
term _Mesas_; high hills, flat on their tops. It appears as if the
plain had formerly been level with the tops of the hills, some hundreds
of feet higher than it is now. This same appearance of Mesas is found
along the Pecos.