The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 35, July 1931 - April, 1932 Page: 293
348 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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A Log of the Texas-California Cattle Trail, 1854
arrangements in full for the trip, day passed off as usual. About
eleven O'Clock at night some of the men visited a watermelon
field about two miles distant, and apropriated ? ten or fifteen
melons, a bushel of green corn, and a bushel of onions. We ex-
pected the sheriff after us, so we hid the pigings in a cart, and
looked as honest [as] honesty itself; I think we; will try the
edibles to-morrow.
10th Thursday. Cloudy, and cool in the morning; warm and
clear at noon, still in the valley and on the bank of the Rio
Grande, it is down now and is a verry insignifficant stream.
We are nooning it about seven miles from last camp. The
mountains which contain silver are the only ones which are visi-
ble and only obstruct a small portion of the southern vision.
Started at 3 O'Clock, passed through one of the most beautiful
pararies I have seen for some time; for twenty leagues square
the pararie is thickly covered with ripe mezquit grass, and has
the appearance of an oats field when ready for the harvest; this
would have been a splendid place to graze the cattle but it is
seven or 8 miles to water. The different colors the mountains
around presented made the whole landscape one of unsurpassed
beauty. I heartily wished we could encamp here for 8 or 10 days
every thing seemed so calm and quiet; a few miles further on,
from the top of the elevated land we were on, the rio grande pre-
sented its silver serpentine surface. The heavy cottonwood on
each side made quite a pleasing picture.
Arrived in camp at dark. Had no regular supper but eat a
piece of bacon and flour Tortilla made by the mexicans; put a
blanket on the ground used one to cover with, had my saddle
bags for a pillow, and had as comfortable a nap as heart could
wish, - I have felt better to-day than in some weeks past, dont
know the reason, but attribute it to the fact that we are on the
road again.
11th Friday - Fine day, have been h[e]lping to unload the
carts and carrying the good [s] to the bank of the river. Some
of the men are engaged building a raft to carry over the perish-
able goods. The bottom of the river is very uneven and quick-
sand. I stript all but my shirt and pitched in, before we got
through a cold wind and had like to froze us up; by twelve
O'Clock everything except the cattle were over; we encamped on293
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 35, July 1931 - April, 1932, periodical, 1932; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101092/m1/297/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.