Chihuahua

It was a remote, relatively unknown territory.

It is true its eastern portion, a narrow belt contiguous to Missouri, had a bloody political history, beyond which fact it was merely the portal to the vast mountain region on the west, to be reached only by crossing the desert, supposed to be included within the new state's geographical limits, through which ran the trail to far-off Santa Fe and Chihuahua.

There arrived one morning in the busy little hamlet of Council Grove, Morris County, Kansas, during the month of May, a strange, mysterious person.

He attracted much attention, for he was to the denizens of that remote frontier town as curious a personage as the man in the iron mask, or the awkward Caspar Hauser, whose appearance at the gates of Nuremberg once startled the good people of that staid and quiet town, hoary with the conservatism of centuries.

They were now as late as the emigrants who started by the northern route, and were further from their goal.

Leaving the Rio Grande at Roma, the company took the main road to Chihuahua, passing through Monterrey, Saltillo, Buena Vista, Paras, and Mapimi, and reaching Parral June 18.

Cholera still followed them, and here claimed another victim.

Mr. Audubon had been twice attacked, but had been able to resist the disease.

Mockingbirds are all around us, and could I linger to explore, I have no doubt I could have added many new birds to my list.

But with cholera hanging round, breaking out in a mild form, it is true, at every place we stop at, we must push on.

We daily pass cacti of three species, as well as miles of aloes, yet not enough nourishment to feed a horse in the whole of them, and through this country we start to-morrow for Chihuahua.

We have 157 mules and horses and 57 men, and are in good spirits.