The Indians fell completely into the trap, and they and the
cattle with them were captured without any difficulty.
During the winter our supply of grain ran short, and I sent a party,
with the Cordovas as guides, to Jemez. They were unable to get through
the snow, and the elder Cordova was so badly frost-bitten that in
spite of all we could do he died in the camp.
Then I went with a larger party, and was successful. On June 1st
orders came to break up the camp, and on the 9th the accumulated
stores of nineteen months' occupation were packed, and with a train of
ten wagons we set out for Santa Fe.
VI
CROSSING THE RIVER
Two days after my arrival at the Territorial capital I was ordered to
proceed alone to Los Pinos, a town two hundred miles south, in the
valley of the Rio Grande, and report to Captain Bayard, commanding
officer of a column preparing for a march to Arizona.
On reaching Algodones, on the eastern bank of the great river, I was
visited by a Catholic priest. He told me that Manuel Perea, the
Mexican lad with whom the boy corporals were so friendly at Santa Fe,
was a prisoner in the hands of Elarnagan, a chief of the Navajos.
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