t and would not
last, for we had not fed them any grain. It is difficult to
recruit mules on the desert grass, for it is very short
generally, and the immense herds of buffalo ranging over the
country keep the grass short. At the last Spanish town we passed
through I sent Egan to buy a span of mules. That night Egan and
Stevens came to camp with two miserable little beasts. I said:

"What on earth have you brought those poor brutes for?"

"We cabbaged them; it was the best we could do," said Egan.

Then I told him that I was on a mission of duty, and trusted in
God, and I would not permit him to bring stolen animals to the
camp. I sent him back with the mules at once.

"My trust is in God, and not in the devil. We shall go on, while
you take back the mules, and leave them where you got them."

At Moro Station, on the Las Animas, the last camp we would find
until we reached the eastern edge of the plains, we found a
large, fat mule that belonged to the Government. Lieut. Gully
gave the station keeper, a young man, a receipt for the mule, and
we took it with us, as we were, in one sense, in Government
employ. We were carrying a mail, and on general business for the
Government. This was a fine, gentle mule. I called her Friendship.
When the other animals grew weak I fastened the doubletree to the
axle, and thus Friendship alone hauled the wagon fully three
hundred miles.

At the Cimmaron Springs we met a company of traders from St.
Louis, with a train of thirty-eight wagons. One of their wagons
was loaded with pitch-pine wood for cooking purposes. It was
raining, and a regular plains storm was coming on. These storms
are sometimes tremendously destructive. A train had been
overtaken at this same place the year before, and nearly all of
the animals perished. I counted one hundred and ninety skeletons
of mules that had died in that storm. Many of the men also died.
The storm took place ten days earlier in the season than did the
one which then threatened us.

We were invited to his camp by the captain; the others went, but
I stayed in my wagon to write up an account of the trip, which I
was obliged to keep by order of Brigham. Capt. Smith came to my
wagon and gave me a drink of fine brandy. He invited us to take
supper and breakfast with him, which we did. He asked me if I was
not afraid to travel with so small a company, and said the
Indians were on the warpath, committing depredations all along
the road; that he