20,730
Hill 1,858 508 5,161 3,189 181 201 761 9,493
Bosque 887 182 2,702 872 224 45 83 4,026
______ ______ _______ ______ ______ ___ ______ _______
34,403 15,800 121,072 22,564 69,330 678 22,748 236,392

Let us allow the usual proportion of field hands to the whole number of
slaves, viz., one-third, and we have a force of 5297; if whites do not
labor in the field, each field hand must cultivate 44 64/100 acres of
land. The customary allotment is ten cotton and five corn, or, where
corn and wheat are the principal products, from twenty to twenty-five
acres.

July 15, 1852. We were in motion at two o'clock in the morning,
and, taking a north-east course towards the base of the mountain
chain, passed through mezquite groves, intersected by brooks of
pure water flowing into the south branch of Cache Creek, upon one
of which we are encamped.

We find the soil good at all places near the mountains, and the
country well wooded and watered. The grass, consisting of several
varieties of the grama, is of a superior quality, and grows
luxuriantly. The climate is salubrious, _and the almost constant
cool and bracing breezes of the summer months_, with the entire
absence of anything like marshes or stagnant water, remove all
sources of noxious malaria, with its attendant evils of autumnal
fevers.--_Marcy's Exploration of the Red River_, p. 11.

Our camp is upon the creek last occupied by the Witchitas before
they left the mountains. The soil, in point of fertility,
surpasses anything we have before seen, and the vegetation in the
old corn-fields is so dense that it was with great difficulty I
could force my horse through it. It consisted of rank weeds
growing to the height of twelve feet. Soil of this character must
have produced an enormous yield of corn. The timber is
sufficiently abundant for all purposes of the agriculturist, and
of a superior quality.

We have now reached the eastern extremity of the Witchita chain
of mountains, and shall to-morrow strike our course for Fort
Asbuekl.

The more we have seen of the country about these mountains, the
more pleased we have been with it. Bounteous nature seems here to
have strewed her favors with a lavish hand, and to have held out
every inducement for civilized man to occupy it