carried on by the
natives and the Americans. The vessels employed to perform the voyage
are always double manned, and once on the shores of California, usually
half if the crew deserts. Accustomed to a warm climate and to a life of
indolence, they find themselves perfectly comfortable and happy in the
new country. They engage themselves now and then as journeymen, to fold
the hides, and, with their earnings, they pass a life of inebriety
singularly contrasting with the well-known abstemiousness of the
Spaniards. Such men had Fonseca taken into his service, and having
seized upon a small store of arms and ammunition, he prepared for his
expedition.

In the meanwhile the governor of Senora having been apprised of the
movements at Monterey, took upon himself to punish the outbreak,
imagining that his zeal would be highly applauded by the Mexican
government. Just at this period troops having come from Chihuahua, to
quell an insurrection of the conquered Indians, he took the field in
person, and advanced towards California. Leaving the ex-governor
Fonseca and the governor of Senora for a while, I shall return to my
operations among the Indians.

I have stated, that upon the resolution of the Shoshones to unite the
tribes, I had despatched my old servant to Monterey, and Gabriel to the
nearest Apache village. This last had found a numerous party of that
tribe on the waters of the Colorado of the West, and was coming in the
direction which I had myself taken, accompanied by the whole party. We
soon met; the Apaches heard with undeniable pleasure the propositions I
made unto them, and they determined that one hundred of their chiefs and
warriors should accompany me on my return to the Shoshones, in order to
arrange with the elders of the tribe the compact of the treaty.

On our return we passed through the Arrapahoes, who had already received
my messengers, and had accepted as well as given the "brides," which
were to consolidate an indissoluble union. As to the Comanches, seeing
the distance, and the time which must necessarily be lost in going and
returning, I postponed my embassy to them, until the bonds of union
between the three nations, Shoshones, Apaches, and Arrapahoes, should be
so firmly cemented as not to be broken. The Arrapahoes followed the
example of the Apaches; and a hundred warriors, all mounted and
equipped, joined us to go and see their fathers, the Shoshones, and
smoke with them the calumet of