Colonial Expeditions to the Interior of California Central Valley, 1800-1820Cook, Sherburne Friend
History
Colonial Expeditions to the Interior of California Central Valley, 1800-1820
Cook, Sherburne Friend
California -- Discovery and exploration; California -- History -- To 1846 -- Sources; Central Valley (Calif.)
_20th day._ At about three o'clock in the afternoon we went to the
above-mentioned river in search of the village which the guide talked
about. Having arrived at the spot the guide was asked where the village
was. He said it was so far away that we would get there only at sunset.
We asked him why he had deceived us and he answered because he felt
cold. We asked him again and he said that the village of Tape was the
one which was to be found in that direction. However, since it was
afternoon we decided to wait for the horses, which had been left with
ten soldiers and two cowboys. They crossed the river without our knowing
where. We asked the guide the location of the ford so that we could join
the other soldiers with the horses but we failed to do so because the
guide misled us. We slept at the junction of the San José and San
Joaquin rivers, one league apart, with no other incident.
_21st day._ At nine o'clock in the morning we joined the troops with
the horses, killing on the way two deer to supply the troops, who were
without provisions. The day passed by and we decided to attack the
village mentioned previously at four o'clock the next morning. But we
did not carry out this plan because of a great stampede of the horses
at about ten o'clock in the evening. Even though all the troops were
mounted it was not possible to contain the stampede, because many
animals had scattered in numerous groups. At this misfortune the
Christian Indian from Santa Cruz, who had accompanied us through Kings
River, deserted us. He had seemed so devoted that we had released him
from his bonds so that he could better bear the hardships of the road.
_22nd day._ This morning the horses were counted and sixty-five animals
were missing. Corporals Francisco Juarez, Antonio Olivera, Juan Arroyo,
and Encargado José Villavicencio, taking ten men [each] and Rivera with
four were ordered to go out in different directions. Juarez, going to
the east, found thirty-eight animals and had to kill one horse because
it was exhausted. Arroyo, who went to the south, brought the news that
the tracks led to the trail toward Soledad, but because it was late he
turned back. Villavicencio, who went to the north, reported that at a
distance of a league and a half there was a village. Near it was a mule,
one of those we had lost during the preceding night, and Villavicencio
had seen tracks of horses going down to drink. He saw some old Indians
coming toward the woods in which he was hidden, so he did not leave the
woods and did not catch the mule, in order to avoid being seen by the
old people. Olivera brought back no information. It was decided to
attack the village at dawn in case some of the inhabitants had remained
there. Nothing else to report.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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