"We sometimes now lack for bread, Are less than quarter rations fed, And soon expect, for all of meat, Nought less than broke-down mules to eat." The trip over the Continental Divide was one of hardship, at places tracks for the wagons being made by marching files of men ahead, to tramp down ruts wherein the wheels might run. The command for 48 hours at one time was without water. From the top of the Divide the wagons had to be taken down by hand, with men behind with ropes, the horses driven below. Finally a more level country was reached, December 2, at the old, ruined ranch of San Bernardino, near the south-eastern corner of the present Arizona. The principal interest of the trip, till the Mexican forces at Tucson were encountered, then lay in an attack upon the marching column by a number of wild bulls in the San Pedro Valley. It had been assumed that Cooke would follow down the San Pedro to the Gila, but, on learning that the better and shorter route was by way of Tucson, he determined upon a more southerly course. Capture of the Pueblo of Tucson Tucson was garrisoned by about 200 Mexican soldiers, with two small brass fieldpieces, a concentration of the garrisons of Tubac, Santa Cruz and Fronteras. After some brief parley, the Mexican commander, Captain Comaduron, refusing to surrender, left the village, compelling most of its inhabitants to accompany him. No resistance whatever was made. When the Battalion marched in, the Colonel took pains to assure the populace that all would be treated with kindness. He sent the Mexican commander a courteous letter for the Governor of Sonora, Don Manuel Gandara, who was reported "disgusted and disaffected to the imbecile central government." Little food was found for the men, but several thousand bushels of grain had been left and were drawn upon. On December 17, the day after the arrival of the command, the Colonel and after fifty men "passed up a creek about five miles above Tucson toward a village (San Xavier), where they had seen a large church from the hills they had passed over." The Mexican commander reported that the Americans had taken advantage of him, in that they had entered the town on Sunday, while he and his command and most of the inhabitants were absent at San Xavier, attending mass. The Pima villages were reached four days later. By Cooke the Indians were called "friendly, guileless and singularly innocent and cheerful people." In view of the prosperity of the Pima and Maricopa, Colonel Cooke suggested that this would be a good place for the exiled Saints to locate, and a proposal to this effect was favorably received by the Indians. It is possible that his suggestion had something to do with the colonizing by the Mormons of the upper part of the nearby Salt River Valley in later years.