I was met here in the valley by unexpected difficulties, which should not have been thrown in the way of the line. The following advertisement was put in the San Antonio papers and came to El Paso about the time of my arrival: SAN ANTONIO, _November 20, 1857_. Whereas Julia A. B. Birch, of Swansea, in the county of Bristol and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, administratrix of the estate of James E. Birch, of the town and Commonwealth aforesaid, has sold, assigned, transferred, conveyed, and set over unto Oltes H. Kelton, of Charleston, South Carolina, for a good and sufficient consideration, all the stock of the mail lines and post routes from San Antonio; Texas, to San Diego, California, and from El Paso to Santa Fé, in Texas, so far as the said James E. Birch, deceased, has any interest in the same; and whereas the said Oltes H. Kelton has appointed the undersigned his agent and attorney, by power of attorney duly acknowledged, to take charge of and superintend his entire interest in said routes, as his sole agent: Now, this is to notify all whom it may concern, that all contracts and acts made by any person otherwise than those that I may appoint, touching the interest of said routes, will be treated as a nullity. ABNER BARROWS. [Mr. Giddings also received a letter from Mr. Barrows, stating that Mr. Kelton had appointed him as sole agent in Texas, at the same time requesting Mr. G. to continue in charge of the line at El Paso, sending the mail forward to California as he had been doing under my superintendence. This was an awkward dilemma. It seemed clear to myself and friends that if I gave up my situation of superintendent the line must stop. If I once discarded the charge, the property would be seized by the creditors. Wages were due to the men, and accounts had been made with merchants for advances of every kind. A line through remote settlements must have a good credit. In this aspect of things, having received no letters from Mrs. Birch nor any of her friends, and no revocation of my authority having reached me, I applied to Simeon Hart, esq., of El Paso, to advance me the necessary funds to carry on the line until I could reach New York. I exhibited to Mr. Hart my original authority from Mr. Birch, together with all the subsequent facts since his death, so far as I knew them. I consider that we are indebted to Mr. Hart for the present existence of the line. He went in person to the different merchants whom we owed for advances, recommended them to take my drafts on New York, stating that he had examined the matter and was perfectly satisfied. Mr. Hart himself did more: he loaned the line ten thousand dollars, which enabled me to not only pay up the more pressing claims of the mens’ wages, but all the outstanding obligations of the line, excepting the drafts before referred to on New York, and the amount due to Mr. Giddings.