_July 19._--To-day I despatch an extra train with stores for the road, and under instructions to go as far as Fort Lancaster, three hundred miles from here, and then to return. By this train I sent relays to be used by the up mail of the 24th, which is to be under charge of Captain Skillman. Nine mules were to be left at Fort Clarke, and eighteen at Fort Lancaster. [This train was attacked and captured on Devil’s river by the Indians. I have referred to it more particularly in the course of my journal.] _July 22._--Mr. Giddings’ mail in from El Paso; they met our mail of July 9 getting along safely, though slowly. _July 24._--Punctual to the hour named in the contract, 6 a. m., I this morning despatched the mail coach from the Plaza with the through mail to San Diego. The postmaster made up mails also for all the intermediate military posts on our route, although supplying them was not at first contemplated in the contract. Desiring to manifest, from the first, a spirit of accommodation to all parties, we were happy to take charge of anything the postmaster chose to send. This mail was the second _through mail_ which had left San Antonio, being at the same time the first that had been sent forward in a coach. This outfit consisted of-- One coach and harness. Six men, well armed with rifles, and a Colt’s pistol to each. Four saddles and accoutrements. Ropes, hopples, shoeing tools, shoes and nails. Cooking utensils, and numerous minor articles. Provisions for thirty days, calculated to last to the Pimos villages and back to El Paso. Thirty-six mules; of these, twenty-seven had been sent forward on the road as relays. Also six hundred dollars in cash to purchase supplies on the route. [It was twenty-one of these mules which were captured on Devil’s river by the Indians; see journal of June 19 and August 2.] [To insure this mail getting through in schedule time, if possible, I gave Capt. Skillman authority to act for the line in any emergencies which might arise. The reputation which he enjoyed in San Antonio fully warranted me in entrusting this pioneer coach to him, and I subsequently found him every way qualified for the service he had undertaken, as some interesting incidents connected with his trip will prove hereafter.]