_August 2._--Left Castroville at 4 a. m.; an hour afterwards we found five of our six missing mules grazing quietly by the road side unguarded. I thought at the time that this losing of mules was very strange, but I have since found it quite a feature in our business, and one that it is impossible to prevent. Animals are left behind because the mail cannot be detained waiting for broken down mules to recruit, or to find strayed stock. About 8 a. m. I met Captain Wallace, whom I had despatched from San Antonio on the 19th in charge of the train with relays for Captain Skillman. (See journal of that day and July 24.) All that now returned of a fine outfit was the conductor and one man on borrowed mules. A drizzling rain was falling, the two discomfitted mail men were wrapped in sombre looking blankets. One of them had his arm in a sling from a wound received in the fight, and indeed their whole appearance was well calculated to give their narrative of the loss a gloomy coloring to any one not familiar with Indian depredations. The particulars of this disaster, as I gathered them from the two men, were as follows: The train was getting along finely on its way to Fort Lancaster, being at the time of the attack eighteen miles north of _Fort Hudson_. The Indians appeared suddenly on all sides of them from the chapparal, and commenced firing at the mules in the coach, the loose mules being a few hundred yards ahead. The frightened animals ran into a mezguer, turned short round, and broke the pole. As this accident prevented his keeping up with the _mulada_ ahead, the conductor, who was driving at the time, jumped from the box, called to a young man by the name of Clifford to follow him, and went to the assistance of the men driving the herd. Clifford was either surrounded by Indians, or wounded so that he was unable to get away from the coach, and died fighting hand to hand with the Indians. The conductor got the _mulada_ turned off from the road for the purpose of making a detour to escape his pursuers; but the chase was so hot, and one saddle mule having to be double mounted, they were compelled to betake themselves to running and leave the mules and property to their fate. We lost coach and harness, twenty-one mules, provision and equipment, one hundred dollars in money, and one box of personal property valued at some hundreds of dollars, belonging to a sergeant’s wife at Fort Lancaster. The Indians were supposed to be Camanches. At Fort Hudson the conductor found a scouting party, of the second cavalry, from Fort Clarke. They had been on the Rio Grande, examining well known Indian trails which lead into Mexico. Captain Whiting, the officer in command of this scouting party, immediately started on the trail of the Indians who had captured our train. A party of infantry was kindly sent out by Lieutenant Fink, commanding at Fort Hudson, for the purpose of burying young Clifford and of bringing in the broken coach, if worth preservation.