=At the Mouth of the Gila.=--Speaking of the Gila at its junction with the Colorado, and of the conditions obtaining in the command at that stage of the march, Col. Cooke writes: "A vast bottom; the country about the two rivers is a picture of desolation; nothing like vegetation beyond the alluvium of the two rivers; bleak mountains, wild looking peaks, stony hills and plains, fill the view. We are encamped in the midst of wild hemp. The mules are in mezquit thickets, with a little bunch grass, a half a mile off. The mules are weak, and their failing, or flagging to-day in ten miles, is very unpromising for the hundred mile stretch, dry and barren, before them. There is no grass, and only scanty cottonwood boughs for them to-night, but I sent out forty men to gather the fruit, called tornia, a variety of the mezquit. They have gathered twelve or fifteen bushels, which has been spread out to be eaten on a hard part of the sand-bar. "Francisco was sent across the river to fire the thickets beyond--this to clear the way for the pioneer party in the morning. He says the river is deeper than usual; it is wider than the Missouri, and of the same muddy color. * * * It is said to be sixty miles to the mouth of the river."--the Colorado.[44:j] FOOTNOTES: [35:a] See Tyler's Battalion Ch. XX. Lieutenant Willis gives the date of arrival 24th of December. Captains Brown and Higgins, stationed at Pueblo, give the 20th. The latter kept a daily journal. [36:b] Tyler's History of The Mormon Battalion, pp. 180-183. [38:c] Tyler's Battalion, pp. 219, 220. [39:d] Cooke's Conquest, pp. 145, 6. [39:e] Tyler's Battalion, p. 219. [40:f] Cooke's Conquest, p. 149. [41:g] Previous to this the Colonel had issued the following order: "Head Quarters Mormon Battalion, "Camp on the San Pedro, "December 13th, 1846. "Thus far on our course we have followed the guides furnished us by the General [Kearny]. These guides now point to Tucson, a garrison town, as our road, and assert that any other course is a hundred miles out of the way and over a trackless wilderness of mountains, rivers and hills. We will march, then, to Tucson. We came not to make war on Sonora, and less still to destroy an important outpost of defense against Indians: but we will take the straight road before us, and overcome all resistance. But shall I remind you that the American soldier ever shows justice and kindness to the unarmed and unresisting? The property of individuals you will hold sacred. The people of Sonora are not our enemies. "By order of "Lieut.-Col. Cooke, "(Signed) P. C. Merrill, "Adjutant." [42:h] See Cooke's Conquest, p. 151; also Tyler's Battalion, pp. 228-230.