The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1847-02-12

Gnu " iS
WORTHY Of being mentioned, by way of H.
Illustrating how friendly the people of Par
ras really were. that as The officers that
went al!rr The sick were walking through
a principal street, rock large enough to
have killed man, was dropped between
them from Tie top of house. They
looked up, and saw three men leaning
over tie banui.,cr al The edge Of the roof
one Of Them with a lance IN his hand
One Of The officers drew IA six shooter and
DISCHARGED barrel at each Of tie men,
who successfully disappeared as they
were fired al, but whether any of them
were Killed or hurt, they did not ascer-
tain.
The artillery and Dragons had halted
for the mig t at the pass about xix miles
beyond where the infantry had enramp-
ed, and early IN The morGIng Gen. Wool
letl us TO o,e,lake them, leaving US under
the command of Col. Churchill About
day 'igh, the large trains came up, and
with them we started in pursuil--,aking
the road we had come-lairly counter,
matching, if no, backing out. We con.
Iirued on the old road until we came to
the hacienda where ! made mention in p
former letter of some peoanes living in
loX-hulcs up the eide of huge mountain.
We reached this place, 8 or is miles.
about noon, when the men were permit
ted To take rest Of an hour, and the taH-
CT officers in addition some aqua drdeania
y aqua, or, III plain English, brandy and
water. Thus refreshed, the march was
resumed and vigorously kept up till night.
directing our course due east, leaving our
old road To the left. We halted on q
5 nall stream, on villainous ground, hav.
ing made Il, least 30 miles from sunrise
10 sunset. The night was cold, windy,
and rough as the ground we lay upon,
and not half the men put up their tents,
but creps under them for better shelter
from the pirless winds.
We left this place amidst little corfu
sion and uncertainty as to the order of
march, arising from a question which
was raised tie day previous, and is sill
undecided, as to the right Of Col Churchill
TO take command in the absence uf Gen.
Wool. Col. c. uuqueslionably ranks
Col Hardin, bu, lie is assigned TO this
command as an Inspector GeneraI--as a
staff officer. with particular duties to per.
form-wliich cannot be omitted. yet
which he could not perform and a, the
same time be in command OF the column.
| believe all tie officers - tie command.
except Ger. Wool and Col. G.. himself.
agree tina, he has no right to take com
mand under any circumstances, and even
some Of the regular commanders have
gone 50 far as 10 tell him that they would
not only not obey his orders themselves,
but would arrest any of their subalterns
that would. That Wool insists on Col.
C's. right 10 command is accounted for
by the fact tina, lie has been an Inspec-
tor General himself, and may nave been
similarly situated. This morning, the
orders Of the two Colonies councted very
considerably, and as neither was willing
to obey the other, Col. G. ordered Col.
Hardin under arrest, which Of course a.
mounted TO nothing, as he would not ac-
knowledge the right ofthe Other 10 arrest
him, They finally met, and had very
nice little quarrel, which, like many OH
or qusrrels, resulted in nothing, and both
moved on I'D HJitum with the coumu,-
each taking care, very commercially, to
give no orders that should conflict with
those Of the other, ye, leaving Col. Har-
din so far the advantage that his orders
were promptly oheyeG, While re had to
endorse those Of Col. G.. before they were
obeyed.
We marched this day abou, % miles.
in due eastward course. over very
rough road. through narrow valley, and
Tie men were tired enough, when, near
sundown, we halted a, a stream that ap.
pears to cross the valley and wend lis
way through the mountains. OF the face
of Tue country, ! can say nothing but
what | have said dozen times before,
only it is noticeable tina, the mountains
on our right, which were taller than mos,
We have seen, were covered with pine
timber, much Of which has been torn
from lis roots by the rains and is scatter
ed over the valley in the shape Of food.
wood-a curious spectacle 10 us, as al
present there is no wafer for miles, ant
everything looks as dry and arid as Il
there never had been rain here.
There was, for the first time, at hi,
encampmenl, Sigh, indication Of an en-
envy in the neighboIhood. A Mexican
moun,rd on fleet horse and well armed
appeared on height about a mile from
us, and appeared TO watch us lnen,y. A
few men on horseback started in chase O
bin, but lie soon disappeared in the darl
ravines Of the mountains, and the pursui
was abandoned.
We left here about . O'Clock in H.,
morning, and by sun-up reached the en-
campment of Gen. Wool and the dra
goons, artillery and Arkansas regiment
near a beautiful little Mexican town nam
ed Patos. IA miles from our last encamp