Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-04-07
From the Kansas city Journal Of Commerce.
Important Arrival and Gratifying


important Arrival and CraIhy1nS
News.
We were agreeably surprised on Monday
last, by the arrival at Kansas City, of Lieut..
E. f. Beale and party, from their exploration
of a wagon and railroad route from Fort
Thorn to Fort Yuma and California. The
party consisted of Lieut.. Beale, his assistants.
Messrs Bell and Schaffer. Our citizens were
glad to again meet with this noted explorer.
by far the best esteemed and respected by
Western men, of all the numerous individuals
sent out by the Government. His practical
sagacity frank, open and manly department,
his contempt for the fOpperies and pedantries
of West Point, and his high appreciation of
the craft of the prairies and mountains, give
him hold upon Western sympathies, as
though he were ''to the manor born" He
speaks iii the highest terms of the new route
explored by him, which from the Valley of
the Rio Grande, follows the 35th parallel to
the Pacific. as practicable in all respects,
wood water. grade, climate, etc. He travers-
ed it in mid summer going out, and he found
every thing necessary for great thoroughfare
in abundance he traversed it in mid winter
on his return, and had no occasion to spread
tent, but slept every night in the open air,
from California to Kansas City. he says he
can take train of wagons from this place to
California without losing an animal or, to
use his own language, closing nut" from
wagon on the route. He reports the camel
experiment entirely successful in every re-
spect. and is enthusiastic in regard to their
value as aids in exploration on the great cen
trail plains and valleys of the American con-
tinent, water may be left at all times with
out fear or hesitation.
We trust that Government will give him adj
ditiOnal opportunities to still further explore
the interior by means of these animals, as it
is lasting disgrace to American science and
American patriotism, that we have a country
larger than half the ruling States of Europe
about which we know no more than we do of
the topography of the north pole-not even
half so much. While we have expended thou
sands in treasure aud valuable lives, in hunt
ing icebergs and snow huts in the polar re-
giOns we have left untouched One-halfo our own
country-and only know there is a country
there at all by finding land on the East and
West Oft. Let the Government place at the
disposal of such man as Beale the means
and the camcls, let him. as Walker is said to
have done in Kansas, write his own instruc-
tions, and in two years we will know more of
the great interior of our country than could De
learned from all the bug and Lizard hunters
ever sent out by Congress with Committee in
structions. Will not some thoroughly Wes-
tern man. with patriotism looking beyond
"a Job, y make a move in this matter. But
we are getting off the subject with which we
proposed to make up this article. Lieut.. Beale
on this expedition-not of toads, Lizards,
coyotas, spiders, or centpedes, but of people
enjoying higher degree of civilization than
any of the Indian tribes yet discovered, with
evidences of an anterior civilization. in the
existence of ruins both ola civic and military
character, evincing the capacity of the coun-
try to support population devoted to the
higher habits of civilization. Also evidences
of occupancy bv Europeans two centuries ago.
One of these he calls "inscriptiou rock, "
which bears in characters, older than the his
tory of our own occupancy Of the continent,
the following inscription.
4 qviesivbo el Genl. Don Domingo FL Vas
ques gu, cOnquisto Nra. Santa Fe. Yearl.
Corona tod il nebO Mexico ASV. costa. Nod
1892.
TRANSLATION.
Here passed General Don Domingo Var
queZ. who conquered for her lady of Santa Fe,
the true crown of all New Mexico, at his own
cost; in A. d. 1892.
On the same rock was also found the fol-
lowing inscription, which we translate, omit
ting the original Spanish:
''Here passed the Ensign Joseph Payba Bias
COME los, in the same year with the Com
mander of the Kingdom, at his own cost-ISth
of February, 1926"
This rock rises from a level plain thirty
the spurs of the Rocky Mountains, to the
height of one hundred and fifty feet, and has
a front of twenty-seven PAGES. being sur
rounded with artihcal works, heavy masonry
and all the evidences of permanent occupancy
showing that it was once held as strategeti-
cal position, either by the contemporaries of
Cortez or by the races which he conquered
1t is country rich as this that mas been
heretofore set down as uneXplored, that bias
now been opened by this gallant explorer to
the investigation of science and to develop
ment by American enterprise. If these facts
on one line of exploration have only been
discovered in 1858, and now for the first time
given to the world by the press, what might
we not expect by a still farther search Into
the bowels of the land,n by the same effective
means and the same effective agent. We
again ask what truly Western man in Con
gress, will take charge of this matter and
secure to us ii thorough exploration of the
great interior of this Western empire Ii is
glorious opportunity for an honorable fame.