The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 4, July 1900 - April, 1901 Page: 26

26 Texa.s Histowiccal Associatio~ Quarterly.
Here it may be presumed they went out through the Galisteo
pass in the Jumanes mountains, which would put them on the
plains after going through these mountains. !Then they may have
gone to the Pecos river about where Cuesta is, near where the Fort
Smith and Santa Fe wagon road used to cross (this river.
It is presumed that Mr. Winship had evidence for his statement
that "the bridge, however, was doubtless built across the upper
waters of the Canadian,"4 and it will here be presumed to have
been near the mouth of the Mora, and that they went thence along
the plain northeast of the Colorado, fork to in front of Point of
Rocks, which is the southern extremity of Raton mountains, not fai
from where the Santa Fe route crosses Utah creek. 'The head .ol
this suits the description of the barranca or ravine,42 as. it may well
be compared to the most magnificent barrancas 'of Cdlima. And
whether the fourteen day's march was from near where Cuesta is,
close to where the 'old Fort 'Smith and Santa Fe wagon road crosses
Rio Pecos, or from near the mouth of the Mora, this ravine or bar-
ranca meets the description better than any other in that. region.
'The distance from Cuesta to the junction of Ocate creek with the
Colorado, as well as now remembered, ins not much more than one
hundred .niles, and thence east, along .the old 'Santa Fe route, by
the Point of Rocks, to, the carion or barranca is not over forty miles;
and this whole distance of one hundred and forty miles might have
been made by the army in fourteen days. But if the bridge was at
the mouth of the M'ora, and the fourteen days counted thence to
the barranca, then it was not more than 'one hundred miles. If
this is the barranca or ravine referred to., it is about longitude 1030
30' W. and latitude 36 30' N., which affords a basis for calculation.
The first mountain within fifteen leagues of the Gulf coast, go-
ing toward Pgnuco, 'or Tampico, from the mouth of the Mississippi,
is in latitude 250 N. and longitude 980 W., and if the south end
of it is not where the twenty houses were, then it would be neces-
sary to go south to find another so close to the Gulf coast. So go-
ing north on longitude 98 W. to latitude 36 30' N. is 11 30',
and thence west to 103 30' W. would be 5 30', and these two as
"Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1892-93, Part I,
p. 504.
2The following ,description is given by Mr. Egan, of Laredo, Texas.