The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 58, July 1954 - April, 1955 Page: 53
650 p. : ill., maps (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Expedition of Major Neighbors to El Paso in 1849 53
visible to our right. The writer called the attention of Maj Neighbors
to it and suggested the propriety of going through it. [The "puerto"
is an optical illusion seen from the east side and is not actually a
pass.]73 The Major thought it better to follow the guide. He was
leading us directly towards a mountain [Eagle Mountain Range].
We began ascending ridges. The sides were not far from perpendicu-
lar; the tops were only a few yards across-it was up and down-the
evolutions of Barry Cornwall's "Stormy Petrel" was a small thing by
the side of ours. We slept without water-and had nothing to eat.
To make the matter worse the writer fell sick-the green stalks were
too much for him.74
The next morning the terrain of Eagle. Mountain became
"rougher, more rocky, and the ridges more precipitous." After a
turn more to the south, the men emerged into an open valley.
About a mile from the Rio Grande, a "trail was reached with
shod horse tracks on it." This no doubt was the trail of Lieuten-
ant Whiting whose return route left the valley of the Rio Grande
at this point. The two expeditions missed each other here by only
two or three days, since Whiting left El Paso on April i9, 1849.75
By the time the Rio Grande was reached, at a point which Neigh-
bors and Ford estimated to be about one hundred miles from
El Paso, Ford was in such a demoralized condition that he did not
recognize the river. Sullivan exploded, "You confounded fool you
have been riding along its banks for more than two miles."-"Is
that so? I thought it was a pond!"76
A council was held at which it was decided to send ahead two
mounted men who would try to reach a settlement and send back
aid to the rest of the expedition. Major Neighbors and Sullivan,
who were selected to ride ahead, reached Presidio San Elizario on
April 29, 1849.77 Ford and Jim Shaw were left in charge of the
rest of the party. A Mexican driving a cart was overtaken, but
upon seeing the Indians, he dived into a clump of cacti, and
could neither be seen nor induced to speak. Five miles from San
Elizario the rear echelon met another Mexican with supplies
sent back by Major Neighbors. Ford's admonition to eat sparingly
went unheeded, and several of the party were sick for some days.
73Mrs. R. B. Durrill to Kenneth F. Neighbours, March 21, 1953.
74Ford, Memoirs (MS.), III, 518.
T5Whiting to Totten, June to, 1849, House Executive Documents, 31st Cong., 1st
Sess. (Serial No. 569), Document No. 5, p. 281.
76Ford, Memoirs (MS.), III, 519.
77Neighbors to Harney, June 4, 1849, R. W. D. L. R.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 58, July 1954 - April, 1955, periodical, 1955; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101158/m1/73/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.