I visited with Uncle Kit and his wife while at Taos, and found that what Mrs. Carson had said at the feast was true, for I was as welcome at their home as though I was one of the family.

Jim Beckwith had everything in readiness for our trip across the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The day before starting, Uncle Kit asked us what route we would take.  Jim said that we would go around by the headwaters of the Gila river, this being a tributary to the Colorado.  On this trip we would cross that part of the country which is now Arizona.  Uncle Kit said this was a good route, and that he had gone over it twice in company with Col.  Fremont.  He drew a diagram of the country, showing the route by streams, mountains and valleys; telling us also what tribes of Indians inhabited each section of the country that we would pass through.  Among the different tribes spoken of was the Pimas, whom he said were friendly toward the whites, and insisted on our calling on that tribe, provided we went that way.

He had been at their village in 1845, and at that time they had told him he was the third white man they had ever seen.

The reader will understand that all the Indians in that section of the country at that time could speak Spanish, having learned it from the Aztecs, a tribe that lived in Old Mexico and were of Montezuma’s race.  They often came out into that country to trade with the other Indians.

All being ready we bade Uncle Kit and his wife good-bye, and were off for California.  We crossed the Rocky Mountains up the Arkansas river and took the trail made by Col.  Fremont in 1848 to the summit of the Rocky Mountains.  We then crossed over the mountains onto the headwaters of the south fork of Grand river, and from here we headed almost south, passing through a country that had all been burned over.  We could look ahead for miles and see nothing but burnt hills.  Game was so scarce that we could barely kill enough to supply us with food, until we struck the north fork of Gila river.  Here we found plenty of game.  We traveled down the Gila three days, which brought us to the Pima—­or as was sometimes then called Peone—­village.  This village was situated in a lovely valley about twenty miles long and ten wide.  The soil was very fertile.  The surrounding mountains were very high and covered with fine timber, while the foothills were luxuriant in the finest quality of bunchgrass, and along the little mountain streams were cottonwood and willows.

The Indians here were fairly well civilized, a fact worthy of note, as they had never had a missionary or priest among them.  They also had a different mode of worship from the tribes of the Northwest.  Their place of worship was what might be called a large shed constructed by setting posts in the ground and covered with poles, brush and the leaves of the century plant, these leaves being from three to five feet long and from six to ten inches wide.  Their houses were also covered with these leaves.