Note I'-29 — Chapter I · ITINERARY: THROUGH NEW MEXICO ON THE RIO GRANDE TO EL PASO, FEB. 27TH-MAR. 21ST, 1807.

To camp at some point between Fort Selden and Dona Ana, probably not far beyond the site of the former post. The Military Reservation upon which this long noted fort was established includes a tract a few miles square on both sides of the river, between the Cerro Robledo on the S. and San Diego mt. on the N. and N. W.; eastward are some elevations known as the Dona Ana hills; the Cerro Magdalen is due W., but at a much greater distance. A few miles below Rincon and Angostura the river enters the Selden cañon, where it is straitened between Mt. San Diego on the E. and highlands on the W.; the railroad traverses this cañon, with the stations Tonuco near its head and Randall below; the position of the fort is between the latter and Leasburg, on the E. bank of the river. Pike's map shows a marked bend or loop of the dotted trail of the 18th, and I suppose this indicates where he went around Mt. San Diego. There used to be a place called San Diego here, about opposite the point where the old Cooke trail left the river. Dona Ana was founded on the E. bank of the river, say 60 m. by road from El Paso. This town was started in or about 1839, by settlers from El Paso, and 10 years later had a population of 300, mostly Mexicans, who required the protection of the military from the Apaches. The railroad passes by but not through the present town, which has given name to the county, though the county seat is at Las Cruces. Both of these places are included in the Dona Ana Bend Colony tract.

The Cooke trail above mentioned is that made by Lieut.-Col. Philip St. George Cooke, commanding the Mormon battalion of the Army of the West on the march from Santa Fé, N. M., to San Diego, Cal., under the guidance of Antoine Leroux, in the autumn of 1846. It will be found very clearly traced, from the point of departure from the Rio Grande to the Pima villages on the Gila, on the sketch-map accompanying that officer's report to General Kearny, Ex. Doc. No. 41, 30th Congr., 1st Sess., pub 1848, pp. 549-563. It is a roundabout way which loops far S. and strikes the San Pedro several days' march above the confluence of that stream with the Gila, follows the San Pedro down a piece northward, then strikes westward to Tucson, and so on N. W. to the Gila at the Pima villages. The distance is represented to have been 544 m.