Note II'-22 — Chapter II · ITINERARY, CONTINUED: THROUGH OLD MEXICO, IN CHIHUAHUA, DURANGO, AND COAHUILA, TO THE PRESIDIO GRANDE, MARCH 22D-MAY 31ST, 1807.

The mountain Pike passes, and the river he crosses, are easily identified; the latter is the stream known as El Andabazo (or Cerro Gordo), with a town of the latter name higher up on it. This is the first of several streams we shall cross, running to the left as we go, and sinking in the Bolson de Mapimi—for they are all beyond the Conchos basin, the divide of which was passed in the course of the long dry jornada above noted. The lake that the Cerro Gordo cr. sinks in is sometimes called Laguna de Xacco: so Hughes, Don. Exp., 1847, p. 129. The trail Pike followed is thus described by Wislizenus, p. 66: "We started late, and made but 10 miles, to the Cerro Gordo, or el Andabazo creek. Having crossed the mountain, at whose foot San Bernardo lies, we went for a mile through a cañon, with mountains of limestone on both sides, and from there into another valley, watered by the el Andabazo. This considerable creek seems to run from southwest to northeast." The obscure town of Cerro Gordo above named must not be confounded with the place in Vera Cruz which was the scene of the famous battle of Cerro Gordo.

Pike has now passed the present interstate boundary between Chihuahua and Durango. The line runs on a parallel of latitude from Lago de Tlahualila 60 Mex. leagues W. to a source of Rio del Fuerte near Huenote. Pike maps Lake Tlahualila conspicuously: see the large sheet of water laid down in the Bolson Mapimi across which is legended "Here the Indians sallied forth to attack New Biscay and Cohuahuila," and which has a large forked stream running into it from the S. The main fork of this is the present Rio de Nasas, which actually discharges into Laguna del Muerto; so Pike's body of water represents both Lake Tlahualila and the Lake of the Dead, as well as some smaller sheets, as Laguna del Cayman, etc., all lying in the same general depression. Pike mentions "Lac du Cayman" elsewhere and correctly says that Rio Nassas (which he also calls Brassos) falls into it. L. de Parras, however, he lays down separately, with its own river discharging into it. The boundaries of Chihuahua, Durango, and Coahuila all meet in Lake Tlahualila, whence that between Durango and Coahuila runs S. for a few miles and then S. E., while that between Chihuahua and Coahuila extends N. along the border of the Bolson to the Rio Grande.