Note II'-26 — Chapter II · ITINERARY, CONTINUED: THROUGH OLD MEXICO, IN CHIHUAHUA, DURANGO, AND COAHUILA, TO THE PRESIDIO GRANDE, MARCH 22D-MAY 31ST, 1807.

"The little village" is not named. Pike's map makes the triple forking of the road he is about to mention in the immediate vicinity of Mapimi; but this appears to be an error, as he was already 3 m. beyond that town when he started on the 12th. His map is otherwise so far out of drawing that it does help us much more than the slender thread of text to discover exactly what way Captain Barelo took him around the Bolson to Parras. The precise stages of the journey to Parras would probably be recoverable by one thoroughly familiar with the ground; but it is impossible for me to trace the route upon any map I have been able to find. The only road laid down on the best map before me runs down the Rio Nasas past San Lorenzo to Mayron, at the Laguna del Muerto, into which that river sinks, and thence to Pozo (Pozzo) and Parras. From the railroad junction at Torreon the track runs at a distance from, but approximately parallel with, the river and the road just indicated, through places marked Matamoras, Colonia, and Hornos, to Mayron and thence to Pozo. Wislizenus speaks of a place apparently about where Pike comes to on the 12th, where the road forks, and describes a "northern" and a "southern" route. The northern one, he says, leads by Alamito, San Lorenzo, and San Juan (all on the Rio Nasas) to El Pozo; it is thus identical with or very nearly the same as the one just said to descend the Rio Nasas. The southern one, he says, would have taken him by San Sebastian, on the Nasas, to Gatuño, Matamoras (or la Bega de Maraujo), Santa Mayara, by the Laguna de Parras to Alamo de Parras, St. Domingo, and Peña, to El Pozo, and thence to Parras. I think that Pike's route coincides most closely with this one; it is for the most part S. of the railroad, passing close to the Laguna de Parras (the sink of the Rio Guanabel); and when we find him at Parras, on the 17th, he is almost due E. of the place where he crossed the Rio Nasas, at an air-line distance therefrom of nearly or about 40 Mexican leagues—say 100 m.

The "Monsieur de Croix" above named is Teodoro de Croix, b. at Lille, Flanders, about 1730, d. at Madrid, Spain, Apr. 8th, 1791; he was viceroy of Peru from Apr., 1784, to Mar., 1790; he had previously served as commandant of the interior provinces and of Sonora, under his elder brother, Carlos Francisco de Croix, Marques de Croix, and viceroy of New Spain, 1766-1771. See the legend of his route on Pike's map.