These were mounted on mules and horses, and I was appointed to conduct them to Monterey by land.

Leaving the party at Los Angeles to follow by sea in the Lexington, I started with the Mormon detachment and traveled by land.

We averaged about thirty miles a day, stopped one day at Santa Barbara, where I saw Colonel Burton, and so on by the usually traveled road to Monterey, reaching it in about fifteen days, arriving some days in advance of the Lexington.

This gave me the best kind of an opportunity for seeing the country, which was very sparsely populated indeed, except by a few families at the various Missions.

We had no wheeled vehicles, but packed our food and clothing on mules driven ahead, and we slept on the ground in the open air, the rainy season having passed.