I, with one company of troops and all the soldiers with families, all the tents, mess chests and camp kettles, was sent to Cruces, a town a few miles higher up the Chagres River than Gorgona.

There I found an impecunious American who had taken the contract to furnish transportation for the regiment at a stipulated price per hundred pounds for the freight and so much for each saddle animal.

But when we reached Cruces there was not a mule, either for pack or saddle, in the place.
The contractor promised that the animals should be on hand in the morning.

In the morning he said that they were on the way from some imaginary place, and would arrive in the course of the day.

This went on until I saw that he could not procure the animals at all at the price he had promised to furnish them for.