The drivers and muleteers remained steadily with their wagons and animals.

The four soldiers were also at hand, trudging close in front or in rear, accoutrements always on and muskets always loaded.
In this fashion the expedition had already journeyed over two hundred and twenty miles.

Following Colonel Washington's trail, it had crossed the ranges of mountains immediately west of Abiquia, and, striking the Rio de Chaco, had tracked its course for some distance with the hope of reaching the San Juan.

Stopped by a canon, a precipitous gully hundreds of feet deep, through which the Chaco ran like a chased devil, the wagons had turned westward, and then had been forced by impassable ridges and lack of water into a southwest direction, at last gaining and crossing Pass Washington.
It was now on the western side of the Sierra de Chusca, in the rude, barren country over which Fort Defiance stands sentry.

Ever since the second day after leaving San Isidore it had been on the great western slope of the continent, where every drop of water tends toward the Pacific.