Presidents, was very polite, and asked many questions about the new
acquisition. The Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, promised to order an
exploration of the Colorado River as soon as he could get an
appropriation, and to send troops to the new Territory as soon as they
could be spared.

During the winter General Heintzelman came to Washington, and as the
town was crowded, and he could not find suitable accommodations, I had
an extra bed put in my room at the National, and we messed together. It
was an advantage to have an officer of the Army who had been in command
at Yuma to give information about the country, and the association thus
formed lasted through life.

There was not much to be done in Washington, so I went over to New York,
the seat of "The Texas Pacific Railroad Company." This company had been
organized under a munificent land grant from the State of Texas. The
capital stock was a hundred million dollars. The scheme was to build a
railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean on the proceeds
of land grants and bonds, and make the hundred millions of dollars stock
as profit, less one tenth of one per cent to be paid in for expenses and
promotion money. The President of this company was Robert J. Walker,
Secretary of the Treasury under President Polk; Vice-President, Thomas
Butler King, of Georgia, late Collector of the Port in San Francisco, my
recent superior; Secretary, Samuel Jaudon, late Cashier of the United
States Bank. Mr. Walker, the President of the Company, received me at
dinner at his mansion on Fifth Avenue, and my acquaintance with Thomas
Butler King was renewed over sparkling vintages.

This company had parcelled the world out among its officers. Robert J.
Walker was to have the financial field of Europe. Samuel Jaudon, the