Tubac, enlisting recruits, but could only raise twenty-five or thirty
men. The invasion was generally discouraged by the settlers on the Santa
Cruz. When they passed by Sopori on their way to join the main body, I
remember very well the advice of old Colonel Douglas, a veteran in
Mexican revolutions. He said,--

"Boys, unless you can carry men enough to whip both sides, never cross
the Mexican line."

I was at Arivaca when the Santa Cruz contingent returned, badly
demoralized, wounded, naked, and starving. The place was converted into
a hospital for their relief, with such accommodations as could be
afforded. Pesquiera was well aware of the adage that "dead men tell no
tales." Crabb was beheaded, and his head carried in triumph to
Pesquiera, preserved in a keg of Mescal, with the savage barbarity of
the days of Herod. The contracts which would have compromised Pesquiera
with the Mexican government were destroyed by fire. So ended the Crabb
Expedition, one of the most ill-fated and melancholy of any in the
bloody annals of Mexico.

The result of this expedition, commonly called "Crabb's," was that the
Mexican government laid an embargo upon all trade with this side of the
line, and business of all kinds was paralyzed.

Under these circumstances I crossed the desert on mule-back to Los
Angeles, with only one companion, and went to San Francisco to take a
rest.