gauntlet," we may get from Sonora.

God send that we had been left alone with the Apaches. We should
have been a thousand times better off in every respect.

In this state of affairs it is scarcely to be expected that the
people will meet together in a convention; there was no
arrangement for that purpose up to the time of my leaving, and
none could be made.

We have never had any orders of election from Santa Fe, nor heard
of any convention.

Yours truly, C. D. Poston.


Major Fitzgerald, U. S. A., whose long experience on the Pacific
coast makes his opinion very valuable, in a letter dated Fort
Buchanan, Arizona, Sept. 17th, 1854, says:

"The citizens of this country are very desirous of a territorialorganization, with its courts, &c. Murders are committed and
stock is stolen by white men with impunity. There is no court
nearer than the Rio Grande (300 miles) to take cognizance of
crime. Some few of the emigrants of this year have remained in
the Santa Cruz valley. More would have done so, no doubt, if they
had not started from the States originally with stock for the
California market.

The country around us is now beautiful. It has been raining
almost daily since the 1st of July, and the vegetation is most