CHAPTER VI.

Exemplary Conduct of the Mormon Troops--Lieutenant Colonel P. St. George Cooke Arrives and Assumes Command--A Welcome Change--Another Detachment of Sick, also the Laundresses, Sent to Pueblo--Selecting Men to Continue the Journey to California--Reducing the Baggage--Difficulties of the 1,100 Miles Journey Ahead--Poor Equipment Therefor--Leave Santa Fe--Roads of Heavy Sand--On One-third Rations--Hardships Increase--Galled Feet and Gnawing Stomachs--More Sick Men for Pueblo--Leaving the Last Wagons--Mules and Oxen In a Pack Train--In an Unknown Country--Hunting a Pass over the Mountains--Alarm of an Enemy--A Beaver Dam--Crossing the Rio Grande Del Norte--Great Suffering Among the Troops.