marked " Mojave Expedition," and the other half "Fort Baker, Las Vegas, Salt Lake Road. " I would suggest whether, to have the battery of guns, the artillery ammunition, and dismounted canoneers go by sea to Fort Yuma, the horses and men of the battery who ride them to come to San Pedro, and go thence by land to Fort Yuma as cavalry. I would suggest that 5,000 pounds of presents for Indians, to consist of tobacco, knives, small looking glasses, vermillion paint, beads, needles, and linen thread, awis, iron arrow-points, fish-hooks and lines, hoes, a few scarlet blankets for the chiefs, &c., should be purchased and shipped by sea to Fort Yuma -one half to be distributed to the Indians on the Colorado, the remainder to the Indians at the villages 200 miles above - and 10,000 yards of manta, i. e., shirting calico, &c. With this purchase wheat. Would it not be well to have no payment made to the troops until after they leave Fort Yuma, and then, say, only two months?

The firm of Nelson & Doble, at San Francisco, furnish, it is said, the best hand-made horse and mule shoes. In fitting the muleshoes be sure and have them furnished with steel toes. Please have sent to San Pedro, 5,000 of the muleshoes and 2,200 of the horseshoes, which I wrote to you on the 17th instant to have prepared. I shall need them here to set the moment the mules arrive, and to use on the road to Fort Yuma. The remaining 5,000 muleshoes and 2,200 horseshoes should be shipped by sea to Fort Yuma, if they can be got ready in time, otherwise to be sent down to San Pedro to go by land. Of course a proper quantity of nails and a few dozen horseshoe rasps will be sent with the shoes. There should be a small supply of stationery, blank muster-rolls, blank regimental and company returns, &c., sent by sea to Fort Yuma, without fail. If the Government has authorized the seizure of Guaymas, as suggested by the general, it si worthy of grave consideration what would not be a cheaper and better point of departure, as the country far into the interior has an abundant supply of meat and flour. If in this event the cavalry and artillery horses and means of transportation were already there, then there could not be much doubt on this point. If Guaymas belonged to us it would be the point whence the military supplies for the southern part of the Territory in question should, in my opinion, be transported. As we are now situated, in point of time I am inlined to the opinion that the point of departure must be Fort Yuma, and have made the calculations accordingly; but this you will see involves a very heavy expense. I allude to Guaymas for the reasons that if it is possible to make that the base of our operations we first accomplish the important object, as suggested by the general commanding, of securing that point against the rebels, and we shall then have a much better, country to march through, with less desert to encounter, and more time to perfect our arrangements. Grain, flour, sugar, and beef can be procured, also vegetables, for troops along the route through Sonora, thereby diminishing the great cost of transportation and the embarrassments consequent upon having so large a train, to say nothing of the risk of animals perishing. It at once secures from the other side the most important point on the Gulf-always accessible by steamer in five or six days from San Francisco.

It could be so arranged, in case the general should wish to make Guaymas the point of departure, that the cavalry and a certain amount of transportation could move from Fort Yuma at the proper time to form a junction at Tuscon with the artillery and infantry sent by sea to Guaymas, and directly northward through the most populous part of