HDQRS. ADVANCE GUARD, CALIFORNIA VOLUNTEERS,
Pima Villages, May 5, 1862.

First Lieutenant BENJ. C. CUTLER,

Actg. Asst. Adjt. General, District of Southern California:

LIEUTENANT: The following scale of prices has been agreed upon with the Indians: Four quarts flour, weighing 4 1/2 pounds, for 1 yards manta; 7 quarts wheat, wighing 13 pounds, for 1 yards manta; 4 quarts pinole, weighing 5 1/2 pounds, for 1 yard manta; 50 pounds hay, or 150 pinole of green fodder, for 1 yard manta. These prices are much for the interest of Government, and itis to be hopes that the facilities for purchasing of the Indian will enlarge. Manta may be called the staple artcile with them, but such goods as were asked for by the colonel commanding, in his letters of December, 1861, on the Mojave expedition, are indispensably necessary for the practice of an economy of great advantage. The daily consumption of the present command for forage is as follows:

Yards manta.

280 horses, wheat 12 pounds, 3,360.
.........303 1/2

65 mules, wheat 9 pounds, 585.
.....................

345 animals, hay 14 pounds, 4,830 pounds, equals. ..............................................96 1/2

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Daily consumption of manta.....................400

Not enough flour to make mention of has yet been brought in, and pinole is an article of small, conscumption, unless of necessity. A brief observation of these people and their hbits shows me that they are disinclined to sell their produce or any other property unless the article offered in exchange is such as they habitually and at the moment need. I do not believe that they would trade wheat for more manta than they wanted for the moment, and further, that after 20,000 yards of that goods have been distributed among them it would cease to be a ready currency. These opinions may be erroneous; my experience with the people has been of less than a week's duration, and that with only promises to offer in payment. Obligations for near 3,000 yards manta are already outstanding from the quartermaster's and commissary departments. Even without any increase of the command, the 10,000 yards daily expected at the post will be exhausted by the 20th instant. If when the manta arrives, the Indians do not bring in their wheat more freely (the animals only get half rations to-day) I see no recourse negotiations for purchasing their standing grain have not been consumated. I enlarge more upon the difficulties of getting supplies here with reference to the part of the expedition that is in my rear then to the command now here. I am anxious to see a supply on hand for an advance, and shall endeavor to accomplish it.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. R. WEST,

Lieutenant-Colonel First Infantry California Volunteers, Commanding

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC,
San Francisco, Cal., May 5, 1862.

Colonel FRANCIS J. LIPPITT,

Second Infantry California Volunteers, Commanding District of Humboldt, Fort Humboldt, Cal.:

COLONEL: In the operations within your district you will of course be compelled to establish many small posts or depots, but they must be