and about southwest from Santa Fe, I crossed the plain or valley, and sending two men up the smaller canon proceeded up the larger one with the rest. We se cannon till the two parties met, and no traces whatever having been found in either, although the ground was very soft and wet, I felt convinced that no Indians had passed through. Retracing my steps again to the plain, I separated the men for a distance of about two miles. I tried once more to find the tracks which I had lost sight of at the arroyo. After riding across the plain toward the town for about three miles we found a large number of cattle grazing, and near them one of the men found the footprints. Calling my men together we rode on, following and tracing the tracks plainly till we came to the road which we had followed going out there. After following them a short distance I found that part of the tracks led off from the road. Sending once of the men to follow these footprints, I proceeded with the rest to ascertain at what point the supposed Indians had entered the town. I followed the track across the creek into some fields, about three-quarters of a mile to the left of the road opposite the house of the man Juan Estaban Carrillo, and there found that the footprints led off directly toward his house. At almost the same moment the man whom I sent to follow the footprints where they had left the road, came riding toward me and reported that he had left the road, came riding toward me and reported that he had traced them directly to that house, and from there into the field where I then was. The footprints from the house into the fields were all in the same direction; from the field across the creek and across the valley they were about equally divided, going and coming. Among the foot tracks were those of either women or children, and at the house I found two boys whose feet were about the size of the footprints. All of the tracks both going and coming were about alike. In some of them (the smaller ones) they were precisely so. Feeling satisfied that I had traced the trail (as the man Carrillo called it) to its source, and that n party of hostile Indians would separate so widely and leave such evident marks of their passage, nor having passed through the town return to it again and go directly to one of the principal houses without being seen or leaving some evidence of their presence, I concluded that the fears of the party giving the information of the presence of hostile Indians had converted his own footprints into those of red men. I therefore returned with my men to this post.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN ABBOTT,

Second Lieutenant and Actg. Adjt. First California Cavalry.

Colonel OSCAR M. BROWN,

First California Cavalry Volunteers, Commanding Post.

APRIL 1, 1865. -Affair near Fort Garland, Colo. Ter.

Report of Captain Charles Kerber, First Colorado Cavalry.

HEADQUARTERS,
Fort Garland, Colo. Ter., April 2, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to report that yesterday morning a party of five Ute Indians attacked a Mexican ranch, &c., fifteen miles northwest from here and killed one Mexican and some beeves. The few Mexicans

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