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given for the expedition to proceed by way of the military station on the Leona.

Late in May the trains were started, and ordered to encamp on the Leona, and. there await the arrival of the troops under order to move on the 1st of June. The day fixed for their departure proved exceedingly unfavorable; the rain fell in torrents, which, added to those that had fallen a few days previous, rendered the roads extremely bad. The command, however, moved on, and encamped for the night on the Leon creek. The following day a violent thunder storm arose early in the morning, and the command remained in camp.

On the morning of the 3d they moved to the San Lucas springs; and, before the tents were pitched, again the rains began to fall. The prairies were now inundated, the roads so bad that it was with difficulty the company teams, overloaded as they were, could move.

On the morning of the 4th I left the troops encamped for the day, and moved on to Castroville, 25.42 miles from San Antonio. The road from San Antonio to Castroville runs through a generally level prairie, covered with a luxuriant growth of grass; the soil is good, and country well adapted to cultivation and grazing. The town is situated on the west bank of the Medina river, and contains about 500 inhabitants, mostly German emigrants. The place presents but few signs of improvement, and idleness and poverty are more visible than industry and wealth; houses are falling to decay, and the rich lands lie uncultivated.

The Medina is here a clear, bold, rapid stream, about 30 yards wide, flowing between banks that rise near 50 feet in height on either side. It empties into the San Antonio river about 12 miles below the town of San Antonio.

From Castroville the road leads over some gentle hills, and thence through a tract of laud pretty well timbered, until it opens out into what is here known as a "hog wallow" prairie. We found the road, owing to the rains, as bad as can well be imagined. Beyond this prairie is a slightly elevated ridge, from the top of which, spread out before him, the traveller sees the beautiful valleys of the Quihi and the Hondo, pent in by the blue hills in the distance. The valley of the Quihi is sparsely covered with timber, principally mezquite and oak. The land is extremely rich, and affords at all seasons excellent grazing. In midsummer the stream ceases to flow; but the water at intervals collects in never-failing pools. The village of Quihi is a German settlement, being a branch of the main one at Castroville, and consists of only a few miserably rude huts, distance from Castroville, 10 miles.

Six miles further on the road is the town of Vandenburg, a third settlement made by the same colony; it consists of some 21 log houses or hilts. The country around is beautiful and productive, and nothing but industry is required to make it teem with all the productions of agriculture. The nearest water is the Hondo, four miles distant. On reaching it, however, we found it but the dry bed of a river, with occasional ponds of water. Rising from the Hondo, the road stretches over a prairie country to the Seco, crossing a " hog wallow" that we found nearly impassable.

The Seco, at this season, like the two previous streams, afforded no running water, notwithstanding the late rains. Two miles below the crossing, on the left bank, there is a settlement of Germans, at Dermis. Here, as at Vandenburg, great inconvenience arises from the want of