On November 3rd we continued our march over an irregular country lightly wooded, and stopped close to the river. Here another of our men died. Early upon the 4th we reached the pass. The road traversed the mountains in every direction for several miles. These mountains appeared to run from the N.E., to the river, and then to extend westerly. We crossed the Rio Grande del Norte near an embankment made to raise the level of the water above it: it was not deep, but the current was very swift, and the men waded through it as they had done on the two former occasions. Our road was along the side of the canal connected with the embankment, by means of which the country is irrigated. At the distance of about a mile from the crossing of the river we entered the town of Paso. It is a place of some size, with many good houses; the gardens are enclosed, and the vine is extensively cultivated. The inhabitants carry on a great trade in wine, raisins, and other dried fruits. At present there are few cattle or horses in the neighbourhood; formerly they were numerous, but the Apache Indians, who are at peace with the inhabitants of New Mexico, have long kept up a war with the people of Paso and of the south, and have swept away their stock.

At Paso we met with a kind and generous reception. The greater number of the men were broken down by lameness and fatigue; many were almost naked, and others were suffering from sickness. Immediately on their arrival everything in the power of the commandant, Colonel D. Jose Maria Elias, was done to relieve them, and assurances were given of their personal safety. In his honourable and humane treatment of the party he was actively aided by the good priest Raymon Orthez.

We did not leave Paso until the 9th. We took with us numerous waggons for our infirm and sick, and were well supplied with provisions ; we were also the escort of a lady and her family travelling to Chihuahua, as well as of traders in charge of a large number of pack-mules laden with barrels of Paso wines and crates of large onions.

S. of Paso is an extensive flat country, the Rio Grande running through it to the S.E. We carried with us casks of water for the next day, and stopped on the 10th in a barren district. On the 11th we came to a water-hole of not very good water, called Ojo Samaluka (Colonel Pike names it Ogo-mal-a-Ukap). Here we remained the whole of the 12th, to enable half the waggons to be carried on by double teams over the Arenales. On the 13th, the oxen having returned, we accompanied the remainder of the waggons. This remarkable district, called the Arenales, is about six miles across, and extended as far as we could see to our right and left. It is a series of high round or dome-shaped sand-hills of fine white sand. We halted in the evening at an opening between some hills, called the Puerta de la Piedra. There were two large mountains on each side of us, the one called Candelera, and the other Rancheria. On the 14th the Sierra de Carazal ran to the right, and in a barren country we stopped at a hole of bad water, called the Ojo de Lucero. About the middle of the Sierra de Carazal is a singular flat-topped mountain, the highest of the range, called the Banquete de Lucero. On the 15th we reached the Ojo Caliente, a spring of warm water flowing up through a bed of white sand. On the 16th we passed the Presidio de Carazal. In common with other places, it has suffered much from Indian depredations: formerly there were large herds of cattle in the neighbourhood. On the 17th we camped at a stream of water connected with a hot spring rising about a mile to the right of the road. On the 18th we again camped without water.

All this country from Paso appeared to be very barren; and, except at Carazal there was no settlement on the road. We now came into a plain bounded on both sides with a long range of mountains. On the evening of the 19th we stopped at a fine spring of water flowing out of the granite mountains to our left. The water comes from a large cleft in the rock; and about its source some cotton-trees have grown to great size. Two miles farther on is a similar spring, called the Lesser Galliago, but we did not visit it.

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Adapted from Thomas Falconer
"Notes on a Journey through Texas and New Mexico, in the Years 1841 and 1842"