The time for which the New Mexican volunteers had enlisted, was fast drawing to a close; but, as the hostile Utahs and Apaches were scattered to the four winds, it was thought best not to send out again a regularly appointed force to act against them.  Instead, while awaiting the effect of their late telling blows, it was decided to be judicious to keep out, in different directions, small scouting parties, who could better follow the trails of the small parties of fugitive Indians with some prospect of success.  It was now the season for the richly laden caravans to arrive on the borders of the territory, and perchance they might fall in with bands of the hostile savages of sufficient strength to cause them trouble; or, it might be, the Indians would combine in sufficient strength, being driven by pressing want, to capture some one of these trains, and thus obtain the material for renewing the contest.  In view of these apprehensions, it was decided that the regular troops should go out on the plains, where they could be on hand ready to afford protection in case of need.  Major Blake, in command of the dragoons, started out and faithfully performed this mission.  After this duty was fully accomplished, he visited the mountains to the northeast of Fort Massachusetts, and then returned to Taos via the fort and the intervening Mexican towns.

While intimating the dangers which may befall trains on their journey across the plains, especially in time of Indian war, it may be well to narrate a fatal adventure which once happened to a mail party while traveling this route.  Not many miles from Fort Union, and on the plains, there is a clump of hills known as the “Wagon Mound,” so called from their resemblance to one of those peculiar wagons which are used to transport valuable freight across the country.  It being dangerous times, a party of ten picked men had been sent out to insure the safe transit of the mail.  Everything went well with the little band of travelers, and their prospects were becoming bright for making a safe journey, when, suddenly, a large band of hostile Apaches and Utahs hove in sight.  The mail party, on making this discovery, immediately halted and prepared for a fight.  The Indians very soon granted to them this favor.  At first, the attack was sharply maintained, but, at last, fortune favored the whites, for the time being, and they succeeded in repulsing their foes, who retreated out of sight.  The mail party, being thus freed from the unpleasant society of the Indians, at once hitched up their teams and proceeded on their route.  It was afterwards learned that the Apaches made the first attack, but, they were countenanced by the Utahs, who remained close by.  On the return of the unsuccessful war party of Apaches to the Utahs, the latter at once commenced charging them with cowardice, and boasted that they could have done better.  The true state of the case was, that the Utahs were using the Apaches as tools by which to gain plunder,