Frontier Naturalist by Russell M. Lawson

Author:Russell M. Lawson [Lawson, Russell M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Latin America, Mexico, Expeditions & Discoveries
ISBN: 9780826352170
Google: gptLcEJYRUgC
Publisher: UNM Press
Published: 2012-01-15T16:05:33+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

Waters of the High Sierra

The two times that Jean Louis Berlandier made the journey from San Antonio to the Rio Grande, he and his companions watched for attacks from the Comanches, particularly in 1834, when Berlandier and Raphael Chowell took the same way that Couch would in 1846 to the presidio of San Juan Bautista. The trail in 1834 was inordinately dry. But in the early summer of 1829, the weather in south-central Texas was unusually wet; it had rained enough to make travel almost impossible because of the flooding streams and rivers. Nevertheless, members of the Comisión de Límites set out in mid-July on their way to Matamoros near the mouth of the Rio Grande by way of Laredo, to reunite with their leader, Gen. Manuel Mier y Terán. Joining Jean Louis Berlandier were soldiers, officers, and friends who had been with him for a year or more, including the two Kickapoo warriors who had adopted the transplanted Frenchman. As there was no safe and direct trail from San Antonio to Matamoros, the expedition had to first take the road to Laredo, from where they could pick up another trail on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande that led to Matamoros. Berlandier had journeyed from Laredo to San Antonio by the same road in February 1828. The general aridity of the climate, despite the recent rains, was quite the same then as presently, in July; otherwise, the journey was more of a challenge because of the unrelenting heat, penetrating rays of the sun, and hordes of insects. For Berlandier, there were more opportunities to collect botanical specimens than during the previous winter.1

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