and get out heavy-soled shoes, for the zinc which covered the
decks of these river-steamers burned through the thin slippers we
had worn on the ship.

That day we had a little diversion, for we saw the "Gila" come
down the river and up the slue, and tie up directly alongside of
us. She had on board and in barges four companies of the
Twenty-third Infantry, who were going into the States. We
exchanged greetings and visits, and from the great joy manifested
by them all, I drew my conclusions as to what lay before us, in
the dry and desolate country we were about to enter.

The women's clothes looked ridiculously old-fashioned, and I
wondered if I should look that way when my time came to leave
Arizona.

Little cared they, those women of the Twenty-third, for, joy upon
joys! They saw the "Newbern" out there in the offing, waiting to
take them back to green hills, and to cool days and nights, and
to those they had left behind, three years before.

On account of the wind, which blew again with great violence, the
"Cocopah" could not leave the slue that day. The officers and
soldiers were desperate for something to do. So they tried
fishing, and caught some "croakers," which tasted very fresh and
good, after all the curried and doctored-up messes we had been
obliged to eat on board ship.

We spent seven days in and out of that slue. Finally, on August
the 26th, the wind subsided and we started up river. Towards