WESTERN INCIDENTS. 9

appoint five Directors to represent the Government in
the management of the road. And it also requires these
Directors to visit the road as often as they think proper,
and make a report upon its condition, management, and
progress, to the Secretary of the Ifiterior.

The following are the names of these Directors—Hon.
George Ashmun, of Mass.; Hon. Jesse L. Williams, of
Ind.; Hon. T. J. Carter, of Ill.; Hon. Springer Har-
baugh, of Penn. ; and Hon. Charles T. Sherman, of Ohio.
Mr. Ashmun did not accompany the party.

Our party separated at Kearny Station, and three of
the Government Directors, Messrs. Harbaugh, Carter,
and Sherman, remained on the north side of the Platte
for the purpose of inspecting the balance of the com-
pleted portion of the road, and then returning eastward.
While the other Government Director, Hon. Jesse L.
Williams, who is also an engineer of great experience,
together with Gen. G. M. Dodge, Major Chesbrough
and myself, crossed over to the stage station, near Fort
Kearny, for the purpose of continuing our journey by
stage to the Rocky Mountains.

FROM FORT KEARNY TO DENVER CITY.

We left Fort Kearny at one Pp. M., on Wednesday, the
12th inst., and arrived at Denver at ten A. M., on the fol-
lowing Saturday, making the entire distance of four hun-
dred miles in less than three days and nights. The
speed, comfort, and regularity of these Ben Holladay
Overland stages is certainly astonishing, when we con-
sider the fact that they pass through hundreds and thou-
sands of miles of almost uninhabited country ; and that it
is only five years since the experiment was first attempted.
Our party was exceedingly fortunate in falling in company

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