Does anybody know offhand whether Judge Benjamin Hayes was an ancestor of Dr. Kenneth Hayes, husband of our former mayor Janet Gray Hayes? I've been to their home, and the historic Hayes Mansion is a short distance from here. Just curious. Here is some more from the Hayes trip account: "On December 31 the junction of the Gila and the Colorado was reached. 'A ferry boat ready for us, and a gentlemanly, polite Mexican, with red stripes down the sides of his pantaloons, perhaps indicative of a military character, as he turned out to be finally. On the opposite side were some sheds, clothes hanging out to dry, soldiers, Indians mixed. Upon inquiry we found that some sixty soldiers were here, escorting Gen. Garcia Condo, the Mexican commissioner to survey the boundary. ... "The Col. estimates the number who have passed here this year at 12,000, of whom about one-half are Sonorians . . . . seor Iturbide goes from here to-morrow for San Diego, to compare notes with the American Commissioner (probably Fremont). The point for the line of boundary has been fixed. "Algodones, Rajadura, and Camp Salvation. on New River, were passed. At Camp Salvation the remnants of the Fremont Association, of New York City, were overtaken, and experiences were compared. Col. Hays, doubtless Jack Hays, had been their leader Their schedule showed Warner's Ranch to be 96 miles away. The American Commissary was stationed here to assist emigrants. ... "After camping at the Laguna, a short march brought the emigrants to sand hills. On the eighth Carizo Creek was reached. on Saturday the twelfth the Hayes party encamped with Col. Agostin Harazthy and W. R. Kerr. "They are sent out with provisions for gratuitous distribution to `distressed emigrants.' The Col. came out here to settle, not for the gold. The provisions seem to be sent on Emory's responsibility, at the earnest instance of the Col. The council of San Diego passed a bye-law appropriating one dollar a day for two men to accompany him. We hear that Burnett is Governor, Fremont and Gwinn Senators. San Jose is the Capital . " [On November 13, 1849, while Judge Hayes was at Socorro, his old friend Peter H. Burnett was elected the first civil Governor of California under American rule. On January 29, 1850, seventeen days after he reached the hospitable camp of Colonel Harazthy, Henry Clay introduced the Missouri Compromise into Congress, by which California was admitted as a free state in the following September.--The Editor.]