Looking up the Bright Angel Trail. This is one of the modem trails into the Grand Canyon, which at this point is some 6000 feet deep. From water-colour sketch by Tho.mas Moran, N.A. The Romance OF The Colorado River The Story of its Discovery in 1 540, with an Account of the Later Explorations, and with Special Ref- erence to the Voyages of Powell through the Line of the Great Canyons / < By Frederick S. Dellenbaugh Member of the United States Colorado River Expedition of 1871 and 1872 " No sluggish tide congenial to the glooms : This, as it frothed by, might have been a bath For the fiend's glowing hoof — " Browning third edition G. P. Putnam's Sons New York and London Ube Iknicl^erbocker press 1909 Y Copyright, 1902 BY FREDERICK S. DELLENBAUGH Published, November, 1902 Reprinted, March, 1903 ; September, 1904 : December, 1906 ; May, 1909 "Cbc Tknicfcerbocfecr iPrcBs, "Rcw Uerh Geology Library; F 78'? 33^ TO MY FRIENDS AND COMRADES OF THE COLORADO RIVER EXPEDITION OF 187I AND 1872 IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE The Ancient Ruin on tlie Clill. Glen Canyon. Photograph by J. Fennemore, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. • ■-■.-■■ - - ■ ' " ■ ' "■ ' ■ "" ' ■" ' "■ ' ■' ■■■ '■' ■ ^' ■s^ *^5 >*#*•! (/y^y'^y-yy-yy-y-y^^y'yC^y'yiC^^^yyyC^^^^ PREFACE EARLY in 1871, when Major Powell ' was preparing for his second descent through the canyons of the Green and Colorado rivers, he was besieged by men eager to accompany him ; some even offered to pay well for the privilege. It was for me, therefore, a piece of great good fortune when, after an interview in Chicago with the eminent explorer, he decided to add me to his small party. I was very young at the time, but muscular and healthy, and familiar with the handling of small boats. The Major remarked that in the business before us it was not so much age and strength that were needed as "nerve," and he evidently believed I had enough of this to carry me through. Certainly in the two-years, continuous work on the river and in the adjacent country I had some opportunity to develop this desirable quality. I shall never cease to feel grate- ful to him for the confidence reposed in me. It gave me one of the unique experiences of my life, — an experience which, on exactly the same lines, can never be repeated within our bor- ders. Now, these thirty years after, I review that experience with satisfaction and pleasure, recalling, with deep affection, the kind and generous companions of that wild and memorable journey. No party of men thrown together, without external contact for months at a time, could have been more harmoni- ous ; and never once did any member of that party show the white feather. I desire to acknowledge here, also, my indebt- edness to Prof, A. H. Thompson, Major Powell's associate in his second expedition, for many kindnesses. When his report to Congress was published. Major Powell, * I use the title Major for the reason that he was so widely known for so long a period by it. He was a volunteer officer during the Civil War, holding the rank of Colonel at the end. The title Major, then, has no military significance in this ccunnection. vi Powell's Report perhaps for the sake of dramatic unity, concluded to omit mention of the personnel of the second expedition, awarding^ credit, for all that was accomplished, to the men of his first wonderful voyage of 1869. And these men surely deserved all that could be bestowed on them. They had, under the Major's clear-sighted guidance and cool judgment, performed one of the distinguished feats of history. They had faced unknown dangers. They had determined that the forbidding torrent could be mastered. But it has always seemed to me that the men of the second party, who made the same journey, who mapped and explored the river and much of the country round- about, doing a large amount of difficult work in the scientific line, should have been accorded some recognition. The ab- sence of this has sometimes been embarrassing for the reason that when statements of members of the second party were re- ferred to the official report, their names were found missing" from the list. This inclined to produce an unfavourable im- pression concerning these individuals. In order to provide in my own case against any unpleasant circumstance owing to this omission, I wrote to Major Powell on the subject and re- ceived the following highly satisfactory answer: Washington, D. C, January 18, 1888. My dear Dellenbaugh : Replying to your note of the T4th instant, it gives me great pleasure to state that you were a member of my second party of ex- ploration down the Colorado, during the years 1871 and 1872, that you occupied a place in my own boat and rendered valuable ser- vices to the expedition, and that it was with regret on my part that your connection with the Survey ceased. Yours cordially, J. W. Powell. Recently, when I informed him of my intention to publish this volume, he very kindly wrote as follows : Washington, January 6, 1902. Dear Dellenbaugh : I am pleased to hear that you are engaged in writing a book on the Colorado Canyon. I hope that you will put on record the second White's Story vii trip, and the gentlemen who were members of that expedition. No other trip has been made since that time, though many have tried to follow us. One party, that headed by Mr. Stanton, went through the Grand Canyon on its second attempt, but many persons have lost their lives in attempting to follow us through the whole length of the canyons. I shall be very glad to write a short introduction to your book. Yours cordially, J. W. Powell. In complying with this request to put on record the second ex- pedition and the gentlemen who composed it, I feel all the greater pleasure, because, at the same time, I seem to be fulfill- ing a duty towards my old comrades. The reader is referred to Chapter XIV., and to pages 368-9 for later data on descents. Notwithstanding these the can- yons remain almost terra incognita for each new navigator. There have been some who appear to be inclined to withhold from Major Powell the full credit which is his for solving the great problem of the Southwest, and who, therefore, make much of the flimsy story of White, and even assume on faint evidence that others fathomed the mystery even before White. There is, in my opinion, no ground for such assumptions. Several trappers, like Pattie and Carson, had gained a consid- erable knowledge of the general course and character of the river as early as 1830, but to Major Powell and his two parties undoubtedly belongs the high honour of being the first to ex- plore and explain the truth about it and its extraordinary canyon environment. If danger, difficulty, and disaster mean romance, then as- suredly the Colorado of the West is entitled to first rank, for seldom has any human being touched its borderland even, without some bitter or fatal experience. Never is the Col- orado twice alike, and each new experience is different from the last. Once acknowledge this and the dangers, however, and approach it in a humble and reverent spirit, albeit firmly, and death need seldom be the penalty of a voyage on its rest- less waters. I have endeavoured to present the history of the river, and viii The Real Pioneers immediate environment, so far as I have been able to learn it, but within the limits of a single volume of this size much must necessarily be omitted. Reference to the admirable works of Powell, Gilbert, and Dutton will give the reader full infor- mation concerning the geology and topography; Garas, by Elliott Coues, gives the story of the friars; and the excellent memoir of Chittenden, The American Fur Trade of the Far West, will give a complete understanding of the travels and •exploits of the real pioneers of the Rocky Mountain country. I differ with this author, however, as to the wise and com- mendable nature of the early trappers' dealings with the na- tives, and this will be explained in the pages on that subject. He also says in his preface that "no feature of western geography was ever discovered by government explorers after 1840." While this is correct in the main, it gives an erro- neous impression so far as the canyons of the Colorado are concerned. These canyons were "discovered," as mentioned above, by some of the trappers, but their interior character was not known, except in the vaguest way, so that the discovery was much like discovering a range of mountains on the horizon and not entering beyond the foothills. For the titles of works of reference, of the narratives of trappers, etc., I refer to the works of H. H. Bancroft ; to War- ren's Memoirs, vol. i. Pacific Railroad reports; and to the first volume of Lieut. Geo. M. Wheeler's report on Explorations West of the looth Meridian. The trappers and prospectors who had some experience on the Green and the Colorado have left either no records or very incomplete ones. It seems tolerably certain, however, that no experience of importance has escaped notice. So far as attempts at descent are con- cerned, they invariably met with speedy disaster and were given up. In writing the Spanish and other foreign proper names I have in no case translated, because such translations result in needless confusion. To translate "Rio del Tizon " as Fire- brand River is making another name of it. Few would recog- nise the Colorado River under the title of Red River, as used, for example, in Pattie's narrative. While Colorado means red, As to Translations ix it is quite another matter as a Jiainc. Nor do I approve of hyphenating native words, as is so frequently done. It is no easier to understand Mis-sis-sip-pi than Mississippi. My thanks are due to Mr. Thomas Moran, the distinguished painter, for the admirable sketch from nature he has so kindly permitted a reproduction of for a frontispiece. Mr. Moran has been identified as a painter of the Grand Canyon ever since 1 873) when he went there with one of Powell's parties and made sketches from the end of the Kaibab Plateau which after- wards resulted in the splendid picture of the Grand Canyon now owned by the Government. I am indebted to Prof. A. H. Thompson for the use of his river diary as a check upon my own, and also for many photographs now difficult to obtain ; and to Dr. G. K. Gilbert, Mr. E. E. Howell, Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden, and Mr. Delancy Gill for the use of special photographs. Other debts in this line I acknowledge in each instance and hence will not repeat here. I had hoped to have an opportunity of again reading over the diary which "Jack " Sumner kept on the first Powell expedition, and which I have not seen since the time of the second expedition, but the serious illness of Major Powell prevented my requesting the use of it. F. S. Dellenbaugh. New York, October, 1902. Note. — Since the last edition of this work was published, the inquiries of Mr. Robert Brewster Stanton have brought to light among some forgotten papers of Major Powell's at the Bureau of Ethnology in Washington the diary of Jack Sumner and also that of Major Powell himself. Both begin at the mouth of the Uinta River. Major Powell, because of his one-armed condition, had the only life-preserver. The preserver was rubber of the inflating type and is in the Smithsonian Institution^ presented by Mr. Stanton who obtained it from one of the survivors in I907. o •£ NOTE ON THE AUTHOR'S ITINERARY IN THE BASIN OF THE COLORADO RIVER AND ADJACENT TERRITORY (Except where otherwise stated journeys were on horseback.) 1 87 1 — By boat from the Union Pacific Railway crossing of Green River, down the Green and Colorado to the mouth of the Paria, Lee's Ferry. Numerous side trips on foot. Lee's Ferry to House Rock Valley, and across north end of the Kaibab Plateau to the village of Kanab. 1872 — Kanab to House Rock Valley and Paria Plateau. To Kanab. To southern part of Kaibab Plateau. To Kanab via Shinumo Canyon and Kanab Canyon. To Pipe Spring. To the Uinkaret Mountains and the Grand Canyon at the foot of the Toroweap Valley. To Berry Spring near St. George, along the edge of the Hurricane Ledge. To the Uinkaret Mountains via Diamond Butte. To the bottom of the Grand Canyon at the foot of the Toroweap. To Berry Spring via Diamond Butte and along the foot of the Hurricane Ledge. To St. George. To the Virgen Mountains and summit of Mt. Bangs. To Kanab via St. George. To the Aquarius Plateau via Potato Valley. To and across the Henry Mountains. To the Colorado at the mouth of Fremont River. By boat to the mouth of the Paria. To Kanab and return across the Kaibab. By boat down the Colorado to the mouth of the Kanab. To Kanab via the Kanab Canyon. To the Uinkaret Mountains. To Kanab via Pipe Spring. 1873 — To Salt Lake City, via Long Valley and the Sevier River. 1875 — To terminus of Utah Southern Railway, about at Spanish Forks, by rail. To Kanab via Sevier River and Upper xii Note on the Author's Itinerary Kanab. To the Kaibab Plateau, De Motte Park, and the rim of the Grand Canyon. To the bottom of the Grand Canyon via Shinumo and Kanab Canyons. To Kanab via Kanab Canyon. To the Uinkaret Mountains via Pipe Spring and the Wild Band Pockets. To the Grand Canyon at the foot of the Toroweap. 1876 — To St. George across the Uinkaret Plateau. To Las Vegas, Nevada, via Beaver Dam, Virgen River, the Muddy, and the desert. To St. George, by the desert and the old "St. Joe" road across the Beaver Dam Mountains. To the rim of the Grand Canyon, via Hidden Spring, the Copper Mine, and Mt. Dellenbaugh. To a red paint cave on the side of the canyon, about twenty-five hundred feet down. To St. George via same route. To Ivanpah, California, via the old desert road, the Muddy, Las Vegas, and Good Spring. To St. George via same route. To Kanab via Short Creek and Pipe Spring. To the Uinkaret Mountains via Pipe Spring and Antelope Valley. Across to the Shewits Plateau and to Am- bush Waterpocket south of Mt. Dellenbaugh.* To the bottom of the Grand Canyon on the east side of the Shewits Plateau. To St. George via Mt. Dellenbaugh and Hidden Spring. To Kanab via Berry Spring and Pipe Spring. To Salt Lake City via Upper Kanab and the Sevier Valley. 1884-5 — By rail to Ft. Wingate, New Mexico. By rail to Flagstaff. To Flagstaff via circuit of, and summit of, San Francisco Mountain and the Turkey Tanks. By rail to the Needles, California. By rail to Manuelito, New Mexico. To Ft. Defiance. By buckboard to Keam's Canyon. To the East Mesa of the Moki. To Keam's Canyon. By buckboard via Pueblo, Colorado, to Ft. Defiance. To the San Juan River at the "Four Corners," via Lukachukai Pass and the summit of the Carisso Mountains. To Ft. Defiance via the crest of the Tunicha Plateau. By buckboard to Keam's and to the East Mesa of the Moki. To Mishongnuvi and back. ' This waterpocket, which is a very large one, has, so far as I am aware, never had an English name and I do not know the Amerind one. I have called it " Ambush" because it was the place where three of Powell's men were shot by the Shewits in 1869. See also pp. 229-30. Note on the Author's Itinerary xiii By waggon to Keam's. To Oraibe z/z^ Tewa. To Keam's ^7^ Shimopavi and Tewa. To Holbrook by buckboard. 1899 — By rail west across Green River Valley. By rail down Price River, east across Gunnison Valley, up Grand River, and over the Continental Divide. 1903 — By rail to Salt Lake. By rail to Modena. By horse up the Virgen River to the narrows of Mukoontuweap. Thence via Rockville and Short Creek to Pipe Springs and Kanab. Thence to De Motte Park, Bright Angel Spring, and Greenland Point at the Grand Canyon on the Kaibab Plateau. Thence to Kanab, Panquitch, and Marysvale. Thence by rail to Salt Lake. 1907 — By rail to Grand Canyon, Arizona. By horse to Bass Camp, to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, opposite Shinumo Creek, to Habasu Canyon, to Grand Canyon Station, and to Grand View. By rail to the Needles. ' i s 5 « -= ^' V CONTENTS CHAPTER I PACK The Secret of the Gulf — Ulloa, 1539, One of the Captains of Cortes, Ahnost Solves it, but Turns Back without Discovering — Alarfon, 1540, Con- quers ............. I CHAPTER II The Unknown River — Alar9on Ascends it Eighty-five Leagues and Names it the Rio de Buena Guia — Melchior Diaz Arrives at its Banks Later and Calls it the Rio del Tizon — Cardenas Discovers the Grand Canyon. 17 CHAPTER III The Grand Canyon — Character of the Colorado River — The Water-Gods ; Erosion and Corrasion — The Natives and their Highways — The " Green River Valley" of the Old Trappers — The Strange Vegetation and Some Singular Animals ........... 36 CHAPTER IV Onate, 1604, Crosses Arizona to the Colorado — A Remarkable Ancient Ruin Discovered by Padre Kino, 1694 — Padre Garces Sees the Grand Canyon and Visits Oraibi, 1776 — The Great Entrada of Padre Escalante across Green River to Utah Lake, 1776 — Death of Garces Ends the Entrada Period, 17S1 76 CHAPTER V Breaking the Wilderness — Wanderings of the Trappers and Fur Traders — General Ashley in Green River Valley, 1824 — Pattie along the Grand Canyon, 1826 — Lieutenant Hardy, R.N., in a Schooner on the Lower Colorado, 1826 — Jedediah Smith, Salt Lake to San Gabriel, 1S26 — Pattie on the Lower Colorado in Canoes, 1827-2S ...... CHAPTER VI 106 Fremont, the Pathfinder — Ownership of the Colorado — The Road of the Gold Seekers — First United States Military Post, 1S49 — Steam Naviga- tion — Captain Johnson Goes to the Head of Black Canyon . . . 133 xvi Contents CHAPTER VII PAGE- Lieutenant Ives Explores to Fortification Rock — By Trail to Diamond Creek, Havasupai Canyon, and the Moki Towns — Macomb Fails in an At- tempt to Reach the Mouth of Grand River — James White's Masterful Fabrication . . . . . . . . . . . . 156- CHAPTER VIII The One-armed Knight — A Bold Attack on the Canyons — Powell and His Men — The Wonderful Voyage — Mighty Walls and Roaring Rapids — Capsizes and Catastrophes . . . . . . . . . 1S4. CHAPTER IX A Canyon of Cataracts — The Imperial Chasm — Short Rations — A Split in the Party — Separation — Fate of the Howlands and Dunn — The Mon- ster Vanquished ........... 209- CHAPTER X Powell's Second Attack on the Colorado — Green River City — Red Canyon and a Capsize — The Grave of Hook — The Gate of Lodore — Cliff of the Harp— Triplet Falls and Hell's Half-Mile— A Rest in Echo Park . 233, CHAPTER XI An Island Park and a Split Mountain — The White River Runaways — Powell Goes to Salt Lake — Failure to Get Rations to the Dirty Devil — On the Rocks in Desolation — Natural Windows — An Ancient House — On the Back of the Dragon at Last — Cataracts and Cataracts in the Wonderful Cataract Canyon — A Lost Pack-Train — Naming the Echo Peaks ............. 259. CHAPTER XII Into the Jaws of the Dragon — A Useless Experiment — Wheeler Reaches Diamond Creek Going Up-stream— The Hurricane Ledge — .Something about Names — A Trip from Kanab through Unknown Country to the Mouth of the Dirty Devil 294. CHAPTER XIII A Canyon through Marble — Multitudinous Rapids — Running the Sock- dologer — A Difficult Portage, Rising Water, and a Trap — The Dean Upside Down — A Close Shave — Whirlpools and Fountains — The Kanab Canyon and the End of the Voyage ....... 317 Contents XVll CHAPTER XIV PAGE Railway Proposed through the Canyons — The Brown Party, 1889, Under- takes the Survey — Frail Boats and Disasters — The Dragon Claims Three — Collapse of the Expedition — Stanton Tries the Feat Again, 1889-90 — A Fall and a Broken Leg — Success of Stanton — The Dragon Still Untrammelled ........... 342 Epilogue 371 Appendix 387 Index 391 Tapeets Creek. Character of some of the tributary valleys of the north side of the Grand Canyon through the Kaibab section. The extreme height of the north wall is seen in the distance. A considerable valley intervenes between it and the river. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. ILLUSTRATIONS Looking up the Bright Angel Trail . Frontispiece This is one of the modern trails into the Grand Canyon, which at this point is some 6000 feet deep. From water-colour sketch by Thomas Moran, N.A. The Ancient Ruin on the Cliff ..... Glen Canyon. Photograph by J. Fennemore, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Map Showing Relations of the Canyons of the Green AND Colorado to the Surrounding Country {facing) " Hardy's Colorado," — a Flood River, at Base of CocoPA Mountains ....... Between the camp and the base of the slope runs the old Indian trail. See map facing page 12. On the Colorado River Six Miles above Picacho . Photograph by Arthur P. Davis. Tapeets Creek . Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Looking into the First Granite Gorge ... > Grand Canyon foot of Bright Angel Trail. Canyon 300 miles long. River 1000 feet below point of view. Total depth between 5000 and 6000 feet. Photograph by Hall. In Glen Canyon ......... Walls of homogeneous sandstone. Photograph by J. Fennemore, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Active Mud Volcanoes Near Cocopa Mountains and Volcano Lake, Lower Colorado Rirer. Cerro Prieto, the largest of the group, seen in the distance, is now quiet. See map of the delta facing page 12. Photograph by D. T. MacDougal. The Inner Gorge of the Grand Canyon at the Foot of Toroweap ......... Depth from point of view about 3000 feet. Total depth about 4500 feet. Width about 3500 feet from brink to brink. Negative 20x24 by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. XX Illustrations PAGE House Ruins on Cliff of Glen Canyon .... 6 There were habitations also under the heavy top ledge. Photograph by J. Fennemore, U. S. Geol. Survey. Wvtfliet-Ptolemy Map of 1597 . .... 9 From Bancroft's History of Arizona and Ne'u Mexico. The Lower Colorado at the " Line Mesa " . . 10 Photograph by D. T. MacDougal. Western Part United States ..... 12 Relief Map by E. E. Howell. Map OF THE Colorado River Delta . . {facing') 12 •Gulf of California at the Mouth of the Colorado . 13 Photograph by Delancy Gill. Alar^on's Ships Struggling with the Great Bore of the Colorado — 1540 ....... 15 Drawing by F. S. Dellenbaugh. Native Ladies of the Lower Colorado .... 18 Freaks of Erosion . . . . . . . -19 •One of the Cocopa Giants. Height, 6 feet 4 inches . 20 The costume in early days was " nothing."' Photograph by Delancy Gill. KOMOHOATS .......... 21 A Pai Ute boy, S. W. Nevada. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. Professor McGee and a Group of Cocopas ... 24 Originally the Cocopas wore no clothing. Photograph by Delancy Gill. The Colorado at the Junction of the Gila ... 26 Looking up stream, Gila right hand lower corner. Colorado about 500 yards wide. Photograph by Delancy Gill. An Arizona Landscape ....... 29 There are Navajo Gardens at the bottom of this canyon. Photograph by E. O. Beaman. Cocopa Tule Raft ........ 30 Photograph by Delancy Gill. Illustrations xxi PACE The Grand Canyon from Bright Angel Hotel . . 33 Twelve miles to opposite rim. Total depth here between 5000 and 6000 feet. Photograph by Hall. The Grand-Marble Canyon Region • .... 37 Scale about 30 miles to the inch. This is not as accurate as the map opposite page 41, but is given as an aid to the understanding of that. Compare also map on page 12. The Work of Erosion ....... 38 The Witch of Endor and Cerberus. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey, The Work of Corrasion . 39 Parunuweap Canyon of the Virgen River, Southern Utah. 20 to 30 feet wide and 1500 feet deep and iS miles long. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. The Grand Canyon and Terrace Plateau Region (facing) 41 The " Hole in the Wall," near Ft. Defiance, Arizona. 41 This kind of sandstone has the peculiarity of weathering in this way, sometimes producing larger arches, alcoves, etc. Photograph by Ben Wittick. Looking down upon Glen CanyOxN ..... 43 Cut through homogeneous sandstone. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Pinnacle in the Canyon de Chelly ..... 45 About 1500 feet high. It is much wider from the side. Photograph by Ben Wittick. Bad Lands on Black's Fork of Green River ... 47 Photograph by U. S. Geol. Survey. In Lower Kanab Canyon ....... 48 Width about 75 feet. Depth 2500 to 3000 feet. Photograph by E. O. Beaman. The Pink Cliffs ......... 49 Southern end of high plateaus. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. Towers at Short Creek. Southern Utah ... 50 This is a part of the great line of Vermilion Cliffs. The region here represented possesses some of the most magnificent scenery of the whole West. Outline drawing by W. H. tlolmes. xxii Illustrations PAGE Map from a United States Geological Survey . . 51 Gray's Peak, 14,341 Feet. Torrey's Peak 14,336 Feet . 52 Tip-top of the Continental Divide whence the Colorado derives flood waters. Photograph by U. S. (leol. Survey. Balanced Rock ......... 53 On trail from House Rock Valley to Lee's Ferry. Photograph by E. O. Beaman. Outline Sketch of the Grand Canyon from Point Sublime ......... 55 Drawn by W. H. Holmes. Character of the Mountains and High Plateau Re- gions OF the Basin of the Colorado .... 56 Photograph by J. K. Hillers. Profile of the Colorado through the Grand Canyon . 57 From Powell's Report. Looking across the Grand Canyon (Inner Gorge) near Foot of Toroweap ....... 58 Depth 3000 feet. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. Pinnacles in Split-Mountain Canyon .... 61 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Head of the Canyon of Lodore just inside the "Gate" 62 Walls 2500 feet high ; river 300 feet wide. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. River Exp. Pot-hole in Intermittent Water Course, Glen Canyon 63 Homogeneous sandstone. These holes are often 10 to 15 feet deep, with the stones which ground them lying in the bottom. Photograph by J. Fennemore, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Looking up Green River Valley from below Union Pacific Railway Bridge ...... 64 Photograph by C. R. Savage. Specimen of a Navajo ....... 65 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. Young Warriors of the North ...... 66 Photograph by C. R Savage. Illustrations xxiii PAGE The Joshua Tree 67 Clistoyucca Arborescens. Southern Nevada. Photograph by C. R. Savage. A Pai Ute Family at Home 68 Photograph by J. K. Millers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Barrel Cactus ........ 69 Pencil Sketch by F. S. Dellenbaugh. Vegetation of the Southwest ...... 70 Photograph by E. O. Beaman. A Kaibab Pai Ute ........ 72 Posed by Thomas Moran. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. Side Canyon of Glen Canyon ...... 73 Homogeneous sandstone. Photograph by J. Fennemore, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Entrance to Acoma, N. M. . . . . . -77 The town is on top of a mesa, and was a prominent point on the high- way from the Rio Grande to Zuni. Photograph by Ben Wittick. Across the House Tops of Zuni 79 Photograph by J. K. Hillers. Ruin called Casa Grande, Arizona .... 81 From a photograph by Coimos Mindeleff, U. S. Bu. Eth. Padre Kino's Map of 1701 ....... 83 The first map giving the head of the Gulf correctly. From Bancroft's History of Arizona and Xew Mexico. A Lateral Canyon of Escalante River .... 84 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Moki Town of Wolpi, Arizona 85 700 feet above the valley. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. Church of San Xavier del Bac, near Tucson ... 88 Drawing by F. S. Dellenbaugh, after a photograph. CocoPA Woman Grinding Corn ...... 89 Photograph by Delancy Gill. xxiv Illustrations PAGE The Grand Canyon from Bright Angel Trail . . 91 Painting by Thomas Moran. The Moki Town of Mishongnuvi, Arizona • • • 93 The hill surmounted by the town lies itself on top of a mesa. Photograph by E. O. Beaman. The Canyon of the Little Colorado .... 95 Photograph by C. Barthelmess. A Court in Wolpi, Arizona ...... 97 Drawing by F. S. Uellenbaugh. A ZuSTi Home 98 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. The Governors of Zuni ....... 99 Shows well the general type of the Puebloans of the Basin of the Colorado. Photograph by J. K. Hillers. Upper Waters of Rio Virgen . . . . . .100 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. Pai Ute Girls, Southern Utah, carrying water . .101 The jugs are wicker, made tight with pitch. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Ashtishkel, a Navajo Chief 103 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Map of Green River through the Uinta Mountains . 109 Flaming Gorge, Green River. Beginning of the Canyons i 10 Picture taken just inside the entrance. Walls 1300 feet. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Red Canyon at Low Water . . . . . .111 Length 25 miles, walls iSoo to 2500 feet high. Average width of the river 250 feet. Ashley Falls, Red Canyon, Green River . . -113 General Ashley wrote his name on a rock about half \\ ay up the picture, on the right, in 1825. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Grand Canyon, from Bright Angel Trail, looking East . • 115 Point of view looo feet above the water. Total depth, between sofjo and 6000 feet. Photograph by Rose. Illustrations xxv PACE Entrance to Black Canyon, first seen by James O. Pattie ii6 Photograph by Wheeler Expedition. The Navajo Type . . . . . . . . iig Photograph by J. K. Millers, U. S. Geol. Survey. Upper Valley OF the ViRGEN ...... 121 Photograph by C. R. Savage. The " Navajo Church," a Freak of Erosion near Ft. Wing ATE, N. M 123 The Basin of the Colorado is full of such architectural forms. Photograph by Ben Wittick. Cliffs of the Rio Virgen ....... 125 About 2500 feet high. Photograph by J. K. Ilillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. The " Colob " Country, Southern Utah . . . 127 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. In the Canyon of Lodore ....... 129 Walls about 2500 feet, width of river about 400 feet. Uinta Utes, Saiar's Home . . . . . .131 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. Kaibab Pai Ute Boys Playing a Game of Wolf and Deer . . ........ 134 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Canyon of Lodore, Green River, Looking up the Canyon 136 Walls 2000 to 2500 feet high. " Wheatstack " in distance. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Las Vegas, Southern Nevada, on the Old Spanish Trail 137 From an oil sketch by F. S. Dellenbaugh A Canyon in the Cliffs, Southern Nevada . . . 139 Pencil sketch by F. .S. Dellenbaugh. Crossing the Lower Colorado ...... 141 Width 400 to 500 yards. Photograph by Delancy Gill. A CocoPA Dwelling, near Mouth of the Colorado . 144 Photograph by Delancy Gill. xxvi Illustrations PAGE On the Yuma Desert . . i45 I'hotograph by Delancy Gill. A Uinta Ute i47 Photograph by J. K. Millers, U. S. Cleol. Survey. "Judy," A Navajo 149 From a photograph by J. K. Hillers. One of the Parks on the Kaibab ..... 150 Photograph by T. Mitchell rnuhlen. The Ruins in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, called " Casa Blanca" 153 Photograph by J. K. Ilillers, U. S. Genl. Survey. Part of Map No. i, by Lieut. J. C. Ives, 1858 . . .157 From the Gulf to the mouth of the Gila. Robinson's Landing . . 159 Mouth of the Colorado River. Starting-point of Lieut. Ives's Exploration. Photograph by Lieut. Ives, redrawn by J. J. Young. The Steamer " Explorer" in which Lieut. Ives in 1857 Ascended the Colorado to Foot of Black Canyon . 161 Sketch by H. B. MoUhausen. Looking down the Grand Canyon from the Mouth of the Kanab ......... 163 Depth about 4000 feet. Oil sketch by F. S. Dellenbaugh. Black Canyon — Looking Down ..... 166 Photograph by Wheeler Exjieditioii. Fortification Rock ........ i68 Castellated gravels at the foot. Near the head of Black Canyon. Photograph by Wheeler Expedition. The Canyon of Diamond Creek . . . . . . 169 Photograph by \V. H. Jackson. Fort Yuma and the Old Railway Bridge of the South- ern Pacific • 171 Photograph by C. R. Savage. Illustrations xxvii PAGE At the Junction of the Green and Grand on the Surface . . . . . . . . -172 Photograph by E. O. Beamaii, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Barrel Cactus Compared with the Height of a Man .......... 174 Photograph by C. R. Savage. Canyon of San Juan River Looking West at Honiket Trail, Utah ........ 177 Two thousand feet deep. Photograph by Charles Goodman. A Glen of Glen Canyon . . . . . . .178 These are numerous, hence the name. Catakact Canyon Rapid at Low Water .... 180 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Looking up the Grand Canyon from Mouth of Kanab Canyon ......... 182 Pencil sketch by F. S. Dellenbaugh. John Wesley Powell . 185 Explorer of the Canyons of the Colorado, Founder and, till his death. Director of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and long Director of the U. S. Geological Survey. As he looked during the decade following his two descents of the Colorado. Taken about 1876 in Washington. Major Powell died September 23, igo2. Character of Green River Valley in the Vicinity of the Crossing of the U. P. Railway .... 187 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Part of a Rapid ......... 188 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Canyon of Lodore — The Wheatstack .... 191 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Green River above Flaming Gorge . . . . -193 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Red Canyon, Green River. Upper Portion. Looking UP Stream . . . . . . . . • ^95 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. xxviii Illustrations Page The Canyon of Lodore — Upper Part of Disaster Falls. 197 Where Powell lost the Xo-Xame in 1869. Photograph by E. O. Beanian, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Canyon of Brush Creek — Looking Up . . . 198 This stream enters the Green not far helow foot of Split-Mountain Canyon. Photograph by J. K. Ilillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Canyon of Lodore ....... 201 Looking down at Triplet Falls. Depth about 2500 feet. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Geol. Survey. Echo Rock on Right, from which Echo Park Takes its Name 203 To one sitting in a boat near foreground a sentence of ten words is repeated. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Canyon of Desolation — Sumner's Amphitheatre . 205 Walls about 1200 feet. Photograph by E. O. IJeaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Canyon of Desolation — Low Water . . - 206 Cliffs about 2500 feet. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Junction of the Grand and Green . . . = , 210 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. In Cataract Canyon ,211 Highest walls in this canyon 2700 feet. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Crags at Millecrag Bend, foot of Cataract Canyon . . . . . . . .214 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Music Temple Alcove, Glen Canyon . . - 215 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Depths of the Grand Canyon at Sunset . .217 Studio painting by F. S. Dellenbaugh, in the possession of Prof. A. H. Thompson, who considers it the best representation of the canyon from below that he has seen, "the truest — far better than any photograph because more comprehensive." Illustrations xxix PAGE The Grand Canyon. The "Sockdologer" Rapid , , 219 Fall of about 80 feet in one third of a mile. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. BOTTO:\I OF THE GRAND CaNYON ...,«, 222 Looking down from foot of Bright Angel Trail. Photograph by T. Mitchell Prudden. In THE Midst of a Grand Canyon Rapid ... 223 Studio painting by F. S. Dellenbaugh. The Grand Canyon — Granite Buttresses , . 225 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv, E.xp. The Basket Maker ........ 229 Old woman of the Kaibab Pai Utes. Behind is the typical Pai Ute dwelling of boughs and brush. The dwellings of the Shewits are similar. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Brother Belder's — Virgen City , . . . = 231 A typical frontier Mormon home. Photograph by U. S. Geol. Survey. Green River Station, U. P. Ry., Wyoming, 1871 . . 234 Starting point of the two Powell expeditions. Thompson, Hattan, Jones, Steward, W. C. Powell, Rich- ardson, Dellenbaugh, Bishop ..... 235 Our first camp, Green River, Wyoming. United States Colorado River Expedition, 1S71. The borrowed table was, of course, left behind. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Boats of Powell's Second Expedition on the Beach AT Green River, Wyoming ...... 237 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Ruins of Green River Terminus ..... 238 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. A. H. Thompson 241 Powell's colleague in the second descent of the Colorado and subse- quent work. For over thirty years prominently connected with the United States survey work in the basin of the Colorado and adjacent country and in the Eastern States. Recent photograph by Clinedinst. XXX Illustrations PAGE Ready for the Start, U. S. Colorado River Expedition, Green River, Wyoming, 1871 ..... 242 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Portraits of all but Two Members of the Boat Party OF the U. S. Colorado River Expedition of 1871 . 243 Green River Valley. Camp at Tilted Ledge near Henry's Fork ........ 245 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. E.xp. Head of Kingfisher Canyon, Green River . . . 247 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Heart OF Lodore . . . . . . -251 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Canyon of Lodore. Looking down Stream . - 252 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Canyon of Lodore. Looking across a Rapid . . 254 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Canyon of Lodore at Triplet Falls . . . -257 Cliffs about 2500 feet high. River about 300 feet wide. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Island Park, Green River ...... 260 Between Whirlpool and Split-Mountain Canyons. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Entrance to Split-Mountain Canyon, Right Hand Cliffs .......... 261 Height about 2000 feet. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. In Split-Mountain Canyon ...... 262 Highest walls 2700 feet. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Split-Mountain Canyon ....... 263 Looking down from top near entrance, 3000 feet Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Men of the 1871 Expedition at the Abandoned Cabin Opposite the Mouth of the Uinta River . . . 264 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Illustrations xxxi PAGE The Runaways. White River Utes . . . . 265 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Canyon of Desolation ....... 266 Walls 2000 feet. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. A Halt for Observations ....... 267 Second Powell Expedition. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Uinta Ute Tipi and a Summer Shelter and Outlook, Showing the Old-Time Notched Log for a Ladder. 268 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. Dellenbaugh Butte, Green River near the San Rafael. 269 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Gunnison Butte . . . . . . . .271 Head of Gunnison Valley and foot of Gray Canyon. Powell Expedition of 1 871 repairing boats. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Labyrinth Canyon, Trinalcove ..... 273 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Bonito Bend, between Labyrinth and Stillwater Can- yons 274 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Butte of the Cross between Labyrinth and Still- water Canyons ........ 275 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Head of Cataract Canyon, Looking down from Top of Walls near the Junction of the Grand and Green 278 Depth, 1300 feet. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Side Canyon of Cataract Canyon ..... 280 1500 feet deep ; 25 feet wide at bottom, 300 feet at top. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Side Canyon of Cataract Canyon ..... 283 Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. xxxii Illustrations PAGE Cataract Canyon, Right-hand Wall toward Lower End 285 Height about 2700 feet. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Town of Bluff 288 Upper valley of the San Juan River. Photograph by Chas. Goodman. Glen Canyon Wall 289 About 1200 feet high. Homogeneous sandstone on top of thin bedded sandstone. Photograph by J. Fennemore, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Glen Canyon ......... 290 Sandstone wall aljout 1200 feet high. Photograph by J. Fennemore, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Glen Canyon, Sentinel Rock ...... 291 Between the Crossing of the Fathers and Lee"s Ferry ; about 300 feet high. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Grand Canyon ........ 295 Cliffs opposite the mouth of Diamond Creek. The highest point visible is about 3500 feet above the river. Photograph by T. H. O'Sullivan, Wheeler Exp. The Beginning of a Natural Arch 297 Photograph by C. R. Savage. The Grand Canyon . , 300 Near mouth of Diamond Creek. Photograph by T. H. O'Sullivan, Wheeler Exp. The Crew of the " Trilobite" 302 At the mouth of Diamond Creek. Photograph by T. II. O'Sullivan, Wheeler Exp. The Dining-table in Camp ...... 304 Dutch oven, left foreground. Photograph by F. S. Dellenbaugh. Winter Headquarters at Kanab, 1872-3 . , . 306 Photograph by J. K. Hillers. Illustrations xxxiii Page The Uinkaret Mountains at Sunset, from the North- east .......... 307 Mt. Trumbull in middle, Mt. Logan in the far distance. Oil sketch by F. S. Dellenbaugh. Major Powell and a Pai Ute. Southern Utah, 1872 . 308 Photograph by J. K. Millers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Expedition Photographer in the Field . . . 309 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. Lake on the Aquarius Plateau . . . „ -311 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Butte in Grand Gulch . . . . . . 313 A tributary of the San Juan. Photograph by Charles Goodman. Repairing Boat near Mouth of Fremont River on the Colorado, 1S72 ........ 314 Photograph by J. Fennemore, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Major Powell in the Field, 1872 . . „ , . 315. Navajos in Characteristic Dress . . . . .318 Photograph by F. S. Dellenbaugh. Marble Canyon . . . . . . . . .321 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Marble Canyon near the Lower End .... 324 Walls about 3500 feet. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. F. S. Dellenbaugh, 1872 ..... o . 326 Tintype by J. K. Hillers. Granite Falls, Grand Canyon ..... 327 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Running the "Sockdologer," Grand Canyon . . 329 Fall 80 feet in ^ mile. Studio painting by F. S. Dellenbaugh. Looking up a Side Canyon of the Grand Canyon in the Kaibab Division ........ 7,^^ Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. xxxiv Illustrations PAGE. A Capsize in the Grand Canyon ..... 335 Drawing by F. S. Dellenbaugh. The Grand Canyon, Looking down from Mouth of Kanab Canyon in Winter ...... 338 Photograph by E. O. Beaman. The Outlet of the Creek in Surprise Valley near the Mouth of Kanab Canyon, Grand Canyon . . 339 Photograph by E. O. Beaman. Mouth of Kanab Canyon ....... 340 .•\bancloned boats of the U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp., 1872. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo Riv. Exp. Camp at Oak Spring, Uinkaret Mountains . . . 343 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Mukoontuweap Canyon, North Fork of the Virgen . 344 Ten miles long, 3500 feet deep. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. Looking down the Canyon de Chelly, a Tributary of the San Juan and Containing many Cliff Houses . 345 Photograph by Ben. Wittick. A Cave-Lake in a Sandstone Cliff near Kanab, South Utah 349 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. In Marble Canyon, about Midway between Paria and Little Colorado . . . . . . . .352 Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Marble Canyon, Lower Portion ..... 355 Walls about 3500 feet. From photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Looking West from Jacob's Pool on Road to Lee's Ferry. Vermilion Cliffs in Distance ..... 356 Photograph by W. Bell. Robert Brewster Stanton . . . . . .358 Recent photograph by Kaufmann, Pittsburgh. The Grand Canyon ........ 360 In the First Granite Gorge. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. Illustrations xxxv PAGE The Great Unxonformity 362 Top of the Granite, Grand Canyon. Photograph by T. Mitchell Prudden. Looking up the Grand Canyon, at the Foot of Toro- WEAP, Uinkaret Division ...... 365 Depth of inner gorge about 3000 feet — width, brink to brink, about 3500 feet. Oil sketch by F. S. Dellenbaugh. The Grand Canyon — Lava Falls 366 Just below the Toroweap. Total depth of canyon about 4500 feet. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. On the Bright Angel Trail 367 Photograph by T. Mitchell Prudden. John Wesley Powell, 1834-1902 ..... 374 Green River from the U. P. Railway to White River, Showing Gorges through the Uinta Mountains . 379 The Grand Canyon ........ 382 Boats of the second Powell Expedition, showing armchair in which Powell sat. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The "Major Powell" 3^5 The first power-boat on Green River. Steam. Drew 28 inches. Launched, 1S91. Photograph by Lute H. Johnson. The Steamer "Undine" 391 Wrecked while trying to ascend a rapid on Grand River above Moab. Photograph by R. G. Leonard. The "Wilmont," First 402 Gasoline power. Photograph by R. G. Leonard. The " Wilmont," Second 4°^ Gasoline power. -r^li. J ■ / Looking into the First Granite Gorge, Grand Canyon Foot of Bright Angel Trail. Including marble Canyon division, this gorge is nearly 300 miles long. Total de;jth between 5000 and 6000 feet. Photograph by H.'VLL. THE ROMANCE OF THE COLORADO RIVER CHAPTER I The Secret of the Gulf — Ulloa, 1539, One of the Captains of Cortes, Almost Solves it, but Turns Back without Discovering — Alar9on, 1540, Conquers. IN every country the great rivers have presented attractive pathways for interior exploration - — • gateways for settle- ment. Eventually they have grown to be highroads where the rich cargoes of development, profiting by favouring tides, floated to the outer world. Man, during all his wanderings in the struggle for subsistence, has universally found them his friends and allies. They have yielded to him as a conquering stranger; they have at last become for him foster-parents. Their verdant banks have sheltered and protected him ; their skies have smiled upon his crops. With grateful memories, therefore, is clothed for us the sound of such river names as Thames, Danube, Hudson, Mississippi. Through the centuries their kindly waters have borne down ancestral argosies of pro- fit without number, establishing thus the wealth and happiness of the people. Well have rivers been termed the "Arteries of Commerce"; well, also, may they be considered the binding links of civilisation. Then, by contrast, it is all the more remarkable to meet with one great river which is none of these helpful things, but 2 The Colorado River which, on the contrary, is a veritable drai^on, loud in its dan- gerous lair, defiant, fierce, opposinj^ utility everywhere, re- fusing absolutely to be bridled by Commerce, perpetuating a wilderness, jirohibiting mankind's encroachments, and in its In Glen Canyon. Walls of homogeneous sandstone looo feet high. Photograph by J. Fennemore, U. S. Colorado River Expedition. immediate tide presenting a formidable host of snarling waters whose angry roar, reverberating wildly league after league be- tween giant rock-walls carved through the bowels of the earth, heralds the impossibility of human conquest and smothers hope. From the tiny rivulets of its snowy birth to the fero- o .12 CO o "o . -5 a a S ■= 4 The Colorado River cious tidal bore where it dies in the sea, it wages a ceaseless battle as sublime as it is terrible and unique. Such is the great Colorado Ri\-er of the West, rising amidst the fountains of the beautiful Wind River Mountains of Wyoming, where also are brought forth the gentler Columbia and the mighty, far-reaching Missouri. Whirling down ten thousand feet in some two thousand miles, it meets the hot level of the Red Sea, once the Sea of Cortes, now the Gulf of California, in tumult and turmoil. In this long run it is cliff- bound nine-tenths of the way, and the whole country drained by it and its tributaries has been wrought by the waters and Avinds of ages into multitudinous plateaus and canyons. The canyons of its tributaries often rival in grandeur those of the main stream itself, and the tributaries receive other canyons ■equally magnificent, so that we see here a stupendous system of gorges and tributary gorges, which, even now bewildering, were to the early pioneer practically prohibitory. Water is the master sculptor in this weird, wonderful land, yet one could there die easily of thirst. Notwithstanding the gigantic work accomplished, water, except on the river, is scarce. Often for months the soil of the valleys and plains never feels rain ; even dew is unknown. In this arid region much of the vegetation is set with thorns, and some of the animals are made to match the vegetation. A knowledge of this forbidding area, now robbed of some of its old terrors by the facilities in transporta- tion, has been finally gained only by a long series of persistent efforts, attended by dangers, pri\-ations, reverses, discourage- ments, and disasters innumerable. The Amerind,' the red man, roamed its wild valleys. Some tribes built stone houses whose ruins are now found overlooking its waters, even in the depths of the Grand Canyon itself, or in the cliffs along the more accessible tributaries, cultivating in the bottoms their crops. Lands were also tilled along the extreme lower reaches, where tlie-gf^atJ^er^K-walls fall back and alluvial soils border the stream. Here and there the Amerind also crossed it, when occasion required, on the great 'This name is a substitute for the misnomer "Indian." Its use avoids confusion. >" o r~ > u •a S ^ W o o o -c M i! t- -' 2 Z H S The Colorado River intertribal hiL;h\\a\-s which arc fouiul in all districts, but it was neither one thing nor another to him. So the river rolled on through its solemn canyons in prim- eval freedom, unvexed by the tampering and meddling of man. The Spaniards, after the picturesque conquest of the luckless Aztecs, were eagerly searching for new fields of profitable bat- tle, and the n they dreamed of finding among the mysteries of the alluring northland, stretching so far away into the Unknown, a repetition of towns as populous, as wealthy in pure gold, as those of the valley of Mexico whose despoiled treas- ures had fired the cu- pidity of Europe and had crammed the strong boxes of the Spanish king. And there might be towns even richer! Who could say? An Amerind named Tejo, who belonged to Guz- man when he was presi- dent of New Spain, that is, about 1530, told of journeys he had made with his father, when a boy, to trade in the far north where he saw very large villages like Mexico, especially seven large towns full of silver-workers, forty days' journey through the wilder- ness. This welcome story was fuel to the fire. Guzman organ- ised a party and started for these wonderful seven cities, but numerous difficulties prevented the fulfilment of his plans, and caused a halt after traversing but a small portion of the distance. Cortes had now also returned from a visit to Spain, and he and -'-^.-^c V-.1 House Ruins on Cliff of Glen Canyon. There were habitations also under the heavy top ledge. Photograph by J. FENfNEMORE, U. S. Geol. Survey. The Seven Cities 7 Guzman were at the point of the sword. Then shortly arrived from the north (1536), after incredible wanderings between the Mississippi and the Rio Grande, that man of wonderful endur- ance, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca,' with his surviving com- panions, Dorantes, Maldonado, and Estevan. The latter, a negro, was afterwards very prominent by his connection with the fatal expedition sent out under the Friar Marcos to investi- gate the north country. The negro, if not the other men, gave a highly colored account of the lands they had traversed, and especially of what they had heard, so that more fuel was added to the fire, and the desire to explore the mysteries burned into execution. Cortes, harassed by his numerous enemies in Mexico and Spain, determined on a new effort to carry out his cherished plan of reaping further glories in the fascinating regions of the north so full of possibilities. There conse- quently sailed from Acapulco, July 8, 1539, a fleet of three vessels under Francisco de Ulloa. Cortes was prevented by circumstances from going with this expedition. After many difficulties Ulloa at length found himself at the very head of the Sea of Cortes in shallow water. " And thus sailing [he writes] we always found more shallow water, and the sea thick, black, and very muddy, and came at length into five fathom water; and seeing this we determined to pass over to the land which we had seen on the other side, and here likewise we found as little depth or less, whereupon we rode all night in five fathom water, and we perceived the sea to run with so great a rage into the land that it was a thing much to be marvelled at; and with the like fury it returned back again with the ebb, during which time we found eleven fathom water, and the flood and ebb continued from five to six hours." The next day *' the captain and the pilot went up to the ship's top and saw all the land full of sand in a great round compass and joining itself with the other shore; and it was so low that whereas we were a league ' For a full account of the experiences of Alvar Nunez, see the translation of Buckingham Smith. Also Bandelier, Contributions to the History of the South- ivestern Portions of the United States. 8 The Colorado River from the same we could not discern it, and it seemed there was an inlet of the mouths of certain lakes, whereby the sea went in and out. There were divers opinions amongst us, and some thought that that current entered into these lakes, and also that some great river there might be the cause thereof.'" This seems to have been the very first visit of Europeans to the mouth of the Colorado, but as Ulloa did not see the river, and only surmised that there mit^ht be one there, it cannot be considered in any way a discovery. It has been supposed by some that Friar Juan de la Asumpcion, in 1538, might have reached the Colorado in his deep river which he could not cross, but this river was more likely a branch of the Yacjui, for the friar was told that ten days beyond, to the north, there w^as another larger river settled by miany people, whose houses had three stories, and whose villages v/ere enclosed. This describes the Rio Grande and its southern settlements perfectly, so that, had he been on the Colorado, or even the Gila, the Rio Grande could not have been described as "ten days to the north." Ulloa took possession formally, according to Spanish custom, and then sailed southward again. Though he had not found the great river, he had determined one import^ynt geographical point : that Lower California was not, as had been supposed, an island, but was a peninsula; nevertheless for a full century thereafter it was considered an island. Had Ulloa followed up the rush of the current he would have been the discoverer of the Colorado River, but in spite of his marvelling at the fury of it he did not seem to consider an investigation worth while; or he may have been afraid of wrecking his ships. His inertia left it for a bolder man, who was soon in his wake. But the intrepid soul of Cortes must have been sorely disappointed at the meagre results of this, his last expedition, which had cost him a large sum, and compelled the pawning of his wife's jewels. The discovery of the mouth of a great river would have bestowed on this voyage a more romantic importance, and would consequently have been somewhat healing to his in- jured pride, if not to his depleted purse; but his sun was set- ' From Hakluyt's Voyages. The spelling has been modernised. Decline of Cortes 9 ting. This voyage of UUoa was its last expiring ray. With an artistic adjustment to the situation that seems remarkable, Ulloa, after turning the end of the peninsula and sailing up the Lower Californian coast, sent home one solitary vessel, and van- ished then forever. Financially wrecked, and exasperated to the last degree by the slights and indignities of his enemies and of the Mendoza government, Cortes left for Spain early in 1540 with the hope of retrieving his power by appearing in Wytfliet-Ptolemy Map of 1597. From Bancroft's History of Arizona and New Mexico. person before the monarch. As in the case of Columbus, scant satisfaction was his, and the end was that the gallant captain, whose romantic career in the New World seems like a fairy tale, never again saw the scene of his conquests. Mendoza, the new viceroy of New Spain, a man of fine character but utterly without sympathy for Cortes, and who was instrumental in bringing about his downfall, now deter- mined on an expedition of great magnitude : an expedition that lO The Colorado River should proceed by both land and water to the wonderful Seven Cities of Cibola, believed to be rich beyond computation. The negro Estevan had lately been sent back to the marvellous northland he so glowingly described, guiding Marcos, the Fran- ciscan monk of Savoyard birth, who was to investigate care- fully, as far as possible, the glories recounted and speedily report. They were in the north about the same time (summer of 1539) that Ulloa wa,s sailivig up the Sea of Cortes. The ■^1^ The Lower Colorado at the "Line Mesa ' Photograph by D. T. MacDougal negro, who had by arrangement proceeded there some days in advance of Marcos, was killed at the first Pueblo village, and ]\Iarcos, afraid of his life, and before he had seen anything of the wonderful cities except a frightened glimpse from a distant hill, beat a precipitate retreat to New Galicia, the province just north of New Spain, and of which Francis Vasquez de Coro- nado had recently been made governor. Here he astonished Coronado with a description of the vast wealth and beauty of the Seven Cities of Cibola; a description that does credit to Coronado's Expedition n his powers of imagination. Coronado lost no time in accom- panying Marcos to Mexico, where a conference with Mendoza resulted in the promotion of the monk, and the immediate or- ganisation of the great expedition mentioned. Coronado was made general of the land forces, and Hernando de Alar^on was placed in charge of the ships. Having a land march to make Coronado, started in February, 1540, while Alar^on sailed in May. Coronado proceeded to San Miguel de Culiacan, the last settlement toward the north, near the coast, whence he took a direction slightly east of north. Alar^on, with his ships the Sail Pedro and the Santa Cata- lina, laid a course for the haven of Sant lago. They were caught in a severe storm which so greatly frightened the men on the Santa Catalina, "more afraid than was need," remarks Alarcon, that they cast overboard nine pieces of ordnance, two anchors, one cable, and "many other things as needful for the enterprise wherein we went as the ship itself." At Sant lago he repaired his losses, took on stores and some members of his company, and sailed for Aguaiauall, the seaport of San Miguel de Culiacan, where Coronado was to turn his back on the outposts of civilisation. The general had already gone when Alargon arrived, but they ex- pected to hold communication with each other, if not actu- ally to meet, farther on ; and it seems from this that they must have felt confidence in finding a river by which Alarcon might sail into the interior. As early as 1531 there were vague re- ports of a large river, the mouth of which was closed by the Amerinds living there by means of a huge cable stretched across from side to side. There may also have been other rumours of a large river besides the surmises of the Ulloa party. At any rate, Alarcon and Coronado fully expected to be in touch much of the time. This expectation appears ab- surd to us now when we understand the geography, but there was nothing out of the way about the supposition at that time. As it happened, the two divisions never met, nor were they able to communicate even once. So far as rendering Coronado any assistance was concerned, Alarcon might as well have been on the coast of Africa. The farther they proceeded n s. t ^''fe ^7/>/^a^l(^ ^fi'VX i/jN^- j*>^l:^ ■' i:.A^> ■', .'V, Western Part United States. Relief map by E. E. Howell. Tlie flood waters sweep westwar finding a nay by these respectively north, into the vast d inigaling cooipaiiy heading at the river not far below Yuma, was. w that way, via Calexlco, into the Salion basin, foTming a huge inland the subsidence of the floods. Up to October, igo6, the channel I channel from near Yuma to the Gulf of California was without waiei course; but in December. 1906, it made another break and flow MacDoQgal, been over ihc region a great deal. Compare maps on [ base of which they fonn south, to the main channel again near greatly enlarged by the floods that t ; Salton Sea. Godfrey Sykes alton lake and its former ;r was successfully turned into its regular who made this map, has, with Dr. D. T. P Alargon's Discovery 13 the farther apart they were, but Alar^on kept a constant and faithful lookout for the other party the whole time, never los- ing an opportunity to inquire its whereabouts. Coronado had left a well-provisioned ship, the Scm Gabriel, at Aguaiauall, for Alar^on to bring along. These supplies were for the use of the army when the two parties should meet •^HM^^ nil m Gulf of California at the Mouth of the Colorado. Photograph by Delancv Gill. ^ in the north from time to time. Alarcon added the vessel to his fleet and proceeded along up the coast, keeping as near the land as the water would permit, and constantly on the lookout for signals from the other party, or for Amerinds who might be able to give information concerning the position of the gen- eral. Thus, at last, he came to the very head of the gulf where Ulloa had wondered at the rush of waters and had turned away without investigation. "And when we were come," he says, 14 The Colorado River "to the flats and shoals from whence the aforesaid fleet re- turned, it seemed to me, as to the rest, that we had the firm land before us, and that those shoals were so perilous and fear- ful that it was a thing to be considered whether with our skiffs we could enter in among them : and the pilots and the rest of the company would have had us do as Captain Ulloa did, and have returned back again." But Alar^on was not of a retreat- ing disposition ; the fierce Colorado had now met its first con- queror. It must be remembered, for UUoa's sake, that there was not the same incentive for him to risk his ships and the lives of his men in an attempt to examine the shoals and cur- rents of this dangerous place. Alargon was looking for and expecting to meet Coronado at any time. He knew that Cor- onado was depending on the supplies carried by the San Gabriel, and it would have been rank cowardice on the part of Alarcon to have backed out at the first difficulty. But he had no intention of retiring from the contest, for he says : " But because your Lordship commanded me that I should bring you the secret of that gulf, I resolved that although I had known I should have lost the ships, I would not have ceased for anything to have seen the head thereof, and therefore I commanded Nicolas Zamorano, Pilot Major, and Dominico del Castello that each of them should take a boat, and lead in their hands, and run in among those shoals, to see if they could find out a channel whereby the ships might enter in ; to whom it seemed that the ships might sail up higher (although with great travail and danger), and in this sort I and he began to follow our way which they had taken, and within a short while after we found ourselves fast on the sands with all our three ships, in such sort that one could not help another, neither could the boats succour us because the current was so great that it was impossible for one of us to come to another. Whereupon we were in such great jeopardy that the deck of the Admiral was oftentimes under water ; and if a great surge of the sea had not come and driven our ship right up and gave her leave, as it were, to breathe awhile, we had there been drowned ; and likewise the other two ships found themselves in very great hazard, yet because they were lesser and drew less water their danger was not so great as ours. Now it pleased God upon the return of the flood that the ships i6 The Colorado River came on float, and so we went forward. And although the com- pany would have returned back, yet for all this I determined to go forward and to pursue our attempted voyage. And we passed for- ward with much ado, turning our stems now this way, now that way, to seek and find the channel. And it pleased God that after this sort we came to the very bottom of the bay, where we found a very mighty river, which ran with so great fury of a stream, that we could hardly sail against it." Here, then, began the acquaintance between the European and the river now known as the Colorado of the West. The experience of Alargon was immediately typical of much that was to follow in the centuries of endeav^our to arrive at an inti- mate knowledi^e of this savage torrent. CHAPTER II The Unknown River — Alarcon Ascends it Eighty-five Leagues and Names it the Rio de Buena Guia— Melchior Diaz Arrives at its Banks Later and Calls it the Rio del Tizon — Cardenas Discovers the Crand Canyon. HAVING triumphed over the fierce tidal bore which renders the mouth of the Colorado dangerous, Alarcon secured a safe anchorage for his vessels and began immediate preparations for following up the river into the distant interior, both to gain a knowledge of it and to seek for information of the position of Coronado. Leaving one of his small boats for the use of those who remained in charge of the ships, he took the other two, and, placing in them some light cannon, prepared them as well as he could for any emergency that might be encountered. His party consisted of twenty soldiers, sailors, and helpers, besides his treasurer, Rodrigo Maldonado, and Caspar de Castilleia, comptroller. Alarcon possessed the qualities of a successful explorer. He was bold yet cautious, determined but not reck- less, with safe judgment and quick adaptability. His first command was that, no matter what happened in case of meet- ing with natives, all his company were to remain silent and in- active. With this wise provision, which kept the control in his own hands, the party left the ships behind on Thursday, Au- gust 26th ' (1540), apparently the same day as the arrival. The current was so strong that the men were obliged to tow the boats from the bank, rendering progress slow and difficult, but nevertheless they were able, before night and fatigue com- pelled a halt, to advance about six leagues. Though constantly on the lookout for natives in the wide barren stretches of low- land on each side of the river, none were seen till early next ' Hakluyt gives " 25th," but it is a misprint, as this Thursday in 1540 was the 26th. 17 i8 The Colorado River morning, when, soon after starting, a number of huts were dis- covered near the river bank. The occupants rushed forth in great excitement at the sudden appearance of these singular- looking people in their equally singular boats, and no wonder! Years and the ages had slipped away and never yet had any people but their own kind appeared on their horizon. Oppos- ition was the natural impulse, and they signed for the Spaniards to go back, threatening attack. The effect of this on Alargon was a command to anchor the boats out of reach in the middle of the river, though the rapidly augmenting numbers of the people on the shore soon in- spired the others of the expedi- tion with a desire to beat a retreat towards the ships. Alarcon, however, was not of this mind. The natives were, of course, armed only with the bow-and- arrow and similar primitive weapons, wdiile the Spaniards, though few in number, pos- sessed the advantage of firearms, of which the natives had no comprehension whatever. The interpreter, being a native from down the coast, understood not a word of this language, but the presence among the strangers of one of their own kind some- what pacified the natives, and Alarcon did all he could by signs to express his peaceful intentions, throwing his arms to the bottom of the boat and putting his foot on them, at the same time ordering the boats to be placed nearer shore. After much manoeuvring they finally brought about some trifling in- tercourse and then proceeded up the river, the natives follow- ing along the shore. Repeatedly they signalled for the Spaniards to land, but Alarcon, fearful of treachery, declined, and spent the night in the middle of the stream. Nor was the Native Ladies of the Lower Colorado. Alargon in Favour 19 appearance of the natives reassuring, for they had their faces hideously painted, some all over and others only half, while still others carried painted masks before them. In their nos- trils they wore pendants, and their ears were pierced with holes wherein they hung bones and shells. Their only clothing was a sort of girdle around the waist. Gradually, intercourse increased, and presents of trinkets seemed to incline all the natives in Alar- ^on's favour. At length he discovered that they reverenced the sun, and without compunction he pro- claimed that he came from that orb. This deception served him well. Henceforth no service was too great for the natives to perform for these sa- cred beings. Every- thing was placed at their disposal. Alar- 9on's word was their law. They relieved the men entirely of the wearisome task of towing the boats, striving with each other for the privi- lege. Without this help it would have been impossible for Alar^on to have proceeded far up the river, and he full}' ap- preciated this, though the chief reward bestowed on the helpers and all the natives was crosses made of sticks and of paper. These, he informed them by signs, were precious, and he dis- tributed them in large numbers. The morning after he pro- claimed himself as coming from the sun, many swam out to Freaks of Erosion. One of the Cocopa Giants. Height, 6 feet, 4 inches. The costume in early days was nothing. Photograph by Delaxcy Gill. Sons of the Sun 21 where the boat was anchored, contending for the privilege of securing the rope with which the boat was towed. "And we gave it to them," says Alarcon, "with a good will, thanking God for the good provision which He gave us to go up the river." The interpreter frequently addressed the natives as he went forward, and at last, on Tuesday night, a man was discovered who understood him. This man was taken into the boat, and Alarcon, always true to his trust, asked him whether he had seen or heard of any people in the country like him- self, hoping to secure some clue to Coronado. "He answered me no, saying that he had some time heard of old men that very far from that country there were other white men, and with beards like us, and that he knew nothing else. I asked him also whether he knew a place called Cibola and a river called Totonteac, and he answered me no." Coronado meanwhile had arrived at Cibola on July 7th (or loth) and had therefore been among the villages of the Rio Grande del Norte nearly two months. The route to these towns from the lower Colorado, that is, by the great inter- tribal highway of southern Arizona, followed the Gila River, destined afterwards to be traversed by the wandering trappers, by the weary gold-seeker bound for California, and finally, for a considerable distance, by the steam locomotive. Rut it was an unknown quantity at the time of Alar(^on's visit, so far as Komohoats. A Pai Ute Boy— S. W. Nevada. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Sur. 2 2 The Colorado River white men were concerned. I'arther up, Alar^on met with an- other man who understood his interpreter, and this man said he had been to Cibola, or Ccvola,' as Alargon writes it, and that it was a month's journey, "by a path that went along that river. ' ' Alar^on must now have been about at the mouth of the Gila, and the river referred to was, of course, the Gila. This man described the towns of Cibola as all who had seen them described them; that is, large towns of three- or foc^r-storey houses, with windows on the sides,' and encompassed by walls some seven or eight feet in height. The pueblos of the Rio Grande valley were well known in every direction and for long distances. The Apaches, harassing the villagers on every side, and having themselves a wide range, alone carried the know- ledge of them to the four winds. In every tribe, too, there are born travellers who constantly visit distant regions, bringing back detailed descriptions of their adventures and the sights beheld, with which to regale an admiring crowd during the winter evenings. Their descriptions are usually fairly accurate from the standpoint of their own understanding. In this case the native gave a good description of the Cibola towns, and the Tusayan people had meanwhile given Cardenas a descrip- tion of these very natives on the lower Colorado. A day or two later Alargon received further information of Cibola, and this informant told about a chief who had four green earthen plates like Alarcon's, except in color, and also a dog like Al- arcon's, as well as other things, which a black man had brought into the country. This black man was Estevan, who had been killed about a year before. The new^s of this man and his ex- ecution had travelled rapidly, showing frequent intercourse with the pueblos beyond the mountains. Still farther on ue met another man who had been at Cibola, and who also told him of a great river in which there were crocodiles. This was ' The old Spaniards used "v" and "b" interchangeably, so that Cibola and Cevola would be pronounced the same. Other letters were used in the same loose way. •^Windows on the sides of the houses, not of the walls, as one writer has put it. The villages of the lower part of New Mexico had these walls of circumvallatioii, but to the northward such walls appear to have been rare. The Old Man of the River 23 the Mississippi, of course, and the crocodiles were alligators. As Alargon had never seen an alligator he took the description to mean crocodile. A little farther and he heard of the negro Estevan again and the reason why the Cibolans had killed him, which was to prevent the Spaniards, whom he described, from finding their way into the Cibola country. This man also de- scribed the bison and a people who lived in painted tents in summer and in winter in houses of wood two or three storeys high. And thus the expedition continued up the river, inquir- ing as they went on all subjects. On September 6th the old man who had been a particular friend and interpreter was called on shore by the natives, and there was immediately an animated discussion which Alar^on discovered related to himself. Infor- mation had come from Cibola that there were there men like these Spaniards who said they were Christians. These had been warlike, and it was proposed to kill all of Alar^on's party to prevent the others from gaining a knowledge of this coun- try. But the old man declared Alargon to be the son of the sun and took his part. Finally it was decided to ask him whether he were a Christian or the son of the sun. Alargon pretended great wonder at men like himself being at Cibola, but they assured him it was true, as two men who had come from there reported that they had beards and guns and swords just the same. Alar^on still insisted that he was the son of the sun. They said the men at Cibola said the same, to which Alar^on replied that it might well be, and if so they need have no fear, for the sons of the sun would be his brothers and would treat them as he had done. This seemed to pacify them. He inquired now how far it was to Cibola, and they answered ten days through an uninhabited country, with no account of the rest of the way because it was inhabited. Alar^on was now more than ever desirous of informing Cor- onado of his whereabouts, and tried to persuade some of his men to go to Cibola with a message, promising fine rewards. Only one, a negro slave, and he with reluctance, offered to at- tempt the journey. Alar^on tried to get the old man to give him guides and provisions, but without success, as the old man seemed to desire to induce Alar(jon to help them light their 24 The Colorado River battles with the Cumanas, sayin*^, if he would end this war, he could have their company to Cibola. Alar^on was determined to go, and sent a man back to the ships to inform those there of his purpose, but he changed his mind soon after, concluding to go to the ships himself and return, leaving there his sick, and rearranging his compan\-. The man who had been sent to the ships overland was overtaken and brought back by the natives, but was obliged to remain with them till Alar^on came up ^fet5?#^'^;^ Professor McGee and a Group of Cocopas. Originally the Cocopas wore no clothing. Photograph by Delancy Gill. again. The descent from here was made in two and a half days, though it had taken fifteen to come up. Arriving at the ships all was found to have gone well except a few minor acci- dents, and, directing repairs to be made, Alar^on turned about and started up-river once more, first calling the whole company together, telling them w^hat he had learned of Cibola, and that, as Coronado might now have been informed by natives of his presence, he hoped to find means of reaching him. There was Rio de Buena Guia 25 much objection to this plan, but he proceeded to carry it out, taking all three boats this time, loaded with "wares of ex- change, with corn and other seeds, with hens and cocks of Castile." This region he called the Province of Campanna de la Cruz, and he left orders for the building of an oratory or chapel to be named the Chapel of Our Lady de la Buena Guia, The river he called the Rio de Buena Guia (good guidance) from the motto on the viceroy Mendoza's coat of arms. It was Tuesday, the 14th of September, when he started, taking with him Nicolas Zamorano, chief pilot, to record the latitudes. He soon arrived again among the Quicomas,' and then among the Coamas, where he found his man who had been left behind on the first trip. This man had been so well treated that he was entirely content to remain till the party should come back down the river. This was the highest point reached on the first visit. Everywhere the people were treasuring the crosses which had been given them, kneeling before them at sunrise. Alargon kept on up the river till he "entered between certain very high mountains, through which this river passeth with a straight channel, and the boats went up against the stream very hardly for want of men to draw the same." From this it may be inferred that the Coamas did not strive with each other for the privilege of towing the boats of these children of the sun as those below had done. Now an enchanter from the Cu- manas tried to destroy the party by setting magic reeds in the water on both sides, but the spell failed and the explorers went on to the home of the old man who had been so good a friend and guide to them. At this, Alar^on's farthest point, he caused a very high cross to be erected, on which words were carved to the effect that he had reached the place, so that if Coronado's men chanced to come that way they might see it. Nothing is said about burying letters, yet Diaz later mentions finding letters buried at the foot of a tree, apparently nearer the sea. Deciding that he could not at this time accomplish ' The tribes and bands spoken of by Alar9on cannot be identified, but these Quicomas, or Quicamas, were doubtless the same as the Quiquimas mentioned by Kino, 1701, and Garces, 1775. They were probably of Vuman stock. The Cumanas were possibly Mohaves. O'S 2^ « & Return to the Ships 27 his purpose of opening communication with the army, Alar^on conchided to return to the ships, but with the intention of try- ing once more. The second day after starting down he arrived at the place where the Spaniard had remained. He told him that he had gone "above thirty leagues into the country " be- yond. It had taken him, before, two and a half days to reach the river mouth from here, so that it seems he was about four days going down from his farthest point. Roughly estimating his progress at six miles an hour for twelve hours a day, in four days the distance covered would be about 288 miles. He says he went up eighty-five leagues (this would be fifty-five the first time and thirty more the second), which, counting in Mexican leagues of two and three quarter miles each, gives a distance of 233I miles, or about one hundred miles above the mouth of the Gila. This stream he does not mention. He may have taken it for a mere bayou, but it appears to be certain that he passed beyond it. He says Ulloa was mistaken by two degrees as to his northernmost point, and that he sailed four degrees beyond him. The meaning of this may be that he went four degrees beyond Ulloa's false reckoning, or actually two degrees above the shoals where Ulloa turned back. This would take him to the 34th parallel, and would coincide with his eighty-five leagues, and also with the position of the first mountains met with in going up the river, the Chocolate range. Alar^on was not so inexperienced that he would have represented eighty- five leagues on the course of the river as equalling four degrees of latitude. Had he gone to the 36th degree he would have passed through Black Canyon, and this is so extraordinary a feature that he could not have failed to note it specially. When Alar^on arrived at the ships again he evidently had strong reason for abandoning his intention of returning for another attempt to communicate with Coronado, and he set sail for home. Another document says the torredo was de- stroying the ships, and this is very probable. He coasted down the gulf, landing frequently, and going long distances into the interior searching for news of Coronado, but he learned nothing beyond what he heard on the river. While he was striving to find a way of reaching the main 28 The Colorado River body of the expedition, which durin<^ this time was compla- cently robbing the Puebloans on the Rio Grande, two officers of that expedition were marching through the wilderness en- deavouring to find him, and a third was travelling toward the Grand Canyon. One of these was Don Rodrigo Maldonado, thus bearing exactly the same name as one of Alar^on's offi- cers; another was Captain Melchior Diaz, and the third Don Lopez de Cardenas, who distinguished himself on the Rio Grande by particular brutality toward the villagers. Don Rodrigo went in search of the ships down the river to the coast from the valley of Corazones, but obtained no information of them, though he met with giant natives and brought back with him one very tall man as a specimen. The main army of Cor- onado had not yet gone from this valley of Corazones, where the settlement called San Hieronimo had been established, and the best man in it reached only to the chest of this native giant. The army moved on to another valley, where a halt was made to await orders from the general. At length, about the middle of September, Melchior Diaz came back from Cibola, with dispatches, accompanied by Juan Gallegos, who bore a message for the viceroy. In their company also was the mis- erable Friar Marcos, pursuing his dismal return to New Spain by direction of the general, who considered it unsafe for him to remain with the army now that the glorious bubble of his im- agination had been exploded. Melchior Diaz was an excellent officer, and already had an experience in this northern region extending over some four years. It was he, also, who had been sent, the previous November, as far as the place called Chichilticalli, in an attempt to verify the friar's tale, and had reported that the natives were good for nothing except to make into Christians. The main army, which was in command of Don Tristan de Arellano, in accordance with the orders re- ceived from Coronado, now advanced toward Cibola. Mal- donado, who had been to the coast, went with it. Diaz retained eighty men, part of whom were to defend the settlement of San Hieronimo, and twenty-five were to accompany him on his expedition in search of Alar(^on. He started north and then Rio del Tizon 29 went west, following native guides for 150 leagues (4I2|- milesj in all, and at length reached a country inhabited by giant nat- ives who, in order to keep warm in the chill autumn air, car- ried about with them a firebrand. From this circumstance, Diaz called the larue river he found here the Rio del Tizon. An Arizona Landscape. There are Navajo Gardens in the bottom of this canyon. Photograph by E. O. Beaman. This was the Buena Guia of Alarcon. The natives were pro- digiously strong, one man being able to lift and carry with ease on his head a heavy log which six of the soldiers could not transport to the camp. Here Diaz heard that boats had come up the river to a point three days' journey below, and he went there to find out about it, doubtless expecting to get on the track of Alarcon. But the latter had departed from the mouth \o The Colorado River of the river at least two or three weeks before ; one writer says two months.' The same writer states that Diaz reached the river thirty leagues above the mouth, and that Alar9on went as far again above. This coincides very well with Alarcon's estimate of eighty-five leagues, for Diaz did not follow the windings of the stream as Alargon was forced to do with his Cocopa Tule Raft. Photograph by Delancy Gill. boats. At the place down the river, Diaz found a tree bearing an inscription : "Alar^on reached this point ; there are letters at the foot of this tree." Alar^on does not, as before noted, mention burying letters, and these were found at the foot of a ' Rt-lacion del Suceso. Alar^on must have reached his highest point about October 5th or 6th, and the ships on the return about the loth. Diaz probably- arrived at the river about November 1st. Death of Diaz 31 tree, so that Diaz evidently failed to reach the cross erected at Alargon's highest point. Diaz now proceeded up the river again, looking for a place where he could safely cross to explore the country on the op- posite side. After ascending from the spot where he found the letters for five or six days, he concluded they could cross by means of rafts. In the construction of these rafts he invited the help of the natives of the neighbourhood. He was proba- bly up near the Chocolate Mountains and the Cumanas, who were hostile to Alar^on, and whose sorcerer had attempted to destroy him by means of the magic reeds. They had been merely waiting for an opportunity to attack Diaz, and they perceived their chance in this assistance in crossing the river. They readily agreed to help make the rafts, and even to assist in the crossing. But while the work was in progress a soldier who had gone out from the camp was surprised to observe a large number of them stealing off to a mountain on the other side. When he reported this, Diaz caused one of the natives to be secured, without the others being aware of it. He was tortured till he confessed that the plan was to begin the attack when some of the Spaniards were across the river, some in the water, and the others on the near bank. Thus separated they believed they could easily be destroyed. The native, as a re- ward for this valuable confession, was secretly killed, and that night, with a heavy weight tied to him, was cast into the deep water. But the others evidently suspected the trick, for the next day they showered arrows upon the camp. The Spaniards pursued them and by means of their superior arms soon drove them into the mountains. Diaz was then able to cross with- out molestation, his faithful Amerind allies of another tribe assisting. Alar^oh had conveyed in his letters the nature of the gulf and coast, so Diaz struck westward to see what he could find in that direction. The country was desolate and forbidding, in places the sand being like hot ashes and the earth trembling. Four days of this satisfied them, and the captain concluded to return to San Hieronimo. The subsequent fate of Diaz is an- other illustration of how a man may go the world round, escap- 2>2 The Colorado River ing many great dangers, and then be annihilated by a simple accident that would seem impossible. A dog belonging to the camp pursued the little flock of sheep that had been driven along to supply the men with meat, and Diaz on his horse dashed toward it, at the same time hurling a spear. The spear stuck up in the ground instead of striking the dog, and the butt penetrated the captain's abdomen, inflicting, under the conditions, a mortal wound. The men could do nothing for him except to carry him along, which for twenty days they did, fighting hostile natives all the time. Then he died. On the 1 8th of January they arrived without their leader at the settlement from which they had started some three months before. Cardenas with twelve men had meanwhile gone from Cibola to a place called Tusayan, or Tucano, situated some twenty or twenty-five leagues north-westerly from Cibola, from whence he was to strike out toward the great river these natives had described to Don Pedro de Tobar, who recently had paid them a visit, and incidentally shot a few of them to invite submis- sion. Cardenas was kindly received by the people of Tusayan, who readily supplied him with guides. Having lived in the country for centuries, they of course knew it and the many trails very well. They knew the highway down the Gila to the Colorado, and they told Cardenas about the tall natives living on the lower part of it, the same whom Alargon and Diaz had met. In the direction in which Cardenas was to go they said it was twenty days' journey through an unpopulated country, when people would again be met with. After the party had travelled for twenty days they arrived at a great canyon of the Colorado River, apparently not having met with the people mentioned. If Cardenas started from the Moki towns, as has generally been believed, where would he have arrived by a journey of twenty days, when an able-bodied man can easily walk to the brink of Marble Canyon from there in three or four days? Why did the guides, if they belonged in the Moki towns, conduct Cardenas so far to show him a river which was so near? The solution seems to be that he started from some locality other than the present Moki towns. That is to say, The Grand Canyon from Bright Angel Hotel. 12 miles to opposite rim. Total depth here between 5000 and 6000 feet. Photograph by Hall. 33 34 The Colorado River there has been an error, and these Moki towns are not Tusa- yan. Where Cardenas reached the great canyon the river came from the north-east and turned to the sonth-sonth-ivcst. There are but two places where the canyoned river in Arizona con- forms to this course, one at Lee's Ferry, and the other the stretch from Diamond Creek to the Kanab Canyon. The walls being low at Lee's Ferry, that locality may be excluded, for where Cardenas first looked into the canyon it was so deep that the river appeared like a brook, though the natives de- clared it to be half a league wide. Three of the most agile men, after the party had followed along the rim for three days hunting for a favourable place, tried to descend to the water, but were unable to go more than one-third of the way. Yet from the place they reached, the stream looked very large, and buttes that from above seemed no higher than a man were found to be taller than the great tower of Seville. There can be no doubt that this was the gorge we now call the Grand Canyon. No other answers the description. Cardenas said the width at the top, that is, the "outer" gorge with its broken edge, was three or four leagues or more in an air line.* This is the case at both great bends of the river. The point he reached has usually been put, without definite reason, at about opposite Bright Angel River, say near the letter "L" of the word "Colorado" on the relief map, page 41 op., but here the river comes from the south-east and turns to the north-iuest, directly the reverse of what Cardenas observed. The actual place then must have been about midway of the stretch referred to, that is, near the letter "A" of the word "Canon " on the relief map. Where he started from to arrive at this part of the canyon cannot be discussed here for want of space, but the writer believes the place was some three hundred miles south- east, say near Four Peaks on the new Mexican line." Cardenas ' " A las barrancas del rio que puestos a el bado [lado ?] de ellas parecia al otro bordo que aula mas de tres o quatro leguas por el ayre." — Castaiieda, in Winship's monograph, Fourteenth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 429. ' For the author's views on Coronado's route see the Bulletin of the American Geogra])hical Society, December, 1897. Those views have been confirmed by later study, the only change being the shifting of Cibola from the Florida Moun- tains north-westerly to the region of the (iila. See map p. 115, Breaking the Wilderness. Return of Coronado 35 was, therefore, guided along the southerly edge of the great Colorado Plateau, through the superb Coconino Forest, where he had wood, water, and grass in abundance. The locality he reached was very dry, and they were obliged to go each night a long distance back from the brink to procure water. For this reason, Cardenas gave up trying to follow the canyon, and returned again, by way of Tusayan, to Cibola, passing on the way a waterfall, which possibly was in the Havasupai (Cataract) Canyon. Castaneda, the chief chronicler of the Coronado ex- pedition, says the river Cardenas found was the Tizon, "much nearer its source than where Melchior Diaz crossed it," thus showing that its identity was well surmised, if not understood, at that time. Nothing, however, was known of its upper course; at least there is no evidence of any such knowledge, though the natives had doubtless given the Spaniards some in- formation regarding it. The special record of the Cardenas expedition was kept by one Pedro de Sotomayor, but it has apparently never been seen in modern times. It is probably in the archives of Spain or Mexico, and its discovery would throw needed light on the location of Tusayan and the course Car- denas followed.' The distance of this whole region from a con- venient base of supplies, and its repellent character, prevented further operations at this period, and when these explorers traced their disappointed way homeward, the Colorado was not seen again by white men for over half a century ; and it was more than two hundred years before European eyes again looked upon the Grand Canyon. Coronado proceeded eastward to about the western line of Missouri, and, finding colonisation anywhere in the regions visited out of the question, he returned in 1542 to Mexico, with his entire army excepting a couple of padres. ' It may be noted here with reference to the location of Cibola, Tiguex, Tu- sayan, etc., that too much heretofore has been assumed. The explanations pre- sented are often very lame and unsatisfactory when critically examined. So many writers are now committed to the errors on this subject that it will be a hard matter to arrive at the truth. CHAPTER III The Grand Canyon — Character of the Colorado River — The Water-Gods ; Erosion and Corrasion — The Natives and their Highways — The " Green River Valley" of the Old Trappers — The Strange Vegetation and Some Singular Animals. THE stupendous chasm known as the Grand Canyon, dis- covered by Cardenas in the autumn of 1 540, is the most remarkable feature of this extraordinary river, and at the same time is one of the marvels of the world. Though discovered so long ago that we make friends with the conquistadores when we approach its history, it remained, with the other canyons of the river, a problem for 329 years thereafter, that is, till 1869. Discovery does not mean knowledge, and knowledge does not mean publicity. In the case of this gorge, with its immense length and countless tributary chasms, the view Cardenas ob- tained was akin to a dog's discovery of the moon. It has prac- tically been several times re-discovered. Indeed, each person who first looks into the abj'ss has a sensation of being a dis- coverer, for the scene is so weird and lonely and so incompre- hensible in its novelty that one feels that it could never have been viewed before. And it is rather a discovery for each individual, because no amount of verbal or pictorial description can ever fully prepare the spectator for the sublime reality. E\'en when one becomes familiar \\ith the incomparable spec- tacle it never ceases to astonish. A recent writer has well said : "The sublimity of the Pyramids is endurable, but at the rim of the Grand Canyon we feel outdone." ' Outdone is exactly the right word. Nowhere else can man's insitrnificance be so ' Harriet Monroe, Atlantic Monthly, June, i(;02. 36 38 The Colorado River burned into his soul as here, where his int^enuity and power count for naught. Cardenas, after all, was only one of the discoverers. He was merely the first white man who saw it. When was it that the first man recoiled from the edge of that then actually unknown The Work of Erosion. The Witch of Endor and Cerberus. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. masterpiece of the Water-gods, who so persistently plied their tools in the forgotten ages? He was the real discoverer and he will never be known. As applied to new countries — new to our race — the term "unknown" is relative. Each fresh ex- plorer considers his the deed that shall permanently be re- The Grand Canyon 39 corded, no matter who has gone before, and the Patties and the Jedediah Smiths are forgotten. In these later years some who have dared the terrors of the merciless river in the Grand Canyon spoke of it as the "Great Unknown," forgetting the The Work of Corrasion. Parunuweap Canyon of the Virgen River, Southern Utah. 20 to 30 feet wide and 1500 feet deep and 18 miles long. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. deed of Powell ; and when Lieutenant Wheeler laboriously suc- ceeded in dragging his boats up to the mouth of Diamond Creek, he said: "A^f^rc^ the exploration is completed," He for- got the deed of Powell. A recent writer mentions the north- 40 The Colorado River western corner of Arizona as a "mysterious wilderness." ' He forj^u^t that it was thorout,dily explored years ago. Wilderness it nia\- be, if that means sparsely settled, but mysterious? — no. It is all known and on record. The Grand Canyon may be likened to an inverted mountain range. Imagine a great mountain chain cast upside down in plaster. Then all the former ridges and spurs of the range become tributary canyons and gulches running back twenty or thirty miles into the surrounding country, growing shallower and shallower as the distance increases from the central core, just as the great spurs and ridges of a mountain range, descend- ing, melt finally into the plain. Often there are parts where the central gorge is narrow and precipitous, just as a mountain range frequently possesses mighty precipices. But it is an error to think of great canyons as mere slits in the ground, dark and gloomy, like a deep well from whose depths stars may be sighted at midday. Minor canyons sometimes ap- proach this character, as, for example, the canyon of the upper Virgen, called Parunuweap, fifteen hundred feet deep and no more than twenty to thirty feet wide, with vertical walls, but I have never been in a canyon from which stars were visible in daylight, nor have I ever known anyone who had. The light is about the same as that at the bottom of a narrow street flanked by very high buildings. The walls may sometimes be gloomy from their colour, or may seem so from the circum- stances under which one views them, but aside from the fact that any deep, shut-in valley or canyon may become oppressive, there is nothing specially gloomy about a deep canyon. The sun usually falls more or less in every canyon, no matter how narrow or deep. It may fall to the very bottom most of the day, or only for an hour or two, depending on the trend of the canyon with reference to the sun's course. At the bottom of the Kanab where it joins the Grand, the sunlight in Novem- ber remains in the bottom just two hours, but outside in the main gorge the time is very much longer. The walls of a great canyon, and usually a small one, are ter- raced ; seldom are they wholly vertical for their entire height, ' Ray Stannard Baker, Century Magazine. May, 1902. f \ '^«.<— '•— w-'' ^.vr'..^ c^-^^f':^,^^^--^; ifj:.. I ~Vx ^ - _CJ' I Plateau iu« Car inly Into the Habasii ICal ^^. „„,.i„,„gm„rfm.r.l s than any other p art of th to rcprcscn Archsan fonjiation. Tht Shiwits Pla teau ant] liffi lire Trio. isic. The Maifcaeuni latcaus bout half wa y between the jetttn L" and "O" of he word A" of the w. d "Ariiionfl."^' Grand and Marble Cany □ns form couple of hun dred feet and riso ver rapidly, the river cultin«d n thorouKlil> r™"j at the timet he ^TermapT:^ made Recession of Cliffs 41 though occasionally they may approach this condition on one side or the other, and more rarely on both sides at once, de- pending on the geological formations of the locality. Owing to the immense height of the walls of such canyons as those on the Colorado, the cliffs frequently appear perpendicular The " Hole in the Wall," near Ft. Defiance, Arizona. This kind of sandstone has the peculiarity of weathering in this way, sometimes producing larger arches, alcoves, etc. Photograph by Ben Wittick. when they are far from it, just as a mountain peak often seems to tower over one's head when in reality it may be a consid- erable distance off. In the nature of the formation and devel- opment of canyons, they could not long retain continuous vertical walls. What Powell calls the "recession of cliffs" comes into play. The erosive and corrasive power of water 42 The Colorado River beini; the chief land sculptors, it is evident that there will be a continual wearing down of the faces of the bounding cliffs. The softer beds will be cut away faster than the harder, and where these underlie the harder the latter will be undermined and fall. Every canyon is always widening at its top and sides, through the action of rain, frost, and wind, as well as deepening through the action of its flowing stream. Erosion is this power w^iich carves away the cliffs, and corrasion the one which saws at the bottom, the latter term, in geological nomenclature, meaning the cutting power of running water.' This cutting power varies according to the declivity and the amount of sediment carried in suspension. It is plain that a stream having great declivity will be able to carry more sedi- ment than one having little, and in a barren country would always be highly charged with sand, which would cut and scour the bed of the channel like a grindstone. As Button says, a river cuts, however, only its own width, the rest of a canyon being the work of the forces of erosion, the wind, frost, and rain. That is why we have canyons. The powers of erosion are far slower than those of corrasion, especially in an arid region, because they are intermittent. Where rocks take a polish, as in Marble Canyon, the scouring and polishing work of corrasion is seen in the shining bright surface as far as the water rises. This all belongs to the romance of the Water- gods, those marvellous land sculptors. To produce canyons like those of the Colorado, peculiar and unusual conditions are necessary. There must exist a vast region lying high above sea-level. This region must be arid. Out of it must rise separated mountain masses to such heights that they shall be well watered. These most elevated regions alone having abundant rain- and snowfall, torrential streams are generated and poured down upon the arid wastes, where they persistently scour their beds, ploughing deep channels be- low the level of their surroundings. The perpendicularity of the walls of these channels, or canyons as they are called, de- ' The introduction of this subject may seem unnecessary to the general reader, but no just comprehension of this river can be reached without some knowledge of the forces creatine its chasms. Looking down upon Glen Canyon. Cut through homogeneous sandstone. Photograph by J. K. Killers, U. £. Colo. Riv Exp. 43 44 The Colorado River pends on the volume and continuity of the flowing stream, on the aridity of the country through which they are cut, and on the rock-formation. A fierce and continuous torrent, where the rainfall is at the minimum, will so speedily outrival the forces of erosion that the canyon will have vertical walls. An example is seen in those frequent "mud" canyons found in arid regions, where some brook, having its source in highlands, cuts a channel through clay or dry earth with vertical sides, that stand for years. As long as the surface of the adjacent lands is undisturbed, it acts like a roof, throwing off the water that falls upon it into the main stream.' Thus the founda- tions of these walls are not assailed from behind, which is their weakest point. If the land surface is broken up, permitting the rains to soak in and saturate the clay or earth, the whole mass becomes softened and will speedily fall and slide out into the canyon.^ The sides of all canyons in an arid region are more or less protected in the same way. That is, the rains fall sud- denly, rarely continuously for any length of time, and are col- lected and conducted away immediately, not having a chance to enter the ground. Homogeneous sandstone preserves its per- pendicularity better than other rocks, one reason being that it does not in\ite percolation, and usually offers, for a consider- able distance on each side of the canyon, barren and imper- vious surfaces to the rains. Where strata rest on exposed softer beds, these are undermined from the front, and in this- way recession is brought about. In the basin of the Colorado are found in perfection all the extraordinary conditions that are needed to bring forth mam- moth canyons. The headwaters of all the important tribu- taries are invariably in the highest regions and at a long distance from their mouths, so that the flood waters have many miles of opportunity to run a race with the comparatively feeble ' Just as wheat flour getting wet on the surface protects the portion below from dampness. The rainfall is often so slight, also, that a surface is unchanged for years. I once saw some wagon tracks that were made by our party three years before. P'rom peculiar circumstances I was able to identify them. * Robert Brewster Stanton explained this very clearly in his investigations for the Canadian Pacific Railway into the causes of land-slides on that line. Effect of More Rain 45 erosive forces of desert lands. The main stream-courses are thus in the lower arid regions and in sedimentary formations, while their water-supply comes from far away. The deepest gorges, therefore, will be found where the rainfall is least, un- less diminishing altitude interferes. Thus the greatest gorge of the whole basin, the Grand Canyon, is the one farthest from Pinnacle in the Canyon de Chelly. About 1500 feet liigh. It is much wider from the side. Photograph by Ben Wittick. the sources of supply, and in the driest area, but one, of the whole drainage system. It ends abruptly with the termination of the high arid plateau which made it possible, but had this plateau extended farther, the Grand Canyon would also ha\'e extended a similar distance. It is plain then that the cutting of these canyons depends on the amount of water (^snow is 46 The Colorado River included) which may fall in the high mountains, the canyons themselves being in the drier districts. It is also clear that if, by some chance, the precipitation of the high sources should increase, the corrasion of the stream-beds in the canyons would likewise increase and outrun with still greater ease the erosion of their immediate surroundings. On the other hand, if the precipitation in the arid surroundings should increase, the wearing down of the side walls would for a time — till covered b\- debris and vegetation — go on more rapidly till, instead of canyons of the Colorado River type, there would be deep, sharp valleys, or wide valleys, according to the amount of difference between the precipitation of the low lands and the high. Where the two were nearly the same, that is, a balance of precipita- tion,' the slopes might be rounded and verdure-clad, though this would depend on the amount of precipitation. On lower Snake River a change seems to be going on. The former can- yon-cliffs are covered by debris and vegetation, but in places the old dry cliff-lines can be discerned beneath like a skeleton. The precipitation there has not been great enough to destroy the old lines — only enough to mask them. The "inner gorge " of the Grand Canyon appears to have been cut far more rapidly than the outer one, and at a much later period. Were this not the case there would be no inner gorge. It is a singular fact that some side canyons, the Kanab, for example, while now possessing no running water, or at best a puny rivulet, and depending for their corrasion on intermittent floods, meet on equal terms the great Colorado, the giant that never for a second ceases its ferocious attack. Admitting that the sharper declivity of the Kanab would en- hance its power of corrasion, nevertheless we should expect to see it approach the Grand Canyon by leaps and bounds, like the Havasupai farther down, but, on the contrary, there are parts that appear to be at a standstill in corrasion, or even fill- ing up, and its floor is a regular descent, except for the last three or four miles where the canyon is clogged by huge rocks that seem to have fallen from above. The maximum height of ' There could be a balance of precipitation and still very little snow- or rainfall, or they might be very great. Effect of Glacial Waters 47 its present flood-waters is about six feet, proved by a fern-cov- ered calcareous deposit, projecting some fifteen feet, caused by a spring (Shower-Bath Spring) on the side of the wall, seven or eight miles above the mouth, which is never permitted by the floods to build nearer the floor of the canyon. A suspicion arises, on contemplating some of these apparent discrepancies, that the prevailing conditions of corrasion are not what they were at some earlier period, when they were such that it was Bad Lands on Black's Fork of Green River. Photograph by U S. Geol. Survey- rendered more rapid and violent ; that there was perhaps an epoch when these deep-cut tributary canyons carried perennial streams, and when the volume of the Colorado itself was many times greater, possessing a multiplied corrasive power, while the adjacent areas were about as arid as now. At such a time, perhaps, the Colorado performed the main work of the inner gorge, the Kanab, and similar affluents, their deep now rather evenly graded canyons. Such an increase of volume, if we suppose the aridity to remain as now, could have come about 48 The Colorado River only by an increase of precipitation on the mountain summits. During the Ghicial Epoch, the Rocky Mountain summits were considerably glaciated, the amount varying according to alti- tude and latitude. The general topography of the Colorado River was about as it is to-day, and the rainfall m the valleys ])robably nearl\- the same, or at least only a little greater. In other words, the conditions were those of to-day intensified. In summer, then, the amount of wate.r seeking outlet by these drainage channels to the sea was enormously multiplied, and the corrasive power was correspond- ingly augmented. When the ice caps finally began to permanently dim- inish, the summer floods were doubt- less terrific. The waters of the Colo- rado now rise in the Grand Can- yon, on the melt- ing of the snows in the distant mountains, from forty to one hundred feet ; the rise must then have amounted to from one hundred to four hundred or more. The Kanab heads in two very high regions — the Pink ClifTs and the Kaibab. Though probably not high enough to be heavily glaciated they were high enough to receive an increased snowfall and to hold it, or a portion of it, over from one year to another. Thus the canyons having their origin on these high regions would be given peren- In Lower Kanab Canyon. Width about 75 feet, depth 2500 to 3000. Photograph by E O Beaman Backward Drainage 49 nial streams, with torrential floods each summer, compared with which anything that now comes down the Kanab would be a mere rivulet. The summit of the Kaibab is covered with pecu- liar pocket-like basins having no apparent outlets. These were possibly glacial sinks, conducting away some of the surplus water from the melting snow and ice by subterranean channels. It seems probable, therefore, that glacial flood-waters were an important factor in the formation of the canyons of the Col- orado. If this supposition is correct it would account, at least The Pink Cliffs. Southern end of High Plateaus. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. in a measure, for that distinct impression of arrested activity one receives from the present conditions obtaining there.' The drainage at the edges of most canyons is back and away from the gorge itself. The reason is that the rains cannot flow ' Some canyon floors, where there is no permanent large stream, appear to have altogether ceased descending. Dutton says of those which drain the Terrace Plateaus : " Many of them are actually filling up, the floods being unable to carry away all the sand and clay which the infrequent rains wash into them." — Tertiary History, p. 50. See also pp. ig6 and 228 lb. 50 The Colorado River evenly over a canyon brink, owing to irregularities of surface, and once an irregular drainage is established, the water seeks the easiest road. A side canyon is formed, draining a certain area. Another is formed elsewhere, and another, and so on till all drainage is through these tributaries and azuaj' from the brink, by more or less circuitous channels to the main stream. This backward drainage leaves the immediate brink, or "rim," till the last, in its work of erosion and corrasion, and the rim consequently is left higher than the region away from it. This effect of a backward drainage is very plain on both sides of the Grand Canyon, though it is somewhat assisted, on the north at .,»,#L ... Towers at Short Creek. Southern Utah. This is a part of the great line of the V^ermilion Cliffs. The region here represented possesses some of the most magnificent scenery of the whole West Outline drawing by W. H. Holmes. least, by the backward dip of the strata. It may be modified by other conditions, so that it would not always be the case. The basin of the Colorado, excepting that part below the mouth of the Virgen and a portion among the "parks " of the w^estern slope of the Rocky Mountain range, is almost entirely a plateau region. Some of the plateaus are very dry; others rise above the arid zone and are well watered. The latter are called the "High Plateaus." They reach an altitude of eleven thousand feet above the sea. They are east of the Great Basin, and with the other plateaus form an area called by Powe!! "The Plateau Province." Eastward still the plateaus merge ^y-^xrX JiA.^^?^. ■c* 1 %f I <^l r2. ^ '^^^i!^i\ """"^ -I? A SI 52 The Colorado River into the "parks." The High Plateaus, as a topographical feature, are a southern continuation of the Wasatch Mount- ains. They terminate on the south in the Markagunt, the Paunsagunt, and the Aquarius Plateaus. The extreme south- ern extremities of the two former are composed of mighty pre- cipices of columnarly eroded limestone called the Pink Cliffs. Here is the beginning of the Terrace Plateaus, likewise bounded by vertical, barren cliffs. Between the High Plateaus Gray's Peak, 14,341 feet. Torrey's Peak, 14,336 feet. Tip-top of the Continental Divide whence the Colorado derives flood waters Photograph by U. S. Geol. Survey. and the parks, the plateaus may be called, for convenience, Mesa Plateaus, as they are generally outlined by vertical cliffs. This is the case also south of the end of the High Plateaus where, stepping down the great terraces, we arrive at the region immediately adjacent to the Grand Canyon, composed of four plateaus, three of them of mesa character, the Shevwits, Uin- karet, Kanab, and Kaibab ; and up at the head of Marble Canyon a fifth, the Paria, while still farther to the north-east- ward is the Kaiparowitz. The edges of these Mesa Plateaus, The Plateaus 53 precipitous cliffs, stretch for many miles across the arid land like mountain ranges split asunder. This region, lying between the High Plateaus, the Grand Wash, the Henry Mountains, and the Colorado, is perhaps the most fascinating of all the basin. The relief map at page 41 gives the larger part of it. '^^. «^ ■'•-«- Balanced Rock. On Trail from House Rrick Valley to Lee's Ferry. Photograph by E. O. Beaman. In the basin there are also great mountain masses, the fountainheads of the waters which have carved the canyons. These are Uinta, Zuni, San Francisco, Henry, Pine Valley, Uinkaret, Beaver Dam, Virgen, Navajo, La Sal, and others, some reaching an altitude of more than twelve thousand feet. The highest peaks of these, and of course those of the Continen- tal Divide on the east, which furnish a large proportion of the 54 The Colorado River water of the Colorado, and the Wind River Mountains on the extreme north, have snow-banks throughout the summer. To show how dependent the Colorado is on the hii^h peaks for its flood-waters, 1 will mention that it is not till the snows of these high altitudes are fiercely attacked by the sun in May and June that the river has its annual threat rise. It would take onl}' a slii;ht lowerint^ of the mean annual temperature now to furnish these peaks with ice caps. The rainfall in the lower arid re^^ions is from three to ten inches, increasing northward to fifteen and twenty-five. On the peaks, of course, it is much greater. Almost any climate can be had, from the hot arid to the wet frigid. On the lower stretches, from Mohave down, the thermometer in summer stands around 1 12° F. a great deal of the time, and reaches 118° F. Yet Dr. Coues said he felt it no more than he did the summer heat of New York or Wash- ington.' In winter the temperature at the bottom of the Grand Canyon is very mild, and flowers bloom most of the time. One November I descended from the snow-covered top of the Kaibab to the Grand Canyon at the mouth of the Kanab, where I was able to bathe in the open air with entire comfort. There are six chief topographical features, canyons, cliffs, valleys, mesa plateaus, high plateaus, mountains. There are two grand divisions : the lowland or desert, below the Virgen, and the plateau, but the topography of the immediate river course separates itself into four parts, the Green River Valley, the canyon, the valley-canyon, and the alluvial. The canyon part is the longest, occupying about two-thirds of the whole, or about 1200 miles. It is cut mainly through the plateaus. The last of these southward is the Colorado, a vast upheaval reaching from the lower end of the Grand Canyon south-east to about where the 34th parallel crosses the western line of New Mexico. Lieutenant Wheeler several times claims the honour of naming it (1868-71), but the name occurs on Lieutenant Ives's map of 1858. This plateau breaks sharply along its south-west line to the lowland district, and on its ' I was at tlie Needles one summer fur a brief time, ami the air seemed very oppressive to me. *iliMi-^^iii c ^ 56 The Colorado River north-westerly edge slopes to the Little Colorado. It bears a noble pine forest, and from its summit rise to over 12,000 feet the volcanic peaks of the San Francisco Mountains. Its north- ern edge is the Grand Canyon, which separates it from its kin. dred on the other side. These and the Colorado Plateau rise Character of the Mountains and High Plateau Regions of the Basin of the Colorado. Photograph by J. K. Hillers. to from 6000 to 8000 feet above sea-level, and it is through this huge mass that the river has ground out the Grand Canyon, by corrading its bed down tremendously, the bottom at the end being only 840 feet above the sea, whereas the start at the mouth of the Little Colorado is 2690. Yet here it is already 58 The Colorado River 3500 feet below the surface at the end of Marble Canyon, which, separated only by the deep canyon of the Little Col- orado, is practically a northward continuation of the Grand Canyon itself. As the river runs, the Grand Canyon is 2I7|- Looking across the Grand Canyon (Inner Gorge) near the Foot of the Toroweap. Depth 3000 feet. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, L'. S. Geol. Survey. miles long. To this may be added the 65^ miles of Marble, giving a continuous chasm of 283 miles, the longest, deepest, and most difficult of passage in every direction of any canyon in the world. The depth begins with a couple of hundred feet Greatest Declivity 59 at Lee's Ferry (mouth of the Paria), the head of Marble Can- yon, and steadily deepens to some 3500 feet near the Little Colorado, where the sudden uplift of the Kaibab lends about 2000 feet more to the already magnificent gorge. Along the end of the Kaibab the walls, for a long distance, reach their greatest height, about 6000 feet, but the other side is consid- erably lower than the north all the way through. At the mouth of the Kanab the altitude of the river-bed is 1800 feet above the sea, showing a fall in the interval of 890 feet. The greatest declivity is about 210 feet in 10 miles, in what is termed the Kaibab division, extending from a point 10 miles below the Little Colorado to a point 58 miles farther down. Here the smooth stretches of river are long, the rapids short and violent. Here, also, is the "granite," making the walls sombre, as the colour is slaty to black. At the mouth of Diamond Creek the river is still 1300 feet higher than the sea, giving a fall of 500 feet from the Kanab. There is another descent of 460 feet to the Grand Wash, and then 149 to the mouth of the Virgen. Next to the Kaibab division of the Grand Canyon, the greatest declivity occurs in the Uinta region, in the Canyon of Lodore. The profile of the river in these two districts is approximately given on page 57. The average depth of the Grand Canyon is about 4000 feet. Its width at the top varies from 4|- to 12 miles. This is the ex- treme outer clifT-line. The inner gorge is much narrower, at the Toroweap being only about 3500 feet. The river varies in width from 500 or 600 feet to 75 or 100. In this canyon is water-power enough to run the machinery of the world, and there is as much more in the canyons above. Joining Marble Canyon on the north is Glen, 149 miles long, from the Paria to Fremont River. It has but one rapid of consequence. At high water, with the exception of this rapid, the tide sweeps smoothly and swiftly down with a ma- jestic flow. The walls are homogeneous sandstone, in places absolutely perpendicular for about a thousand feet. I ha\-e stood on the brink and dropped a stone into the river. The highest walls are 1600 feet. Next is Narrow Canyon, about 9 miles long, 1300 feet deep, and no rapids. It is hardly more 6o The Colorado River than the finish of Cataract, a superb gorge about 40 miles long with a depth of 2700 feet, often nearly vertical. The rapids here are many and violent, the total fall being about 450 feet. At its head is the mouth of the (jrand Ri\'er. The altitude of the junction is 3860 feet.' Following up the Green, we have first Stillwater, then Labyrinth Canyon, much alike, the first 42| and the second 62^ miles in length. The walls of sand- stone are 1300 feet. Their names well describe them, though the Stillwater of the first is very swift and straight. There are no rapids in cither. All these canyon names, from Green River Valley to the Grand Wash, were applied by Powell. Between Lab}'rinth and the next canyon. Gray, so called from the colour of its walls, 2000 feet high, is Gunnison Valley, where the river may first be easily crossed. Here the unfortunate Captain Gunnison, in 1853, passed over on his way to his doom, and here, too, the Old Spanish Trail led the traveller in former days toward Los Angeles. The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway has taken advantage of the same place to cross. The 36 miles of Gray are hardly more than a continua- tion of the Canyon of Desolation's 97 miles. Desolation is a fine chasm, whose walls are 2400 feet. The view on page 206 gives an excellent idea of their average character. The mouth of the Uinta River, not far above its head, is 4670 feet above the sea, while Gunnison Valley is 4083, showing a descent for the river, in Desolation and Gray, together of 587 feet. Deso- lation is full of rapids, some of them bad. Wonsits Valley, which succeeds Desolation, is the longest of the few valleys, being about 87 miles, with a width of 6 or 8 miles. There is a considerable amount of arable land, and along the river bank large groves of cottonwood trees. The river course is winding, the current sluggish, the width being 600 to 800 feet. At the head of this valley is Split-Mountain Canyon, 8 miles long, with ragged, craggy walls 2700 feet high. It contains a number of medium rapids. Island Park separates it from Whirlpool Canyon. It is a charming little valley, full of islands, a mere ' The character of the Grand River is similar to that of the Green, but tlie canyons above the mouth of the Dolores are not so long nor so deep. The river also carries less water. The Canyons 6i expansion of the walls, 9 miles long, — 9 miles of rainbow, for the surrounding rocks and marls are of every hue. Whirlpool, 2400 feet deep, is about 14 miles in length and contains a number of rapids, but the whirlpools depend on the stage of water. Then t/M^ -''-^ Pinnacles in Split Mountain Canyon. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. E.xp. comes the beautiful little Echo Park, really only the head of Whirlpool. Its name is derived from a wonderful echo of ten words returned from the smooth wall seen in the cut on page 203. It is only a mile long with walls of 600 feet. At its head enter the Yampa River and Canyon, which mark the foot of 62 The Colorado River Lodore, the most striking gorge, next to the Grand Can- yon, on the whole river. Lodore is only 20 miles long, but it is 20 miles of concentrated water-power energy and grandeur,. Head of the Canyon of Lodore just inside the " Gate." Walls 2500 feet high; river 300 feet wide. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. the fall being about 400 feet, the walls 2700. Never for a mo- ment does it relax its assault, and the voyager on its restless,. relentless tide, especially at high water, is kept on the alert. The waters indeed come rushing down w^ith fearful impetu- Brown's Park 63 osity, recalling to Powell the poem of Southey, on the Lodore lie knew, hence the name. The beginning of the gorge is at the foot of Brown's Park through what is called the Gate of Lodore, an abrupt gash in the Uinta Mountains 2000 feet deep. In viewing this entrance the ordinary spectator is at a loss to comprehend how the stream could have begun its attack upon this precipitous ridge. The theory that the river was there before the upheaval formed the mountain does not entirely sat- isfy, for it would seem in that case that the canyon walls would long ago have become much more broken down than they are. But the walls have a strikingly fresh' look, as if formed recently, compared with the timeof the original upheaval. Itseems possible that there may have been in this region some great lake which lifted the waters up to the top of the ridge to begin their work of corrasion. Such lakes did exist; but lack of space forbids the further pursuit of this discussion here. Brown's Park, originally called Brown's Hole, after one of the early trappers, is a fine valley about 35 miles long and 5 or Pot-hole in Intermittent Water Course, Glen Canvon. Homogeneous sandstone. These holes are often lo to 15 feet deep, with the stones which ground them lying in the bottom. Photograph by J. Fennemore, U. S. Colo^ Riv. Exp. 64 The Colorado River 6 miles wide. It is, like the few other valleys, an expansion of ^he canyon walls. There is considerable arable land, and the place possesses a remarkable climate. Though its general level is so high, around 5500 feet, it receives hardly any snow, and for this reason was long a favourite place for wintering cattle on the dri\-e from Texas to California. It was a great rendez- vous, also, for the early trappers and traders, and here stood Looking up Green River Valley from below Union Pacific Railway Bridge. Photograph by C. R. Savage. Fort Davy Crockett, in those days famous. It was one of those necessary places of refuge and meeting, established when the trappers were pursuing their extermination of the beaver, which once were so numerous in all the Western country. The river enters this park from the solitudes of Red Canyon, a splendid chasm, 25 miles long, 2500 feet deep, and abounding in plunging waters. The name is from the colour of the sand- stone walls. Above it are three short canyons, Kingfisher, Green River Valley 65 Horseshoe, and Flaming Gorge, aggregating about 10 miles. There are there no rapids worth mentioning, but the scenic beauty is entrancing. The walls are from 1200 to 1600 feet, in places extremely precipitous. Flaming Gorge, with walls 1300 feet, is particularly distinguished by being the beginning of the long series of close canyons. The river enters suddenly from Green River Valley, repeating on a smaller scale the conditions at the entrance to Lo- dore. From here on up to the Wind River Range the stream is flanked by occasional cliffs and buttes, but the country is compara- tively open, and the many tributaries of- ten have fine grassy bottoms. This was the locality of the great rendezvous of the period from 1825 to 1835, and even later. Green River Val- ley is an elevated region, from six thousand to seven thou- sand feet above sea. It stretches from the Wind River Mountains on the north to the Uintas on the south, and is bounded westwardly by the Wyoming Range, and on the east merges into the Laramie Plains. The drainage exit is through the Uintas, as noted, by means of the canyons heading at Flaming Gorge. There are here opportunities for extensive farming by irrigation. The only other chance for s specimen of a Navajo. Photograph by J. K. Hillers. U. S. Geol. Survey. 66 The Colorado River agriculture on the river, except \\M)nsits Valley, Brown's Park, and a few niimn- places, is below Black Canyon, in the stretches I have called the alluvial and the canyon-valley divisions. In the latter short canyons separate extensive valleys with wide alluvial bottoms capable of hiLjh cultivation, though often subject to overflow. Almost anything will grow there. Vast groves of cottonwood and mesquite exist. In the alluvial Young Warriors of the North. Photograph by C. R. Savage. division, the last stretch of the river, from the Gila down, cot- ton and sugar cane would probably grow. This is the only division where the water of the river can be extensively di- verted. At the mouth of the Gila an old emigrant road to Cali- fornia crossed, and another here in this Green River Valley. A third route of travel was by way of Gunnison's Crossing; and a fourth, though this was seldom traversed, was by the Crossing of the Fathers, some thirty-five miles above the pre- sent Lee's Ferry. In Green River Valley, Bonneville built his Native Tribes 67 Fort Nonsense, and the region was for many years the best known of any place beyond the mountains. The routes of trappers and prospectors frequently followed old native trails, which crossed and recrossed the country in every direction, except where the canyons of the Green and Colorado were ap- proached, when few lines of traverse were open across, and none alon^ the course of the water. ■"TtV-' The Joshua Tree. Clistoyucca Arborescens. Southern Nevada. Photograph by C. R. Savage. On the headwaters of Green River lived the Crows, who called it the Seedskedee Agie or Prairie Hen River. The Snakes and Utes living farther down called it the Bitter-root. Fremont called it the Rio Verde of the Spaniards, but ap- parently w^ithout good authority. It was also spoken of as Spanish River, from the report that Spaniards occupied its lower valleys. Colorado was also one of its names, and this is what it should have remained. The commonest appellation 68 The Colorado River was Green, supposed to have been derived from a trapper of that name. Just when the term "Colorado" was first appHed to the lower river is not now known. It bore several names, but finally Colorado took first place because of its appropriateness. Both the walls and the water are usually red, though the name is undoubtedly derived from the colour of the water. Green River is frequently as red as any river could be. After a storm in the headwaters of Vermilion Creek I have seen the Green a positively bright vermilion. A Pai Ute Family at Home. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. The Arapahos were said to range into Brown's Park; the Utes were all along the Wonsits Valley and below it on both sides of the river. Then came the Navajos, ranging up to the San Juan and above.' On the north side, below the San Juan, were the various bands of Pai Utes, while on the south were the Puebloan tribes, with the Apaches, Suppais, Wallapais, etc., while still below came the Mohaves, Cocopas, and Yumas, with, on the Gila, the Pimas, Papagos, and Maricopas. The 250,000 square miles of the basin were variously apportioned ' For notes on the distribution of tribes see the Seventh Ann. Rep. Bu. Ethnology ; Wheeler's Report, vol. i. ; Report of Lieut. Ives, Works of H. H. Bancroft, and Garces, by Elliott Coues. Strange Vegetation 69 ^: ys 'J^' 7^'.''> amongst these tribes, but their territorial claims were usually well defined. The vegetation of the area, especially that of the lower half, possesses singular characteristics quite in keeping with the extraordinary to- pography. Here flourishes the cac- tus, that rose of the desert, its lovely blossoms red, yel- low, and white, il- luminating in spring the arid wastes. The soft green of its stems and the multiplicity of its forms and species, are a constant de- light. It writhes and struggles across the hot earth, or spreads out silver- spined branches in- to a tree-like bush, or, in the great pitahaya, rises in fierce dignity like a monitor against the deep blue sky. And the yuccas are quite as beautiful, with their tall central rods so richly crowned with bell-like blossoms, the fantastic Clistoyucca arborcsccns, or Joshua tree, being more in harmony with the archaic landscape than any other plant there. As the traveller crosses one of the open forests of this tree, which The Barrel Cactus. Pencil sketch by F. S. Dellenbaugh. 70 The Colorado River is often twenty-five feet high, the more distant ones appear to beckon Hke some uncanny desert octopus yearning to draw him within reach of those scrawny arms. The blossom of this monstrous growth is a re\-ehition, so unexpected is it. A group as large as one's head, pure white, on the extremity of a dagger-covered bough, it is like an angel amidst bayonets. Vegetati'j-. '.t r!;. Southwest. Photograph by E. O. Beamax. The pitahaya, often more than thirty feet high and twelve to twenty-four inches diameter, is a fit companion for the Joshua, with an equally startling blossom. " To go out on the desert . . . and meet these cacti is like whispering into the ear of the Sphinx, and listening at her locked lips, . . . and to go out in April and see them suddenly abloom Rattlesnake's Paradise 71 is as though the lips of the Sphinx should i)art and utter solemn words. A bunch of white flowers at the tip of the obelisk, flowers springing white and wonderful out of this dead, gaunt, prickly thing — is not that Nature's consummate miracle, a symbol of resur- rection more profound than the lily of the fields." * Then there is the glorious ocotillo, waving its long, slender wands from the ground-centre, each green with its myriad little lance-shaped leaves, and bursting at the end into a scarlet flame of blossoms dazzling in the burning sunlight. Near by springs up the Barrel cactus, a forbidding column no one dares touch. A little farther is the "yant " of the Pai Ute, with leaves fringed with teeth like its kind, the Agaves. This is a source of food for the native, who roasts the asparagus-like tip starting up in the spring, and he also takes the whole head, and, trimming off the outer leaves, bakes it in pits, whereby it is full of sweetness like thick molasses. The inner pulp is dried in sheets and laid away. Near by, the Pinyon tree in the au- tumn sheds its delicious nuts by the bushel, and meanwhile there are many full, nutritious grass seeds, the kind called "ak" by the Pai Utes almost equalling wheat in the size of its kernel. In the lowlands grows the stolid mesquite tree, more underground than above, whose roots furnish excellent firewood, — albeit they must be broken up with a sledge ham- mer, for no axe will stand the impact. Near it may be seen huge bunches of grass (or perhaps straw would describe it bet- ter), which the white man gathers for hay with a huge hoe. Then there is the ever-present, friendly sage-brush, miniature oak trees, with branch and trunk so beautiful. It grows, as a rule, about two feet high, but I have seen it higher than my head ; that is, at least six feet. Beneath its spreading shade in the south lurks the Gila Monster, terrible in name at any rate, a fearful object to look upon, a remnant of antediluvian times, a huge, clumsy, two-foot lizard. The horned toad is quite as forbidding in appearance, but he is a harmless little thing. Here we are in the rattlesnake's paradise. Nine species are found along the Mexican border; and no wonder. The ' Harriet Monroe, Atlantic Monthly, June, 1902. 72 The Colorado River country seems made for them, — the rocks, cliffs, canyons, pit- ahayas, Joshuas, and all the rest of it. Notwithstandin^nheir venom they have beauty, and when one is seen at the bottom of some lonely, unfrequented canyon, tail buzzing, head erect, and defiant, glistening eyes, a man feels like apologising for the intrusion. Above in the limpid sunlight floats the great eagle, deadly enemy of the rattlesnake ; from a near-by bush the ex- quisite song of the mocking-bird trills out, and far up the rocks the hoof-strokes of the mountain sheep strike with a rattle of stones that seems music in the crystal air. Yonder the wild turkey calls from the pine trees, or we hark to the whir of the grouse or the pine-hen. Noisy magpies startle the silence of the northern .. ^- . ^^^^r-'''~'^T!^B districts, and the P ^9 ^^^H^^MB sage-hen and the rabbit everywhere break the solitude of your ^valk. Turn up a stone and sometimes you see a revengeful scorpion : anon the huge tarantula comes forth to look at the camp-fire. As one sits resting on a barren ledge, the little swifts come out to make his ac- quaintance. Whistle softly and a bright-coated fellow will run up even upon your shoulder to show his appreciation of the Swan Song. Antelope dart scornfully away across the open plains, and the little coyote halts in his course to turn the in- quisitive gaze of his pretty bright eyes upon this new animal A Kaibab Pai Ute. Posed by Thomas Moran. Photograph by J. K. Killers, U. S. Geol. Survey. Wild Animals 73 crossing his path. The timber wolf, not satisfied with staring, follows, perhaps, as if enjoying company, at the same time oc- casionally licking his chaps. When the sun goes down his long-drawn bark rolls out into the clear winter sky like a song Side Canyon of Glen Canyon. Homogeneous Sandstone. Photograph by J. Fennemore, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. to the evening star, rendering the blaze of the camp-fire all the more comfortable. Under the moonlight the sharper bark of the coyote swells a chorus from the cliffs, and the rich note of the night-storm is accentuated by the long screech of the puma 74 The Colorado River prowling on the heights. In daylight his brother, the wild-cat, reminds one of Tabby at home by the fireside. There is the lynx, too, among the rocks; and on the higher planes the deer, elk, and bear have their homes. In Green River Valley once roamed thousands of bison. The more arid districts have the fewest large animals, and conversely the more humid the most, though in the latter districts the fauna and flora approach that of the eastern part of the continent, while as the former are approached the difference grows wider and wider, till in the southern lowlands there is no resemblance to eastern types at all. Once the streams everywhere had thousands of happy beaver, with their homes in the river banks, or in waters deep- ened by their clever dams. Otter, too, were there. The larger rivers are not favourable for fish on account of the vast amount of sediment, but in the smaller, especially in the mountain streams, trout w^ere abundant. In Green River occurs a salmon-trout attaining a length of at least four feet. This is also found in the Colorado proper, where another fish, with a humpback, is to be caught. I do not know^ the name of this, but imagine it the same as has in latter days been called "squaw-fish." All over the region the rocks are seamed by mineral veins. Some of these have already poured forth millions of dollars, while others await a discoverer. On the river itself gold is found in the sands ; and the small alluvial bottoms that occur in Glen Canyon, and a few gravel bars in the Grand, have been somewhat profitably worked, though necessarily on a small scale. The granite walls of the Grand Canyon bear innumer- able veins, but as prospecting is there so dif^cult it will be many a long year before the best are found. The search for mineral veins has done much to make the farther parts known, just as the earlier search for beaver took white men for the first time into the fastnesses of the great mountains, and earlier the effort to save the souls of the natives marked their main trails into the wilderness. This sketch of the Basin of the Colorado is most inade- quate, but the scope of this volume prevents amplification in this direction. These few pages, however, will better enable Mineral Veins 75 the reader to comprehend the labours of the padres, the trap- pers, and the explorers, some account of whose doings is pre- sented in the following chapters.' ' In connection with the subject of erosion and corrasion the reader is advised to study the following works, which are the standards : The Exploration of the Colorado of the West, and the Geology of the Uinta Mountains, by J. W. Powell ; The Henry Mountains, by G. K. Gilbert ; The Geology of the High Plateaus of Utah, and The Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon District, by C. E. Dutton. ^^A CHAPTER IV Onate, 1604, Crosses Arizona to the Colorado — A Remarkable Ancient Ruin Dis- covered by Padre Kino, 1694 — Padre Garces Sees the Grand Canyon and Visits Oraibi, 1776 — The Great Entrada of Padre Escalante across Green River to Utah Lake, 1776 — Death of Garces Ends the Entrada Period, 1781. IN the historical development of the Basin of the Colorado- four chief epochs are apparent. The discovery of the river, as already outlined in previous chapters, is the first; sec- ond, the entradas of the padres; third, the wanderings of the trappers; and fourth, the expeditions of the explorers. These epochs are replete with interesting and romantic incidents, new discoveries ; starvations ; battles ; massacres ; lonely, dan- gerous journeys, etc., which can only be touched upon in a volume of the present size. Dr. Coues placed the diary of Garces, one of the chief actors of this great four-act life-drama, in accessible shape, and had not his lamented death interfered he would have put students under further obligation to him. Preliminary to the entradas of the padres, Don Antonio de Espejo, in 1583, went from the Rio Grande to Moki and west- ward to a mountain, probably one of the San Francisco group, but he did not see the Colorado. Twenty-one years elapsed be- fore a white man again ventured into this region. In 1604, Don Juan de Oflate, the wealthy governor of New Mexico, determ- ined to cross from his headquarters at the village of San Juaa on the Rio Grande, by this route to the South Sea, and, accompanied by thirty soldiers and two padres, he set forth, passing west by way of the pueblo of Zuni, and probably not 76 Juan de Onate n seeing at that time the celebrated Inscription Rock,' for, though his name is said to be first of European marks, the date is 1606. ^-'^-'■^^ Entrance to Acoma, N. M. The town is on top of a mesa, and was a prominent point on the highway from the Rio Grande to Zuni. Photograph by Ben Wittick. From Zuni he went to the Moki towns, then fi\-e in number, and possibly somewhat south of the present place. Beyond ' This is a quadrangular mass of sandstone about a mile long, thirty-five miles east of Zuni. On its base at the eastern end are a number of native and European inscriptions, the oldest, of the European dates according to Simpson, being 1606, recording a visit by Ofiate. The rock, or, more properly, mesa, is also called the Morro. Chas. F. Lummis has also written on this subject. 78 The Colorado River Moki ten leagues, they crossed a stream flowing north-westerly, which was called Colorado from the colour of its water, — the first use of the name so far traced. This was what we now call the Little Colorado. They understood it to discharge into the South Sea (Pacific), and probably Ofiate took it for the very headwaters of the Buena Guia which Alar^on had discovered over sixty years before. As yet no white man had been north of Moki in the Basin of the Colorado, and the only source of information concerning the far northern region was the natives, who were not always understood, however honestly they might try to convey a knowledge of the country. Skirting the southern edge of the beautiful San Francisco Mountain region, through the superb forest of pine trees, Ofiate finally descended from the Colorado Plateau to the headwaters of the Verde, where he met a tribe called Cruzados, because they wore little crosses from the hair of the forehead, a relic, no doubt, of the time when Alar^on had so freely distributed these emblems among the tribes he encountered on the Colorado, friends probably of these Cruzados. The latter reported the sea twenty days distant by way of a small river running into a greater, which flowed to the salt water. The small river was Bill Williams Fork, and on striking it Ofiate began to see the remarkable pitahaya adorning the landscape with its tall, stately columns ; and all the strange lowland vegetation fol- lowed. The San Andreas, as he called this stream, later named Santa Maria by Garces, he followed down to the large river into which it emptied, the Colorado, which he called the Rio Grande de Buena Esperanza, or River of Good Hope, evi- dently deciding that it merited a more distinguished title than had been awarded it at the supposed headwaters. He appears to have well understood what river this was, and we wonder why he gave it a new name when it had already received two. Sometimes in new lands explorers like to have their own way. They went down the Colorado, after a party had examined the river a little above the mouth of the Bill Williams Fork, meet- ing with various bands of friendly natives, among whom we recognise the Mohaves and the Cocopas. Not far below where Ofiate reached the Esperanza he entered the Great o y^ o J 8o The Colorado River Colorado Valley and soon crossed the highest point attained by Alar^on in 1540, probably near the upper end of the valley. He now doubled Alar^on's and presently also Melchior Diaz's paths, and arrived at the mouth of the river on the 25th of Jan- uary, 1605, the first white man in over sixty years, A large harbour which struck his fancy was named in honour of the saint's day, Puerto de la Conversion de San Pablo, for the sun seldom went down without a Spaniard of those days thus pro- pitiating a saint. We are more prone to honour the devil in these matters. The Gila they called Rio del Nombre de Jesus, a name never used again. So it often happens with names be- stowed by explorers. The ones they regard most highly van- ish, while some they apply thoughtlessly adhere forever. All the tribes of this region, being familiar with the Cali- fornian coast, described it in a way that caused Onate to believe that the gulf was the South Sea, extending indefinitely beyond the mouth of the Colorado northwards, and thus the persistent error that Lower California was an island received further con- firmation. Without going across to the sea beyond the mount- ains, which would have dispelled the error, Onate returned to the Rio Grande by the outward route, suffering so greatly for food that the party were forced to eat some of their horses, a source of relief often resorted to in future days in this arid country. A few years after Onate's expedition Zalvidar (161 8), with Padre Jiminez and forty-seven soldiers, went out to Moki, and from there fifteen leagues to the Rio de Buena Esperanza, but they evidently encountered Marble Canyon, and soon returned. Another name closely linked with the early history of the Colorado is that of Padre Eusibio Francisco Kino,' an Austrian by birth and a member of the Jesuit order. This indefatigable enthusiast travelled back and forth, time and again, over the whole of northern Sonora and the southern half of Arizona, then comprised in Pimeria Alta, the upper land of the Pimas, and Papagueria, the land of the Papagos. His base of opera- ' The name is written Kiihn, Ktihne, Quino, and in several other ways. Hum- boldt used Kiihn, and either tiiis or Kiihne is probably the correct form, but long usage gives preference to Kino. % '■% r<^> .'% ^ -:*^? ■JBi .iJiJiiiJ 82 The Colorado River tions was a mission ho established in Sonora; the mission of Dolores, founded in 1687. For some thirty years Kino laboured in this field with tireless energy, flinching before no danger or difficult}'. He was the first white man to see the extraordinary ruin called Casa Grande, near the present town of Florence, and on the occasion of his first visit he took advantage of the structure to say mass within its thick adobe walls. This is probably the most remarkable ancient building within the limits of the United States. For a long time it was called the House of Montezuma, though, of course, Monte- zuma never heard of it. A similar ruin, called Casas Grandes, exists in Sonora. The construction is what is called cajon, that is, adobe clay rammed into a box or frame, which is lifted for each successive course as the work advances. In the dry air of that region such walls become extremely hard, and will endure for ages if the foundations are not sapped.' Kino paid a second visit to the ruin of Casa Grande in 1697, this time accompanied by Captain Juan Mateo Mange, an ofificer de- tailed with his command to escort the padres on their peril- ous journeys. The method of the authorities was to establish a military post, called a presidio, at some convenient point, from which protection would be extended to several missions. The sol- diers in the field wore a sort of buckskin armour, with a dou- ble-visored helmet and a leathern buckler on the left arm. Kino was as often without as with the guardianship of these warriors, and seems to have had very little trouble with the natives. The Apaches, then and always, were the worst of all. In his numerous entradas he explored the region of his labours pretty thoroughly, reaching, in 1698, a hill from which he saw how the gulf ended at the mouth of the Colorado ; and the fol- lowing year he was again down the Gila, which he called Rio de los Apostoles, to the Colorado, now blessed with a fourth name, the Rio de los Martires. "Buena Guia," "del Tizon," 'See The N^orth Americans of Yesterday, by F. S. Dellenbaugh, p. 234; and for complete details see papers by Cosmos Mindeleff, Thirteenth Att. Rep. Bu. Eth. and Fifteenth An. Rep. Bit. Eth. ; also Font's description in Coues's Garces, P- 93- Padre Kino's Map of 1701. The first map giving the head of the Gulf correctly. From Bancroft's History of Arizona and New Mexico. 84 The Colorado River "Esperanza," and "los Martircs," all in about a century and a half, and still the great Dragon of Waters was not only un- tamed but unknown. Kino kej)! up his endeavours to inaugu- rate somewhere a religious centre, but without success. The San Dionisio marked on his map at the mouth of the Gila was only the name he gave a Yuma village at that point, and was never anything more. On Novem- ber 21, 1 701, Kino reached a point only one day's jour- ney above the sea, where he crossed the river on a raft, but he made no attempt to go to the mouth. At last, however, on March 7, 1702, he actually set foot on the bar- ren sands where the waters, gathered from a hundred mountain peaks of the far interior, are hurled against the sea-tide, the first white visitor since Ofiate, ninety-eight years before. Visits of Europeans to this region were then counted by centuries and half-centuries, yet on the far Atlantic shore of the continent they were swarming in the cradle of the giant that should ultimately rule from sea to sea, annihilating the desert. But even the desert has its A Lateral Canyon of Escalante River. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U S. Colo Riv Exp a, > p. ""'^ Js 86 The Colorado River charms. One seems to inhale fresh vitality from its unpeopled immensity. I never could understand why a desert is not generally considered beautiful; the kind, at least, we have in the South-west, with all the cacti, the yucca, and the other flowering plants unfamiliar to European or Eastern eyes, and the lines of coloured cliffs and the deep canyons. There is far more beauty and variety of colour than in the summer meadow- stretches and hills of the Atlantic States. So the good Padre Kino, after all, was perhaps to be congratulated on having those thirty years, interesting years, before the wilds could be made commonplace. Arizona did not seem to yield kindly to the civilisers; in- deed, it was like the Colorado River, repellent and unbreakable. The padres crossed it and recrossed it on the southwestern corner, but they made no impression. After Kino's death in 171 1 there was a lull in the entradas to the Colorado, though Ugarte, coming up along the eastern coast of Lower California, sailed to the mouth of the river in July, 1721. Twenty-four years later (1744) Padre Jacobo Sedelmair went down the Gila from Casa Grande to the great bend, and from there cut across to the Colorado at about the mouth of Bill Williams Fork, but his journey was no more fruitful than those of his predecessors in the last two centuries. It seems extraordinary in these days that men could traverse a country, even so infrequently, dur- ing two whole centuries and yet know almost nothing about it. Two years after Sedelmair touched the Colorado, Fernando Consag, looking for mission sites, came up the gulf to its mouth, and when he had sailed away there was another long interval before the river was again visited by Europeans. This time it was over a quarter of a century, but the activity then begun was far greater than ever before, and the two padres who now became the foremost characters in the drama that so slowly moved upon the mighty and diversified stage of the South-west, were quite the equals in tireless energy of the Jesuit Kino. These two padres were Garces and Escalante, more closely associated with the history of the Basin of the Colorado than any one who had gone before. Francisco Garces, as well as Escalante, was of the P"ranciscan order, and San Xavier 87 this order, superseding the Jesuit, was making settlements, 1769-70, at San Diego and Monterey, as well as taking a prominent part in those already long established on the Rio Grande. There was no overland connection between the Cali- fornia missions and those of Sonora and the Rio Grande, and the desire to explore routes for such communication was one of the incentives of both Garces and Escalante, in their long entradas. But it seemed to be the habit of those days, either never to seek information as to what had previously been ac- complished, or to forget it, for the expedition of Oiiate might as well never have been made so far as its effect on succeeding travels was concerned. He had crossed Arizona by the very best route, yet Escalante, 172 years afterward, goes searching for one by way of Utah Lake ! Coming from the west, the Moki Towns were ever the objective point, for they were well known and offered a refuge in the midst of the general desola- tion. Garces had his headquarters at the mission of San Xavier del Bac, or Bac, as it was commonly called, nine miles south of the present town of Tucson. Here Kino had begun a church in 1699, and at a later period another better one was started near by. This was finished in 1797 and to-day stands the finest monument in the South-west of the epoch of the padres. It is a really beautiful specimen of the Mexico-Span- ish church architecture of that time. No better testimony could there be of the indefatigable spiritual energy of the padres than this artistic structure standing now amidst a few adobe houses, and once completely abandoned to the elements. Such a building should never be permitted to perish, and it well merits government protection. Its striking contrast to Casa Grande, the massive relic of an unknown time, standing but a few leagues distant, will always render this region of exceptional interest to the artist, the archaeologist, and the general traveller. From Bac, under the protection of the presidio of Tubac, some thirty miles farther south, later transferred (1776) to the present Tucson, Garces carried on his work. He made five great entradas from the time of his arrival in June, 1768. The first was in that same year, the second in 1770, but in these he did not reach the Colorado, and we will pass them by. In 88 The Colorado River the third, 1771, he went down the Gila to the Colorado and de- scended the latter stream alon^ its banks perhaps to the mouth. On the fourth, 1774, he went with Captain Anza to the Col- orado and farther on to the mission of San Gabriel in California, near Los Angeles, and in his fifth, and most important one, 1775-76, he again accompanied Captain Anza, who was Church of San Xavier del Bac, near Tucson. Drawing by F. S. Dellenbaugh, after a photograph. bound for the present site of San Francisco, there to establish a mission. Padre Font was Anza's chaplain, and with Garces's aid later made a map of the country.' At Yuma Garces left the Anza party, went down to the mouth of the Colorado, and then up along the river to Mohave, and after another trip out to San Gabriel, he started on the most important part of all his ' Font says of Garces : " He seems just like an Indian himself . . . and though the food of the Indians is as nasty and disgusting as their dirty selves the padre eats it with great gusto." Dr. Coues had planned to publish a translation of Font's important diary. See Garces, by Elliot Coues, p. 172. Captain Palma 89 journeys, from Mohave to the Moki Towns, the objective point of all entradas eastward from the Colorado. The importance attached at that time to the towns of the Moki probably seems absurd to the reader, but it must not be forgotten that the Moki were cultivators of the soil and always held a store of food-stuffs in reserve. They were also builders of very com- fortable houses, as I can testify from personal experience. Cocopa Woman Grinding Corn. Photograph by Delancy Gill. Thus they assumed a prominence, amidst the desolation of the early centuries, of which the railway in the nineteenth speedily robbed them. Garces, like most of his kind, was an enthusiast on the sub- ject of saving the souls of the natives. "It made him sick at heart," says Coues, "to see so many of them going to hell for 90 The Colorado River lack of the three drops of water he would sprinkle over them if only they would let him do it." With this idea ever in mind he toiled up and down the lower Colorado, and received assist- ance from a Yuma chief called Captain Palma. Once when he came up the river to Yuma, where he had left Padre Eisarc, the report the latter gave was so encouraging that Garces ex- claims: "I gave a thousand thanks to God to hear them sing psalms divine that the padre had taught them." He further declared that Captain Palma would put to the blush for observ- ing the forms of piety, "many veteran Christians, by the rever- ence and humility with which he assisted at the holy sacrifice." But alas for the padre's fond hopes I The Yumas called the Colorado Javill or Hahweel according to Garces ; and he also says the name Colorado was given be- cause, as the whole country is coloured, its waters are tinged in the month of April, when the snows are melting, but that they are not always red, which is exactly the case. The name is also said to be a translation of the Piman title "buqui aquimuti. " Leaving Mohave June 4, 1776, Garces struck eastward across Arizona, guided by some Wallapais, but with no white com- panion. These people had told him about the distance to Moki and the nature of the intervening region. Heading Diamond Creek' on his mule, Garces made for the romantic retreat of the Havasupais in the canyon of Cataract Creek, a tributary from the south of the Grand Canyon. He was the first white man, so far as known, to visit this place, and in reaching it he passed near the rim of the great gorge, though he did not then see it. This was the region of the Aubrey cliffs and the place in all probability where Cardenas ap- proached the Grand Canyon, 236 years before. Garces arrived among the Havasupai or Jabesua, as he called them, by follow- ing a trail down their canyon that made his head swim, and was impassable to his mule, which was taken in by another 'This name, by the way, has no connection with the notorious "Arizona" diamond swindle of more recent years. It bore this name in Ives's time and the swindle was much later — 1872. The alleged diamond field also was not in Arizona at all, but in north-western Colorado. The Havasupai 91 route. At one place a ladder was even necessary to complete the 2000 feet of descent to the settlement, where a clear creek suddenly breaks from the rocks, and, rapid and blue, sweeps The Grand Canyon from Bright Angel Trail. Painting by Thomas Mor.w. away down 2000 or more feet to the Colorado, falling- in its course at one point over a precipice in three cataracts aggregat- ing 250 feet, from A\hich it takes its name. Here are about 92 The Colorado River 400 acres of arable land alon^- the creek, on which the natives raise corn, beans, squashes, peaches, apricots, sunflowers, etc. There are now about 200 of these people, and they are of Yu- man stock. Garces was well treated and rested here fiv^e days. Soon after leaving this retreat he "halted at the sight of the most profound caxones which ever onward continue, and within these flows the Rio Colorado." " There is seen [he continues] a very great Sierra which in the distance looks blue, and there runs from the southeast to the north- west a pass open to the very base, as if the sierra were cut artificially to give entrance to the Rio Colorado into these lands. I named this singular pass Puerto de Bucareli,' and though to all appearances would not seem to be great the difficulty of reaching thereunto, I considered this to be impossible in consequence of the difficult caxones which intervened. From this position said pass bore east northeast." The padre is standing in admiration before the long line of the Kaibab seen as a great sierra from this position on the south- east, and as the land on the south rises toward the rim it prob- ably appeared to him as if the sierra were really a continuation of the San Francisco Mountains on his right, and was cut in twain by the great gorge of the river. From his standpoint he looked up Marble Canyon, and all the directions he mentions are exactly correct. They saw smokes on the north, which his guides said were made by the Payuches (Pai Utes) living on the other side. The Kaivavitz band of Pai Utes in summer occupy their lands on the summit of the Kaibab, hunting deer and camping in the lovely open glades surrounded by splendid forest. This same day his guides pointed out some tracks of Yabipai Tejua, who go this way to see and trade with their friends, "those who live, as already said, on the other side of the Rio Colorado." It was one of the intertribal highways. Just where it crossed the canyon is hard to say. There were several old trails, and one came down from the north, reaching the river a few miles below the Little Colorado, but where it came out on the south side I do not know. There was once ' After tlie viceroy. Puerto de Bucareli 93 another trail which came from the north down the canyon of Kanab Creek and found a way across to the Coconinos or Havasupai ; at least Jacob Hamblin ' told me he was so in- formed by the Pai Utes. The "Hance" trail, I believe, was built on the line of an old native one, and probably this was the one the Yabipais were heading for. The Moki Town of Mishongnuvi, Arizona. The hill surmounted by the town lies itself on top of a mesa. Photograph by E. O. Beaman. Garces had a good understanding of the topography, for he says when he reached the Rio Jaquesila de San Pedro, as he called the Little Colorado, that it joined the main stream just above his Puerto de Bucareli. Coues thought it probable that Cardenas on his way to the Grand Canyon, followed from Moki the same trail Garces is now taking to reach that place, and that therefore the first view Cardenas had of the canyon was from near the same place as that of Garces — that is, he saw the Puerto de Bucareli. This is hardly probable, as Garces was only five days reaching Moki from here, and Cardenas travelled twenty from Tusayan to the canyon. As I pointed out on a previous page, so far as the data go, Cardenas reached the Grand Canyon opposite the east side of the Shewits plateau. Of the Little Colorado Garces said: "The bed of this river as far as the confluence is a trough of solid rock, very profound. 'Jacob Hamblin, whom I knew very well, was the "Leather-stocking" of Utah — a man who knew the Amerinds of Utah and northern Arizona better than any one who ever lived. 94 The Colorado River and wide about a stone's throw." That this was an accurate statement the view on page 95 amply proves. Indeed, the accuracy of most of these early Spaniards, as to topography, direction, etc., is extraordinary. As a rule where they are ap- parently wrong it is ourselves who are mistaken, and if we fully understand their meaning we find them to be correct. Garces found his way down to the Little Colorado by means of a side canyon and got out again on the other side in the same way. Finally, on July 2nd, he arrived at the pueblo of Oraibi, his objective point, and when he and his tired mule had climbed up on the mesa which bears the town, the women and children lined the housetops to get a glimpse of the singular stranger. Spaniards were something of a novelty, though by no means unheard of, just as even I was something of a novelty when I visited Oraibi one hundred years after the Padre Garces, because the Oraibis never encouraged white visitors.' The first missions were established among the Moki in 1629, when Benavides was custodian of the Rio Grande district, and included Zuni and Moki in his field. Three padres were then installed at Awatuwi, one of the towns, on the mesa east of what is now called the "East" Mesa. Four were at work amongst the various towns at the time of the Pueblo uprising in 1680, and as one began his labours at Oraibi as early as 1650, a priest was not an unknown object to the older people. All the missionaries having been killed in 1680, and Awatuwi, where a fresh installation was made, having been annihilated in 1700 by the Moki, for three-quarters of a century they had seen few if any Spaniards. Therefore the women and children were full of curiosity. Padre Escalante had been here from Zuni the year before, looking over the situation with a view to bring- ing all the Moki once more within the fold. At that time Escalante also tried to go on to what he called the Rio de los ' A year or two after my visit, James Stevenson, of the Bureau of Ethnology, was driven away from Oraibi. Thomas Keam and he then went there with a. force of Navajos and compelled the surrender of the chiefs who had been most obnoxious. They took them to Ream's Canyon and confined them on bread and water till they apologised. 3 a - 33 ■J -S 96 The Colorado River Cosninos, the Colorado, but he was unable to accomplish his purpose. Had he once had a view of the Grand Canyon it would undoubtedly have saved him a good many miles of weary travel in his northern entrada of this same year that Garces reached Oraibi. Garces was not permitted to enter the house where his Yabipai guide intended to stop, and he therefore made his way to a corner formed by a jutting wall, and there unsaddled his faithful mule, which the Yabipai took to a sheep corral. The padre remained in his corner, gathering a few' scattered corn- stalks from the street, with which he made a fire and cooked a little atdle. All day long the people came in succession to stare at him. I can testify to the sullen unfriendliness of the Oraibi, and I have seen few places I have left with greater pleasure than that I felt when, in 1885, I rode away from this town. Garces was not able to make a favourable impression, and after considering the feasibility of going on to Zufii, and deciding against it, he thought he would visit the other towns with a hope of being better received, but a few yells from some herders sent him back to his Yabipai guide and several friendly Zunis at Oraibi, where he occupied his corner again. In the morning he percei\-ed a multitude approaching, some bedecked with paint and feathers, and when four of these came forward and ordered him to leave he held up his crucifix and assured them of his desire to do good to them. They made wry faces and cried "No, no," so that he called for his mule and de- parted, smiling upon them as he went. He returned by the same route. It was the 4th of July when Garces was expelled by the Oraibis, a declaration of independence on their part which they have maintained down to the present day. That other Declaration of Independence was made on this same day on the far Atlantic coast. The Colonies were engaged in their battle for freedom, but no sound of that strife then reached New ]Mexico, yet its portent was great for that region where, three-quarters of a century later, the flag of the Great Re- public should float triumphant over all. Garces reached the Colorado once more on July 25th, his arduous journey absolutely fruitless so far as missionary work Garces Expelled 97 was concerned. He arrived at his mission of Bac September 17, 1776. On July 29, 1776, another even greater entrada was begun at Santa Fe by the Fray Padre Francisco Silvestre Velez Es- calante,' in his search for a route to Monterey, unaware that Garces had just traversed, next to that of Onate, the most practicable short route to be found. Garces had written A Court in Wolpi, Arizona. Drawing by F. S. Dellenbaugh. to Escalante, ministro doctrinero of Zuni, a letter from Oraibi, but as the ministro had already departed for Santa Fe, leaving Fray Mariano Rosate in charge at Zuni, the letter probably did not reach him till his return. The northern ' H. H. Bancroft gives a map of the route as he understands it, History of the Pacific States, p. 35, vol. xxv.,also a condensation of the diary. Philip Harry- gives a condensation in Simpson's Report, Appendix R., p. 4S9. Some river names have been shifted since Harry wrote. What we call the Grand, u]iper part, was then the Blue. 7 98 The Colorado River country, notwithstanding several small entradas and the con- siderable one of Juan Maria Ribera in 1761, who went as far as Gunnison River, was still a terra incognita, and the distance to the Pacific was also an uncertain quantity, Escalante believed a better road existed to Monterey by way of the north than bv the middle route, and a further incentive to journey that A Zuni Home. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Geol. Survey. way was probably the rumours of large towns in that direction, the same will-o'-the-wisp the Spaniards for nearly three cent- uries had been vainly pursuing. The authorities had urged two expeditions to Alta California, to establish communica- tion ; Garces and Captain Anza had carried out one, and now Escalante was to execute the other. Besides the ministro Escalante, there were in the party eight persons. Padre Francisco Dominguez, Juan Pedro Cis- neros, alcalde of Zuiii, Bernardo Miera y Pacheco, capi- tain miliciano of Sante Fe, Don Juan Lain, and four other soldiers. Lain had been with Ribera and was therefore of^cial guide. They went from Sante Fe by way of Abiquiu and the Chama River to the San Juan about where it first meets the lOO The Colorado River north line of New Mexico, and thence across the several tribu- taries to the head of the Dolores River, which they descended for ele\en days. I am at a loss to exactly follow the route, not having been able to consult either the copy or the original of Escalante's diary. The party made its way across Grand River, the Book Plateau, White River, and finally to the Green, called the San Buenaventura, which was forded, ap- parently near the foot of Split-Mountain Canyon. Here they killed one of the * "^^f^ ij^^^^^^^B bisons which were numerous in the valley. Following the course of the :i\er down some en leagues, they \\ cut up the Uinta t' and finally crossed '^ I he Wasatch, com- ing down the west- ern side evidently by way of what is now known as Spanish Fork, to Utah Lake, then illed by the na- ii\es Timpanogos. Here they heard of a greater lake to the north, but instead of seeking it they turned their course south-westerly in what they con- sidered the direction of Monterey through the Sevier River Valley, the Sevier being called the Santa Isabel, and kept down along the western edge of the High Plateaus. It being by this time the 7th of October, Escalante concludes that it will be impossible to reach Monterey before winter sets in and persuades his companions that the best thing to do is to strike for the Moki Towns. They cast lots to determine this. Upper Waters of Rio Virgen Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Gaol. Survey. Crossing of the Fathers lOI and the decision is for Aloki. Evidently he thought this would be an easy road. When he was at Moki the year before, had he not failed to go to the Colorado he would have better un- I**- .!?*^'*jri«; Pai Ute Girls, Southern Utah, Carrying Water. The jugs are wicker made tight with pitch. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. derstood the nature of the undertaking he now set for his ex- pedition. Going on southward past what is now Parowan, they came to the headwaters of a branch of the Virgen, in Cedar Valley, and this they followed down to the main stream which they left flowing south-westerly. The place where they turned from I02 The Colorado River it was probably about at Toquervillc' They were now trying to make their general course south-east. Could I but see the original I certainly could identify the route from here on, hav- ing been over the region so often. As Escalante was obtaining what information he could from the natives, it seems to me that his first course "south-east " was to Pipe Spring along the foot of the Vermilion Cliffs, then his "north-east " was up to- ward Kanab and through Nine-Mile Valley to the head of the Kaibab, where a trail led him over to House Rock Valley, on his "south-east " tack, skirting the Vermilion Cliffs again. But they lost it and struck the river at Marble Canyon, through a misunderstanding of the course of the trail, which bore easterly and then northerly around the base of the cliffs to what is now Lee's Ferry, where there was an ancient crossing. Another trail goes (or did go) across the north end of the Paria Plateau and divides, one branch coming down the high cliffs about three miles up the Paria from the mouth, by a dizzy and zig- zag path, and the other keeping on to the south-east and strik- ing the river at the very point for which Escalante was evidently now searching. Perhaps the Pai Utes had told him of this trail as well as the one he tried to follow, which would have taken him to the Lee's Ferry crossing about thirty-five miles below. He seems to have reached the brink of Marble Can- yon, perhaps half-way between the Paria and the Little Col- orado,* and followed up-stream first north and then (beyond Paria) north-east, hunting for a ford. Twice he succeeded in descending to the water, but both times was unable to cross. They had now become so reduced in food that they were obliged to eat some of their horses. With great difificulty they climbed over the cliffs, and at the end of twelve days from their first arrival at the river they found the ford, which ever since has been called El Vado de los Padres. This was the 8th of November, 1776. The entrance to the river from the ' From here to the California mission of San Gabriel would hardly have been as difficult as the route taken, excepting perhaps the matter of water, and little if any further than the distance to Santa Fe, but the Pai Utes could give him no in- formation of the distance to the sea. * There was an old crossing near there, also. Garces at Yuma 103 west, the side of their approach, is through a small canyon in the homogeneous sandstone, no more than ten fec-t wide. The course is then about half a mile down the middle of the river over a long bar or shoal to the opposite side, where the exit is made upon a rocky slope. It is a most difficult ford. The trail through the water at the low stage, when, only, fording is possible, is marked by piles of large stones. There is no ford at the Lee's Ferry crossing. From this Crossing- of -the - Fathers, just above where the river enters Arizona, to the Moki Towns Escalante had a plain trail, and a much simpler topography, and had no difficulty in arriving there. The remainder of his road, from Moki to Zuni and around to Santa Fe, was one he had travelled before, and the party soon completed the circuit of more than 1500 miles mainly through unknown country, one of the most remarkable explora- tions ever carried out in the West. It is sometimes stated that Es- calante crossed the Grand Canyon, but, as is perfectly plain from the data, he did not ; in fact, he could not have done it with horses. Garces was not yet finished with his labours on the lower Colorado, and we will return to him. The authorities had de- cided to establish there two nondescript settlements, a sort of cross between mission, pueblo, and presidio. Captain Palma, the Yuma chief, whose devotions and piety had so delighted the good Father, was eager to have missions started, and con- stantly importuned the government to grant them. Garces, therefore, went to Yuma again in 1779 to prepare the way, and in 1780 two of the hybrid affairs were inaugurated, one at what Ashtishkel, a Navajo Cliief. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. I04 The Colorado River is now Fort Yuma, called Puerto de la Purisima Concepcion, after the little canyon hard by, so named by Garces previously, a canyon fifty feet deep and a thousand feet long; the other, about eight miles down, called San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuner. There were four padres; Garces and Barraneche at the upper station, and Diaz and Moreno at the lower. Each place had eight or ten soldiers, a few colonists, and a few labourers. The Spaniards were obliged to appropriate some of the best lands to till for the support of the missions, and this, together with the general poverty of the establishments when he had expected something fine, disgusted Palma and exasperated him and the other Yumas. In June, 1781, Cap- tain Moncada, lieutenant-governor of Lower California, arrived with soldiers and recruits en route for California settlements, and encamped opposite Yuma. After some of these people had been sent forward or back as the plans demanded, Mon- cada remained at the camp with a few of his soldiers. No one suspected the tornado which was brewing. All the life of the camp, of the missions, and of the Yumas went on with the same apparent smoothness, but it was only a delusion suddenly and horribly dispelled on the fateful 17th of July. Without a sign preliminary to the execution of their wrath. Captain Palma and all his band threw piety to the winds, and anni- hilated with clubs Moncada's camp and most of the men in the two missions. Garces and his assistant, Barraneche, were at first spared. Even the conscience of Palma hesitated to mur- der the good and amiable Garces, who had never been to him and his people anything but a kind and generous friend, but the rabble declared these two were the worst of all, and under this pressure Palma yielded. It was the last terrible scene of this act in the life-drama we are following. The lights were out, the curtain down. Military expeditions were sent to avenge the massacre, but they might as well have chased the stars. The missions on the Colorado were ended. Never again was an attempt made to found one. The desert relapsed into its former complete subjection to the native tribes, and the indifferent Colorado swept on to the conflict with the sea- waves as if neither white man nor Amerind had ever touched Death of Garces 105 its waters. Nearly half a century passed before the face of a white man was again seen at the mouth of the river, and all the toil of Kino, Garces, and the rest was apparently as com- pletely wasted as if they had tried to stop the flow of the Colorado with a broom. — ~»ff- -r? - ^/^ii^t T>?!^. CHAPTER V Breaking the Wilderness — Wanderings of the Trappers and Fur Traders — General Ashley in Green River Valley, 1824 — Pattie along the Grand Canyon, 1826 — Lieut. Hardy, R.N., in a Schooner on the Lower Colorado, 1826 — Jedediah Smith, Salt Lake to San Gabriel, 1S26 — Pattie on the Lower Colorado in Canoes, 1827-2S, AS the "sweet Afton " of old gently flowing among its green braes compares with the fierce Colorado, so do those earnest padres who so faithfully tried to plant their cross in the waste places, as sketched in the chapter just closed with the martyrdom of Garces, compare with the new set of actors that now appear, as the development of this drama of the wilderness continues. The former fitted well into the strange scenery; they became apart of it; they fraternised with the various tribes native to the land, and all things together went forward with pictorial harmony. They were like a few mellow figures blended skilfully into the deep tones of an ancient can- vas. But now the turbulent spirit of the raging river itself per- vades the new-comers who march imperiously upon the mighty stage with the heavy tread of the conqueror, out of tune with the soft old melody ; temporising with nothing ; with a heed- less stroke, like the remorseless hand of Fate, obliterating all obstacles to their progress. Not theirs the desire to save na- tives from perdition ; rather to annihilate them speedily as use- less relics of a bygone time. They are savages among savages; quite as interesting and delightful in their way as the older oc- cupants of the soil. It became in reality the conflict of the old and the new, and then was set the standard by which the na- tive tribes have ever since been measured and dealt with. 106 South Pass Discovered 107 The inevitable was simply coming to pass: one more act in the world-play of continental subjugation to the European. The United States, born in privation and blood, were grow- ing into a nation eager for expansion, and by 1815 they had already ventured beyond the Mississippi, having purchased from France all territory north of Red River, the Arkansas, and the 42nd parallel, as far as the unsettled British boundary and the disputed region of Oregon. Naturally, then, Ameri- cans wanted to know what was to be found in this vast tract unknown to them, and when a few bold spirits pushed out to the great mountains it was discovered that fur-bearing animals existed in multitude. In the trapping of these and the trad- ing in their pelts a huge industry sprang up. In this trade future millionaires laid their foundations. The beaver were then the most profitable of all, and they were the most abundant. The pelts were estimated by "packs," each of which consisted of about eighty skins, weighing one hundred pounds, and worth in the mountains from three hundred to five hundred dollars. The profits were thus speedy and very great. In the search for the richest re- wards the trapper continually pushed farther and farther away from the "States," encroaching at length on the territory claimed by Spain, a claim to be soon (1821) adopted by the new-born Mexican Republic. Trespassing on the tribal rights of Blackfoot, Sioux, Ute, or any other did not enter into any one's mind as something to be considered. Thus, rough-shod the trapper broke the wilderness, fathomed its secret places, traversed its trails and passes, marking them with his own blood and more vividly with that of the natives. Incidentally, by right of their discoveries and occupation of the wilderness, much of it became by the law of nations a part of the lands of the United States, though still nominally claimed by Mexico. Two years after the return of the famous Lewis-and-Clark ex- pedition, Andrew Henry "discovered " South Pass (1808), and led his party through it into the Green River' Valley. His ' The name Green River was used as early as 1824, and was probalily derived from the name of the early trapper. Till about 1835 it was usually called by the Crow name, .Seedskeedee. io8 The Colorado River discovery consisted, like many others of the time, in following up the bison trails and the hiLjliways of the natives. The lat- ter, of course, knew every foot of the whole country ; each tribe its own special lands and more or less into and across those of its neighbours. By the time the third decade of the nineteenth century was fairly begun the trappers were crossing in considerable numbers from the headwaters of the Missouri and the Platte into the valley of the Colorado and the Columbia, and as early as 1824 one of the most brilliant figures of this epoch, General Ashley,' having previously organised a fur-trading company in St. Louis, then the centre of all Western commerce, had estab- lished himself in Green River Valley with a large band of ex- pert trappers which included now famous names like Henry, Bridger, Fitzpatrick, Green, Sublet, and Beckwourth. Provo (or Provost) was already encamped in Brown's Hole. One of Ashley's principal camps was what they called the "rendez- vous " (there were a great many French-Canadians engaged in the fur business, and hence numerous French words were in common use among the trappers of the period), just above "The Suck," on Green River. This Suck was at the entrance to Flaming Gorge, as it has since been named. Beckwourth says of this: "The current, at a small distance from our camp, became exceedingly rapid, and drew toward the centre from each shore." The river here narrows suddenly and attacks a high ridge. Doubling around a point to the left and then as suddenly to the right, the swift water or "Suck " slackens up in the quieter reach of Flaming Gorge. In their journeys after beaver the Ashley party had been able to go into this gorge and the two following ones. Horseshoe and Kingfisher, and had doubtless trapped in them. Here were many beaver, and Ashley drew the inference that as many existed below in the deeper canyon. Though he had discovered the dangerous character of the river he decided to build boats and set forth on ' \Vm. Henry Ashley, born in Virginia, 1778 ; went to Missouri 1802 ; general of militia; elected first governor 1S20 ; went into fur trade 1S22 with Andrew Henry ; elected to Congress 1831 ; twice re-elected ; continued in office till March 4, 1837. — Chittenden. I lo The Colorado River the current in order to trap the canyon, the length of which he did not know and underestimated. A purpose of reaching St. Louis by this route has been attributed to Ashley, but as Hunt and others some years before understood this to be a stream on whose lower waters Spaniards lived, Ashley doubtless had the same information, and from that he would have knov/n that it was no practicable route to St. Louis. Beckwourth, who relates the story of the trip,' makes no suggestion of any far-off des- tination, nor does he say they took their packs along, as they Flaming; Gorge, Green River. Beginning of tlie Canyons. Picture taken just inside the entrance. Walls 1300 feet. Photograph by E. O. Beaman, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp. would have done if going to a commercial centre. It seems to have been purely a trapping expedition, and was probably the very first attempt to navigate Green River. They took along few provisions, expecting to find beaver plentiful to the end of the canyon, but after a few miles the beaver were ab- ' Life and Adventures of fames P. Beckwourth, edited by T. D. Bonner. Beckwourth was always called " Beckwith " in the mountains, but this was probably only a perversion of the original, though Chittenden seems to think he only as- sumed the former spelling on publishing his book. Ashley's Voyage II I sent, and, having preserved none of the meat, the party began to suffer for food. They were six days without eating, and, the high precipitous walls running ever on and on, they became disheartened, or, in Western phrase, "demoralised," and pro- posed to cast lots to find which should make food for the Red Canyon at Low Water. Length 25 miles. Walls 1800 to 2500 feet high. Average width of river, 250 feet. others, a proposition which horrified Ashley, and he begged them to hold out longer, assuring them that the walls must soon break and enable them to escape. They had not ex- pected so long a gorge. Red Canyon is twenty-five miles and, with the three above, the unbroken canyon is about thirty-five 112 The Colorado River miles. Under the circumstances the canyon seemed intermin- able and the cliffs insurmountable. The latter grow more pre- cipitous toward the lower end, and scaling would be a difficult feat for a man well fed and strong, though well-nigh hopeless for any weakened by lack of proper food. At last, however, an opening appeared. Here they discovered Provo encamped with an abundance of provisions, so their troubles were quickly over. The opening they had arrived at was probably Brown's Hole. There is only one other place that might be called an opening, and this is a small park-like break on the right side of the river, not far above Brown's Hole, formerly called Little Brown's Hole and also Ashley Park. The Ashley men would have had a hard climb to get out of this place, and it is not probable that Provo would have climbed into it, as no beaver existed there. It seems positi\'e, then, that Ashley came to Provo in Brown's Hole. Thus he did not "make his peri- lous way through Brown's Hole," as one author says, because he ended his journey with the beginning of that peaceful park. They lost two of their boats and several guns in Red Canyon, and Ashley left there a mark to identify the time of his pass- age. He wrote his name and the date, 1825, on a large rock above a sharp fall, which was (later, 1869,) named in his honour. I saw this inscription in 1871 and made a careful copy of it, __ ___ which is given here. See also the illustra- _ /\<«'aX»Ejf tion of Ashley Falls on page 113. The lo- -. ip9,5 cation of it is just west of C in the "*^^^K^^JIlj,-7Y'-r--^ words "Red Canon " on the map, page 109. In the canyon of Lodore, at the foot of Disaster Falls, we found some wreckage in the sand, a bake- oven, tin plates, knives, etc., which Powell first saw in 1869, but these could not have belonged to Ashley's party, for plainly Ashley did not enter Lodore at all. It was evident- ly from some later expedition which probably started from Brown's Park, in the days of Fort Davy Crockett. Provo had plenty of horses, and Ashley and his men joined him going out to Salt Lake, where Provo had come from. The year following Ashley's attempt to trap Green River « a! "^ o u 114 The Colorado River was a most eventful one in the history of the Colorado. Time appeared to be ripe for ijreat journeys. The Mexicans out- side of California were more amiably inclined, and granted privileges to trappers in New Mexico. Two men who were among the first to push their way into New Mexico were James O. Pattie and his father, and the narrative of their ex- periences as told by the younger Pattie is one of the most thrilling and interesting books of Western adventure ever pub- 'lished.' They had trapped on the Gila, or "Helay," as they called it in 1825, and the next year they went back there with a party, trapping the Gila and its tributaries with gratifying success." Working their way down the Gila, they eventually reached its junction with what they called Red River, the Great Colorado. Following up the Colorado, probably the first white men to travel here since the time of Garces, they rode through a camp of Coco-Maricopas, who ran frightened away, and the Pattie party, passing them by as if they were mere chaff, camped four miles farther on, where they were visited by about one hundred, "all painted red in token of amity." Farther up they entered the Mohave country. When they met some of the inhabitants they "marched directly through their village, the women and children screaming and hiding themselves in their huts." Three miles above, the Patties camped, and a number of the Mohaves soon came to see them. They did not like the looks of the chief, who made signs that he wanted a horse as payment for the privilege of trapping in his domain. As the trappers recognised no rights on the part of the natives, they peremptorily refused, whereat the chief drew himself erect with a stern and fierce air and sent an arrow into a tree, at the same time "raising his hand to his mouth and making their peculiar yell." The captain of the Pattie band replied by taking his gun and shooting the arrow in two. Driven out of the camp the following day, the chief ' The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie^ of Kentucky, etc., edited by Timothy Flint. Cincinnati, E. H. Flint, 1833. There is a copy in the Astor Library, New York. ' There were two classes of trappers, the free and those in the employ of some company. The Patties belonged to the former class. ii6 The Colorado River shot a horse as he rode past it and was liiniself instantly pierced with four rifle balls. A band of his followers, armed, of course, with only bows and arrows, next day made a concerted attack, but were cut down by the rifles and fine marksmanship of the Americans. As these Mohaves had been good friends to Garces, and after- wards treated Americans well till they were instigated by the Spaniards to fight, it is probable that a somewhat more con- Entrance to Black Canyon, first seen by James O. Pattie. Photograph by Wheeler Exp. ciliatory approach might have avoided the trouble this party experienced. Farther up they reached the "Shuenas," who had appar- ently never before heard the report of a gun, and on the 25th of March they arrived at what we now call Bill Williams Fork. A party was sent up this stream to trap. As they did not re- turn next day according to the plan, scouts were dispatched, who found the bodies cut to pieces and spitted before a great fire. On the 28th of March they came to a place on the river Pattie at Black Canyon 1 1 7 where "the mountains shut in so close upon its shores that we were compelled to climb a mountain and travel along the aclivity, the river still in sight, and at an immense depth be- neath us." This was probably Black Canyon; they are the first white men on record to reach it. They now took a re- markable journey of fourteen days, but unfortunately little de- tail is given, probably because Pattie's editor considered a cut across the country of little importance. They travelled, they thought, one hundred leagues along these canyons, with the "river bluffs on the opposite shore never more than a mile" from them.' Thus they evidently did not see the Grand Can- yon at its widest part. By April loth they arrived "where the river emerges from these horrid mountains, which so cage it up as to deprive all human beings of the ability to descend to its banks and make use of its waters. No mortal has the power of describing the pleasure I felt when I could once more reach the banks of the river." They had suffered for food on this journey, but now they were again in a beaver country and also killed plenty of elk, the skins of which they dressed for cloth- ing. They had made the first extended trip on record along the Grand Canyon and the other canyons of the Colorado, but whether they passed up by the north or the south I am unable to determine. My impression is that they passed by the north, as they would otherwise have met with the Havasupai in their Canyon, with the Little Colorado, and with the Moki. They would also have struck the San Juan, but the first stream men- tioned as coming in is from the north, which they reached three days after arriving at the place where they could get to the water. Three days after leaving this they met a large bod}- of Shoshones. They appear now to be somewhere on Grand River. They had a brush with the Shoshones, whom they defeated, and then compelled the women to exchange six scalps of Frenchmen whom the Shoshones had killed on the head- waters of the Platte, for scalps of members of their own party of whom the Patties had killed eight. They also took from ' " It is perhaps this very long and formidable range of mountains," says Pattie, " which has caused that this country of Red River has not been more explored," p. g8. ii8 The Colorado River them all the stolen beaver-skins, five mules, and their dried buffalo meat. After this interchant^e of civilities the trappers went on to where the river forked again, neither fork being more than twenty-five or thirty yards wide. The right-hand- fork pursued a north-east course, and following it four days brought them (probably in Middle Park) to a large village of the "Nabahoes." Of these they inquired as to the pass over the mountains (Continental Divide) and were informed they must follow the left-hand fork, which they accordingly did, and on the thirty-first day of May, 1826, came to the gap, which they traversed, by following the buffalo trails through the snow, in six days. Then they descended to the Platte, and went on north to the Yellowstone, making in all a traverse of the whole Rocky Mountain region probably never since surpassed, and certainly never before approached. A few months later a lieutenant of the British Navy, R. \V. H. Hardy, travelling in Mexico, chartered in the port of Guay- mas a twenty-five-ton schooner, the Briija or Sea Witch, and sailed up the Gulf of California. Encountering a good deal of trouble in high winds and shoals he finally reached a vein of reddish water which he surmised came from "Red River," and at two o'clock of the same day he saw an opening ahead which he took to be the mouth of the river. An hour later all doubt was dispelled, and by half-past six he came to anchor for the night at the entrance, believing the tide to be at nearly low water. "In the middle of the night," he says, "I was awak- ened by the dew and the noise of jackals. I took this oppor- tunity of examining the lead which had been left hanging alongside, to see what water we had. What was my astonish- ment to find only a foot and a half. The crew was sound asleep. Not even the sentinel was able to keep his eyes open. They got off without damage at the rise of the tide, but the next day misfortune awaited the schooner. The helmsman neglecting his duty for a moment as they were working up the stream, the vessel lost headway, and the fierce current immedi- ately swept her, stern foremost, into the bank and broke the rudder. After much labour the Briija was finally again placed in the stream, where they waited for slack water, expecting The Navajo Type. Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Gaol. Survey. I20 The Colorado River then to ship the rudder. "But in the Rio Colorado," he de- clares with italics, ''there is no such tJiing as slack ivatcr. Before the ebb has finished runnin<^ the flood commences, boiling up full eighteen inches above the surface and roaring like the rapids of Canada." Had he known what we now know he might have found a simile nearer his position at the moment. Finding he could make no further progress with the schooner, he took a small boat and continued his voyage in it, though not for any great distance, as he returned to the vessel at night. Five or six thousand Yumas were seen, but they were entirely friendly. He thought the mouth of the Gila was below his stranded vessel, but he was mistaken in this, for it was in reality a great many miles farther up. What he took for the Gila was the main Colorado itself, and what he thought was the Colorado was only a bayou or flood-water channel. It being midsummer the river was at flood. The bayou is still called the False or Hardy's Colorado. After eight days of waiting they at last got their rudder shipped, the vessel on the tide, and went back down the stream, one of the Yuma women swimming after them till taken on board. She was landed at the first opportunity. The interpreter told Hardy his was the first vessel that had ever visited the river, and that they took it for a large bird. Tlie lieutenant was evidently not posted on the history of the region, and the Yuma was excusable for not having a memory that went back eighty years.' Hardy gave some of the names that still hold on that part of the river, like Howard's Reach, where his Bruja was stranded, Montague and Gore Islands, etc. The same month that Hardy sailed away from the mouth of the Colorado, August, 1826, Jedediah Smith started from Salt Lake (the 22d), passed south by Ashley's or Utah Lake, and, keeping down the west side of the Wasatch and the High Pla- teaus, reached the Virgen River near the south-western corner of Utah. This he called Adams River in honour of the President of the United States. Following it south-west through the Pai Ute country for twelve days he came to its junction with what ' Fernando Consag entered the river, 1746, looking for mission sites, and two centuries before that was Alar^on. Jedediah Smith 121 he called the Seedskeedee, knowing it to be the same stream so- called in the north. This was the Colorado. Proceeding down the Colorado to the Mohaves he was kindly received by them and remained some time recuperating his stock. It may seem strange that the Mohaves should be so perverse, killing one set of trappers and treating another like old friends, but the secret of the difference on this occasion, perhaps, lay in the dif- ference of approach. Jedediah Smith was a sort of reincarna- tion of the old padres, and of all the trappers the only one 6S J.AvJ£^^3iS,I-kBM^ Upper Valley of the Virgen. Photograph by C. R. Savage. apparently who allowed piety or humanitarianism to sway his will. His piety was universally known. It was not an affecta- tion, but a genuine religion which he carried about with him into the fastnesses of the mountains. Leaving the Mohaves he crossed the desert to the Californian coast, where he afterwards had trouble with the authorities, who seemed to bear a grudge against all American trappers, and who seized every oppor- 122 The Colorado River tunity to maltreat and rob them. This, however, did not pre- vent Smith from returnin