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Show TO A SCANTY AGUAGE. 331 the Rio Colorado was near, and already were visible cajones very profound which had the color of the sierra. The aguage where we slept was very scanty. The two Indians and the Indian woman who were accompanying me divided with me the mezcai they were carrying for food. On this day the married from Peach springs into the extraordinary place for which Garces is heading, except by an immense detour which would have taken him to an entirely different base of departure for Cataract canon. Aubrey cliffs form the western edge or jump-ing- off place of the vast Colorado plateau stretching eastward at an average elevation of about 6,000 feet, with isolated elevations up to about 7t000, to the region of the great Bill Williams and the San Francisco mountains, and northward to the Grand canon itself. South of the cliffs lies Aubrey valley, near Mt. Floyd and the Picacho, leading into Chino valley. Francois Xavier Aubrey, Aubray, or Aubry, who was through this country in 1854, was the famous French- Canadian plainsman and pony express rider, born in Maskinonge* Dec. 4, 1824, killed in a fracas at Santa F6, N. M., Aug. 20, 1854, by Major R. H. Weightman, U. S. A., who was killed at the battle of Wilson's Creek, Mo., Aug. 10, 1861. Aubrey City, or Landing, was a projected settlement on the Colorado at the mouth of Bill Williams' fork, and Fort Aubrey once stood on the Arkansaw river in Colorado. A biography of this humble hero will be found in Tasse's Les Canadiens de l'Ouest, ii, 1878, pp. 179- 227, portrait. See also Pike's Travels, ed. 1895, p. 731. Garces traveled a part of yesterday and the whole of to- day in the present Hualapai Indian reservation ( Executive Order of Jan. 4, 1883); and after leaving Peach springs he passed from Mojave into Yavapai county, on crossing the meridian of 1130 20' W. |
