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Show W I T H SITGREAVES TO THE PACIFIC Fig. 100. On the Big Colorado near Camp 37. Looking North. Lithograph based on a drawing by Richard H. Kern. Lorenzo Sitgreaves, Report of an Expedition down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers (Washington, D.C, 1853). had frequently erupted into violence. By the fall of 1851, when Sitgreaves's men entered their lands, the Quechans had joined in a plan to unite with neighboring tribes to expel all Americans from southern California. The Quechans did not take the offensive against Sitgreaves again, but signal fires reminded the Americans of the Indians' presence and kept the weakened party apprehensive. Moreover, the explorers remained uncertain as to what would await them at the mouth of the Gila. Should the military post no longer be there, Dr. Woodhouse wrote, "we will be in a sad condition."67 On November 29, Sitgreaves reached the mouth of the Gila, but Camp Yuma, which had stood on a bluff on the Colorado River across from the mouth of the Gila, had been abandoned. The post had been established the previous year, I « I |
