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Show [ 174 J 266 feet, the greater part of those left being it'i excellent order, and scarcely a day pa ses without s?me loss; and, one by .one, Fnente~'s horses arc con. stantly dropping behmd. 'Vhenever the~ g1ve out, he dtsmout1ts and cuts of their tails and manes, to make saddle guths; the last ad vantage one can gain from them. . . . The next day, m a sh~rt but rough ndc of 1~ mtlcs, we crossed the mountain; and, desccrvlwg to a small valley plam, encamped at the foot of the ridge, on the bed of a creek, where we fonnd good grass in snfiicient quantity, and almndance of water in holes. The ridge is extremely rugged and broken, pre euting on this side a continued precipice, aud probably aflonls very few passes. Many digger tracks arc seen around us but no Indians were visible. ' il!Jay 3.-After a day's journey of 18 miles, in a northeasterly direction we encamped in the midst of ~nothor v~ry l~rge busiu, at a ~a~piug ground called las Jrecras-a term which the Spamards use to s1gmfy fertile or marshy plain , in contradistinction to llanos, which they apply to dry and sterile plains. T~o narr~w streams of clear wat?r, four or five feet deep, gn h suddenly, wtth a qmck current, from two s1ngularly large springs· these, and other waters of the basin, pass out in a gap to the eastward~ The ta tc of the water is good, but rather too warm to be agreeable· the temperature being 71° in the one, and 73° in the other. They, how~vcr afforded a delightful bathing place. ' J.llay 4.-We started this mon1ing earlier than usual, tra veiling in a north. easterly direction across the plain. The new acacia ( spirolobi'Um, odoralttm) !las now become the characteristic tree of the col:lntry; it is in bloom, and lts blossoms arc very frag~ant. The day was still, and the heat, whicn soon became very opprcss1ve, appeared to bring out strongly the refreshing scent of the zygophyllaccous shrubs and the sweet perfuuw of the acacia. The snowy ridge we had just crossed looked out conspicuously in the n.orthwcst. In about five hours' ride, we crossed a gap in the surrounding, ndge, and the appearance of skeletons of horses very soon \Varned us that we were ~ngagcd 111 .auother dry jornada, which proved the longest we had n1ade In all our JOtuncy-betwecn fifty and sixty n1ilcs without a drop of water. Trav~llers throu~h countries affording water and timber can have no conceptwn ?f our Intolerable thirst while journeying over the hot yellow sand~ of th1s el~vated country, where the heated air seems to be entirely depnvcd of moisture. We ate occasionally the bisnarla and moistened our ~ouths with the acid of the sour dock, (runwx ve7to;us.) Hourly ex· pcctuJg to find water, we continued to press on until towards midnight, when, after a hard and uninterrupted march of 16 hour our wild mules began running ahead; and in a mile or two we caine t~ a bold running stream-so keen is the sense of that animal in these dcser rcoions, in scenting ~t a d istauce this necessary of life. ' 0 ~ccordmg to the iuformati?n we had rccei vell, Sevier river was a trib.n· tary of the Colorado; and thts, accordingly, should have been one of 1ts ai~uents. It pr~vecl ~o be th? Rio rle los .!lngeles (river of the Angels)-a b1anch of the Rw J7trgen (nver of the Virgin.) ll1~ty 5.-0n account of our animals, it was neccs. ary to rcmaiu to-day at tills place. In.dians crowded numerou~ly around ns in the morning; ~~d we were obliged to keep arms in hand all day, to keep them out the camp. They began to snrronttd the hort'es, which, for the conve· 267 [ 174 ] . e of orass we were guarding a little above, on the river. These were m· nernuce diatcbl y dn'·v en .m , and. 1r cpt c1 o se to t h e camp. u 1 the darkness of the mght we had made a very bad cneamprncnt, onr fi n being commanded by a rocky bluff within 50 yards; but, not withstand. res we had the river and small thickets of willo,vs on the other side. Several ~~1 g~s during the day tile camp was insulted by the Indians; but, peace ;~~n our object, I kept simply on t~c defensive. Some of the Iudians were t~c bottoms, and other~ harangnmg us frflm the blnlfs; and they were 0~~ttercd in every direction over the hills. Their language being probably ! dialect of the Utah, with the aid of sigx1s son1c of our people could comprehcud them very well. They 'v~rc ~be s~~ne people ~vho had mt~rdered the Mexicans; and towards u~ thctr dtsp~sttwn was cvtdently hostile, nor were we well dispo.sccl towaro.s them. 1 hey .were barcf~ote~, and nearly naked· their hair gathered up Into a knot bchmd; and wi.th hts bow, each man c~rried a quiver with thirty or forty arrows partlal.ly drawn ~ut. Besides these, each held in his hand two or three arrows for mstant se.rviCe. Their arrows arc barbed with a very clear translucent ~tone, a spcctcs of opal, nearly as hard as the diamond; and, sl~ot from theu l?ng bow, are almost as effective as a gunshot. In these fudmns, I was forc1bl y struck by a.n expression of countenance resembling .that in a beast of prey_; and all their actions are those of wild animals. Jomcd to the restless mot~on of the eye, there is a want of 1niud-an absence of thought-and an actiO~ ~ho~ly by impulse, &trongly expressed, and w~1ich ~onstantly recalls the stmtlanty .. ¥A man who appeared to be a ch1ef, \Vlth two or three others, forced htmse1f into camp, bringing with him his arms, in sritc of .my .orders to the contrary. When showu our weapons, he bored ins car w1th lns fingers, and said he could not hear. "Why," said he, "there are none of yon." Counting the people around the camp, and including in th~ number U: mule which was being shod, he n1adc out 22. " o many," .saHl he, show.wg the number," and we-,ve are a great many;" and he pot~tcd to the ln.\\s an.d mountains round about. "If you have your arm.s," sa1d ~1e., twangmg hts bow," we have these." I had s?mc dilficu~ty 1.11 restrauung th? P.eople, particularly Carson, who felt an msult of tlus lnnd as much as 1f It h~d been given by a more responsible being. "Don't say th~t, o.ld man," :aid he; "don't you say that-your life's in danger".-speaking In g~od English; and probably the old man was nearer to his end than he wtll be be-fore he meets it. Several animals had been necessarily left behind near ~he camp last nio-ht · and early in the mornino- before the Indians made theu appearance, se0v era' l men were sent to brino-bt' hetn in. When I was begm. nm. g t o b e un-easy at their absence, they ret~uned with info:mation that they ~lad ~een driven off from the trail by Indians; and, havmg followed the tiacks Hl a short distance, they found the ~nimals cut up and spread o.nt upon bus he~: In the evenino- 1 oave a fatianed horse to some of the Indwns for a feas ' :s b c c o · '· 1 t , ho and the villaac which carried him off refused to hare Will1 t 1e ot lCfR, w made loud cob mplaints frotn the rocks of the partt. al d'1 stn. b ut.w n. M. a ny of these Indians had louo- stick hooked at the end, which they u~eu tn hauling out lizards and otl1cr sm~ll animals from their holes. Dunng the day they occasionaity roasted and ate lizard~ at our fires. These belong to the people who arc generally known 11ndcr the name of !Jiggers; a,nd. to th~s~ I have more particularly had reference when occ;t wnally spealnug of a people whose sole occupation is to procnrc foo<l snfficient to support ex-· |
