OCR Text |
Show 130 EXPLORATION OF TilE OARONS OF TilE COLORADO. other side of the great river that we have seen Ka'-pu-rats, and he is the Indians' friend. We will tell them be is Jacob's friend. We are very poor. Look at our women and children; they are naked. We have no horses; we climb the rocks, and our feet are sore. We live among rocks, and they yield little food and many thorns. When the cold moons come, our children are hungry. We have not much to give; you must not think us mean. You are wise; we have heard you tell strange things. We are ignorant. Last year we killed three white men. Bad men said they were our enemies. rrhey told great lies. We thought them true. We were mad; it made us big fools. We are very sorry. Do not think of them, it is done; let us be friends. We arc ignorant-like little children in understanding compared with you. When we do wrong, do not get mad, and be like children too. "When white men kill our people, we kill them. Then they kill more of us. It is not good. We hear that the white men are a great number. When they stop killing uB, there will be no Indian left to bury the dead. We love our country; we know not·other lands. We hear that other lands are better; we do not know. The pines sing, and we are glad. Our children play in the warm sand; we hear \hem sing, and are glad. The seeds ripen, and we have to eat, and we are glad. We do not want their good lands; we want our rocks, and the great mountains where our fathers lived. W c are very poor; we are very ignorant; but we are very honest. You have horses, and many things. You are very wise; you have a good heart. We will be friends. Nothing more have I to say." Ka' -pu-rats is the name by which I am known among the Utes and Shoshones, meaning "arm off." There was much more repetition thn.u I have given, and much emphasis. After this a few presents were given, we shook hands, and the council broke up. Mr. Hamblin fell into conversation with one of the men, and held him until the others had left, and then learned more of the particulars of the death of the three men. rrhey came upon the Inclian village almost starved and exhausted with fatigue. They were supplied with food, and put on their way to the settlements. Shortly after they had left, an Indian from the east side of the Colorado an-ived at their village, and told them about a number of miners having killed a squaw in drunken brawl, and no doubt MOUN'r 'rRUMBULL. 131 these were the men. No person had ever come down the canon; tlu;tt was impossible ; they were trying to hide their guilt. In this way he worked them into a great rage. They followed, surrounded the men in ambush, and filled them full of arrows. That night I slept in peace, although these murderers of my men, and their friend , the U-in-ka-rets, were sleeping not five hundred yards away. While we were gone to the canon, the pack-train and supplies, enough to make an Inclinn rich beyond hi wilde t dreams, were all left in their charge, and were all safe ; not even a lump of sugar was pilfered by the children. September 20.-For several days we have been discussing the relative merits of several names for these mountains. The Indians call them U-inka- rets, the region of pines, and we adopt the name. The great mountain we ca1l ~fount 'rrumbull, in honor of the Senator. To day the train starts back to the canon water pocket, while Captain Bishop and I climb Mount Trumbull. Ou our way we pass the point that was the last opening to the volcano. It seems but a few years since the last flood of fire swept the vall y. Between two r ug-h, conical bills it poured, ann run down tho valley to the foot of a mountain standing almost at the lower end, then parted, au<lran on either side of the mountain. rrhis last overflow is very plainly marked; there is soil, with trees and grass, to the very edge of it, on u more ancient. bed. rrhe flood was cvorywlwre on its border from ten to twenty feet in height, terminating abruptly, and 1 okiitg like a wall from bel w. On c oling, it shattered iut fragments, bnt these are still in place, and you can see the outlines of streams and waves. So little time has elapsed since it ran down, that tho elements have not weathered a oil, and there i1:1 scarcely any vegetation on it, but here and there a lichen is found. And yet, so long ago was it poured from the depths, that where ashes and cindet·s have c 11 cted in a few place:s, some huge cellars have grown. Ncar the crater tho fi·ozen · waves of black basalt are rent with deep fissures, transverse to the dit·ection of the flow. Then we rille through a cedar forest, up a long ascent, until we come to cliffi of columnar basalt. llm·e we tie our hor ·es, and pl' pare for a climb among the c lumns. Thr ugh crevices w work, till at last wo u.rc on the mountaiu, a thousand acres of pine land spread out before us, |