coRON ado's march. 317 



■were Indians living, who were very tall, a report of the same on his 

 return to Cibola was made by Don Pedro de Tobar to Coronado, who 

 sent out another party consisting of twelve men, under Don Garci-Lopez 

 de Cardenas, to explore this river. It appears from CastaSeda's Rela- 

 tions that the party passed through Tusayan again on its way to the 

 river and obtained from its inhabitants the necessary supplies and 

 guides. 



After a journey of twenty days through a desert it seems they reached 

 the river, whose banks were so liigh that, as Castaiieda expresses it, 

 " they thought themselves elevated three or four leagues in the air.'' 

 For three days they marched along the banks of the river, hoping always 

 to find a downward path to the water, which from their elevation did 

 not seem more than a yard in width, but which according to the Indi- 

 ans' account was more than half a league broad. But their etibrts to 

 descend were all made in vain. Two or three days afterward, having 

 approached a place where the descent appeared practicable, the cap- 

 tain, Melgosa Juan Galeras, and a soldier, who were the lightest men in 

 the party, resolved to make the attempt. They descended until those 

 who remained above lost sight of them. They returned in the afternoon 

 declaring that they had encountered so many difficulties that they^ could 

 not reach the bottom ; for what appeared easy when beheld from aloft, 

 was by means so whtn approached. They added that they compassed 

 about one-third of the descent, and that from thence, the river already 

 seemed very wide, which confirmed what the Indians stated. They 

 assured them that some rocks which were seen frym on high, and did 

 not appear to be scarcely as tall as a man, were in truth loftier than the 

 tower of the cathedral of Seville.* 



Castaiieda, after describing the further progress of the exj^loring party, 

 goes on to say: "The river was the Tizon (Colorado.) A spot was 

 reached much nearer its source than the crossing of Melcliior Diaz and 

 his people (before referred to;) and it was afterward known that the 

 Indians which have been spoken of were the same nation that Diaz saw. 

 The Spaniards retraced their steps (to Cibola) and this expedition had 

 no other result."t 



During the march they met with a cascade falling from a rock. The 

 guides said that the white crystals hanging around it were formed of 

 salt. They gathered and carried away a quantity^ thereof, which was 

 distributed at Cibola.| 



*Foi" 300 miles the cut edges of the table laud rise abruptly, ofteu perpeudicularly, 

 from the water's edge, formiug walls from 3,000 to 6,000 feet in height. This is the 

 great caiiou of the Colorado, the most magniticent gorge as well as the grandest geo- 

 logical section of which we have any knowledge. 



Again, the canon of the Colorado at the mouth of Grand River is but a portion of the 

 stupendous chasm which its waters have cut in the strata of the table lauds, and of 

 which a general description has been given. At this point its walls have an altitude 

 of over 3,000 feet above the Colorado, and the bed of the stream is about 1,200 feet 

 above the level of the sea, or 500 feet higher than those in the Black Canon. A few 

 miles further east, where the surface of the table lands has an altitude of nearly 7,000 

 feet, the dimensions of the canon become far more imj)osing, and its cliffs rise to the 

 height of more than a mile above the river. (Report of Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives, 

 Corps of Topographical Engineers United States Army, upon the Colorado River, 

 1857-58, Senate Ex. Doc. 30th Congress, 1st session. Geology, chapter v, p. 42 ; Chap- 

 ter vi, p. 54.) 



t Castalieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 64. 



t Lieutenant Ives speaks of having found salt on the Flax River, which Cardenas, 

 party undoubtedly crossed or followed : 



"At noon to-day we came to the object of our search — a well-beaten Indian trial' 

 running toward the north. Camp was pitched at the place where it strikes the Flax 

 River, and it is the intention to make the second iittempt to-morrow to penetrate the 

 unexplored region. Near l\y are several salt springs, and scattered over the adjacent 

 Buiface are crystals of excellent salt." (Report of Lieutenant Ives, j). 117.) 



