162 Audubon 5 Western Journal 



the favorable change in the Indians towards the 

 Americans, especially on the part of the Yumas. 

 We saw many of this tribe riding their horses with 

 ropes in the animals' mouths, pads for saddles, and 

 ropes around the bodies in which they can slip 

 their feet. 



October 14th. Sixteen days of travel from the 

 Pimos village and such travel^ as please God, I 

 trust we may none of us ever see again, brought 

 us to within three miles of the Gila.^ If we 

 thought ourselves badly off at Altar, we are much 

 more reduced in every way than we were there. 

 The food poor, monotonous and inefficient has been 

 forced down, simply to sustain life. We have 

 lost more mules, of course; our wagon delayed 

 us at least ten miles a day, and we left it after 

 using it three days. We were on the "qui vive" 

 for Indians all the time. Lack of water and grass 

 we have almost come to regard as inevitable; truly 

 we looked, and are, a forlorn spectacle, and we 

 feel, I am sure, worse than we look. 



^ Audubon returned to the Gila at the point of its junction 

 with the Colorado. The usual emigrant road either kept to 

 the south of the Gila or crossed the river at the bend and re- 

 crossed it sometime before coming to the Colorado. Audu- 

 bon must either have kept to the north of the river or omitted 

 to mention the recrossing. The crossing of the Colorado was 

 just below the mouth of the Gila. Lieut, Whipple was mak- 

 ing observations at this point at this time. Fort Yuma was 

 established here in 1852, opposite the present town of Yuma. 



