IV. THE EXPLORER. 



T)ROFESSOR Powell saw in the parks and canyons of Colorado 

 L more than a mere training-school for students. Vast unexplored 

 regions, hitherto represented on all maps by an utter blank, aston- 

 ished and attracted him. He knew that through this unexplored 

 territory must flow that great river, the Colorado of the West, un- 

 known for much of its course to civilised man. 



He had heard many wonderful stories from the Indians con- 

 cerning the stupendous canyon. The Indians warned him not to 

 enter this dreadful gorge ; they considered it disobedience to the 

 gods, and contempt for their authority, and declared that it would 

 surely bring wrath and ruin on any who attempted it. The mys- 

 teries of the canyon were woven into the strange myths of their 

 religion. 



After finding that he understood their language and was a 

 good friend to them, they persisted in their warning, and with 

 much solemnity told him the following legend of a Numa chief : 



"Long ago there was a great and wise chief who mourned the 

 death of his wife, and would not be comforted until Ta-vwoats, one 

 of the Indian gods, came to him and told him she was in a happier 

 land, and offered to take him there that he might see for himself, 

 if upon his return he would cease to mourn. The great chief prom- 

 ised. Then Ta-vwoats made a trail through the mountains that 

 intervene between that beautiful land, the balmy region in the 

 great West, and this the desert home of the poor Numa. The trail 

 was the gorge of the Colorado. Through it he led him, and when 

 they returned the deity exacted from the chief a promise that he 

 would tell no one of the joys of that land, lest through discontent 

 with the circumstances of this world, they should desire to go to 

 heaven. Then he rolled a river into the gorge, a mad raging stream 

 that should engulf any who might attempt to enter thereby." 



Despite all the warnings of the red men, on the 24th of May, 



