MOUTH OF THE COLORADO—RETURN TO SCHOONER, 27 
and the constant shifting of the outlines of the bars, due to the rapidly rising tide, made it 
impossible to form an accurate idea of the configuration of the shores. After reaching the 
northeast end of Montague island, a white speck came in sight towards the northwest, which 
Captain Walsh told me was the house at ‘‘Robinson’s Landing,’’ near which is the usual 
anchorage for vessels coming to the mouth of the river. A breeze springing up, sail was made, 
and we headed directly for it; but when within a mile of the shore the tide turned, and after 
a vain endeavor to stem the current, which every moment became stronger, finding that we 
had drifted down stream about two miles, we were compelled to anchor. Mr. Carroll and my- 
self went ashore in a boat, and walked up to the house—a small frame building resting on the 
tops of piles about four feet above the ground. The owner and builder had been mate of a 
vessel plying to the mouth of the river; believing that he could do a profitable business by 
taking blackfish and making oil, he had established his hermit-like retreat by the side of a 
little gully to which he had noticed that the fish were in the habit of resorting. There is a 
tradition that, a few miles up the river, a large amount of gold was sunk in a vessel belonging 
to the ill-fated party of the Count Rousset de Boulbon. After an unsuccessful attempt to 
revolutionize Sonora, the count tried to escape by way of the Colorado; but, mistaking the 
channel, got into what is called Hardy’s, or the false Colorado, where the vessel was lost, and 
most of the individuals on board killed by the Indians. The hope of recovering the lost 
treasure has, it is said, influenced Mr. Robinson in the selection of the singular locality he 
has chosen for a residence. 
The house was now deserted, the proprietor being temporarily engaged in the service of the 
steamboat company that transport the government stores to Fort Yuma. A note was left upon 
the door, informing us that the two steamboats were lying at a point fifteen. miles above, and 
requesting Captain Walsh to announce his arrival by sending up a boat. 
Lofty columns of smoke could.be seen, many miles to the north, which may have been signal 
fires of the Indians on account of the presence of our vessel, or an accidental coptingrniine: of 
the prairie. 
The whole of the country near the west bank of the river is low and overflowed at the 
highest tides. Robinson’s landing is the most elevated point, and even this, Captain Walsh 
tells me, is often submerged. The spring tides of this month not having yet become sufficiently 
high to cover the surface, the ground has had nearly four weeks to become dry, and the 
walking is, in spots, tolerably good, but the surface is intersected, in every direction, by gulleys, 
whose bottoms are covered either with water, soft mud, or quicksand. Along the shore the 
face of the bank is very steep, and it is difficult to see how the boilers and the heavy parts of 
the steamboat are to be landed. During the spring tides, which are now at hand, the water’ — 
runs out so rapidly that for only a few moments would the deck of the schooner be above the 
level of the surface of the ground and near enough to it to discharge freight, and the hands 
would have to be constantly employed in booming her off, or the hull might catch upon the face 
_ of the bluff and the vessel be capsized as the water fell. The government stores are always 
transferred directly from the deck to the steamboats. The latter were built at a point several: 
miles higher up, at a locality better suited for such an undertaking, but Captain Walsh is not 
at liberty to run the risk of ascending the river with his schooner any further. By the side 
of Robinson’s house, at the head of the gully previously mentioned, is an excellent position 
for a vessel to lie, and to which she could easily be floated during the high water that may be 
expected in the course of the next two days; but as the landing of the property will occupy : 
some time, it would be necessary that she should remain high and dry till the next “pring: 
tides came to float her off. | ae 
After endeavoring to make an answering signal smoke, but without much success, for want. ¢ 
of proper material, Mr. Carroll and myself started about sundown to return to the schooner, 
The water, from the combined effects of the tide and current, wes now running out with erent s 
