MOUTH OF THE COLORADO TO FORT YUMA—A NIGHT'S LODGING. 41 
upon another. Captain Robinson tells me that he has never known the navigation to be so 
difficult. 
Fort Yuma, January 5.—Day before yesterday, after making fifteen miles, a broad bar was 
encountered, over which the boat was gradually worked. The water above was shallow, and 
the current swift. The steamer lost her steerage way, and her head swung round with a good 
deal of force, and slid some distance upon the highest part of the bar. An anchor was carried 
out, but it came home. Another was placed at a greater distance, but it too failed to hold. 
There being no trees near by, a long line was then taken to a snag on the opposite side of the 
river. After heaving upon this nearly half an hour the boat was loosened, and her head almost 
turned up stream, but just then the snag broke, and she swung back harder than ever. Night 
fell while she was fast aground. I was desirous of reaching Fort Yuma on the following day, 
before the departure of the mail for the next steamer, but as we were still fifty miles distant 
by the river there seemed little probability of accomplishing it. Captain Robinson, however, 
informed me that ten miles higher up was the residence of a white settler, where a horse could 
be procured, and that he could row me there in a skiff by ten or eleven o’ clock, which would 
enable me, by riding the rest of the night, to reach the fort by daylight. Taking a man along 
to pull another oar, we started an hour or two after sunset. The night was dark, and as usual 
very cold, and the freezing temperature seemed to us the more piercing after having been all 
day under a hot sun. The current would at best have been hard to row against, and the dark- 
ness, which made it impossible to keep in the channel, enhanced the difficulty. After an hour 
or two Captain Robinson began to suspect that he had gotten off from the river into a slue, but 
finding that there was still a current determined to keep on, knowing that there must be an 
outlet somewhere above, though the distance would probably be rendered greater by the 
deviation. Hour after hour passed without our being able to form an idea of our position. 
The night grew colder as it advanced, and a keen wind from the north sét in. In some places 
we had to get into the water in order to lighten the skiff over bars where it was too shallow 
for it to pass. Our feet were nearly frozen, and our bodies paralyzed with cold when we 
reached, about one o’ clock at night, a portion of the river which Captain Robinson recognized, 
by the light of the newly risen moon, to be near our destination. As we drew up to the bank 
the familiar sound of barking dogs greeted us, and we hurried our benumbed limbs ashore to 
reach, as soon as possible, the expected haven. The disappointment we met was a grievous 
one. The house of the proprietor of the estate turned out to be a roofless structure surrounding 
the four sides of a square, the logs of which it was built being placed close enough together to 
exclude a horse or a cow, but affording no more shelter nor warmth than a rail fence does to 
the lot it encloses. Three or four men wrapped in blankets were asleep around the embers of 
a fire, their feet in close proximity to the coals. An old Indian, a dog, and a pig having no 
blankets, and unable to sleep, were couched together near them. One of the men roused up 
at our entrance, and put on some more wood. In reply to my questions, he informed me that 
the owner was absent; that the horses were out grazing, and could not be caught till morning, 
and that there was nothing to eat or drink upon the premises. As a partial protection against 
the raw blast which rushed through the openings between the logs, he told me that I was 
welcome to share his couch. It was an excellent opportunity to realize the proverb about 
misery and bed-fellows. I was stiffened with cold, and gratefully accepted the hospitable offer 
of my new acquaintance, turning in for the remainder of the night between the dirtiest pair of 
blankets, and, meaning no disparagement, with the dirtiest looking man I ever saw in my life. 
Captain Robinson and the men with us were similarly accommodated by the others, and the 
party settled down into an apparent state of repose, but we were so cold and wet that we were 
unable to sleep until the arrival of day brought sunlight and warmth. I woke when the sun 
was two or three hours high, and it felt then like a summer morning. Robinson and the boat- 
men had gone back to the Explorer. The other men were at their work, cutting wood for the 
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