60 FORT YUMA TO MOJAVE CANON—RETURN OF RUNNER WITH MAIL. 
to-day that looked somewhat inviting, where wheat and corn fields, dotted with groves of mez- 
quite, extended to a considerable distance back from the river. 
The mountain scenery is beautiful ; with every change of position it presents new varieties 
of fanciful and bold groupings. The Needles and a high peak of the Monument range, which 
I have called Mount Whipple, are the most conspicuous landmarks, and designate the points 
where the river enters and leaves the Chemehuevis valley. 
SS SSSSSL_S__======== 
Fig. 12.—Monument Range from the North. 
On the evening of the 3d the Indian sent for the mail returned with letters and papers 
brought by the last express from San Diego. When one day’s journey from the fort he had met a 
Yuma that had been despatched by Lieutenant Winder to bring the letters to us, and had thus 
been spared a two day’s journey. The Yumas, who perhaps have derived an exaggerated 
notion of our poverty from the Cocopas, had told our messenger that we would take the letters and 
would not pay him. This I learned during the evening from Mariano, and it accounted for the 
anxious look that the mail carrier was observed to wear during the hour or two that I was busy 
in reading the intelligence that had been brought. When I went to hunt him up, I found him 
seated under a tree a little retired from camp, looking very blue and gloomy. Our stock of Indian 
goods is large, and selected with a special view to the peculiar tastes of the Colorado tribes, 
and I was anxious to have it clearly understood that a faithfully performed service would be 
well paid for; so I conducted him to the boat, a crowd of his friends following with ldoks of 
eager expectation, and unlocking one of the boxes of valuables selecte 
manta, beads, mirrors, red cloth, and fancy articles, to overcome for 
and make him grin with pleasure and his companions stare with envy. 
An old acquaintance came to see me a day or two ago. We were steaming under good 
headway, abreast of a wooded bank that skirted one of the patches of bottom land, when a 
d and gave him enough 
once his Indian stoicism, 
