194 - FORT YUMA 
Indians. There seemed to be no necessity of keeping 
with the engineers, whose progress was, and would 
continue to be, slow; besides which their duties com- 
pelled them to follow all the sinuosities of the river, © 
and keep by its bank. ‘This not only increased the 
distance, but obliged the parties sometimes to cut- 
passages through the bushes for the wagons and pack- 
mules, a task attended with much labor, besides the 
risk of breaking down. Our animals were daily grow- 
ing weaker for the want of grass; the weather was 
excessively hot, the mercury ranging every day above 
100° in the most shady places we could find; and 
we were without vegetables of any sort,—a depri- 
vation which already began to show its effects upon 
the men. For these reasons, I deemed it best for the 
health of the party and the preservation of the ani- 
mals to proceed in advance to the Pimo villages, where. 
an abundance of grass and vegetables could be pro 
cured. I accordingly made a division of our pro 
visions with Lieutenant Whipple and his party, and 
left with him such an escort as he considered necessary 
for his protection. 
June 21st. The road to-day was sandy, and conse 
quently heavy, until.we reached the table-land. The 
vegetation continued as before; mezquit, palo verde, 
and larrea prevailing, and the great cereus occurring 
with still greater frequency. At one o’clock we struck 
the river where it passes within two hundred feet of a 
bold dark-colored bluff, the termination of @ short 
mountain range, which here is about six hundred feet 
high, and near which we encamped. Estimated dis 
tance travelled, seventeen miles. As the weather con: 
