104 EXPLORATION OF THE CANONS OF THE COLORADO. 
out lodges, but have built little shelters of boughs, under which they wal 
low in the sand. The man is dressed in a hat; the woman in a string of 
beads only. At first they are evidently much terrified; but when I talk to 
them in their own language, and tell them we are friends, and inquire after 
people in the Mormon towns, they are soon reassured, and beg for tobacco. 
Of this precious article we have none to spare. Sumner looks around in 
the boat for something to give them, and finds a little piece of colored soap, 
which they receive as a valuable present, rather as a thing of beauty than 
as a useful commodity, however. They are either unwilling or unable to 
tell us anything about the Indians or white people, and so we push off, for 
we must lose no time. 
We camp at noon under the right bank. And now, as we push out, we 
are in great expectancy, for we hope every minute to discover the mouth of 
the Rio Virgen. 
Soon one of the men exclaims: "Yonder's an Indian in the river." 
Looking for a few minutes, we certainly do see two or three persons. The 
men bend to their oars, and pull toward them. Approaching, we see that 
there are three white men and an Indian hauling a seine, and then we dis 
cover that it is just at the mouth of the long sought river. 
As we come near, the men seen far less surprised to see us than we do 
to see them. They evidently know who we are, and, on talking with them, 
they tell us that we have been reported lost long ago, and that some weeks 
before, a messenger had been sent from Salt Lake City, with instructions for 
them to watch for any fragments or relics of our^party that might drift down 
the stream. 
Our new found friends, Mr. Asa and his two sons, tell us that they are 
pioneers of a town that is to be built on the bank. 
Eighteen or twenty miles up the valley of the Rio Virgen there are 
two Mormon towns, St. Joseph and St. Thomas. To night we dispatch an 
Indian to the last mentioned place, to bring any letters that may be there 
for us. 
Our arrival here is very opportune. When we look over our store of 
supplies, we find about ten pounds of flour, fifteen pounds of dried apples, 
but seventy or eighty pounds of coffee. 
