158 FORT YUMA 
of the wagons, and an additional weight to each pack- 
mule; besides which I nearly filled one of the wagons 
belonging to the escort. We should thus have to 
resume our journey with every wagon and mule loaded 
to the utmost, and without a single spare animal to 
replace any that might be broken down or lost. 
In repairing injuries to our wagons, every facility 
had been furnished me by Major Heintzelman, and by 
Major Andrews, United States Quarter-master at Fort 
Yuma. For their aid also in crossing the river, and 
for many acts of kindness extended by the officers here 
to myself and the gentlemen associated with me in the 
Commission, I take this occasion to express my ac- 
knowledgments. 
My cook ran away last night; which event, though 
it gave me the use of one more mule, deprived me of 
a functionary whose services could not easily be dis- 
pensed with. . 
June 16th. Fort Yuma stands upon a rocky hill at 
the junction of the Gila and Colorado Rivers, and on 
the north-west angle of the bank of the united stream. 
The Colorado comes from the north, and, where it re- 
ceives the Gila, is about five hundred yards wide. A 
bend, which the Gila takes about fifteen miles from 
its mouth, makes it come from the south to join the 
Colorado. The united stream first takes a westerly 
course, forcing itself through a caflion in a chain of 
rocky hills seventy feet high, and about three hundred 
and fifty yards in length. After sweeping around 
some seven or eight miles, it again assumes a southerly 
direction; and after a very tortuous course for about 
a hundred and thirty miles, it empties into the Gulf of 
