FORT YUMA TO THE COCO-MARICOPA VILLAGES. 185 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
FORT YUMA TO THE COCO-MARICOPA VILLAGES. 
Leave Fort Yuma—Absence of grass along the Gila—Petahaya or Giant 
Cereus—Gila trout—Meet the surveying party—Inscribed rocks—Ex- 
cessive heat—Night marches—Wagons found—How caches are made— 
Particulars of the murder of Mr. Oatman and his wife—Basin of the 
Gila—More sculptured rocks—Cross the Jornada—Great bend of the 
river—Another desert—Toilsome march—Reach the Coco-Maricopa 
villages. 
June 17th. Major Heintzelman told me this morning 
that, from the peculiar barking of the dogs during the 
night, he believed the Indians had been near the fort. 
Soon after one of the herdsmen came in, and reported 
that he had discovered many Indian foot-prints around 
the base of the hill) The ferrymen, who slept near, 
were aroused at the same time, and saw from the hill 
two fires in opposite directions, two or three miles 
distant, near the banks of the Colorado. They were 
doubtless intended for signals. A party of soldiers 
was sent out to reconnoitre in the bottom around the 
fort; and subsequently a detachment of fifteen, under 
command of Lieutenant Hendershott, was dispatched 
on a scout. 
Our wagons now being completed and every thing 
in readiness, we bade farewell to our excellent friends, 
