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 a short 
mountain range, which here is about six hundred feet 
high, and near which we encamped. Hstimated dis- 
tance travelled, seventeen miles. As the weather con- 
