212 FORT YUMA TO THE COCO-MARICOPA VILLAGES. 
a trifle longer.” The accounts on which he bases this 
recommendation were erroneous, the route along the 
river being more than double the distance, as reported 
to me by the engineers whose duties required them to 
follow it. It is besides thickly wooded, and would pre- 
sent difficulties to wagons, and even to pack-mules ; 
whereas the road over the plateau which we took is 
excellent all the way. It is also proper to state, that 
Lieutenant Whipple and Mr. Gray found the bend of 
the river to be much greater than it is laid down by 
Major Emory on his map.* 
* Mr. Gray in his official letter to the Secretary of the Interior, from 
San Diego, relating to the survey of the Gila, says, that “ many errors of 
others who had been along this river, in astronomical observations, 
were corrected by Lieutenant Whipple.”—Senate Doc. Mo. 119, 82d 
Cong. 1st Sessien, p. 307. 
It may be mentioned in this connection, that the survey of the 
Boundary Commission brought to hght two important geographical 
facts. One was, that the Colorado, after receiving the Gila, takes a 
sudden turn of seven or eight miles to the westward before resuming 
its southerly direction, which turn gives the United States both banks 
of the river. The other was the error in laying down the great bend just 
below the mouth of the Salinas. Yet both these supposed discoveries 
were made by Father Kino before the year 1700, although they never 
obtained a place in the maps; for in speaking of this eminent mission- 
ary and geographical explorer, Alegro says: “ En este viage observo el 
padre Kino dos cosas, entre otras: la primera que el Gila como a 55 
grados de San Geronimo, despues de haber corrido cuasi constantemente 
al Ouest, vuelve como por espacio de ocho leguas al Norte. La se- 
gunda, que despues de juntos el Gila y el Colorado, corren por doce 
leguas al Poniente antes de volver acia el Sur 4 desembocar en el Seno 
Californio."— Alegre Hist. de la Compania de Jesus en Nueva Espana. 
Tom. i. p. 119. 
