THE ROMANCE 
OF THE COLORADO RIVER 
CHAPTER I 
The Secret of the Gulf—Ulloa, 1539, One of the Captains of Cortes, Almost 
Solves it, but Turns Back without Discovering—Alargon, 1540, Conquers. 
I N every country the great rivers have presented attractive 
pathways for interior exploration — gateways for settle¬ 
ment. Eventually they have grown to be highroads where 
the rich cargoes of development, profiting by favouring tides, 
floated to the outer world. Man, during all his wanderings in 
the struggle for subsistence, has universally found them his 
friends and allies. They have yielded to him as a conquering 
stranger; they have at last become for him foster-parents. 
Their verdant banks have sheltered and protected him; their 
skies have smiled upon his crops. With grateful memories, 
therefore, is clothed for us the sound of such river names as 
Thames, Danube, Hudson, Mississippi. Through the centuries 
their kindly waters have borne down ancestral argosies of pro¬ 
fit without number, establishing thus the wealth and happiness 
of the people. Well have rivers been termed the “Arteries of 
Commerce”; well, also, may they be considered the binding 
links of civilisation. 
Then, by contrast, it is all the more remarkable to meet 
with one great river which is none of these helpful things, but 
I 
