84 
The Colorado River 
Esperanza, ” and “los Martires, ” all in about a century and 
a half, and still the great Dragon of Waters was not only un¬ 
tamed but unknown. Kino kept up his endeavours to inaugu¬ 
rate somewhere a religious centre, but without success. The 
San Dionisio 
marked on his map 
at the mouth of the 
Gila was only the 
name he gave a 
Yuma village at 
that point, and was 
never anything 
more. On Novem¬ 
ber 21, 1701, Kino 
reached a point 
only one day’s jour¬ 
ney above the sea, 
where he crossed 
the river on a raft, 
but he made no 
attempt to go to 
the mouth. At last, 
however, on March 
7, 1702, he actually 
set foot on the bar¬ 
ren sands where the 
waters, gathered 
from a hundred 
mountain peaks of 
the far interior, are 
hurled against the 
sea-tide, the first 
white visitor since 
Oflate, ninety-eight years before. Visits of Europeans to this 
region were then counted by centuries and half-centuries, yet 
on the far Atlantic shore of the continent they were swarming 
in the cradle of the giant that should ultimately rule from sea 
to sea, annihilating the desert. But even the desert has its 
A Lateral Canyon of Escalante River. 
Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U S. Colo. Riv. Exp 
