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rhe Colorado River 
The treaty of 1848 made the Gila the southern boundary, 
but the Gadsden Purchase placed it farther south, as now 
marked. A number of expeditions concerned in this and rail¬ 
way surveys traversed Arizona in the early fifties under Whip¬ 
ple, Sitgreaves, Emory, and others, and the country began to 
be scientifically known outside of the canyons and their sur¬ 
roundings. John R. Bartlett was appointed Boundary Com¬ 
missioner, and he spent considerable time along the Gila and 
southwards and on the lower Colorado in 1852 to 1854.’ A 
few weeks before he arrived at Fort Yuma eight of the soldiers 
there had a battle with the Yumas and the eight were all killed. 
After this Heintzelman fought them with so much vigour that 
they finally came in, begging for peace. Bartlett’s first view of 
the Colorado was in the early morning at a point twelve miles 
below the fort. “It was much swollen, and rushed by with 
great velocity, washing away the banks and carrying with it 
numberless snags and trees.” Never is the Colorado tranquil. 
As they followed up the stream they suddenly found the road 
washed away, and were obliged to cut a new path through the 
underbrush. This proved a long task, so with the pack-mules 
he pushed on, leaving the waggons to come later. Antoine 
Leroux was the guide. When they reached the place he had 
selected for a camp and had unpacked the mules, it was found 
that the water could not be approached because of the abrupt¬ 
ness of the washed-out bank, so they were compelled to saddle 
again and go on toward the fort, though they had been riding 
since one o’clock in the morning. 
They were finally stopped altogether by a bayou and had to 
wait for a boat from the fort with which to cross it. When 
they came finally to the crossing of the river itself to the Ari¬ 
zona side they had a slow and difficult time of it. Sometimes 
the scow they used failed to reach the landing-place on the 
other side and the strong current would then sweep it two or 
three miles down the river before the men could get it to the 
shore. The next operation would be to tow it back to some 
low place, where the animals on it could be put ashore. This 
is a sample of the difficulties always encountered in crossing 
' Personal Narrative of Exploration, by John Russell Bartlett. 
