Success 
303 
return with some food. Meanwhile Wheeler planned, if no 
relief came, to abandon the river on the 22nd, but on the even¬ 
ing of that same day, having made six miles up the river, the 
party had the joy of finally reaching Diamond Creek with the 
two boats. Wheeler had succeeded in a well-nigh hopeless 
task. “The land party had left at ten in the morning,” so 
Gilbert writes me, “and their camp was reached by our mes¬ 
sengers on foot at I P.M. These facts were announced to us 
by a note one of our messengers sent down the river on a 
float.” A number of the boat party were then sent out to the 
rendezvous camp, while the remainder turned about and began 
the perilous descent, having now to do just what would have 
been necessary if the start had been made from Diamond 
Creek. Mohave was reached in safety on tJie evening of the 
fifth day, whereas it had required about four weeks of ex¬ 
tremely hard work to make the same distance against the cur¬ 
rent. This is all the comment necessary on the two methods. 
The whole party that reached Diamond Creek was as follows: 
Lieutenant Wheeler, G. K. Gilbert, P. W. Hamel, T. H. 
O’Sullivan, E. M. Richardson, Frank Hecox, Wm. George 
Salmon, R. W. James, Thos. Hoagland, George Phifer, Wm. 
Roberts, Privates Drew, Flynn, and Keegan, and six Mohaves, 
making twenty in all. 
“The exploration of the Colorado River,” says Wheeler, 
“may now be considered complete.” The question may fairly 
be asked, Why was the exploration now any more complete 
than it was before Wheeler made this unnecessary trip ? Powell, 
two years before, had been through the part ascended, and 
Wheeler, so far as I can determine, added little of value to what 
was known before. If he thought Powell had not completed 
the work of exploration, as his words imply, the exploration 
was still not complete, for there remained the distance to the 
Little Colorado, and to the Paria, and so on up to the source 
of the river, which Wheeler had not been over. If he accepted 
Powell’s exploration above Diamond Creek, why did he not ac¬ 
cept it below? His nerve and pluck in accomplishing the ascent 
to Diamond Creek deserve great praise, but the trip itself 
cannot be considered anything but a needless waste of energy. 
