heaven; and when they failed to find heathen temples bedecked with
silver, they propitiated Heaven by seizing the heathen themselves. There
is yet extant a copy of a record, made by a heathen artist, to express
his conception of the demands of the conquerors. In one part of the
picture we have a lake, and near by stands a priest pouring water on the
head of a native. On the other side, a poor Indian has a cord about his
throat. Lines run from these two groups to a central figure, a man with
beard and full Spanish panoply. The interpretation of the
picture-writing is this: "Be baptized, as this saved heathen; or be
hanged, as that damned heathen." Doubtless, some of these people
preferred a third alternative, and, rather than be baptized or hanged,
they chose to be imprisoned within these canon walls.
_August 17._ Our rations are still spoiling; the bacon is so badly
injured that we are compelled to throw it away. By accident, this
morning, the saleratus is lost overboard. We have now only musty flour
sufficient for ten days, a few dried apples, but plenty of coffee. We
must make all haste possible. If we meet with difficulties, as we have
done in the canon above, we may be compelled to give up the expedition,
and try to reach the Mormon settlements to the north. Our hopes are that
the worst places are passed, but our barometers are all so much injured
as to be useless, so we have lost our reckoning in altitude, and know
not how much descent the river has yet to make.
The stream is still wild and rapid, and rolls through a narrow channel.
We make but slow progress, often landing against a wall, and climbing
around some point, where we can see the river below. Although very
anxious to advance, we are determined to run with great caution, lest,
by another accident, we lose all our supplies. How precious that little
flour has become! We divide it among the boats, and carefully store it
away, so that it can be lost only by the loss of the boat itself.
We make ten miles and a half, and camp among the rocks on the right. We
have had rain, from time to time, all day, and have been thoroughly
drenched and chilled; but between showers the sun shines with great
power, and the mercury in our thermometers stands at 115 deg., so that we
have rapid changes from great extremes, which are very disagreeable. It
is especially cold in the rain to-night. The little canvas we have is
rotten and useless; the rubber ponchos, with which we started from Green
River City, have all been lost; more than half the party is without
hats, and not one of us has an entire suit of clothes, and we have not a
blanket apiece. So we gather driftwood, and build a fire; but after
supper the rain, coming down in torrents, extinguishes it, and we sit up
all night on the rocks, shivering, and are more exhausted by the night's
discomfort than by the day's toil.
_August 18._ The day is employed in making portages, and we advance but
two miles on our journey. Still it rains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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