Two or three miles farther down, in turning a short bend in the river,
we come upon another camp. So near are we before they can see us that I
can shout to them, and, being able to speak a little of their language,
I tell them we are friends; but they flee to the rocks, except a man, a
woman, and two children. We land, and talk with them. They are without
lodges, but have built little shelters of boughs, under which they
wallow in the sand. The man is dressed in a hat; the woman in a string
of beads only. At first they are evidently much terrified; but when I
talk to them in their own language, and tell them we are friends, and
inquire after people in the Mormon towns, they are soon reassured, and
beg for tobacco. Of this precious article we have none to spare. Sumner
looks around in the boat for something to give them, and finds a little
piece of coloured soap, which they receive as a valuable present, rather
as a thing of beauty than as a useful commodity, however. They are
either unwilling or unable to tell us anything about the Indians or
white people, and so we push off, for we must lose no time.
We camp at noon under the right bank. And now, as we push out, we are
in great expectancy, for we hope every minute to discover the mouth of
the Rio Virgen.
Soon one of the men exclaims: "Yonder's an Indian in the river." Looking
for a few minutes, we certainly do see two or three persons. The men
bend to their oars, and pull toward them. Approaching, we see that there
are three white men and an Indian hauling a seine, and then we discover
that it is just at the mouth of the long-sought river.
As we come near, the men seem far less surprised to see us than we do to
see them. They evidently know who we are, and, on talking with them,
they tell us that we have been reported lost long ago, and that some
weeks before, a messenger had been sent from Salt Lake City, with
instructions for them to watch for any fragments or relics of our party
that might drift down the stream.
Our new-found friends, Mr. Asa and his two sons, tell us that they are
pioneers of a town that is to be built on the bank.
Eighteen or twenty miles up the valley of the Rio Virgen there are two
Mormon towns, St. Joseph and St. Thomas. To-night we despatch an Indian
to the last mentioned place, to bring any letters that may be there for
us.
Our arrival here is very opportune. When we look over our store of
supplies, we find about ten pounds of flour, fifteen pounds of dried
apples, but seventy or eighty pounds of coffee.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Geologists would call these rocks metamorphic crystalline schists,
with dikes and beds of granite, but we will use the popular name for the
whole series--granite.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
Obvious printer's errors, including punctuation have been silently
corrected. Hyphenated and accented words have been standardized.
Page 18--"Peter Martyr tell us..." changed to "Peter
Martyr tells us..."
Page 69--satisfacton changed to satisfaction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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