The Romance of the Colorado River : $b The Story of its Discovery in 1840, with an Account of the Later Explorations, and with Special Reference to the Voyages of Powell through the Line of the Great CanyonsDellenbaugh, Frederick Samuel
History
The Romance of the Colorado River : $b The Story of its Discovery in 1840, with an Account of the Later Explorations, and with Special Reference to the Voyages of Powell through the Line of the Great Canyons
Dellenbaugh, Frederick Samuel
Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico) -- Description and travel; Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico) -- Discovery and exploration; Colorado River Valley (Colo.-Mexico) -- Description and travel; Colorado River Valley (Colo.-Mexico) -- Discovery and exploration; Grand Canyon (Ariz.) -- Description and travel; Gran
river comes from the _south-east_ and turns to the _north-west_,
directly the reverse of what Cardenas observed. The actual place then
must have been about midway of the stretch referred to, that is, near
the letter “A” of the word “Cañon” on the relief map. Where he started
from to arrive at this part of the canyon cannot be discussed here for
want of space, but the writer believes the place was some three hundred
miles south-east, say near Four Peaks on the new Mexican line.[7]
Cardenas was, therefore, guided along the southerly edge of the great
Colorado Plateau, through the superb Coconino Forest, where he had
wood, water, and grass in abundance. The locality he reached was very
dry, and they were obliged to go each night a long distance back from
the brink to procure water. For this reason, Cardenas gave up trying to
follow the canyon, and returned again, by way of Tusayan, to Cibola,
passing on the way a waterfall, which possibly was in the Havasupai
(Cataract) Canyon. Castañeda, the chief chronicler of the Coronado
expedition, says the river Cardenas found was the Tizon, “much nearer
its source than where Melchior Diaz crossed it,” thus showing that its
identity was well surmised, if not understood, at that time. Nothing,
however, was known of its upper course; at least there is no evidence
of any such knowledge, though the natives had doubtless given the
Spaniards some information regarding it. The special record of the
Cardenas expedition was kept by one Pedro de Sotomayor, but it has
apparently never been seen in modern times. It is probably in the
archives of Spain or Mexico, and its discovery would throw needed light
on the location of Tusayan and the course Cardenas followed.[8] The
distance of this whole region from a convenient base of supplies, and
its repellent character, prevented further operations at this period,
and when these explorers traced their disappointed way homeward, the
Colorado was not seen again by white men for over half a century; and
it was more than two hundred years before European eyes again looked
upon the Grand Canyon.
[6] “A las barrancas del rio que puestos a el bado [lado?] de ellas
parecia al otro bordo que auia mas de tres o quatro leguas por el
ayre.”—Castañeda, in Winship’s monograph. Fourteenth Ann. Rep. Bureau
of Ethnology, p. 429.
[7] For the author’s views on Coronado’s route see the Bulletin of the
American Geographical Society, December, 1897. Those views have been
confirmed by later study, the only change being the shifting of Cibola
from the Florida Mountains north-westerly to the region of the Gila.
See map p. 115, Breaking the Wilderness.
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