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Frederick S. Dellenbaugh - The Romance of the Colorado River
never been to him and his people anything but a kind and generous friend, but the rabble declared these
two were the worst of all, and under this pressure Palma yielded. It was the last terrible scene of this act in
the life-drama we are following. The lights were out, the curtain down. Military expeditions were sent to
avenge the massacre, but they might as well have chased the stars. The missions on the Colorado were
ended. Never again was an attempt made to found one. The desert relapsed into its former complete
subjection to the native tribes, and the indifferent Colorado swept on to the conflict with the sea-waves as
if neither white man nor Amerind had ever touched its waters. Nearly half a century passed before the
face of a white man was again seen at the mouth of the river, and all the toil of Kino, Garces, and the rest
was apparently as completely wasted as if they had tried to stop the flow of the Colorado with a broom.
CHAPTER V.
Breaking the Wilderness - Wanderings of the Trappers and Fur Traders - General Ashley in Green River
Valley, 1824 - Pattie along the Grand Canyon, 1826 - Lieut. Hardy, R.N., in a Schooner on the Lower
Colorado, 1826 - Jedediah Smith, Salt Lake to San Gabriel, 1826 - Pattie on the Lower Colorado in
Canoes, 1827-28.
As the "sweet Afton" of old gently flowing among its green braes compares with the fierce Colorado, so
do those earnest padres who so faithfully tried to plant their cross in the waste places, as sketched in the
chapter just closed with the martyrdom of Garces, compare with the new set of actors that now appear, as
the development of this drama of the wilderness continues. The former fitted well into the strange
scenery; they became apart of it; they fraternised with the various tribes native to the land, and all things
together went forward with pictorial harmony. They were like a few mellow figures blended skilfully into
the deep tones of an ancient canvas. But now the turbulent spirit of the raging river itself pervades the
new-comers who march imperiously upon the mighty stage with the heavy tread of the conqueror, out of
tune with the soft old melody; temporising with nothing; with a heedless stroke, like the remorseless hand
of Fate, obliterating all obstacles to their progress. Not theirs the desire to save natives from perdition;
rather to annihilate them speedily as useless relics of a bygone time. They are savages among savages;
quite as interesting and delightful in their way as the older occupants of the soil. It became in reality the
conflict of the old and the new, and then was set the standard by which the native tribes have ever since
been measured and dealt with.
The inevitable was simply coming to pass: one more act in the world-play of continental subjugation to
the European. The United States, born in privation and blood, were growing into a nation eager for
expansion, and by 1815 they had already ventured beyond the Mississippi, having purchased from France
all territory north of Red River, the Arkansas, and the 42nd parallel, as far as the unsettled British
boundary and the disputed region of Oregon. Naturally, then, Americans wanted to know what was to be
found in this vast tract unknown to them, and when a few bold spirits pushed out to the great mountains it
was discovered that fur-bearing animals existed in multitude. In the trapping of these and the trading in
their pelts a huge industry sprang up. In this trade future millionaires laid their foundations.
The beaver were then the most profitable of all, and they were the most abundant. The pelts were
estimated by "packs," each of which consisted of about eighty skins, weighing one hundred pounds, and
worth in the mountains from three hundred to five hundred dollars. The profits were thus speedy and very
great. In the search for the richest rewards the trapper continually pushed farther and farther away from
the "States," encroaching at length on the territory claimed by Spain, a claim to be soon (1821) adopted by
the new-born Mexican Republic. Trespassing on the tribal rights of Blackfoot, Sioux, Ute, or any other
did not enter into any one's mind as something to be considered. Thus, rough-shod the trapper broke the
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