elieving
the tide to be at nearly low water. "In the middle of the night," he
says, "I was awakened by the dew and the noise of jackals. I took this
opportunity of examining the lead which had been left hanging alongside,
to see what water we had. What was my astonishment to find only a foot
and a half. The crew was sound asleep. Not even the sentinel was able
to keep his eyes open." They got off without damage at the rise of the
tide, but the next day misfortune awaited the schooner. The helmsman
neglecting his duty for a moment as they were working up the stream, the
vessel lost headway, and the fierce current immediately swept her, stern
foremost, into the bank and broke the rudder. After much labour the
Bruja was finally again placed in the stream, where they waited
for slack water, expecting then to ship the rudder. "But in the Rio
Colorado," he declares with italics, "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SLACK
WATER. Before the ebb has finished running the flood commences, boiling
up full eighteen inches above the surface and roaring like the rapids
of Canada." Had he known what we now know he might have found a simile
nearer his position at the moment. Finding he could make no further
progress with the a schooner, he took a small boat and continued his
voyage in it, though not for any great distance, as he returned to the
vessel at night. Five or six thousand Yumas were seen, but they were
entirely friendly. He thought the mouth of the Gila was below his
stranded vessel, but he was mistaken in this, for it was in reality
a great many miles farther up. What he took for the Gila was the main
Colorado itself, and what he thought was the Colorado was only a bayou
or flood-water channel. It being midsummer the river was at flood. The
bayou is still called the False or Hardy's Colorado.

* "It is perhaps this very long and formidable range of mountains,"
says Pattie, "which has caused that this country of Red River has not
been more explored," p. 98.

After eight days of waiting they at last got their rudder shipped, the
vessel on the tide, and went back down the stream, one of the Yuma women
swimming after them till taken on board. She was landed at the first
opportunity. The interpreter told Hardy his was the first vessel that
had ever visited the river, and that they took it for a large bird. The
lieutenant was evidently not posted on the history of the region, and
the Yuma was excusable for not having a memory that w