canyons stands
unrivalled in the annals of exploration on this continent. "The relief
from danger and the joy of success are great," he writes. "Ever before
us has been an unknown danger, heavier than immediate peril. Every
waking hour passed in the Grand Canyon has been one of toil." His chief
concern now was the fate of the men who had deserted him, but this was
not revealed till the next year. Had they remained with the others, they
probably would have gone safely through, but had they died, it would
have been properly and gloriously, in the battle with the fierce river.
In the history of expeditions, it is usually those who depart from
the original plan who suffer most, for this plan is generally well
considered beforehand, whereas any subsequent change is mainly based
on error or fear. Running on through a couple of small canyons, they
discovered on the bank some Pai Utes, who ran away, but a little farther
down they came to another camp where several did not run. Nothing could
be learned from them about the whites, yet a short distance below this
they came upon three white men and a native hauling a seine. They had
reached the goal! It was the mouth of the Virgen River! The men in the
boat had heard that the whole party was lost and were on the lookout
for wreckage. They were a father and his sons, named Asa, Mormons from a
town about twenty miles up the Virgen. The total stock of food left the
explorers was ten pounds of flour, fifteen of dried apples, and about
seventy of coffee. Powell and his brother here said farewell to their
companions of the long and perilous journey. They went to the Mormon
settlements, while the others continued down the river in the boats to
Yuma where Hawkins and Bradley left. Sumner and Hall continued to the
Gulf which they reached before the end of September.

This expedition, by hard labour, with good boats had, accomplished in
about thirty working days the distance from the mouth of Grand River
down, while White claimed to have done it on a clumsy raft in eleven!
And where White professed to find smooth sailing in his imaginary
voyage, Powell had discovered the most dangerous river of all.

Of his companions on this extraordinary journey, Powell says "I was a
maimed man, my right arm was gone; and these brave men, these good men,
never forgot it. In every danger my safety was their first care, and
in every waking hour some kind service was rendered me, and they
transfigured my mis