Spanish government. Many of their
villages were destroyed, and the inhabitants fled to regions at that
time unexplored; and there are traditions among the existing Pueblos
that the canons were these lands. The Spanish conquerors had a monstrous
greed for gold and a lust for saving souls. "Treasure they must have--if
not on earth why, then, in heaven--and when they failed to find heathen
temples bedecked with silver they propitiated Heaven by seizing the
heathen themselves. There is yet extant a copy of a record made by a
heathen artist to express his conception of the demands of the
conquerors. In one part of the picture we have a lake, and near by
stands a priest pouring water on the head of a native. On the other side
a poor Indian has a cord around his throat. Lines run from these two
groups to a central figure, a man with a beard and full Spanish panoply.
The interpretation of the picture-writing is this: 'Be baptized as this
saved heathen, or be hanged as this damned heathen.' Doubtless some of
the people preferred a third alternative, and rather than be baptized or
hanged they chose to be imprisoned within these canon-walls."

The rains and the accidents in the rapids had seriously reduced the
commissary by this time, and the provisions left were more or less
injured. The bacon was uneatable, and had to be thrown away: the flour
was musty, and the saleratus was lost overboard. On August 17th the
party had only enough food remaining for ten days' use, and though they
hoped that the worst places had been passed, the barometers were broken,
and they did not know what descent they had yet to make. The canvas
which they had brought with them for covering from Green River City was
rotten, there was not one blanket apiece for the men, and more than half
the party were hatless. Despite their hopes that the greatest obstacles
had been overcome, however, on the morning of August 27th they reached a
place which appeared more perilous than any they had so far passed. They
landed on one side of the river, and clambered over the granite
pinnacles for a mile or two without seeing any way by which they could
lower the boats. Then they crossed to the other side and walked along
the top of a crag. In his eagerness to reach a point where he could see
the roaring fall below, Major Powell went too far, and was caught at a
point where he could neither advance nor retreat: the river was four
hundred feet below, and he was suspended in fr