crossing a branch of the Gila he met some Indians from whom he obtained over fifteen hundred dollars' worth of gold for a few old articles of clothing; and he further mentions that these Indians use gold bullets of different sizes for their guns, and that he saw one of them put four such bullets in his gun to shoot a rabbit. Next day his mule broke down, and an Indian gave him for it a lump of gold weighing a pound and a half less one ounce.

the various perils of life and limb encountered in the rugged mountains and rock-bound cañons were well calculated to moderate the enthusiasm with which we looked forward to our tour and its probable results. Still, hope was ever uppermost, and I doubt if there was one in the party who would have taken less than fifty thousand dollars, cash in hand, for his chances of a fortune, unless it was George, our unhappy driver, who on the occasion of every new proof tending to show the unbounded richness of Arizona, groaned aloud in agony of spirit, as if he thought gold and silver of no consequence whatever compared with the treasures of Mary Jane's affection.

romance, for truly the Indians "had great store of gold." Their precious bullets were already finding their way down to the Pimo villages and Fort Yuma-a fact that I could not doubt, since I saw many of them myself. Nor was it beyond credit that Friar Marco de Niça found in this region, as early as 1540, "a greater use and more abundance of gold and silver than in Peru”—if but half we now heard was true; and who could doubt it with the evidence of his own eyes? The least imaginative and most incred- As an offset to these exciting reports, corrob ulous reader of the old Spanish chronicles could orated to a great extent by the masses of virgin not dispute the statement of Antonio de Espejo, ore brought in from time to time, the stories of that he found in his journey to the Zuñi, in escape from the barbarous Apaches that inhabit 1583, "rich mines of silver, which, according the country, their sagacity, cruelty, and relentto the judgment of skillful men, were very plen-less hostility to white men; the thrilling accounts tiful and rich in metal." But far beyond these of suffering from scarcity of food and water, and musty records of early Spanish enterprise were the verbal narratives to be heard every day from men who had explored various portions of the country lying to the north of the Gila, and along the range of the 35th parallel of latitude. At the store of Messrs. Hooper and Hinton, in Arizona City, I saw masses of pure gold as large as the palm of my hand brought in by some of these adventurers, who stated that certain Indians had assured them they knew of places in the mountains where the surface of the ground was covered with the same kind of "heavy yellow stones." Neither threats, nor presents, nor offers of unlimited reward could induce the wily savages to guide the white men to these fabulous regions of wealth. "Why should we?" Conspicuous among the mines of which we said they and with good reason-"you are al-had glowing accounts was the Moss Lead, near ready taking our country from us fast enough; Fort Mojave. This mine was long known to we will soon have no place of safety left. Iretaba, the distinguished Mojave Chief, who, in we show you where these yellow stones are you consideration of friendly services rendered him will come there in thousands and drive us away by Mr. Moss, the first American proprietor and kill us." It was equally in vain the white (whose name it bears), conducted him to it. men offered to buy the gold from them. Whis- | Iretaba has reaped his reward in his recent visit ky, knives, tobacco, blankets-all the Indians craved had no effect. On that point they were immovable. The excitement produced by the information they had given, and the effect of their obduracy in refusing to disclose the locali-fy the stockholders on that point. The town ty of the "yellow stones," alarmed them, and they evaded all further importunities by saying they knew nothing about it themselves; only the old men of their tribes had told them these things, and they thought it was all a lie. If the statements gathered up in this way were not corroborated from so many different sources it would be easy to attribute them to a natural proclivity on the part of mankind toward the marvelous in every thing connected with the discovery of the precious metals. But we have this story in various shapes throughout Arizona, not only from different tribes of Indians, but from wholly different races of men, and all tending toward the region north of the Gila and east of the Rio Verde. Felix Aubrey, the famous explorer (killed a few years ago in an affray at Santa Fe), tells us, in his journal of 1853, that he found gold in such abundance along the banks of the Colorado that in some places "it glistened upon the ground." After

If

to San Francisco and the Atlantic States. There was also the "Apache Chief”—a silver mine, said to be quite equal to any thing in Washoe, though it may be long before the dividends satis

of La Paz was growing into importance. Miners and traders were opening out the placer region to the eastward, and the accounts brought down by stray "pilgrims" were of the most flattering character. Walker's and Weaver's diggings, and the placers on the Hasiampa, were represented to be so rich that fortunes could be made in an incredibly short time, if there was only water enough to "wash the dirt." But lack of water and abundance of marauding Indians were a constant source of trouble to the miners, who somehow were always getting poorer the longer they staid there. The few that I saw come down to Fort Yuma were bronzed, battered, ragged, and hungry; they went into Arizona with an outfit, and were leaving it without any fit at all, unless it might be that mentioned by Shakspeare. If after their experience of the dry diggings they were not fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils, I certainly don't know what possible use they could make of their time

in future. Yet the general concurrence of testimony was encouraging. It was beyond question a region rich in the precious metals. Water was the principal desideratum. The season had been unusually dry. It was not so always: the time would come when Heaven would shed some tears of commiseration upon the suffering miners.

New and rich silver veins had been discovered a short distance above Fort Yuma on the Colorado, which were attracting con siderable attention. In the vicinity of Castle Dome, twenty-five miles from the river and thirty-five from the Fort, the veins prospected were numerous and extensive, and the ores of a very promising character. I saw some of them myself, and am satisfied they contain a great abundance of lead. No assays had been made that I

heard of, but gen

Considerable

tlemen who owned in them assured me there | thirty miles above Fort Yuma. was silver in them as well as lead, whether much attention has been attracted to the silver veins or little remained to be seen. The main trouble about the Castle Dome district is, that if ever it becomes a valuable mining region, some different arrangement must be made for the supply of water. At present it has to be hauled, or carried on pack animals, a distance of twentyfive miles. The country is one of the roughest ever trodden by the foot of man. I think it must originally have been designed for mountain sheep, which are said to abound in that vicinity. These animals have prodigious horns, upon which they alight when they tumble down the cliffs. How they get up again is difficult to conjecture. My own impression is that they are born there, and are pushed over by other sheep. Very little work has yet been done in the Castle Dome district, although some hundreds of claims have been prospected, and extensions run upon the most promising. None of them that I heard of have as yet been run in the ground, except on Montgomery Street, San Francisco.

The Eureka, another district of recent discovery, lies on the banks of the Colorado, about

alleged to exist in this district. I saw quanti-
ties of the ore, which certainly present some
very fine indications of galena. A gentleman
presented me with a specimen from one of his
mines, containing a piece of pure silver about
the size of a marrowfat pea. Whether it was
melted out of the rock or into it I have no means
of knowing, though my confidence in the in-
tegrity of the donor remains unshaken. I be-
lieve there is silver in Eureka, and I believe a
very good yield will come out of it as soon as
the parties who hold the claims sell out to some
other parties. At present the great drawback
to mining here is, that the owners of fee:
have no money to expend in extracting their
wealth from the ground; and when people who
have money desire to invest, the men of feet
demand extraordinary sums, because they think
claims that attract capital must be of extraordi-
Offer one of them fifty dollars a
nary value.
foot, and he will refuse a hundred; but let him
alone till his beans give out, and he will sell for
For this reason, although claims
fifty cents.
are numbered by the score, and cities contain-

ing from one to three houses are springing up all along the banks of the river, very little work has yet been done in the development of the mines. The Guadaloupe and the Rosario, from which some promising ores have been taken, will probably be in successful operation within a few years. It is not improbable that by a proper system of smelting the average of the ores found in the Eureka and Silver district would yield a hundred dollars to the ton. Abundance of mesquit and cotton-wood grows in the valleys and bottoms, and there is water enough in the Colorado River, even at its present low stage, to run several steam-engines.

of flood. A glaring sand-bottom fringed with cotton-wood and arrow-weed, through which in shallow veins the water coursed, leaving here and there patches of sand as a resting-place for numerous aquatic fowl, whose wild cries disturbed the solitude, formed the chief characteristics of the Gila in January, 1864. A few miles beyond Arizona City we struck off to the right, and for the next ten or fifteen miles traveled on the upper stratum of the Gila bottom, which we found well wooded with mesquit. The roads range any where within two or three miles of the direct route. Every traveler seems to take a road to suit himself, the chief object being to find one that is not cut up by heavy Government wagons. I had a new experience here-apparently smooth roads so full of "chuckholes" that it was impossible to go a hundred yards without danger of breaking the wheels of our ambulance.

Quail were very abundant as we drew near our first camping-place on the Gila. I killed about two dozen on the wing; that is to say, I was on the wing myself when I shot, but the quail were on the ground. If that does not amount to the same thing I crave pardon of the sporting fraternity. Travelers in Arizona can not afford to waste powder at $2 per pound, and shot at $1, on mere fancy shots. No man belonging to the party was permitted, on pain of the severe displeasure of our commander-inchief, to kill less than four quail at a shot. I killed three once, and only succeeded in evading the penalty that attached to the offense by boldly asserting my belief that there were only three grains of shot in the gun.

Is it a matter of surprise that, under the influence of these glowing reports, I begin to look upon Arizona with distended eyes; that an internal conviction possessed me that I was born under a lucky star, however roughly the world had used me up to the present date? All the trials and tribulations of past years; my early experience as a whale-fisher; my public services as an Inspector of Customs, so ungratefully rewarded by a note of three lines; my claim agency at Washoe, and the bankruptcy that resulted from my investments in the Dead-Broke and Sorrowful Countenance, were but the prices paid for that valuable experience which was now about to culminate in discoveries that would electrify the world, and result in an effort on my part to liquidate the public debt? When I walked out, on the plea of exercise, I secretly picked up every conspicuous stone by the way-side, examined it carefully, and thought it contained indications; I burrowed into gravel and sand banks, and carried a hammer in my pocket for the purpose of knocking off croppings; I closely investigated the general configuration of the earth; I entered into negotia-ains, and pleasantly overlooking the bend of the tions with my friend Poston, the original projector and principal owner of Arizona City, for the purchase of a thousand water-lots. In fine, I laid all my plans with such foresight and sagacity that the result astonishes me. But of that anon.

We remained a week at Fort Yuma, at the expiration of which, all being ready-damages to our ambulance repaired, stores laid in, an escort provided, letters written home, and orders given to forward the Indian goods designed for the Pimos, Maricopas, and Papagoes, as soon as possible—we bade good-by to our hospitable friends at the Fort, and set forth on our journey.

Before us, as far as the eye could reach, stretched vast deserts dotted with mesquit, sage, and grease-wood, and distant ranges of mountains rugged and barren, but singularly varied in outline. A glowing, hazy, mystic atmosphere hung over the whole country-according well with the visionary enterprises and daring explorations of the old Spanish adventurers, who, three centuries ago, had journeyed along the banks of the Gila-the river of the Swift Waters.

Little was there now to indicate the grandeur of this wild stream of the desert during seasons

We camped at Gila City, a very pretty place, encircled in the rear by volcanic hills and mount

river, with its sand-flats, arrow-weeds, and cotton-woods in front. Gold was found in the adjacent hills a few years ago, and a grand furor for the "placers of the Gila" raged throughout the Territory. At one time over a thousand hardy adventurers were prospecting the gulches and cañons in this vicinity. The earth was turned inside out. Rumors of extraordinary discoveries flew on the wings of the wind in every direction. Enterprising men hurried to the spot with barrels of whisky and billiard-tables; Jews came with ready-made clothing and fancy wares; traders crowded in with wagon-loads of pork and beans; and gamblers came with cards and monte-tables. There was every thing in Gila City within a few months but a church and a jail, which were accounted barbarisms by the mass of the population. When the city was built, bar-rooms and billiard-saloons opened, monte-tables established, and all the accommodations necessary for civilized society placed upon a firm basis, the gold placers gave out. In other words, they had never given in any thing of account. There was "pay-dirt” back in the hills, but it didn't pay to carry it down to the river and wash it out by any ordinary process. Gila City collapsed. In about the

694

George, it's wery
sooving to de pangs
ob unrequited afflic-
tion!" George took
the proffered reme-
dy, but I was unable
to perceive any dim-
inution of his lam-
entations during the
night. On the con-
trary, it was not un-
til I had thrown sev-
eral clods and both
my boots at his head
that he ceased to dis-
turb my repose.
The next point of
interest on our jour-
ney was a volcanic
peak, distant fifteen
miles from Corun-
nasim Camp. Some
of the escort who
had preceded us had
already mounted this
singular pile of rocks,
and could be dis-
tinctly seen pros-
pecting for gold. We
found here a station

at which hay was

supplied

for the

Government teams.
Two soldiers had

charge of it.

Had

MISSION CAMP-CORUNNASIM PEAK.

I not been told that
the loose stack of
forage near which
we camped was hay
I should have called
It
it brush-wood.
grows in bunches,
and is cut with a
hoe. When dry it
makes good fire-
wood. The animals
seemed to relish it,
though I should as
soon have thought
of feeding them on
cord - wood.
camp at Antelope
Peak was as pleas-

Our

ant as the most fas

tidious traveler could desire. The weather, as | nell's, Poston, White, and myself crossed the Gila,
usual, was quite delightful-soft, balmy sun- and rode about six miles to the ranch of Martin
shine in the afternoon; clear and frosty at night;
and atmospheric tints morning and evening
that would enchant an artist, and set a poet to
rhyming. Under the inspiration of the occa-
sion I made a sketch, which is at the service of
the reader.

Desert mesas and sand-bottoms formed the characteristic features of our journey from this point to Texas Hill and Grinnell's Station. While the Company were encamped at Grin

and Woolsey, situated near the Aqua Calliente.
Mr. Woolsey had left, a few days before, with a
large quantity of stock for the gold placers. We
were hospitably entertained by his partner, Mr.
Martin, who is trying the experiment of estab-
lishing a farm here by means of irrigation. The
soil is excellent, and the prospect is highly en-
We had a glorious
couraging. An abundant supply of water flows
from the Aqua Calliente.
bath in the springs next morning, which com-