They
were known as the Yumas.
We both emptied our rifles before crossing the river, knowing that
they would get wet in crossing. I fired at a bird across the river
and it fell to the ground.
At the crack of my rifle the Indians ran a few paces from me,
dropped down and stuck their fingers in their ears. They told us
in Spanish that they had never seen a wah-hootus before, meaning a
gun with a loud report.
When Jim Beckwith went to fire his gun off, the squaws all ran
away, but the bucks, being more brave, stayed, but held their
hands over their ears. This tribe lived principally on fish.
The reader will remember that I had traveled over this same
country in the year 1849 in company with Kit Carson and Col.
Fremont, when on our trip to California.
After traveling about five miles we crossed a little sage-brush
valley that was almost covered with jack-rabbits, and they were
dying by the thousand. We could see twenty at one time lying dead
in the sage-brush.
That night we camped on what has since been known as Beaver creek,
and here we had to strike across the San Antonio desert, and
having been across the desert I knew it would be eighty miles to
water. Having two parafleshes with us for such emergencies, we
filled them with water to use in crossing this desert.
A paraflesh is made of rawhide expressly to carry water in, and
are frequently used to peddle milk by the Mexicans.
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