th
the sea-waves as if neither white man nor Amerind had ever touched its
waters. Nearly half a century passed before the face of a white man was
again seen at the mouth of the river, and all the toil of Kino, Garces,
and the rest was apparently as completely wasted as if they had tried to
stop the flow of the Colorado with a broom.

CHAPTER V

Breaking the Wilderness--Wanderings of the Trappers and Fur
Traders--General Ashley in Green River Valley, 1824--Pattie along the
Grand Canyon, 1826--Lieut. Hardy, R.N., in a Schooner on the Lower
Colorado, 1826--Jedediah Smith, Salt Lake to San Gabriel, 1826--Pattie
on the Lower Colorado in Canoes, 1827-28.

As the "sweet Afton" of old gently flowing among its green braes
compares with the fierce Colorado, so do those earnest padres who so
faithfully tried to plant their cross in the waste places, as sketched
in the chapter just closed with the martyrdom of Garces, compare with
the new set of actors that now appear, as the development of this drama
of the wilderness continues. The former fitted well into the strange
scenery; they became apart of it; they fraternised with the various
tribes native to the land, and all things together went forward with
pictorial harmony. They were like a few mellow figures blended skilfully
into the deep tones of an ancient canvas. But now the turbulent spirit
of the raging river itself pervades the new-comers who march imperiously
upon the mighty stage with the heavy tread of the conqueror, out of
tune with the soft old melody; temporising with nothing; with a heedless
stroke, like the remorseless hand of Fate, obliterating all obstacles
to their progress. Not theirs the desire to save natives from perdition;
rather to annihilate them speedily as useless relics of a bygone time.
They are savages among savages; quite as interesting and delightful in
their way as the older occupants of the soil. It became in reality the
conflict of the old and the new, and then was set the standard by which
the native tribes have ever since been measured and dealt with.

The inevitable was simply coming to pass: one more act in the world-play
of continental subjugation to the European. The United States, born in
privation and blood, were growing into a nation eager for expansion,
and by 1815 they had already ventured beyond the Mississippi, having
purchased from France all territory north of Red River, the Arkansas,
and the 42nd parallel, as far as the unse