n!

Bend after bend was turned and left behind, and still no Crossing, but
late in the afternoon a shot was heard; then we saw a white rag on a
pole; then we landed and beheld a large pile of rations, in charge
of three men. These men, Dodds, Bonnemort, and Riley, as we were
days overdue, had about made up their minds we were lost, and had
contemplated departing in the morning and leaving the rations to their
fate. Riley and Bonnemort were prospectors, who remained only to see us
and make some inquiries about the river above. They told me afterward
we were the roughest-looking set of men they had ever seen. Our clothes
were about used up.

Powell prepared to go to Salt Lake, about five hundred miles away,
to make preparations for our winter's mountain work, and we all wrote
letters to send out. On the 10th of October they left us, Hillers going
with Powell, while we were to run down thirty-five miles farther to
the mouth of the Paria, and there cache the two boats for the winter.
Steward was now taken sick, and though some Navajos who came along
kindly offered to carry him with them to Kanab, he preferred to stay
with us, so we stretched him out, during our runs, on one of the cabins.
This was not entirely comfortable for him, but the river was smooth and
easy as far as the Paria, so there was no danger of spilling him off,
and he got on fairly well. At the Paria, Jones, who had made a misstep
in one of the boats at the Junction and injured one leg, developed
inflammatory rheumatism in it, and also in the other. Andy at Millecrag
Bend had put on his shoe with an unseen scorpion in it, the sting of
which caused him to grow thin and pale. Bishop's old wound troubled him;
Beaman and W. C. Powell also felt "under the weather," so that of the
whole party left here, Thompson and I were the only ones who remained
entirely well. Arriving at the Paria, we hid the boats for the winter,
and waited for the pack-train that was to bring us provisions, and take
us out to Kanab, which would be headquarters. The pack-train, however,
was misled by a man who pretended to be acquainted with the trail,
and we ate up all the food we had before it arrived. It came over an
extraordinary path. Lost on top of the Paria Plateau, it was only able
to reach us by the discovery of a singular old trail coming down the
two-thousand-foot cliffs three miles up the Paria. While waiting we had
examined the immediate neighbourhood and had climbed to the su