This party was under the leadership
of Lieutenant Wheeler of the U.S. Army. The party was large, composed
of twenty men, including a number of Mojave Indians, in the river
expedition, while others were sent overland with supplies to the mouth
of Diamond Creek. By almost superhuman effort they succeeded in
getting their boats up the canyon as far as Diamond Creek. While there
is no doubt that they reached this point, there were times when we
could hardly believe it was possible when we saw the walls they would
have to climb in this granite gorge. In some places there seemed to be
no place less than five hundred feet above the river where they could
secure a foothold. Their method was to carry a rope over these places,
then pull the boats up through the rapids by main force. It would be
just as easy to pull a heavy rowboat up the gorge of Niagara, as
through some of these rapids. Their best plan, by far, would have been
to haul their boats in at Diamond Creek and make the descent, as they
did after reaching this point. The only advantage their method gave
them was a knowledge of what they would meet with on the downstream
run. Lieutenant Wheeler professed to disbelieve that Major Powell had
descended below Diamond Creek, and called his voyage the completion of
the exploration of the Colorado River. In a four days' run they
succeeded in covering the same distance that had taken four weeks of
endless toil, to bring their boats up to this point.
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