The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1878-05-25
Brief History of Fort Yuma.--IV.
lCONCLUDEDl

LII the ran OF 1907, MAJOR An
drews took a lighter up the river
some eighty miles, finding at nc
place less than six feet of water
in the channel. He himself went
twenty miles further up, and ex-
pressed his opinion that the river
was better for navigation than the
Ohio.
October %, 1852, Major Heint-
zelman appointed Pascual (not the
present chief of that name) as
head chief of the Yumas. An
enumeration made of the Indians
at that time gives their number
as 972 men, women and children,
with less than 400 warriors. This
did not include the New River
Indians, which are really Yumas.
October 26, a disastrous fire oc-
Cured, resulting from care1essness
of one of the bakers. The store
houses, quarters and kitchens were
entirely destroyed and had to be
rebuilt.
| / /December3, 1852, the first steam
boat reached Fort Yuma. She
was the "UncIe SAM" brought
to the mouth of the river in pieces
on a vessel, and there put together.
She was side-Wheeler with
locomotive engine of twenty horse
power, was sixty-five feet long,
sixteen feet wide, three and
half deep and sharp at both ends.
With a load of thirty-fve TONS of
stores she drew twenty-five inches
of water. About this time an
earthquake made great changes
in the channel of the Colorado be-
low the junction of the Gila. The
Uncle Sam ran on the river, trans
porting supplies, until June %,
1854, when she sunk at her moor
ings, five miles below the Post,
and all efforts failed to raise her.
Meanwhile another steamboat, the
General Jessup, had been put up-
on the river by Capt. George A.
johnson. Her first arrival at Fort
Yuma was January IS, 1854, with
thirty-fve tons of stores. She
was 104 feet long, seventeen feet |
wide, or twenty-seven feet includ-
ing guards, of fifty horsepower,
and could carry sixty tons in two
feet of water. August % of that |
year her boiler exploded, scalding
two men, one of whom died; this
occurred fifteen miles below Og-
denis landing, forty miles by land
from the Post. The contract price
for transporting freight, from the
mouth of the river to Fort Yuma
was $75 per ton; $4,000 was paid
for this service during fourteen
months. The steamboat Colorado
mot the present one of that name)
was put on in the Fall of 1855.
In the Spring of 1858 the Gu
chanos, or Yumas, established
themselves on some of theirplant-
ing grounds within Mexican ter
ritory. This brought their lower
most village near the boundary
between them and the Cocopahs.
Both tribes appeared to be friend
ly, but on the night of May 20,
the Cocopahs surrounded the low
er camps of the Yumas, killed
Macedon, a chief, seven men,
thirty-three women and children,
made twenty-five prisoners and
stole twenty horses. 1t was a
most wanton aggression on the
part Of Cocopahs, and was insti-
gated by evil-minded Mexicans ,
from San Tomas and San Miguel.
No chastIsement was inflicted by {
the troops, although the Yumas {
were under American protection,
because the occurrence took place .
some distance within the Mexican I
boundaries. A detachment was l
sent down to guard vessel then t
1t the mouth Of the river. About
July 6, the patterson" arrived {
1t the river, having made the
passage from San Diego in cigh- 4