St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-05-20

CoH v c.OCh, DeiOTo beginning CQGlT voyage
over these profound watercourses to an un-
known landing.
Captain Baker carried on his person a gen.
eral map OF the country, compiled by the War
Department from the surveys of that accom-
plished and gallant engineer officer Captain
Gunnison, who some years before had explored
this country to the north, and who lost his
life ct the hands of the Indians in the shadow
OF the mountains, and by the banks of the river
that now bears his name. White had studied
this map with some care. and remembered
that while from the junction of the Green and
Grand rivers the canyon region was marked
"unexplored," that below its southern ex-
tremity was Virgin River, Mormon settle
ment. He believed that this point could not
be more than a hundred and fifty miles to
the south, and that they could reach it on
their raft, by drifting night and day, inside
of two weeks. And he drew some comfort
from the fact that they had an abundance of
provisions to last them for that time. Wait
ing till the light of the moon was visible on
the clouds far overhead, the men loaded the
raft, cast loose, and the perilous voyage be-
gan. AS the leader Of the little party White
took upon himself the task of steering, but as
he was the first man who had ever floated
over these waters, he found it impossible to
keep clear of the half sunken rocks and
ragged projections that beset his course.
Despite these difficulties they floated on in
comparative safety till daylight. Seeing a
fiat eXpanse ahead, with an abundance of
driftwood about, White steered the raft to
the shore and made FAST Here they lit a
fire and cooked breakfast, and reasoning,
foolishly, as it turned out, that the difficult
ties ahead would be no greater than those
they had already passed, their spirits re-
turned and they began to speculate as to the
length of their forced voyage, and what they
should do when it was completed. White
estimated that the current in front of the
morning camp was about three miles an
hour and that by floating for twenty hours
day they could cover sixty miles, or the
whole distance to Virgin River within three
days. AS matter of fact, this Mormon
settlement was three hundred and fifty miles
away, and the course was beset by rapids and
whiripools which subsequent explorers found
disastrous to the best built boats. Again
they started off in better spirits, and dividing
the party of five into as many watches, the
others lay down on the raft and went to
sleep. arT
The second night out, and while White was
in charge of the raft, a point was reached
which he believes was where the Green and
Grand rivers come together. After this the
current became more irregular, and the
height of the vertical walls greater, while
at certain places the banks came so close to-
gether that, looking ahead, it seemed impos-
sible for the raft to pass through. Twice
day they stopped where the shores permitted
a landing and cooked food, and after the
third night, when they came near being
wrecked on some sunken rocks, it was
decided to continue the voyage from that
time on by daylight. The fifth day after
starting they reached an immense side canyon
coming in from, the east, which White be-
lieved to be the San Juan. The nature of
the banks a short distance below this chasm
was such as to permit their being scaled to
the mesas above. By this time three of the
men had become discouraged. According to
Whites calculations, made from the most
unreliable data, they should have been by
this time at the mouth of the Virgin River,
yet the black canyon with it's ever-increasing
gloom extended on indefinitely before
them. They felt that it would be death to
continue on, and nothing worse could befall
them if they tried to make their way back to
the Sierra Madre and San Luis Park. White
tried to dissuade the men from their purpose
as did Henry Strole, but finding them deter
mined, the provisions were divided. and
after adieux the three started off. AS they
were never heard of again, it is reasonable to
assume that they were either killed by the
Apaches or persisted for the want of food and
water among the network of chasms that
beset their course to the east
White and Stro1e, now sole possessors of
the raft, resumed their voyage; the only
comfort they found amid the increasing
dangers and terrors of their situation was in
the fact that they had stood by the raft, and
in the belief that few days more would see
them through the canyon, for, as White said
in telling his story, cit did not seem possible
that such immense walls could continue
much further" -.
White impressed me as a frank truthful
man, rather deficient in Imagination, but in
describing what followed he evinced much
feeling, and was at times at loss for word
to describe the wonders and terrors of his
environment. South Of the San Juan the
raft 'drifted, and he remembered distinctly
that at this point the walls on either hand
were composed of lime or sandstone, and he
recalled estimating the height to which the
river rose In the food season at from thirty
to forty feet by noting the wood and debris
held in the splintered sides of the cliffs. A
more terrible situation than that in which
these men now found themselves it would be
difficult to conceive. They were on a frail
raft, floating down a tortuous, unknown
river, whose precipitous banks lowered on
either hand from four to six thousand feet
above them. The only sign of vegetation
was here and there stunted cedar, or
branching cactus, ciinging to creviee of the
rocks, far overhead. Beyond themselves,
there was no signs of life. The hum of in
sect and the wing of bird had never stirred
these profound depths. Now and then the
ding, like cells set in the walls of mighty
prison. Looking straight ahead, it seemed,
every mile or two, as if the river must come
to an end and disappear in the earth at the
foot of a mighty white cliff, on whose far
off summit the clouds appeared to rest. For
once only in the twenty-four hours did the
sun look into these profound depths, then
left them to the increasing shadows and
gathering darkness.
While the clouds were yet red overhead,
telling that the sun was setting in the upper
world it would become so dark in the can
yon that they could distinctly see the stars.
While intensely anxious to get through the
Nd ooI,c Iox iva,