The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-05-24
How Robinson, Formerly a
Newspaper Man, Met
His Death.
II. R. Freear's Perilcus Exne'
dition, With Bands of Wild
Animals in Sight.
Discovery of Enormcus Oyster Beds
Strange Birds and Deer at the
Mouth of the Colorado.

udN6 lUT wiz game
and birds of all kinds in many different
sections of this continent" said II. r.
Freear at the International yesterday, Il
have never seen stranger place than the
mouth of the Colorado River, near the
island occupied by the Ceres Indians.
There the tides roll in and out thirty fee t
high, and the mud is so deep for miles
eaca way that you can take a pole and
run ii down twenty feet and then not find
bottom.
This soft stuff is the red soil that comes
down the Colorado so thick that at Yuma
and other places the turgid flood seems
half mud. 1t is strange sight that is
presented about the mouth of the river.
went down there to hunt egrets the time
that l.. L. Robinson and three compan-
Ions were going on an adventurous trip to
the Ceres Islands, in the Gulf of Califor-
MIA. You remember that Robinson and
one of his men were killed by the savage
Indians that inhabit the islands. Well,
/ was towed down the river to within
twenty miles of the island by their boat,
and probably came that near get ting
killed myself.
SIT has taken good while for the story
! to come out, but little by little I got it
there who had talked with them The
| Indians or the island when the men
| touched there came to meet them, and
| right away protested their friendship.
| They showed the men paper and said
| the Indians were at peace now with the
white men; that they were their friends,
and by making this kind of a talk they
| about quarter of a mile away in the
| eige of the tim Der. The other two would
! have gone, but one of them, O. Brien, was
sick. He didn't feel like going, as he ex-
planned afterward, and the other man
sort OF stayed around to look after him.
well, when the Indians had got Robin
| son and his com panlon lured a safe dis
lance away, and were without arms of
| any kind, lot of the Indians gathered
around them and with their bows and
arrows shot them 10 death. 1t was all
done in plain sight. talked with O. Brien
about it afterward. He said that while
| ne lay in the boat, and was gazing
vacantly over on the hillside, suddenly
| the Indians set up yell, and then they
began attacking the men.
/ "OBrien and his com panion under the
| circumstances could do nothing to aid the
men, and. it being dangerous to remain
near the shore, padded away to safe
distance, and eventually reached land on
/ the opposite side from the island. They
the merest accident that they escaped,
and j may say The same thing about N.Y.
| self. The real idea of the Robinson ex-
petition was to engage in smuggling.
at was given out at the time that it was
for the purpose of gaining information for
! San Francisco morning paper, and Rob-
! inson no doubt ex pected to do little writ.
/ ing for it, but the real business was to do
| some contra band work. There were some
Chinese that were To pay $50 head for de-
! ing brought across the border, and after
/ that there promised to be a lot of other
things to do. They would probably have
made a lot of money. too, if the Indians
| had not killed the two men and broken up
| the expedition.
around the mouth of the Colorado, on
| the uplands, are great herds of antelope
and plenty Of deer. There is no limit to
this kind OF game. There are a great
many birds, too. OF different kinds, one OF
the most valuable of which is the blue
/ heron.
1T is wonderful country there, too.
for oysters and, strange to say, it doesn't
appear to be known that there are oysters
there But the beds are found over an
enormous area. They are magnificent
oysters. / used to go out and get the m
and with knife cut them out of the
shell, and when I had got lot of them
roll then in little -four and, adding salt
and pepper. put them on the camp fire
1 and fry them. They were the finest
sweetest oysters | ever tasted. They are
like the little California oysters that we
get here, only / think they had finer
/ flavor. Getting them fresh there as I
used to of an early morning they were
/ literally out of sight"