The first white man to visit the Havasu, as far as we
know, was Padre Francisco Garces, of whom I have written in another
chapter.
Four times he made long journeys into the interior, visiting a
large number of Indian tribes. Among these were the Wallapais and the
Havasupais.
Garces' Diary. Dr. Elliott Coues, who visited the Havasupais in 1881 with a
governmental party, has translated Garces' diary, and it was published a
short time ago by Francis P. Harper, of New York. In this translation, he
describes the descent of his (Coues's) party into the Canyon, and his
description is so vivid that it is well worth repetition here.
Dr. Coues' Description of Trail to Havasu Canyon. "On the 10th, a march of
ten miles in the same direction brought us abruptly to the brink of the
precipice - a sharp-edged jump-off of perhaps a thousand feet. There was no
side canyon here for gradual descent; the firm level ground gave no hint of
the break before us until we were actually upon the verge, and when the
soldiers lined up to look down an involuntary murmur of astonishment ran
through the ranks. Dismounting and going in single file, each man leading
his horse, we took the dizzy trail - a narrow footpath, in many parts of
which a misstep would have been destruction to man or beast. The way
zigzagged at first for some distance, on the 'switchback' principle by
which railroads sometimes make grades otherwise impracticable; the face of
the precipice was so steep that, as we filed along, those of us at the head
of the procession looked up to see the other sections of the train almost
overhead; certainly a fall of any man there would have been right on top
of us.
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