They then made their way back to their camp, devoured their last morsel of meat, placed their guns on a raft, and swam the river to annihilate the village they saw on the opposite bank.

The Yumas, however, had anticipated this move, and the trappers found there only one poor old man, whom they spared.

Setting fire to every hut in the village, except that of the old man, they had the small satisfaction of watching them burn.

There was now no hope either of regaining the horses or of fighting the Yumas, so they devoted their attention, to building canoes for the purpose of escaping by descending the Colorado.

For this they possessed tools, trappers often having occasion to use a canoe in the prosecution of their work.