“swung round on her heel, and, thumping violently, was carried by the tide (dragging her anchor) some two or three miles, grounding finally upon the shoal of Gull Island.  At flood tide sail was made on her as soon as she floated, and we succeeded in getting her back into the channel.  As the vessel grounded at every ebb tide and on the return of the water was violently swung around, thumping on her bottom and swinging on her anchor, I began to see that it would be neither prudent, or in fact possible, to ascend the river much higher, and we accordingly commenced making preparations for a boating expedition."*

* Reconnaissance of the Gulf of California and the Colorado River made in 1850-51, by Lieut.  G. H. Derby.  Ex.  Doc, 81, 32nd Congress, 1st Session, Senate.

The ebb tide ran at the rate of five and a half miles an hour, and the next day they saw, as it was running out, the “bore,” or tidal wave, booming in to meet and overwhelm it.

“A bank of water some four feet in height, extending clear across the river, was seen approaching us with equal velocity; this huge comber wave came steadily onward, occasionally breaking as it rushed over shoals of Gull and Pelican islands; passing the vessel, which it swung around on its course, it continued up the river.  The phenomenon was of daily occurrence until about the time of neap tides.”

At Howard’s Point the vessel was anchored while the party continued the exploration in the small boat.  The Cocopas whom they met were entirely friendly.  These people wore no clothing beyond the breechcloth, and were plastered from head to foot with mud.  The width of the river varied from two hundred yards to half a mile.  At one place they passed a Cocopa village, near which lay an old scow made from waggon-boxes which had floated down from the ferry at Yuma.  On the 13th they met Major Heintzelman coming down-stream, and as he had taken field notes Derby considered it unnecessary for him to proceed, and they went back in company to the ship, arriving there the same afternoon.  The vessel was then worked three miles farther up, where her cargo was discharged to be taken by teams to the fort.  Heintzelman was accompanied by a Dr. Ogden and a Mr. Henchelwood, “proprietors of the ferry.”  The Craig gang had been destroyed earlier this year, and these men had probably established a new ferry.  While lying at this berth, the vessel was roughly tumbled about by the tidal wave, till she broke from her anchor and drifted rapidly up-stream.  This was the highest and most powerful spring tide, and the situation was full of peril.  The captain, Wilcox, calmly took the helm himself, steered toward the bank and ordered his men to leap to the ground from the jib-boom, carrying the kedge anchor.  By this means the mad rush of the vessel was stopped, and by the use of logs and cables she was kept a safe distance from the bank.  When the stores were finally landed they turned gratefully but apprehensively toward the sea, which they happily reached again without serious mishap.