Page:California Historical Society Quarterly vol 22.djvu/32



San Francisco Aha California, December 27, 1855, and San Diego Herald, December 22, 1855. She is described as the "swiftest boat ever put on the river." Her machinery was later put in the Colorado No. 2, her boiler hauled out on the bank below Yuma, and her hull stranded at the Gridiron.

The private vessels, Falmouth, Captain A'leyer, George Emery, Captain Trask, and Torajjto, Captain Sangers, traded at the mouth of the Colorado during 1855.

The U. S. brig General Jesup must not be confused with the river steamer of the same name which operated only until 1861.

San Francisco Alta California, March 12 and April 7, 1856. The Colorado, although a sixty-ton boat, is reported to have brought up seventy-two tons of freight to Yuma in one trip.

"On April 6, 1856, George A. Johnson paid taxes on the Colorado, valued at $20,000, and on the GenH Jessup, assessed for $2,000." Jerry MacMullen, "Self-Liquidating Shipyard," Westivays, XXXIII (September 1941), 25.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo granted citizens of the United States the right to navigate the Gulf and the Colorado River, but since Arizona had no port on the gulf, and customs duties were excessive, they avoided the latter by casting anchor off Port Isabel in mid-channel and transferring cargo and passengers directly to the river steamers.

Johnson, op. cit., pp. 108-18.

Joseph C. Ives, Report upon the Colorado River of the West Explored in iSjj and 18 $8 (Washington, D. C, 1861), p. 36.

Johnson, op. cit., p. in.

On his return trip Johnson met the Beale party returning from Los Angeles. "Saturday, January 23, 1858. We reached the Colorado river early in the morning. . . . the . . . 'General Jesup' . . . was at the crossing waiting to convey us to the opposite side." [Edward F. Beale], Wagon Road from Fort Defiance to the Colorado River, 35th Cong., ist sess., H. Ex. Doc. 124 (May 12, 1858), p. 76.

The Prescott Weekly Arizona Miner, May 18, 1877, and the San Francisco Alta California, February 27, 1858, carry stories of the accidental sinking of the General Jesup on her homeward voyage. She ran onto a sunken rock, breaking a hole in the bottom, and sank in the shallow water. See the account of Johnson, op. cit. Hubert Howe Bancroft, Chronicles of the Builders (San Francisco, 1891), V, 154, states that "the General Jessup was afloat again in two days." The Alta Calif orjiia, April 12, 1858, states: "the steamer Jessup, lately sunk . . . has been raised." She operated on the river until 1861. Regarding her final disposition the Yuma Arizona Sentijiel, September 28, 1878, states that her machinery was taken out and sent to San Francisco and her hull was floated into the Minturn Slough.

San Francisco Alta California, February 15 and 27, 1858.

Ibid., July 17, 1859. It was reported that the Explorer could not navigate successfully on the Colorado during high water because of the strong current.

Yuma Arizona Sentinel, July 5, 1873.

Godfrey Sykes, The Colorado Delta (Washington, D. C, 1937), pp. 91-93

Fort Mohave was named early in May 1859. It was deserted in April 1861, on account of the Civil War, and was not reoccupied until April 1863.

San Francisco Alta California, February 7, February 10, and March 17, 1859. The steamer Uncle Sam should not be confused with the small river steamer of the same name which operated in 1852-53. She was built in New York in 1852, and operated on the Pacific Coast until 1876.

Ibid., April 21, 1866.

Ibid., October 24, 1869. The Continental sailed on October 23, but discovered, after