The party determine to start for Bear River
Sickness at the mines
What happened to a drunken Indian
An old trapper and his stories
Captain Sutter's first settlement
Indians partial to horse-flesh
A score of horses stolen
An expedition to revenge the theft
A rancheria demolished
A chorus of yells
Indians routed and then brought to labour
Tin
Bear River
The trapper engaged as guide
Preparations for the journey
An addition to the party
The journey commenced
Rocky country
Cross the North Fork
An accident to a mule
Flour cakes and bacon scraps
Resume the journey
Precipitous ravines
End of the journey.
_Monday, July 24th_.--We have determined to start for the Bear River.
We worked hard last week, but suffered greatly from the heat; almost
every man of us complains of feverish symptoms, with pains in the
limbs, back, and loins, yet we are better than the majority of the
miners. These washings have now become nearly as crowded as the Mormon
diggings were when we left them, and immense sums have been made by
some of the luckier adventurers amongst the ravines. The whole valley
is dotted over with tents and green bush arbours, and there is hardly a
watercourse but which is sprinkled with miners, digging, sifting, and
washing. About half of the people work together in companies--the other
half shift each for himself. There are hundreds of Indians, many of
them fantastically dressed, for they can purchase fine clothing now,
even at the extravagant rates at which all articles are charged at
Weber's store. They labour one day, and get drunk on pisco or the
"strong water" on another. One of them rolled down a rocky ravine
lately, in an intoxicated state, and was killed.
As we were lying down in the shade of the tent yesterday, we were
visited by an old trapper called Joe White. He had recognized Bradley
and Don Luis, whom he had met on the coast, and we invited him to take
coffee with us. Joe White had come into this part of the country with
Captain Sutter, whom he spoke very highly of, and of whose early
efforts to form a settlement he gave us an account. Their party was the
very first of the white settlers in the wilderness. They live some time
in a camp formed of the tented wagons they had brought with them, until
they could run up a few rough shanties, and some protecting outworks.
During the time they were constructing these, and indeed for some
months afterwards, they were dreadfully harassed by the Indians, who
made onslaughts on their cattle, carried away, killed, and eat both
horses and oxen. The Indians are by no means particular. One night,
after the party had been lulled into a sense of security by the
apparent friendly disposition of the Indians, who occasionally came
into their camp, and no watch was being kept, upwards of a score of
horses and mules were driven off; the loss of which Sutter's people
knew nothing of until they woke up in the morning, and found the ropes
all cut. They started off at once on the trail, and soon found that it
led to an Indian rancheria, about eight miles up the Sacramento. This
rancheria was, they believed, the refuge of the "Ingin varmints," as
Joe While styled them, from whose depredations they were constantly
suffering. Captain Sutter determined to take signal revenge. They
returned to the Fort that day, but next morning started off in a strong
party, each man armed with his never-failing rifle and big bowie-knife,
and taking with them a howitzer which the Captain had brought with him
over the Rocky Mountains. The Indians must, however, have had
information by their scouts of the expedition; for, when the party
reached the rancheria, they found it deserted--not even a solitary
squaw left among the huddled-up collection of huts. Determined not to
be foiled, the party set to work to demolish the village. The
construction of the Indian houses rendered this an easy task, but, to
complete it, fire was requisite. No sooner had the smoke risen from the
kindling wood, than their ears were saluted with a dismal yell from a
little densely-wooded island a couple of hundred yards up the stream.
Starting out in all directions from the high grass and underwood,
appeared a crowd of squaws with their children, who gave whoop after
whoop, and, brandishing boughs of trees, imprecated curses upon the
destroyers of their rancheria.
Captain Sutter and his party of trappers were somewhat startled at this
proceeding, and the question immediately occurred to them as to where
the men could be. The party pushed their way homewards as fast, as
possible; leaving the rancheria burning and the squaws and children
still yelling and whooping on the island. It was as they expected. On
coming within two miles of the Fort, they heard the crack upon crack of
distant rifles. Putting their horses to the gallop, they arrived just
in time to see the Indians totally routed, and scampering away as fast
as their horses would carry them into the woods.
After this double defeat, the tribes seem to have given up all idea of
prosecuting a war against their new neighbours, and, gradually
relinquishing their thievish habits, settled in the neighbourhood of
the Fort--sometimes hunting and trapping for the pale faces, and at
others labouring away at ditching and brick-making, being paid chiefly
in articles of clothing and small allowances of pisco. The trapper told
us that Captain Sutter has now a tin coin in circulation, stamped with
his name, and good for a certain amount of merchandize at the Fort.
After listening to a few more wonderful adventures of this sort,
Bradley turned the conversation upon the country about Bear River. The
trapper said he knew it well, and had heard that there was plenty of
gold there. He asked him if he would undertake to guide us thither,
and, after some bargaining, he consented. The sum he was to have was
sixty-five dollars and his food. Considering the high rates of all
things here, this was a low figure enough, but the old trapper candidly
told us that he was sick and tired of paddling about in the water
washing for gold, and that he would prefer a few days' jaunt in the
wilderness. The climate was much cooler further to the north, he
informed us, and comparatively few miners had penetrated to the Bear
Valley. We had a long debate upon the matter, and ultimately it was
determined to start the day after to-morrow (Wednesday).
_July 25th, Tuesday_.--This day has been devoted to preparations for
our journey. Our stock of provisions, with the exception of
breadstuffs, is quite exhausted. We have had, therefore, to lay in a
stock, but we found everything, of course, inordinately dear; so we
have contented ourselves with buying some bacon, and dried beef, and
coffee, resolving to trust to our rifles for further support, there
being plenty of game in the neighbourhood of the Bear Valley. By the
advice of Joe White, we intend not only to load the pack-horses with a
portion of our stock of provisions, but each man is to take a
fortnight's rations for himself. The pack-horses will carry about
another fortnight's supply. We should have preferred, if we could have
managed it, to despatch the gold we have amassed since Bradley's
mission to Captain Sutter, down to the Fort; but, after some
deliberation, we have resolved not to risk its transit without an
escort, and, accordingly, have agreed to load one horse, the most
sure-footed of the lot, with the valuable burden, and to attach its
trail ropes to the horses ridden by ourselves in turn.
This evening three men, hearing of our intended expedition, offered to
join the party. These were Edward Story, an American lawyer, who had
been one of the inferior alcaldes during the Spanish regime at
Monterey; John Dowling, first mate, and Samuel Bradshaw, the carpenter,
of an American whaling ship which they had left at San Francisco. The
lawyer was an intelligent person, conversant with the language of
several of the tribes--the mate seemed to have his wits about him, and
the carpenter would obviously be a great acquisition, particularly as
we were now about to plunge even beyond the furthest outposts of
civilization, where, in all probability, we may have to secure
ourselves against attacks from the Indians without the possibility of
any help beyond that which we could render to each other. We were
rather pleased with their offer, and received them as an addition to
our party. All three had horses, although, as usual with seamen, the
mate and carpenter were terribly awkward equestrians.
_Wednesday, July 26th_.--This day we struck our camp before sunrise,
and had the horses securely packed and all in motion in the early cool
of the morning. The march was a fatiguing one; the country appearing to
be a succession of woody bottoms, or valleys and steep rocky ridges,
which tried the metal of our loaded horses severely. From the summit of
one of the hills more elevated than the rest we obtained a distant view
of the valley of the Sacramento. Our general course was north
north-west. The trapper, who proved an able guide, varied the direction
from time to time so as to lead us through the easiest paths, taking
care to steer clear of the deep canones that split up the hills in
every direction. We dined at noon as usual, and that very well, on some
hare soup made from a couple of hares which we had shot during the
morning, and some dried beef. The signs of deer were very frequent.
After mounting and descending a very precipitous and rocky ridge, we
encamped near some waterfalls in a wide open valley. The night was
somewhat cold, and we enjoyed a blazing fire of pine sticks, which we
cut from the dried trees in the vicinity.
_Friday, July 28th_.--Yesterday morning dawned clear and rather
coolish. In the forenoon we crossed the north fork of the Americanos,
which was here but a trifling stream. The general character of the
country was becoming more and more mountainous and difficult to
traverse, and we found the labour of the journey sufficiently severe. A
great number of water-courses crossed our path, but the channels were
quite dry, the stones and shingle white and bleaching in the sun. An
unfortunate accident occurred during the afternoon's march to one of
the pack-horses, which stumbled over a heap of rough stones in
clambering up from the bed of a torrent, and broke its leg. We had to
shoot the poor animal to put it out of pain. Its burden was equally
distributed between its more fortunate fellows. We encamped amongst
rocks, and had a poor supper of flour cakes and bacon scraps. During
the night Don Luis was attacked with aguish symptoms. I prescribed
bark, which appeared to relieve him.
To-day our horses were quickly saddled and packed, and we started off
in the faint grey of the morning. It was chilly, but the sky was
beautifully clear. When the sun had fairly risen, however, we had no
more cold to complain of. The way was exceedingly difficult. We toiled
along precipitous ravines and gullies, and climbed up steep and rocky
ridges, which cut and wounded the feet of the horses, and rendered our
progress very slow. The timber we passed was principally pine trees,
with sharp pointed leaves and large cones, and occasionally we came
upon a grove of evergreen oaks, more stunted in shape than was the case
in the lower regions. About mid-day we passed the source of the Rio de
las Plumas, or Feather River, and after a most severe and in some
respects forced march climbed the last rocky ridge which separated us
from the Bear Valley. The sun was near its setting as we pushed down
the mountain slopes towards the river. We found it a small stream
flowing swiftly over a shingly bed to the westward, and encamped within
hearing of its murmur, well pleased to have performed our toilsome
journey.