Plan of the Salt Lake expedition--Great sandy deserts--Sufferings fromthirst--Ogden's River-- Trails and smoke of lurking savages--Thefts at night-- Atrapper's revenge--Alarms of a guilty conscience-- A murderous victory--Californianmountains--Plains along the Pacific--Arrival at Monterey--Account of the place andneighborhood--Lower California-- Its extent--The Peninsula--Soil--Climate--Production--Its settlements by the Jesuits--Their sway over the Indians--Theirexpulsion--Ruins of a missionary establishment--Sublime scenery--UpperCalifornia--Missions--Their power and policy-- Resources of the country--Designs offoreign nations IT WAS ON THE 24TH of July, in the preceding year (1833), that the brigade of fortymen set out from Green River valley, to explore the Great Salt Lake. They were tomake the complete circuit of it, trapping on all the streams which should fall in their way,and to keep journals and make charts, calculated to impart a knowledge of the lake andthe surrounding country. All the resources of Captain Bonneville had been tasked to fitout this favorite expedition. The country lying to the southwest of the mountains, andranging down to California, was as yet almost unknown; being out of the buffalo range,it was untraversed by the trapper, who preferred those parts of the wilderness wherethe roaming herds of that species of animal gave him comparatively an abundant andluxurious life. Still it was said the deer, the elk, and the bighorn were to be found there,so that, with a little diligence and economy, there was no danger of lacking food. As aprecaution, however, the party halted on Bear River and hunted for a few days, untilthey had laid in a supply of dried buffalo meat and venison; they then passed by thehead waters of the Cassie River, and soon found themselves launched on an immensesandy desert. Southwardly, on their left, they beheld the Great Salt Lake, spread outlike a sea, but they found no stream running into it. A desert extended around them,and stretched to the southwest, as far as the eye could reach, rivalling the deserts ofAsia and Africa in sterility. There was neither tree, nor herbage, nor spring, nor pool, norrunning stream, nothing but parched wastes of sand, where horse and rider were indanger of perishing.
Their sufferings, at length, became so great that they abandoned their intended course,and made towards a range of snowy mountains, brightening in the north, where theyhoped to find water. After a time, they came upon a small stream leading directlytowards these mountains. Having quenched their burning thirst, and refreshedthemselves and their weary horses for a time, they kept along this stream, whichgradually increased in size, being fed by numerous brooks. After approaching themountains, it took a sweep toward the southwest, and the travellers still kept along it,trapping beaver as they went, on the flesh of which they subsisted for the present,husbanding their dried meat for future necessities.
The stream on which they had thus fallen is called by some, Mary River, but is moregenerally known as Ogden's River, from Mr. Peter Ogden, an enterprising and intrepidleader of the Hudson's Bay Company, who first explored it. The wild and half-desertregion through which the travellers were passing, is wandered over by hordes ofShoshokoes, or Root Diggers, the forlorn branch of the Snake tribe. They are a shypeople, prone to keep aloof from the stranger. The travellers frequently met with theirtrails, and saw the smoke of their fires rising in various parts of the vast landscape, sothat they knew there were great numbers in the neighborhood, but scarcely ever wereany of them to be met with.
After a time, they began to have vexatious proofs that, if the Shoshokoes were quiet byday, they were busy at night. The camp was dogged by these eavesdroppers; scarce amorning, but various articles were missing, yet nothing could be seen of the marauders.
What particularly exasperated the hunters, was to have their traps stolen from thestreams. One morning, a trapper of a violent and savage character, discovering that histraps had been carried off in the night, took a horrid oath to kill the first Indian he shouldmeet, innocent or guilty. As he was returning with his comrades to camp, he beheld twounfortunate Diggers, seated on the river bank, fishing. Advancing upon them, helevelled his rifle, shot one upon the spot, and flung his bleeding body into the stream.
The other Indian fled and was suffered to escape. Such is the indifference with whichacts of violence are regarded in the wilderness, and such the immunity an armed ruffianenjoys beyond the barriers of the laws, that the only punishment this desperado metwith, was a rebuke from the leader of the party. The trappers now left the scene of thisinfamous tragedy, and kept on westward, down the course of the river, which woundalong with a range of mountains on the right hand, and a sandy, but somewhat fertileplain, on the left. As they proceeded, they beheld columns of smoke rising, as before, invarious directions, which their guilty consciences now converted into alarm signals, toarouse the country and collect the scattered bands for vengeance.
