EARLY DAY STORIES. 57 



for myself, I had always known Indians, liked them, and on 

 every occasion when any came to our camp I made their 

 acquaintance as much as possible and treated them as friends. 

 It was intimated in the last chapter that this article would 

 treat in part at least of some of the serious problems of the 

 trip that had to be met and solved. I have mentioned the 

 Indians at this time because it seems to stick permanently 

 in the minds of many that the probability of Indian attack 

 was the most serious of all the problems confronting the 

 emigrant. Let this idea of Indian attack be eliminated from 

 the reader's mind if such danger ever existed, and it did 

 sometimes, it did not exist in the year 1852. 



The first real trouble that befell our train, and that while 

 we were traveling with Capt. Wells' company, was the ap- 

 pearance of Asiatic cholera, or at any rate what was called 

 Asiatic cholera. I find on consulting certain authorities 

 recently, that it is denied that there ever has been any real 

 Asiatic cholera in the United States but once, that being in 

 1832-1834, and that the scourge of so called cholera of 1850- 

 1854 was not cholera at all. "Who shall decide when doc- 

 tors disagree?" If a disease that is kindred to cholera and 

 that carries off 30 to 50 percent of those attacked, is in our 

 presence, it makes little difference what it is called. Our 

 company suffered from this disease but little comparatively, 

 but it was very prevalent in some companies, and very fatal. 

 It apparently had followed the emigration from St. Louis 

 up the Missouri river, and so on across the country by the 

 overland trail, perhaps not quite across the continent but 

 at least as far west as the Snake river valley in Idaho.- 



In our company was a Mr. Hosea Ballou with his wife 

 and, I think two or three little children, accompanied also 

 by a brother, Henry Ballou, all from Henry county, 111. 

 We had heard of cholera, and of some deaths in some of 

 the neighboring companies, but our people had been well, 



