IN THE PACIFIC. 291 



In the year 1846, a party of emigrants, con- 

 sisting of a Mr. Donner, with his wife and four 

 children, and about a dozen others, encamped 

 near the lake whilst on their way from one of 

 the Eastern States to seek for a new home in 

 California. They had a number of cattle with 

 them, which were lost in a snow-storm the first 

 night, leaving the unfortunate emigrants to face 

 the horrors of starvation in addition to other perils. 

 Some of the party made a desperate effort to 

 reach the nearest settlement, and, after encoun- 

 tering many hardships, they succeeded, but Mr. 

 Donner was too ill to undertake the journey, 

 and his wife and children, with one other, a 

 German, remained with him in the wilderness. 



The storm continued for several weeks, and 

 nothing was heard of the family till the spring of 

 the following year, when a party of men started 

 out in search of them. They reached the camp 

 with infinite difficulty, and found but one survivor, 

 the German, and he was mad. The rest of the 

 family had perished from starvation, the German 

 had kept himself alive by eating the bodies of the 



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