314. IN THE OLD WEST 



time for the beer and bacon of former days, now 

 preferable to the dry buffalo-meat (but seldom 

 obtainable) of the Far West. 



Evil fortune pursued the Mormons, and dogged 

 their steps. The year following, some struggled 

 on towards the promised land, and of these a few 

 reached Oregon and California. Many were 

 killed by hostile Indians; many perished of hun- 

 ger, cold, and thirst, in passing the great wilder- 

 ness ; and many returned to the States, penniless 

 and crestfallen, and heartily cursing the moment 

 in which they had listened to the counsels of the 

 Mormon prophet. The numbers who reached 

 their destination of Oregon, California, and the 

 Great Salt Lake, are computed at 20,000, of 

 whom the United States had an unregretted rid- 

 dance. 



One party had followed the troops of the Ameri- 

 can Government intended for the conquest of New 

 Mexico and the Californias. Of these a battalion 

 was formed, and part of it proceeded to Upper 

 California; but the way being impracticable for 

 wagons, some seventy families proceeded up the 

 Arkansa, and wintered near the mountains, in- 

 tending to cross to the Platte the ensuing spring, 

 and join the main body of emigrants on their way 

 by the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains. 



In the wide and well-timbered bottom of the 

 Arkansa, the Mormons had erected a street of 

 log shanties in which to pass the inclement winter. 



