LIFE SKETCHES OF A JAYHAWKER 17 



name was Barney Ward, and that he was an old mountaineer and plains- 

 man and knew the country well, and by following his proposed route we 

 could cut from four to five hundred miles off our journey. 



He had the road all mapped out and a diagram showing the camping 

 places, about fifteen miles between. Naturally we fell into a discussion, for 

 the road would terminate at the mines, instead of Los Angeles. Meeting 

 after meeting was held, and all the advantages of the cut-off were discussed. 

 In the meantime we had reached what is now known as the Iron Mountain. 

 I think that I with one of the others was the discoverer of this moontain of 

 iron. After camping we strolled up the mountain, and the rocks were no- 

 ticeable for their weight and their positions. They lay in masses and had a 

 metallic ring to them. I took one into camp, and showed it to a professor 

 we had with us and he pronounced it iron. 



We camped next at Mountain Meadows, a place that afterwards became 

 known as the scene of Mountain Meadow Massacre, of 1857. I looked this 

 up in Bancroft's History of Utah, and this is what he says: "It was Sat- 

 urday evening when the Arkansas families encamped at Mountain Meadows. 

 On the Sabbath they rested, and conducted divine services in a large tent, 

 as had been their custom throughout the journey. 



"At daybreak en the seventh of September, while the men were light- 

 ing their camp fires, they were fired upon by the Indians, or white men 

 disguised as Indians, and more than twenty were killed, or wounded. 



"Their cattle had been driven off by their assailants under the cover 

 of darkness. The survivors ran for their wagons and pushing them to- 

 gether so as to form a corral, dug out the earth deep enough to sink them 

 almost to the top of the wheels. In the center of the enclosure they made 

 a rifle pit large enough to contain the entire company. The attacking party 

 which numbered from three to four hundred, withdrew to the hills on the 

 crest of which they built parapets, where they shot down all who showed 

 themselves outside the entrenchments. 



"The emigrants were now in a state of siege and though they fought 

 bravely had little hope of escape. All the outlets of the valley were guarded, 

 their ammunition was almost exhausted. Of their number, which included 

 a large proportion of women and children, many were wounded and their 

 suffering from thirst had become intolerable. Down in a ravine and within 

 a few yards of a corral was a stream of water, but only after sundown 

 could there be a scanty supply obtained, and then at great risk, for the 

 point was covered by the muskets of the Indians who lurked all night 

 among the ravines. 



"Four days the siege lasted. On the morning of the fifth a wagon 

 was seen approaching from the northern end of the meadow, and with it 

 a company of the Royal Legions. When within a few hundred yards of the 

 entrenchments the company halted and one of them, William Bateman by 

 name, was sent forward with a flag of truce. In answer to this signal a 

 little girl dressed in white appeared in an open space between the wagons, 

 half way between the Mormons and the corral. 



"Bateman was met by one of the emigrants named Hamilton, to whom 

 he promised protection for his party on condition that their arms were sur- 

 rendered, assuring him they would be conducted in safety to Cedar City. 

 After a brief parley each one returned to comrades. By whose order the 



