LIFE SKETCHES OF A JAYHAWKER 21 



Captain Townshend who seemed to be the head man of the Georgia 

 company, took the company through on another route. They packed their 

 provisions on their backs, and were better supplied than we were, as they 

 still had some flour of which they gave a portion to the Brier family. They 

 succeeded in getting through Walkers Pass, on to the head of Kern River, 

 then into San Joaquin Valley and to Chowchilla River, where they were 

 nearly all murdered by the Indians. 



I believe there were but two who escaped. Another party of eleven 

 men passed who thought they could make it by packing on their backs 

 enough to last them. They had killed their oxen, dried the meat and packed 

 what they could, and out of the eleven there was but two to finish the 

 trip, the others having died, in a pile. These two would have died also had 

 it not been they disagreed on the route to travel, and stole away in the 

 night. 



In 1864 I was travelling down Owens River Valley, below Owens Lake, 

 and at a place now known as Indian Wells there came a man in from the 

 Slate Range of Mountains. In the conversation he told me that some of his 

 party in prospecting had come across the remains of nine men all together 

 behind a little barricade of brush. They had probably built a wind brake, 

 and had died right there from thirst. I made him promise that he would 

 see the remains properly buried upon his return. 



Speaking of thirst, there is no punishment that has any comparison. 

 It is the most agonizing suffering possible and the feeling is indescribable. 

 Our tongues would be swollen, our lips crack, and a crust would form on 

 our tongue and roof of mouth that could not be removed. The body seemed 

 to be dried through and through, and there wouldn't be a drop of moisture 

 in the mouth, at these times we thought of Barney Ward, and I just can't 

 imagine what we would have done to him had we had him near. 



So day by day we pursued our way, our cattle and ourselves growing 

 weaker and weaker. The outlook was gloomy, and often when we killed a 

 steer we looked forward to the marrow found in the bones. But In break- 

 ing the bones often there would be nothing there but a little bloody sub- 

 stance, and I suppose our bones were much in the same condition, as we 

 had becomes as starved as they were. 



Another party, called the Bennett party, tried a little different route 

 from ours. They struck off South from us on the other side of the moun- 

 tain. I didn't know the number in the party, but there were two families 

 of Bennetts, and Arcane, and each had a wife, but no children. There may 

 have been ten or a dozen altogether. They called a halt and sent two of 

 their number, Lewis Manly and John Rogers, on to the settlements for sup- 

 plies and pack animals. They thought the trip there and back wouldn't 

 take more than two weeks, but they were gone five, and those behind gave 

 up all hope and resigned themselves to their fate. About this time the 

 boys returned, and when within a few hundred yards of camp found one 

 lying dead. They saw no sign of life in the camp, and gave the rest up for 

 dead. A few minutes later they heard a feeble cry, "there they are, the 

 boys, I knew they would come back," the women said, and such a rejoicing 

 as there was. Manly says in his book that he wrote later, that when he 

 came upon the dead man lying there, his heart stood still, and that never 

 would he go through moments of such misery again for all the money in 



