PREFACE. Xlll 



by, subsequent discoveries. But the excitement was up, and we were not 

 disposed to be critical or skeptical. The start was accompanied by the 

 warnings of the old men, the tears of the women, and the envious and 

 congratulatory remarks of our associates who wanted to come and could 

 not. It was an impressive occasion, full of bright hopes and dark fore- 

 bodings for many who remained, as well as for all who came. 



Of the unorganized army of 20,000 men who, in May, 1849, broke 

 camp at various points on the banks of the Missouri River between Coun- 

 cil Bluffs and Independence, to march to the land of gold, I was one. A 

 few had pack animals or mule teams, but most had oxen three yoke and 

 three men to a wagon, in which we had provisions for a year, as there was 

 then no stock in the mines, and we knew not when we should find a 

 supply. All were armed for defense. As for the men, we were the 

 flower of the "West: nearly all young, active, healthy, many well edu- 

 cated, all full of hope anr? " nthusiasm. In our ignorance of the nature 

 of auriferous deposits we expected, unless exceptionally unfortunate, to 

 strike places where we should dig up two or three hundred pounds of 

 gold in a day without difficulty. In visions by day and in dreams by 

 night, we saw ourselves in the possession of treasures more splendid than 

 those that dazzled the eyes of Aladdin. We compared ourselves to the 

 Argonauts, to the army of Alexander starting to conquer Persia, to the 

 Crusaders. Our enthusiasm was maintained by our numbers. The road, 

 as far as we could see by day from the highest mountains, was lined with 

 men and wagons ; at night the camp-fires gleamed like the lights of a city 

 set on a kill. Our brightest anticipations suffered no diminution as we 

 advanced on our journey ; vexatious and tiresome as many of the days 

 were, we never forgot, we never doubted, the reward that was to com- 

 pensate us. The long march of two thousand miles, (for we were 

 nearly all afoot, and there were no seats in the wagons) the fording and 

 ferrying of cold and swift rivers, the repeated preparation for Indian 

 attacks of which false alarms were spread, the tedious guarding of the 

 cattle at night, the long marches over the desert, the oppressive heat and 

 the still more oppressive dust of the alkaline plains, the toilsome ascent 

 of the mountains, which seemed so steep that we doubted whether our 

 oxen could climb up all these were borne, if not cheerfully, yet 



