HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 86 



mj companions one morning, ■with instructions to 

 procure me, if possible, a dose of salts, and to pay for 

 it any price that should be asked. He returned at 

 night with the consoling news that he had failed, 

 having found only two persons who had brought the 

 article with them, and they refused to sell it at any price. 

 ^' I was almost in despair; with only a blanket be- 

 tween myself and the damp, cold earth, and a thin 

 canvas to protect me from the burning sun by day, 

 and the heavy dews by night, I lay day after day 

 enduring the most intense suffering from pain in my 

 limbs, which were now becoming more swollen, and 

 ■were turning completely black. Above me rose those 

 formidable hills which I must ascend ere I could 

 obtain relief. I believe I should have died, had not 

 accident discovered the best remedy that could have 

 been produced. In the second week of my illness, 

 one of our party, in descending the hill on which he 

 had been deer hunting, found near its base, and strewn 

 alonor the foot-track, a quantity of beans which sprouted 

 from the ground, and were in leaf. Some one, in 

 descending the hill with a bag of them on his back, 

 had probably dropped them. My companion gathered 

 a quantity and brought them into camp. I had them 

 boiled, and lived entirely on them for several days, at 

 the same time using a decoction of the bark of the 

 spruce tree. These seemed to operate magically ; and 

 in a week after commencing the use of them, I found 

 myself able to walk, — and as soon as my strength was 

 partially restored, I ascended the hill, and with two 

 companions walked into Culoma ; and by living prin- 

 cipally upon a vegetable diet, which I procured by 

 paying three dollars per pound for potatoes, in a very 

 short time I recovered." 



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