X. 



(sKfoncr tFie ©expert Si)oriler, 



BROAD expanse of wilderness, on which there was not 

 ^ a civilized habitation, now la}^ before us ; the first 

 settlement being four hundred miles distant- 

 Visions of bleached skeletons, parched lips, stinted rations, and 

 all the dismal belongings of desert travel, arose in my mind as 

 we left the little settlement of Panther Creek and resumed our 

 route up the uneven slope of the mountain. We encamped at 

 night on a desolate valley opening onto the Mountain Meadows. 



These meadows, which w^e entered the morning of the 30th, 

 are situated on the summit of the "Rim of the Basin," at the 

 elevation of five thousand feet above the sea, and consist of a 

 level valley a mile in width, and seven miles in length. By the 

 Spaniards it bore the name of Las Vegas de Santa Clara, and 

 was the place where the great caravans bound to New Mexico 

 from California rested to recruit their animals, famished and 

 wearied by their toilsome journey over the Great Desert. Our 

 route lay down the valley over a good, well-beaten trail, and 

 we encamped at noon by a little stream, which barely aff'orded 

 enough water for ourselves and animals. 



Close by our camping place occurred the notorious massacre 

 of the Mountain Meadows, where, in the autumn of 1857, one 

 hundred and nineteen persons were brutally murdered by a 

 party of Indians, and Mormons disguised as such. It was a 



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