140 A CALIFORNIA TRAMP. 



company of emigrants on their way from Arkansas to Cali- 

 fornia via the Southern Route, who from some cause had 

 aroused the anger of the Saints. With the exception of a few 

 of the children, who were thought too young to ever be able to 

 give an account of the affair, the whole party was destroyed ; 

 the children being scattered among the white murderers of 

 their parents, after the massacre. After some time they were 

 sought out by their friends and brought to Salt Lake City, 

 where they remained until the summer of 1859, when the}^ 

 were taken to California by the Government, but not until they 

 had criminated several Mormons among the assassinators of 

 their parents. A cluster of sunken graves, and the remains of 

 a hastily thrown-up fortification, w^ere all that now marked the 

 spot where the unfortunate emigrants perished. 



I was not aware at the time that the Mormons were in any 

 way connected with the massacre, further than in burying the 

 victims and taking care of the survivors, and with the rest of 

 the Gentiles drank in as gospel the account of the affair given 

 by our conductors, although I wondered at the time why they 

 had so much aversion to talking on the subject. I give below 

 the Mormon version of the massacre as told me by one of our 

 conductors : 



"The emigrants, on arriving at the watering place, were 

 visited by a party of Indians whom the former (pretending 

 friendship towards them) invited to a large feast which they 

 were going to have served up in the afternoon ; an ox having 

 been slaughtered for the purpose. In order to rid themselves 

 of the Indians, the flesh of the ox was poisoned by the Ameri- 

 cans, as was also the water of the spring ; but the Indians 

 found out the strategem in season to prevent its effects. They 

 took no notice of it at the time, but at daybreak the next 

 morning attacked the camj) of the emigrants, which the latter 

 had fortified in anticipation of an assault, and took vengeance 

 on their enemies by murdering all but the younger children. 



