144 A CALIFORNIA TRAMP. 



obliged to remain until they could get them repaired at a 

 Mormon settlement the other side of the mountain. Th^y 

 were surrounded by a gang of naked Indians, of the Santa 

 Clara tribe, whose impudent demands for provisions they were 

 thoughtlessly complying with ; not thinking that the more 

 they would give to these beastly wretches, the more they would 

 ask for. The Santa Claras, which are the most dreaded 

 Indians on the route, thickly infest the regions around here, 

 and by murder and robbery lay a heavy toll on the emi- 

 gration passing through their cheerless domains. The cold 

 rain of the preceding night had been a godsend to us, as it 

 had been the means of keeping these Indians within their dens; 

 had it been otherwise the whole tribe would soon have been 

 apprized by its scouts of our coming, and our night's camp 

 would have been thronged by the red scamps, who by beg- 

 ging and stealing would have materially lessened our supply 

 of provisions, which we were obliged to husband carefully, as 

 we had scarcely enough to carry us through. Soon after 

 passing this encampment we met a return exploring party of 

 Mormons, who had been, as they said, on a search for more 

 tillable territory whereon the new-comers to the Church of 

 Latter Day Saints might settle, as the amount of land in Utah 

 capable of being successfully cultivated is very limited, on 

 account of the small quantity of water for irrigating purposes 

 that these rainless regions afford. The party had been absent 

 some months on their perilous enterprise — perilous on acount 

 of the risks they ran of dying by thirst and starvation in the 

 desolate country traversed — and showed haggard faces and 

 tattered garments. Although the explorers had ostensibly 

 gone for the above purpose, they had doubtlessly been sent to 

 seek some new abiding place for the Saints, in the event of 

 their being ousted from their present locations by the Federal 

 troops. The leaders of the Mormons had for some time been 

 keeping themselves in readiness for such an event, and I was 



