Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/318

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HASTINGS IN CALIFORNIA.
267

teen armed men, proceeded to their destination, being twice attacked by Indians, once at Shasta River, and again on the Sacramento, with no other damage than the wounding of Bellamy, and the loss for several days of two men who became separated from the company, and who, having exhausted their ammunition narrowly escaped death from starvation. At Sutter Fort all were kindly received and cared for, and Hastings, after remaining a short time in California, during which he gathered much floating information regarding the country, published a narrative of his travels and observations for the benefit of succeeding emigrations.[1]

    his land claim forming a part of the town site, and married a native, a sister of the wife of George Winslow, colored, of the many aliases, whose business as 'medical doctor' was so unfeelingly broken up by Dr Barclay, at Oregon City. James John, M. C. Nye, James Dawson, and Benjamin Kelsey, his wife Nancy and one daughter, were of the California emigration to Oregon. The Kelseys did not long remain, but returned to California; and Dawson was drowned in the Columbia River in 1847. San Joaquin Co. Hist., 15; Sutter Co. Hist., 25.

  1. The Emigrants Guide to Oregon and California, Containing Scenes and Incidents of a Party of Oregon Emigrants; A Description of Oregon; Scenes and Incidents of a Party of California Emigrants, and a Description of California, with a Description of the Different Routes to those Countries, and all Necessary Information Relative to the Equipment, Supplies, and the Method of Travelling., By Lansford W. Hastings, leader of the Oregon and California emigrants of 1842. Cincinnati, 1845. This compendious title to a book of 152 pages sufficiently explains the nature of its contents, which are written in a fair style. Hastings was from Detroit, Michigan. He is described as a man of practical talent, but of a selfish and arbitrary disposition, and is charged with having wormed himself into the command. Lovejoy's Portland, MS., 3. He headed an expedition, says Moss, to some southern island, Pioneer Times, MS., 8; and Lovejoy adds that he married a Spanish lady. Hastings Emigrant Guide was republished in 1849 at Cincinnati, and bound with a number of other pamphlets on the same subject, under the title of A History of Oregon and California.