INDEPENDENT COMPANIES.
553
to seventeen hundred went to Oregon; the remainder to California.[1]
As usual with the migrations, there was a lack of adhesiveness, and large companies split into half a dozen smaller ones, and there were many quarrels arising from trifling causes. In 1846 these feuds were intensified by a scarcity of grass, the season being dry.[2]
- ↑ The authorities differ. The Spectator of Dec. 10, 1846, gives the number of immigrants for the year at 1,000. (Message of Governor Abernethy.) But at that time several hundred had not yet arrived. In Hyde's Statement, 6, the Oregon immigration is spoken of as 'large.' Saxton, in his Or. Ter., says that at St Joseph, Elizabethtown, Iowa Point, and Council Bluffs were collected 271 wagons, and at Independence 174 wagons; and estimates the emigrants at 1,841. The best authority is probably Joel Palmer, who says that his party of 16 continued to meet for 200 miles companies of from 6 to 40 wagons, and that in all he passed 541 wagons, averaging 5 persons to each; and that 212 wagons were bound for California. Journal, 137; McGlashan's Hist. Donner Party, 17. I find corroborative evidence in Niles Reg., lxx. 211, 272, 281, 341, 343, 416. An extract from the St Louis Republican, in the Register, says 'The Oregon emigrants have gone on in advance of the Californians, to their great encampment on the Kansas River, about 100 miles west of this. We have not yet received a census of their company, but will in a few days.' A letter to the Register, from some one in Weston, Mo., says the emigration must be strung along the road for 300 miles; 40 wagons were yet to start, on the 18th of May; 216 wagons exclusive of these had left the Iowa agency; each of these 356 wagons had 4 yokes of oxen, which added to the loose stock would make 2,000 head of cattle on the road. The number of persons he estimated at 2,000, 800 of them being 'able-bodied men of resolute spirit.' This same writer says: 'On yesterday, I for the first time heard the news from Mexico. It did not surprise me in the least, but I wish an express could be sent to overtake the emigrants, after congress has acted, and authorize them to make the conquest of California. They could and would do it and I take it for granted our government will declare war; all they want is a chance.' A correspondent of the St Louis Republican, quoted in the Register, says the Oregon emigration was a fine-looking body of people, and well fitted out for their expedition. Some wagons were carpeted, and had chairs and other conveniences for families. One old man of more than 70 years was going to accompany his children and grandchildren; and this family all together had 10 wagons. Some of the wagon-covers bore 'Oregon, 54° 40'; all or none! Josiah Gregg, writing to the Register, thinks the emigration numbers 2,000, but that the larger part of it is for California. I learn also that the Pawnees fired upon 2 emigrants, killing one, named Edward Trimble, from Iowa. See also Home Missionary, xviii. 89; and Rabbison's Growth of Towns, MS.,1-5.
- ↑ In volume lxxi. 146, of Niles' Reg., is an extract from a letter written by one of the California emigrants, dated July 23d at Fort Bridger, near Black Fork of Green River, not far from Bear River Mountains, which was 'brought by Capt. Walker, who was returning from California with Lieut. Frémont.' The letter runs as follows: 'At Fort Laramie Colonel Russel, and many other of the emigrants, sold off their wagons, and with a pack containing a few articles, pursued their journey on horseback. The grass on the route from Fort Laramie was deficient, and the animals fared badly. . . .The parties were in the South pass of the Rocky Mountains on the 13th of July, and had then seen no Indians after leaving Fort Laramie, and considered themselves beyond their dangerous vicinity, and only a few of the emigrants kept a night guard. From Fort Laramie they had pleasant weather, with cool nights and warm
