the rains began,[1] and were subjected to a thousand discomforts before they came to the pass through the Canon Mountains, which in its best condition would have been bad, the road party not having a force sufficient to make a smooth road, but which was now, in its narrowest part, filled with water for a distance of three miles, the stream being cold and swift, and from one to four feet in depth.[2]
While the miserable men, women, and children were making their way through this defile, their condition was pitiable in the extreme, a number having abandoned their wagons, and some, like Thornton and his wife, being compelled to wade the stream, not only through the three-mile gorge, but over and over again at its numerous crossings. A great loss of cattle and destruction of property followed, unattended, however, by any loss of life which could be traced directly to these causes.[3] The famine which so far had attacked the rear of every immigration since the wagon-roads were opened assailed these unfortunate travellers in the Umpqua Valley, and although everything possible was done for their "relief by the men who explored the new route,[4] and other citizens, who on learning of their situation hastened to send them horses, cattle, and flour, nothing availed to supply the utter destitution of some families who had thrown away or abandoned their property in the Umpqua cañon and
- ↑ They were on the western flank of the mountains, a day's drive from the open country, on the 11th of October, the distance thence to the south end of the Umpqua cañon being about 60 miles, yet they did not arrive at this pass until the 4th of November, the rains having begun on the 21st, when they should have been in the Umpqua Valley.
- ↑ Thornton's Or. and Cal., i. 222.
- ↑ Thornton mentions a man suddenly falling dead near the entrance to the canon; also that a Mr Brisbane and a child had died at this place; but does not attribute their deaths to their hardships, though he might have said something of the kind without being doubted. A Miss Leland Croley, who had long been ill, also died, and was buried on Grave Creek—whence the name. Jacksonville Sentinel, May 25, 1867; Dowell's Nar., MS., 9.
- ↑ On page 235. vol. i., Or. and Cal., Thornton admits that Applegate sent out horses, one of which he had to use, but asserts that the agent who brought them demanded a fine suit of clothes in payment. He admits, too, that the first flour and beef which reached him in the Umpqua Valley, on Nov. 14th, were sent by Applegate; but that he was purposely starved by him, in order that a
