THE SOUTH ROAD EXPEDITION , 39
immigrants were, but even this was not practicable at the time, and we could only hurry on with sad hearts to overtake the train far up the river.
On the 5th of August, we reached Hot Spring valley, having traveled, as nearly as we could judge, about two hundred miles along the river. On the 10th the Fort Hall party returned to us with a supply of provisions, and on the llth we turned our faces towards our homes, which we judged to be eight or nine hundred miles distant.
Before the party of five reached Fort Hall, one of them, young Boygus, hearing that a son of Capt. Grant, commander of Fort Hall, had recently started for Canada, via St. Louis, concluded to leave the party and, by forced marches, endeavor to overtake Grant, as he was anxious to return to his home in Missouri. Boygus was brave and determined, and expecting to meet immigrants occasionally, he sat out alone on his hazar- dous undertaking. We never heard of him afterwards, and his fate has always remained a mystery. There was, perhaps, truth in the report current afterwards that his gun and horses were seen in the possession of an Indian at Fort Hall, and it is most likely that he was followed by Indians from the very moment he left his companions and slain, as many a poor fellow has been, while all alone upon the great plains.
At Fort Hall the party of four met with a considerable train of immigrants, with some of whom they were acquainted, who decided to come to Oregon by way of our route. This train closely followed our companions on their return, and reached Hot Spring valley before our departure. Before starting on the morning of July llth, a small party of young men from the immigrant train generously voluntered to accompany us and assist in opening the road. These were: Thomas Powers, Burges, Shaw, Carnahan, Alfred Stewart, Charles Putnam, and two others whose names I now disremember. A Bannock Indian, from about the head of Snake River, also joined us. This increased our road party to twenty-one men, exclusive
