Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/120

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a o;reat  deal  better,  and  the  brains  make  good  soup." When  accused  of  the  murder  of  Mrs  Donner,  he  said that  Mrs  Donner,  in  attempting  to  cross  from  one cabin  to  another,  had  "  missed  the  trail,  and  slept  out one night ;  that  she  came  to  his  camp  the  next  night very much  ftitigued;  he  made  her  a  cup  of  coffee, placed her  in  bed,  and  rolled  her  well  in  the  blankets, but the  next  morning  found  her  dead. He ate  her body, and  found  her  flesh  the  best  he  had  ever  tasted. He further  stated  that  he  obtained  from  her  body  at least  four  pounds  of  fat."

A.t the  close  of  a  general  summary  of  the  affair, the California  Star  of  the  10th  of  April  1847,  says: "After the  first  few  deaths,  but  the  one  all-absorbing thought  of  individual  self-preservation  prevailed. The  fountains  of  natural  affection  were  all  dried  up. The  chords  that  once  vibrated  with  connubial,  parental, and  filial  affection  were  rent  asunder,  and  each  seemed resolved,  without  regard  to  the  fate  of  others,  to  es- cape the  impending  calamity.  Even  the  wild  hostile mountain  Indians,  who  once  visited  their  camps,  pitied them ;  and  instead  of  pursuing  the  natural  impulse  of their  hostile  feeling  to  the  whites  and  destroying  them as  they  could  easily  have  done,  divided  their  own scanty  supply  of  food  with  them.  So  changed  had the  emigrants  become,  that  when  the  party  sent  out arrived  with  food,  some  of  them  cast  it  aside,  and seemed  to  prefer  the  putrid  human  flesh  that  still remained."

On his  return  to  the  east. General Kearney  passed by the  scene  of  these  tragical  occurrences,  and  halted there on  the  2 2d  of  June,  1847. He ordered  the  re- mains collected and  buried  in  one  of  the  cabins ;  some of the  bodies  presented  a  mummy-like  appearance, the flesh  having  remained  undecayed  in  the  dry  at- mosphere. Fire was  then  set  to  the  cabin,  and  so  was consumed as  far  as  possible  every  trace  of  the  melan- choly occurrence. Of the  eighty  persons  originally composing the  party,   thirty-six   perished