Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/448

Rh north branch was forded. Four days more of travel brought them to the Sweetwater, and on the 3d of August the snowy peaks of the Rocky Mountains came in sight.

Up to this time everything had gone well; the company retaining its original number, save five, who turned back at the first crossing of the Platte. But on the 4th of August, Clayborne Payne died of fever, and was buried beside the road, the funeral services being conducted by a Methodist preacher named Garrison. At the Big Sandy, a tributary of Green River, died Mr Stevenson, August 9th. Considering the number of persons on the march, and the privations incident to camp life, the health of the emigrants was remarkably good, sickness and the death rate* being scarcely greater than in a community of the same size in towns. There were births as well as deaths. Many an emigrant to Oregon first saw the light beneath a canvas tent on the roadside.

No difficulty occurred with the natives; the numbers present, and recollections of chastisement a few years previous, by Captain Bennett Riley, with his artillery, deterring them from predatory or hostile acts. After passing Independence Rock caution was considered necessary, and the two principal divisions were broken into smaller companies for greater convenience. Likewise this was a pleasant arrangement, as leading men now found themselves at the head of the smaller divisions, and associated with those of congenial habits. Friendships were formed and cemented which lasted through life, surviving all the struggles and changes of the founding of a new empire.