Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/564

Rh water-buckets. Neither savages nor game were found in this desolate region. There was no indication that it had ever been traversed by civilized man, and it slowly dawned upon the comprehension of the wanderers that their pilot knew nothing of the country to which he had brought them, and from which it was doubtful if he would be able to extricate them. In the mean time, extremes of temperature, improper and insufficient nourishment, with mental agitation, brought on a sickness known as mountain fever, while the children were attacked with dysentery from drinking the alkaline waters, resulting in several deaths.

Refusing to go farther in this direction and turning north from here, they were led over a dry ridge between the John Day and Des Chutes rivers, where again the supply of water was insufficient, and a hundred men rode all day looking in every direction for springs or streams, while a hundred others pursued the famishing stock which ran wildly in search of water. A company which had gone in advance of the main body here returned and reported, no better prospects so far as they had travelled. Despair settled upon the people; old men and children wept together, and the strongest could not speak hopefully. Only the women continued to show firmness and courage.

The murmurs which had for some time been breathed against their guide now became angry threatenings; the people refused to listen to his counsel when the trail became lost, and he was warned that his life w r as in danger. Meek realized what it was to be at the mercy of a frenzied mob in the wilderness, but was unwilling to desert them, because he knew from the general contour of the country and the advice of natives that they would reach the Columbia River in a few days by continuing a certain course.