Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/608

Rh to them The narration of the misfortunes which attended the emigrants on Hastings' cut-off does not belong to this division of this history, but will be found in ''Hist. Cal., this series; also in McGlashan's Hist. of the Donner Party, and in Thornton's Or. and Cal.'', ii. 95-246. Thornton became well acquainted with Boggs of Missouri, and several of the most prominent persons in the California emigration, including the Donner party, and has recorded many facts concerning them. Hastings undoubtedly exaggerated in persuading the Donner company to take his route, and in trying to influence the Oregon immigrants to go to California, thereby producing the effect spoken of in the letter already quoted from Niles' Register. On the other hand, the Oregon committee sent out to counteract his influence, by showing the depositions of the last year's emigrants to California, added to the feeling of uncertainty. The travellers knew not which statement to believe, and chose at random which route to take. According to Hastings, the 800 miles between Fort Hall and the Pacific was a 'succession of high mountains, cliffs, deep canons, and small valleys,' with a scarcity of fuel along the Snake and Columbia rivers. McGlashan in the ''Hist. Donner Party'', 22, says that Bridger and Vazquez, who had charge of Fort Bridger, earnestly advised the California emigration to take Hastings' cut-off, because they wanted to sell supples to the trains which would otherwise refit at Fort Hall. He also says that Hastings was a famous hunter and trapper, and employed to pilot the emigration: which departure from facts clouds the credibility of the previous assertion. Time confirmed the merits of the Hastings cut-off as a road to California; and it is certain that to dissensions among themselves, and unwise delays, was to be attributed the tragedy of Donner Lake. with so much urgency. The remainder of the California company kept to the old route turning off west of Fort Hall.

When Applegate's party were at that post, they met and conversed with many persons on the subject of routes, among whom was a company led by William Kirquendall, to which belonged Thornton and Boggs, and which determined to take the southern route, piloted by the explorers. Without question Applegate represented, as he believed, that the southern route was superior in many respects to that along the Snake and Columbia rivers. The grass, except on the alkali desert, which he expected in returning to avoid for the most part, was better than in the Snake country; there were no mountains to cross before coming to the Cascade Range, and the pass through it was greatly superior to the Mount Hood pass; while in the Klamath, Rogue River, and Umpqua valleys grass and water were of the greatest excellence and abundance. The distance he judged to be shorter than by the old route, though in this he was mistaken. Influenced by the misrepresentation of Has-