Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/610

Rh Before the Applegates left the caravan at Thousand Springs to smooth as far as possible the road which the wagons were to follow, they instructed the immigrants *to be careful in passing through the country occupied by savages, no companies of less than twenty wagons being considered safe; that diligence should be used in travelling, and that in making the long drives over the desert portions of the road certain precautions should be observed. With these explicit directions, and two reliable men as guides, they apprehended no difficulty for those who were to follow.

The first companies to take the road after the explorers were those led by Harrison Linville, and a Mr Vanderpool; and although upon them fell the severer toil of breaking the track, and reopening the road over the Cascade Mountains made by Applegate's company, which a fire had filled in places with fallen timber, they arrived in the Rogue River Valley on the 9th of October; while the rear companies, disregarding the instructions of the guides, loitered by the way, some, indeed, from circumstances over which they had no control, but many from dilatoriness and a desire to evade sharing in the labor of road-making. These detained the main companies, some of whom were compelled to wait for them at the parting of the California and Oregon roads on the Humboldt, because Goff, their guide, was compelled to do so, lest they should mistake the turning-off point.