Page:History of Utah.djvu/330

 MS., 8.

scampered off ia hordes. Frequently fifty or sixty had to be caught and killed before the family could sleep.^

The furniture was home-made, and very little of it at that. The table was a chest, and the bedstead was built into the corner of the house, which formed two of its sides, rails or poles forming the opposite sides; pegs were driven into the walls and rails, and the bed-cord tightly wound around them.^° The chim- neys were of adobe, and sometimes there was a fire- place in the corner wiuU a clay hearth.

In the early part of the year two brass cannon were purchased at Sutter's Fort for the church, by the battalion brethren.^^

During the winter of 1847-8, some Indian children were brought to the fort to be sold. At first two were offered, but the settlers peremptorily refused to buy them. The Indian in charge said that the chil- dren were captured in war, and would be killed at sunset if the white men did not buy them. Thereupon they purchased one of them, and the one not sold was shot. Later, several Indians came in with two more children, using the same threat; they were bought and brought up at the expense of the settlers. ^'^

Measles now appeared for the first time among the natives, who did not know where the disease came from or what to do. They assembled in large num- bers at the warm springs, bathed in the waters, and died.i^

' ' One contrivance for catching them was a bucketful of water with a board sloping at each end, greased and balanced ou the edge. The first cat and her progeny were invaluable. The green timber from the mountains was full of bed-bugs, another serious trouble.' Home's Aligrations, MS., 31.

1" This describes the furniture of the first liouse occupied in the fort by Brigham Young's family. Mrs Clara Young's Pioneer Ex., MS., 8.

" Forty-five of the battalion brethren contributing $512 for the purpose. Hist. B. Youni), MS., 1S48, 35.

■'■' ' Charles Decker bought one of the prisonci-s, a girl, who was afterward brought up in President Young's family. She married an Lidian chief named Kanosh.' WelW Narr., MS., 48.

" ' Some they buried, but not all. We buried thirty-six in one grave. They killed their dogs when their masters died.' Nebeker's Early Justice,