Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/408

 398 PETER H. BURNETT. first a limited supply of food at a time. It required all her firmness and patience to resist their passionate en- treaties for more food. When the poor, starved creatures could not persuade they violently abused the good lady because she did not comply with their demands. Eddy said that he himself abused her in harsh terms. All this she bore with the kind patience of a good mother, waiting upon a sick and peevish child. I expressed my surprise to Eddy and Foster that all the women escaped, while eight out of the ten men perished, saying that I supposed it was owing to the fact that the men, especially at the beginning of the journey, had per- formed most of the labor. They said that, at the sta'rt, the men may have performed a little more labor than the women ; but taken altogether, the women performed more labor than the men, if there was any difference. After the men had become too weak to carry the gun, it was carried by the women. Women seemed to be more hope- ful than men in cases of extreme distress; and their or- ganization seems superior to that of men. A mother will sit up and wait upon a sick child much longer than the father could possibly do. The Eddy party were about thirty days in making the trip. Other parties left the cabins and made their way into the settlement, after losing a considerable portion of their number on the way. Many died at the cabins from starvation. Forty-four of the Donner party escaped, and thirty-six perished. A LONELY GRAVE -DEATH OF DAVID RAY JOHN C. McPHERSON. The first Sunday after my arrival in the mines, I was strolling on the side of the hill back of the camp, among the lonely pines, when I came suddenly upon a newly- made grave. At its head there was a rude wooden cross,