Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/324

318, yet the lateness of the season, together with their entire ignorance of a great portion of the pathless wilds and precipitous mountains over which they had to pass, subjected them to numerous and serious hardships. At times when they saw no way to move forward an additional obstacle was opposed to their advancement by heavy falls of snow, greatly increasing, and at the same time concealing the dangers of their perilous way. Their provisions became exhausted. Some of their animals had been killed by the Indians, some dashed to pieces by falling from the rocks, and those that remained, poor from want of sufficient food and worn down by the journey, were all upon which the little party had to depend for the support of life. After encountering delays and suffering much from anxiety, fatigue, hunger, and cold, they at length succeeded in getting down into the Sacramento Valley. Thin and feeble themselves they finally arrived early in the winter at Capt. Sutter's, on foot and leading their animals, which were no longer able to carry them. This was a point where they had designed for a time to terminate their travels, and here they found that abundance and repose to which they had so long and eagerly looked, and which their present condition so much required.

Almost all the suffering which the emigrants to California experienced was owing to the detention which they were compelled to make along the road for the purpose of supplying themselves with provisions. Had they been properly provided before the commencement of the journey, and not depended at all on the game, they would have avoided it almost entirely. It is to be wondered at that the person who assumed the leading of the party, and who was then making his second trip to California, had not learned from his experience to give better counsel; but in respect to those who were unacquainted with