Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/66

58 his request; nobody could manage him. I got one load on, and in getting on another I made a blunder, the horse jumped and broke the girth. He was held with the end of a long rope. He kept jumping till he got loose, then went off with rope and bridle for good and always. Hess carried my saddle to camp, so I was out nothing but rope and bridle. The next day I wanted to go back with the boys to look for him but the company would not agree. I was a good hand in the water. We always thought if I had gone I would have got the horse. He was a noble horse. While I was helping get the goods over the river, the wagons crossed and lost my rifle, but I had another left.

We went from the lake on the summit to Sandy; there we had an increase of an infant by Mrs. Hembree. From there to Green River. Green River was deep fording. We propped up the wagon boxes and got over dry. Not much occurred from there to Fort Hall. There we found the wagons of the emigrants of 1842. Mr. Keizur got a wagon Vardmand Bennett had left. I left my horse-wagon, put my goods in Ben Young's old wagon, and drove his ox team to the dalles. Applegate got a boat to carry their goods down through the dalles with McClenden to steer the boat. He got scared, made for shore, capsized the boat and three were drowned, McClenden and two Applegate boys. Bill Wilson saved one boy, got him on the boat oars and swam to shore. Corny Stringer was in a canoe, got scared, jumped out and drowned. That made four drowned at the dalles. The Methodists had a mission at the dalles, and were very clever to the emigrants. I stopped with them a while and they gave me work. I was very near destitute. John Ford and I got a boat and went down the Columbia River to Vancouver. Dave Weston met us with a boat and helped us to Oregon City. We all got together below the city. Nimrod Ford saw two deer