Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/144

120 The number of men in the party is variously stated in the different accounts of this part of the journey. The same is true of the number of horses. This is not at all strange, for the numbers varied at different stages. It would seem also that the word "party" as used by Kelley included both himself and Young, while Young used it to define those who were subordinate to him. Young's account, as quoted by Kelley, follows:

"We set out from Monterey with seven men and forty or fifty horses, and on our way through the settlements bought some more. When we arrived at the last settlement, St. Joseph, we encamped there five days to get some supplies of provisions. I left the camp and went to the bay of San Francisco, to receive some horses that I had bought before leaving Monterey. When we set out from the last settlement, I had seventy-seven horses and mules. Kelley and the other five men had twenty-one, which made ninety-eight animals which I knew were fairly bought. The last nine men that joined the party had fifty-six horses. Whether they bought them, or stole them, I do not know."

On the second day out from San Jose, a small band of men overtook the party. These were the men referred to in Young's statement. They were unwelcome, but there was no way to get rid of thm. Kelley declared, "I neither gave consent or dissent to their traveling with the party; for I could not prevent it; and Capt. Young did not object." Both Kelley and Young gave the number of newcomers as nine, but four evidently dropped out, for Kelley's later references to them give the number as five. These men Kelley characterized as "marauders," and the term was aptly chosen, as is evident from his account of what followed.

"After a few days, those men, finding that I was not dis-