Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/152



124 Fred Wilbur Powell

through the construction of railroads engaged Kelley's atten- tion, if we are to credit a statement first made eighteen or twenty years afterwards :

"While in California, in 1834, exploring the valley of the Sacramento, where, at that time, none, but wild men dwelt; and none but savage hunters roamed ; cogitating upon internal improvements, I planned a branch to extend from some point in the route, after the transit of the Rocky Mountains, to the Bay of San Francisco."^^

Meanwhile the "iron constitution" of Kelley, which had sus- tained him through pestilence-ridden Mexico and borne up under innumerable hardships, had become weakened, and he fell a victim to malaria.

"When exploring the low and pestilential tracts in the Southern region of the Sacramento valley,^ I contracted the fever and ague. It rapidly increased and soon became terrible. Just after . . . entering Oregon ... my party was providentially made to halt at the very moment when the ende- mic was having its worst effects upon me, and when I could no longer be borne on horseback. My strength had rapidly wasted, and at times I fainted and fell from the saddle.

"While in a thickly wooded mountain, it suddenly came on dark, and we were obliged to stop for the night in the midst of woods and thick darkness. Lowering partly down from the animal, I fell, the stones and leaves on which I fell composed my bed. In the morning it was found that some of the horses and pack mules had strayed away. We, however, proceeded on two or three miles, and encamped on an open stretch of ground. Capt Young, my conductor, and the men who had been of his hunting party, returned to the mountains to search after the lost animals. This caused a delay. The Ave marauders, who had attached themselves to my party, two days after leaving

17 Narrative of Events and Difficulties. 71 -a; SsttUmsnt of Oregon, 8. "This,** be continued, ''coincides with the yiews of the Hon. T. H. Benton, expressed in • speech made by him in Congress, upon the subject of a railroad to the Pacific."

1 8 "I crossed the rapids of the Sacramento at what was said to be its lowest ford, in latitude 39 deg. 35 min. Several of our horses were borne away by the torrent" — Blcmoir, 51. This was north of Butte Qty, on the line b etw e en Butte and Glen counties.