Page:Recollections of My Boyhood.djvu/93

Rh lower Klamath lakes, across Lost River and along the shore of Tule Lake, and thence around the south end of Goose Lake and over the mountains in a southeasterly direction to the Humbolt River. After more than three months of perils, privations and hardships they reached home in October, having blazed a route by which immigrants could reach the Willamette country. I give here a short extract from father's account of this road expedition, written in 1878, thirty-one years after the event. This sketch takes up the narrative of the experiences of the party when on the return trip:

"No circumstances worthy of mention occurred on the monotonous march from Black Rock to the timbered regions of the Cascade chain; then our labors became quite arduous. Every day we kept guard over the horses while we worked the road, and at night we dared not cease our vigilance, for the Indians continually hovered about us, seeking for advantage. By the time we had worked our way through the mountains to the Rogue River Valley, and then through the Grave Creek hills and Umpqua chain, we were pretty thoroughly worn out. Our stock of provisions had grown very short, and we had to depend, to a great extent, for sustenance, upon game. Road working, hunting and guard duty had taxed our strength greatly, and on our arrival in the Umpqua Valley, knowing that the greatest difficulties in the way of the immigrants had been removed, we decided to proceed at once to our homes in the Willamette. There we arrived on the 3rd day of October, 1846, having been absent three months and thirteen days. During all this time our friends had heard nothing from us, and realizing the dangerous character of our expedition, many believed in the rumor which sometime before reached them, that we had all been murdered by the Indians. As soon as we could possibly make the arrangements, we sent out a party, with oxen and horses, to meet the immigrants and aid them in reaching the Willamette settlements. For this assistance we made no demand; nor did we tax them for the use of the road, as was alleged by parties inimical to our enterprise. It had been the distinct understanding that the road should be free, and the consciousness of having opened up better means of access to the country than was afforded by the expensive and dangerous route down the Columbia which we had tried to