Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/100

82 Laramie, with two companies, under Colonel Benjamin Roberts; and another at Cantonment Loring, three miles above Fort Hall, on Snake River, with an equal number of men under Major Simonson, the command being transferred soon after to Colonel Porter. The report made by the quartermaster is an account of discomforts from rains which lasted to the Rocky Mountains; of a great migration to the California gold mines where large numbers died of cholera, which dread disease invaded the military camps also to some extent; of the almost entire worthlessness of the teamsters and men engaged at Fort Leavenworth, who had no knowledge of their duties, and were anxious only to reach California; of the loss by death and desertion of seventy of the late recruits to the regiment; and of the loss of property and life in no way different from the usual experience of the annual emigrations.

It was designed to meet the rifle regiment at Fort Hall, with a supply train, under Lieutenant G. W. Hawkins who was ordered to that post, but Hawkins