This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com ) DE CALIPOD OF CAME CALIFORA OF CALIFORM HE UNIVERSI HOS ANGELES OF - CLISHININO : JUS N LOS ANGELE SHE LIBRARYO - THE - LIBRARYO ANGELES H LIBRARYO SHE - LIBRARYO THE UNIVERSI LOS NYOHITV ) : 40 < LOS ANGELES THE OF UNIVERSI CALIFOR CALIFORN THE UNIVERSIT ANGELES OF CALIFORN : OF NLOS TA YA YA 1711'0NY SOT T / SAND THIS LIBRARY THE - THE LIBRARYO - HE LIBRARY : O ) HE - LIBRARYO UNIVERSIT ) LOS ANGELES ONV : SON ( V / SHAINI JHA ANGELES OF CALIFORN OF CALIFORN : OF CALIFORA CALIFORN HE UNIVERSIT XLOS ANGELES COF SLOS Y SATION SOIN HELIBRARYO THE UNIVERSITI JOS ANGELES ELIBRARYO < HE LIBRARY THE UNIVERSITI YA THE GREAT CALIFORNIA TRAIL IN 1849 WAYSIDE NOTES OF AN ARGONAUT , By A. J. McCALL , Esq . BATH , N. Y. REPRINTED FROM THE STEUBEN COURIER . BATH , N. Y .: STEUBEN COURIER PRINT . 1882 . 5476 F 593 C71 M15 g 1882 a A775542 COPYRIGHT 1882 . BY H. 9. HULL 1066 CALIFORNIA TRAIL IN 1849 . THE GREAT excursion its phazos CHAPTER 1 . to enter upon the , preparations made for it . To the Editor of The Courier : and the pursued Starting from St. THE Joseph ROUTE , Mo. , we Nothing but your earnest and persist . induced me ent solicitation could have that Fort river Kearney , fol ,. care on a north the Platt - westerly ; thence course up to furnish you for publication the Sweet to lowing the north fork to the written and almost illegible nutes lessly that stream to the South overland trip in 1849. Water , and up kept by me on my westerly by way of Fort material facts or fig . Pass ; thence They contain no Lake , passing around science or history . Bridger to Salt ures beneficial to thence westerly to immediate per the head thereof ; They merely record the Humbolt , down that myself and asso- the source of the sonal transactions of the to the Sink ; thence west to such crude observations as river ciates , and the same to the Being with Trucke river , and up were naturally suggested . charts , they were of thence to out guide - books or of the tributary Nevadas of the , and Sacramento . reckoning while Bearsummit river , a to us in keeping our marvellous tales use I had no faith in the interminable plains . We the crossing the golden nuggets shimmerics in the distance between of knew generally streams of the Pacific slope , route . By mountain the principal points on our our point of departure , and inventionspeculators of . noting daily wildregarding visionaries them as or the shrewd more number of miles traveled day by the several articles for the village the viometer at- I wrote day , as measured by disparaging the reports , and the wagons , papers , tached to one of we discouraging the young and dead reckoning , especially could , by a system of taking the overland determine prox- inexperienced from such as sailors use at sea , concluded as route , One of the articles imately our position and progress . young men should stay being of no follows : “ Nice Now , our experiences think of going idea of “ at home ; none should possible benefit to any one , the -men of but mechanics or laborers them to the public never oocur- become giving nerve and iron - who desire to think you are mistaken in " those red to me . I citizens of the new country , or it is your job , not mine . " their value , but and can spare the or " who love adventure contain no thrilling incidents probability They means . There is hardly a accidents by food and field " | " in ** lgoving one in a thousand will make , and make attractive the that that add zest to his expenser . When the make them intel . " any event , láles of travelers . To considered , all must seems to matter is coolly to the general reader , it ligible the chances are a hundred should point out the agree that be necessary that I them . " how I came to one against rule traveleri and explain THE GREAT CALIFORNIA TRAIL IN 1849 . From my earliest recollection I had a THE ARGONAUTS . strong passion for travel and adventure . They poured in from every quarter I haul devoured with delight the fascinat- and hy erery kind of conveyance in ing stories of Irving and Cooper , and such numbers that it was sometimes longed to cross the great plains and difficult to find even camping grounds mountain chains of the continent and in the immediate vicinity oi the towns . mingle with the jolly Ruvers of the The fields and woods for miles around Wilderness . The times and circum- presented the appearance of a vast en stances aremed to be favorable to gratify campment . It was well that most of ibe dr am of years . these bold buccaneers came provided SEENES ON THE FRONTIER . with tents and camp furniture , for the I left Bath , in corupany with Dr. whole of Western Missouri could not James Read , on the 14th of March , 1819 , have furnished shelter and accoinmoda and arrived at St. Joseph on the 25th of tions for the immense multitude . April . That was our point of departure By far the largest part were organized and there our preparations were made . into caravans of from one to twenty The sights and scenes and phases of life teams , fully equipped and ready for the fo which presented theniselves ibere seem journey , and were only awaiting the worthy of mention . subsidence of the swollen streams and It is well known that the little , dingy , the growth of sufficieut grass for foraga . straggling towns on the Missouri , for a There were representatives of every na long period is the spring of the year , tionalty and country , but the “ Buck 1 assumed an importance that their sorry eyes ” and Hoosiers " the " Suckers " and and dilapitated appearance and their " Pikes , " the " Wolverines ” and “ Go remote and desolate situation would phers . " were largely in the ascendant . hardly warrant . They were the grand Perhaps so motley & gathering was Laavens of the great sea desert that swepl never seen before . Men of every race away between the valley of the Missis- and color , black and white , red and sippi and the remote Pacific . From brown , fiery spirits from the Sunny them , as soon as the snows disappeared South , calculating codgers from the and the plains put on their livery of rugged North , the gay and dashing blade green , were launched immense fleets of of fashion , the coarse , unkempt dweller wagon - ships , propelled by six or eight of the woods , black coats and black - legs , yoke of cattle , and freighted with rich lawyers and doctors , farmers and me cargoes for the Mexican markets or chanics , old and young , wives and With the household goods of nomadic mothers , maids and magdalens , the Yankees , bound for the sunny shores of wise and foolish , all lured by golden the Western Ocean . But all the stir dreams or wild adventure , were making and business of former years were noth- ready to try their mettle in a scamper ing sipared with the rush of 1849. of nearly a thousand leagues over the 1 Not Cristoval Colon , but an equally great plains . Tne lover of the grotes hair - brained adventurer , had discovered que , in one day , could have witnessed A new land abounding in the treasures scenes enough comical or grave , to have for wbich old Spais had sedulously employed his pen or pencil for years , bought ; and these frontier ports , like THEIR PREPARATIONS . Cadaz and Malaga , swarmed with a mot Bustle and confusion every where pre ly crew of " vagrom men " preparing to vailed . Some fretting themselves int embark on their perilous voyage to the a foam in fitting up their wagons new - found El Dorado . breaking in their teams , others who THE GREAT CALIFORNIA TRAİL IN 1849 . up their knives and burnishing their fire- see his rider with his feet uppermost locks , -they were all wild with excite- sticking in the mire , and he knows how ment , bardly knowing whether they to get him there . He meekly and quietly were a foot or on horseback , crediting ambles along until he discovers directly every idle rumor , inne easy dupes of cun- hefore him a murky pool , and , as he ning swindlers . It was evident that the reacher its brink , he comes to a dead large number were out of their places halt , as if an air - break had brought him and green hands in the business before to . Of course the simple biped Astride them . After worlds of vexation and is hurled by his own momentum head infinite trouble their supplies were pur . first into the yielding mud . The ass chased and their equipments completed . inine joker , with a seeming look of Under the advice of some sage gracle , mute surprise , while there is a merry they laid in an over - supply of bacon , ſtwinkle in the far corner of his eye , adů flour and beans , and in addition thereto | with an hermaphroditic bray , a cross be every conceivable jim - crack and useless tween a laugh and cry , calls the founder , article that the wildest fancy could de- ing Jonah to dry land . Now he discovers vise or human ingenuity invent - gold- on one side of the way a tree with con . ometers , gold washers , pins and needles , venient limbs or an awning sufficiently brooms and brushes , ox shoes and low to sweep the rider from his back , 1 horse shoes , lasts and leather , glass and on the instant , he throws his long beads and hawks - bells , jumping.jacks ears to the opposite side , pretending to and jewsharps , rings and bracelets , be suddenly terrified at an old log or pocket mirrors and pocket - books , calico broken cart , and shies sidewise until the vests and boiled shirts .