Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pioneers
way, as I remembered Tom and I used to work pretty nearly all day
sawing wood with a buck saw for 10 cents.
A son of Grant had charge of the post. He was a half-breed, anyway,
the emigrants had no confidence in him. We had such a comfort.
able camp near the fort, it was thought safe not to put out a guard that
night. Next morning it was found the cattle had been scattered and
part of them driven off. A party was organized and followed their
trail. Down the river near the crossing, they came across the body of
one of our largest oxen, killed. "Old Dave" was a very independent
kind of an ox and I suppose objected to being captured. Our party
was small at this time and it was not thought advisable to follow the
Indians any farther. We only - lost one ox, but Mr. Robert Foster,
. .
tranling with one wagon, lost his entire team. There stood the wagon,
wife and children, helpless in the wilderness, a lonely looking prospect.
Our people contributed each what they could spare and fitted
Mr. Foster out with a makeshift of a team. The Indians showed
themselves on the bluffs on the other side of the river, chasing up and
down and making all kinds of pranks to provoke us, but too far away
for the range of the old muzzle loading rifles the emigrants had in 1851.
Had we had a few of the Sharps rifles that came into use sometime after
this, the old plainsmen would have accepted the challenges the
savages were taunting us with by stooping over and offering their
backs for targets. We did not swim any that day in Snake River.
After this occurrence, while traveling along down by the river, an
Indian came into camp and stayed with our train one night and next
day, then disappeared. 'William Stone, an old scout, told Father:
"Now, be on your guard; likely we will be attacked in some place
along the traiL" As we were moving along by a little lower pass in
the hills on our left, Stone saw the face of an Indian peering around
a sage brush on the hill above and a little in front. I saw him the instant
Stone spoke. '\Ve came to a halt, formed in line with our guns,
and at Father's order charged np the slope of the hill. The Indians
skidaddled from their ambush and mounting their ponies, commenced
riding in circles, as I had seen pictures of them. Father could have
shot one old big fellow without any trouble and when asked by the
teamsters why he did not fire or let them shoot, he said: "I will never
take the life of a human being unless compelled to." Their object in
riding in circles was to prevent anyone getting a good aim at them, as
they would offer a much better target when riding straight away.
Several of the other emigrant parties had trouble in this region. We
came across some people camped by the road-side, waiting for some
change to take place, with a man who was shot through the bowels lying
on the bed of the wagon, his wife attending to him. He told us he
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