Arkansas intelligencer., 1849-04-28
For the Republican.
Heigh-hO; fOt California.

say, stranger, whlher bound! To California.
Not with your family? Yes. Do you expect to
get there with that Old mare aud coIr those poor,
weak oxen, and that old rickety wagon? Whv
reckon Where did you come from? Hi
wassee district, Tennessee. | was fo,ched up in
Bunkum, North Carolina, but when | grew I'D,
moved to Hwassee and married, but never could
get ahead there, and whet heard tell of the Ca
liforna country. and gold to be picked up there,
| sold out my Improvements and took this wagon
and team in payment, packed up our duds, and
are on our way there. You know that fortunes
blind there's no telling the luck of lousy calf,
so thought it igh, be my good fortune to get
some Of the gold as well as any others. But, sir,
your team cannot get there. You will neither
find grass. grain nor food for them or yourselves
on the plains 1t is long, dreary road no houses,
no wood and il will be two months yet before
there will be grass enough to fill those oxen and
beast on The whole route and further, when the
grass is up near the settlements, it is long time
after before any of account will be up beyond,
and the further you 60, the worse.
Well, III stop awhile-turn in and work till it
grows. But where will you work Z There is
no body to hire, or work to do-what then? You
are too far advanced to return, you cannot go
ahead, and you in dreary desert country,
without wood, water or anything 10 eat, with a
wife and children looking up to you for relief and
support; your team exhausted and become food
for wolves, and before long yourself and family
will follow your team. Thus ends the mad ca
reer Of an Hiwassee pioneer and family.
Next comes company of young men from
some eastern city, with fine appearance, strength
and talent, yet unacquanted with the life of an
old campaigner, unused to lie on the ground cook
ing, and thousand other little inc cdents attending
long, monolonous, dreary march. In few
,~bt. LaIl -
muscle and part, and you feel scarcely able to
move; yet the Time has come 70 be up and moving
ahead, another days J0nrney-hunt up your oxen,
yoke them. pack in your ixins. and wo.haw,
Buck, Bright, get along you BrindIe-what are
you about, old Bawley? Zip, you dogs, HE up
lend hand here, John. Jake, Josh. for these
darned horned horses can't bulge an inch. While
others are rolling on in the distance, you
stalled in the mud hole-broke an axle, tongue
something out of fx-away you tug, sweat, fret
and tear hp the ground. but all to no effect your
steers won't pull-one has a sore neck, another
lame; one gives out and none TO put in his place,
and you are 10 bad fix.
Methinks see. about the Goth Of April, IS49.
thousand wagons spreading out from lndepen-
dence and st. Joseph. ON the road towards Fort
Laramie, with some three or four thousand emf
grants-men, women and chdren-all vending
their "ay W GIG Sciu feSous oi the OacratneHto,
stralnDg every nerve and urging on their teams
to their greatest speed, in order to be the first TO
arrive the grass thinIy scattered here and there,
and in spots and piaces few and far between the
ground yet cold. the waters high. and, still further
ahead, the SHOWS of the past winter untha wed.
ln yonder creek, some dozen wagons, horses,
mules and oxen, all tangled UP in the harness :;
wagons broken, lame and crippled anmals-all
in a perfect jam-old men frisklng about. children
squaIing. men raving. roaring. cursing and swear
ing. about their bad luck. A little ahead appears
a portentous black cloud, the lightning flashing,
thunders roaring. peal after peal !; the rain begins
to descend, the wind blows, thicker and faster falls
the watery element; the whole canopy of heavsr,