Hillsdale Whig standard. (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1846-1851, 1850-09-24


22d One Of our horses. an Indian pony.
can no longer keep ID; We leave the lirio
fellow by the roadside, with his pack-saddle.
1ve miles from water. The next day some
poor fellows, reduced to starvation, Kill him
and eat what they want, aad carry along a.
much as thoy can
26th. Reached the great bend Of the Hum
eoldt where the road fogss. Find several
teams and nearly q hundred men camped
there resting and gathering grass u cross
be desert, waich they expected to strike by
travelling ten miles Oh the right-hoad road,
which has received the fdghtfo. appslIation
of the Derlh route. or death cutoff. No ono
at the head knows positive which is the road.
but all think it is the righl-h hand; we rest our
animals, take on fifty pounds Of grasssnd six
quarts of water TO start, 'two OF u.s. Just al
sunset as we suppose To cross tho desert.---
We have travelled more than ten miles and
are yet vending our way in a narrow bqt
well-bcaten 70 d. along aud up wide aud
deep gorge in The mountain; the sage bushes
are larger and thicker, and We can see an oc
casional cluster Of wild wheat. These uro
iIl-omeus Of the proximity Of the desert.
whose vicinity for fifteen miles is almost as
drsolate aud slerl as the desert itself 1t ID
midnight and we are travelling yet. AT
length we hear the braying of mule-thO
music OF the spheres could not have been
sweeter, A trSin of packers come in sight,
they beg us TO turn back; they are hundred
IN number and have been leo miles on that
road until Il became no road at all. They
had travelled day and night into the des-
ert and had been day and night in re-
turning. having left one-therd of their AM
mails; they we're on the point OF starvation
had not pint of flour to tho man in the
whole company. I'VE have since learned
that that road crosses the Nevada, near tho
head of Feather river, and 10 the most toll
some, desolate and dangerous route in North
America One Of them had mule worth
hundred dollars which he offered for ten
pounds Of -four; but we had none, and no
more OF any thing else than self-preseryaion
demanded They had already turned back
more than hundred that started from tho
bend the same day we did. We turned OF
course, and camped on the mountain about
one in the morning.
eth Reached the bank Of the Humboldt
at ten in the morning. Gentlemen, it is pos
sible you may not be able to call to mind lust
now any river whose head is larger than its
mouth, or which rises in nameIess noun
tains and runs in all directions and is much
OF the way large enough to float steame,
and after boiling, flaming and roaring among
mountains and through vast plains for three
or four hundred miles, finally eddies ami
whirls and emptes into the ground, leaving
no trace ofits former majesty. Such is the
Humboldt. The place where il disappears
entirely, is called its sink. Here the road
lead across the desert forty miles. We star
ted from the sulphur springs at the sink, at
z. NJ, of the 29th, and reached the banks
Of the Salmon Troute River on the other
side. quarter before six the next morning,
stopping at. midnight one hour. Men are
starving and eating horses, and mules al!
along the road; more than a dozen begged Of
me for mouthful of bread; hard as it was. /
was obliged to refuse in most every instance.
did give one man my own allowance whicu
was already reduced one-half, when from
real hunger and exhaustion. he staggered to-
wards me and asked a mouthful. | am not
alone in this; many who have not enough t.
last them through, are starving themselves
to relieve the sufferers in some slight degree.
| saw one man who shot one Of his horses L.
feed few men who were starving. There
is train along from St. Louis, who have "a
large surplus. of which they sell every article
at two dollars the pound to those who have
money, and those who have mono, they send
starving away
Yours, truly, d. WOOSTER.