Western union. (City of Hannibal, Mo.) 1850-1851, 1851-01-09

tracts from a letter, received this week, from
Mr.. J. s. BucnAsAS. The letter was brought
by Capt. A. S Romans. Mr.. Buchanan ar.
rived in the mines. fifty mile. from s.,rom-n,.
Guy. on the 18Th VI September. He LIFT Salt
LAX. on the ~ Of July, aud describes his rip
as tedious and perIlous:
SACRAMENTO CRY, Cal, Oct. 81 80.
- From Salt Like We took the Salt
Lake Cut or" and owing TO our folly in fol.
lowing pretended guide "a Frenchman) we
took the wrong road, aud passed around the
south terminus instead Of tho north Of tho
"Humboldt" nounttin, which proved TO be q
"cut on, instead OF "cut off, p" and brorgh, us
in the heart Of the Sho Shonce Indian Nation,
which caused us considerable trouble in killing
aud running of our stock and would not Let US
alone until we were forced to take some oftbeir
iop-knofs. One night on the South Fork Of
st. Mary's RIVER, they stampeded ~ head Of
cattle and 10 horses belonging to our company.
as good luck would have il (fur our mesa at
least the cattle and our 5 horses ran one wiz,
and the balance of the horses (among which
were John Brady's) ran another, aud before
day light our horses came back to the wagon
the others running towards The mountains. in
which the Indians were encamped, the yellow
buggars fell in after them and succeeded in Sc
curing them all except mule belonging to Bra.
dy, which was recovered. Brady and another
young man took the track, followed them into
the mountains and found the horses in posses
sion of the Indians. They captured an Indian
poney, shot once at nh Indian. and left, and re-.
turned to camp. About 3 o'clock a small com
pany 6 in number helieve,) returned to the
mountains, 2 of whom we're ON hor seback.-
They sought in vain Tor the Indians until near.
ly dark. when the lootmen returned, and the
two on horseback continued the pursuit until a
bout dark, when they came upon Indians with
8 horses, Gone of which belonged to Brady the
others Indian poneys. Without hesitation they
pounced upon the Indians, killing the 4, and
capturing all the horses, which, with a scalp a.
piece, they brought into camp about 10 o'clock
at night. with shouts of trium pin which made the
neighboring mountains fairly ring. Seeing the
Indian fires on every side high up in the noun
tains, il struck me that they were council fires,
and that the alarm had been circulated, aud that
they were collecting their forces to attack us
consequently ! fully expected a visit from them
about day break, as that i. tho hour they gen
orally choose for an attack. ! walked around
the grounds Of the encampment the blessed
night with my gun in my hands-but they new
er showed themselves. We left early the mex,
morning without being interrupted. Since our
arrival here, have heard ola good many whites
as well as a number Of Indians being killed in
that vicinity. The emigra had considerable
trouble and several skirmishes with them along
The Humboldt river, until we reached the last
Gao mie) desert.
On the Salt Lake route we crossed a desert
of SO miles, 0pnn the latter end Of which there
wa. a great deal Of suffering of bIih me-: aud
beasts, owing to tha characterization ot ME- same
guide sludrd 10 above. fIc stated that il va,
only 90 miles across consequently water and
grass were procured accordingly, and became
Exhausted much sooner than they otherwise
would Had room would detail to you some
Of tho instance, of human suffering OH this &c.
rasion, and IN some cases death was the conss.
qnsmce. a great number Of animals persisted
on I'm, nee 'son jus, inr the want OF water, and
had II not been tor the humanity Of the emf
grant, Who had the good fortune TO get thro '
sale, (nmong whom was julie Cabennc) in sen.
ding back wagon loads Of water, God only
knows to what extent The suffering would have
been seen aud felt, At the last desert Go! 40
miles) the destruction Of ANIMALS, wagons and
other proper y, cannot be imagined by any one
except an eye witness. Something like 400
miles before encountering this desert, the road
leads down the dirty, CRASHES river, llumbolt,
tho water o: which Is warm, muddy and strong
" imprsgna!eL with aIkali which 10 poisonous
to both man anI beast, aud in manv instances
even tho beast refuses to drink it and even the
grass (what little there Boy is also poisoned
with il. Owing to the cause, just mentioned,
by the time teams arrive at the desert, they are
too weak to endure the hard work requisite to
draw the wagons across The most oi,he road
across this desert is heavy sand, from to 10
inches deep, which makes it a constant heavy
drag, and requires good team. We got through
with only two Of our horses, my tavorite bay
horse "Cop" (the very horse that Robert said
would give out iirst) and horse that we swap.
ed for OF the way, but they were both so far
gone that we sold them for $40 apiece. We
hero purchased n wagon md four yoke Of cattle
which brought u, through. From This place q
mean the terminus Of the dcsert) we had TO pay
a, high a. So pound for -four, and everything
else accordingly,
From labour aid fatigue Gin walking all day
in the dust and attending to the cattle and
cookine) | was ngain taken sick in Carson
Valley" some 100 miles from this place, and
remained so until after my arrival in this city.
When arrived in Hangiown, (the first gold
diggins we come to, about 80 miles from this
city,) was not able to sit up, and had my
camp pitched m a neghboring hill, refusing to