Butte record., 1854-12-30

y ~~~ -
Death of the Assassins Confessiom of
the Robbers! -Four americans and six
Cinnamon Robbed and Muydercd ! He
roic Conduct OF Capt Darts! Dcs-
truction of the Gang Coromer's In
quest.
PLAcERvILLE, Dec. 90, 2P. NJ
The 'tMountan Democrat Extra,
says: ''We received the following start
ling intelligence last night after our pa
per had been worked off.
"Rocky Canon, the place Of the
tragedy, is deep and almost inaccessi-
bic canon, about thirty miles north OF
this place, near Todd's Valley and un-
inhabited.
Rocky Canon, Dec. 20.
ono officers having been within con
venient distance, to attend to case of
emergency, that has just happened near
oui isolated camp in the mountains here
the undersigned constituted themselves
a Coroner's jury, and held an inquest
over the deceased bodies of twelve men,
who were killed within mile of our
camp ON the 10Th inst, full account of
which We deem it our duty to publish.
Three of the undersigned, were eye
witnesses to the whole scene, though
TOO far off to give aid in any way, and
the rest of us can readily vouch for their
veracity.
On Saturday, 10th inst, three men,
who afterwa ds proved to be Mr.. Jas
G. Mcdonald, Of Alabama, now decd,
a Dr. Bolivar A. Sparks, Of Miss, and
Capt. Jonathan r. Davis, of South Car
olina, were travelling on foot on trail
within mile of our camp, to prospect
a vein of gold bearing quartz, some 20
or 80 milos north Of this place. As they
were passing at the base of the noun
tain, three OF the undersigned being ont
on hunting expedition on its side, saw
part y of eleven men who were con-
cealed in the bushe, near the trail,
spring up and commence firing at them.
Mr. Mcdonald had fallen dead ere he
had fired a pistol, or was even aware of
his danger.
Gle and his party had nothing but
their revolvers. Dr. Sparks shot twice
at the banditti, and then fell severely
wounded In the meantime, Capt. DAv-
is, who was the fist TO commence shoo-
ting in defence of himself, in an instant
after the first volley from the Robbers.
being still unhurt, kept up an incessant
firing upon them with his revolvers eve
ry bail forcing its vctlm to bite tie dust.
until all the loads of both revolvers SEEM
ed to have been discharged. Tho only
foar surviving robbers made charge
upon Copt. Davis, three with bowie
knives and one with a short sword or ST.
bre. Capt. Davis stood firmly on his
ground until they rushed up abreast
within about four steps of him. He
then made sudden spring Immediately
upon them, and with large Bowie
knife warded off their blows as fast as
they were aimed at him, and gave three
of them wounds that soon proved fatal
He wounded the other one very slightly,
having disarmed him by throwing his
knife in the air in warding off a blow
As this last man expressed in tone of
gratitude before his death, Capt. Davis
went to work at once tearing up his own
shirt, and binding up al the wounds Of
the living of both friends and enemits
On examination of the persons of de-
ceased of those that commenced the at
tack on Capt. D. and party. we discov-
cred papers carefully concealed in their
their pockets, purporting to be a copy of
laws and by laws by which they were
governed The last of this band has
inst died. His wound be thought him
self but slight, and seemed in fair way
to recover until within the last hour,
and corrobboratcd all the evidence by
the papers in their pockets. If DR.. S.
we'll enough to trrvcl. Capt Davis speaks
of moving him down TO his friends to-
morrow. In conclusion, we deem it due
to state, that from all the evidence be-
fore us, Capt. D. and his party acted
solely in self-defence We send this
communication to your paper because
the bearer having very sick family be-
low will travel posthaste all night to
Placerville. Signed, w. G. Thompson,
Joseph Hampton, P. S. Robertson, G.
W. Hendricks, D. E. Norris, J. J.
Wingate, W. A. Newman. J. c. Lewis.
S. G. Marshall, t. G. Wallis, A. Hews
j. Webster, 0. E. Clark, J. J. Trist.