Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1859-08-27
The Mountain Meadows Massacre.
\ TALE OF HORROR


on then way from Arkansas to California;
were maSsacrcd at Mountain Meadows. by
the Indians, as was reported; but various
subsequent developments have established
the conviction that these were tools in the
hands of the Normons themselves. An
eyewitness of the transaction has been
found at last, and the San Francisco Bullc-
tin has received, from an official source at
Salt Lake, statement of his account of
the affair. He says tue massacre was de-
signed and carried into execution to get
possession of the thirty wagons and seven
or eight hundred head of cattle BELONGING
to the cmigrants. His statement which is
as follows, Gvcals a most shocking cXhibi-
tion of cruelty and crime That civilized
beings could be guilty of such conduct
seems hardly credible:
"Whilc | was residing at Cedar City, I
was called upon hy NicSsrS, Isaac Hight,
Joan d. Lee and John High, c---all three
Mormon military ollccrs-to 90 afew miles
out South of the city, which did There
| found thirty or forty others, selected
from different settlements. We were ad-
dressed by the above officers, who told us
that they had sent CanoSh, the Paravant
Chief with his warriors to destroy the Ar
kansas company and that if he had not
done it we must; and that if any of us
refused, or betrayed them to the Americans,
they would take good care of him hcrcaf-
ter. Hero we were all ordered on the quick
march to the Mountain Meadows, where
we found the cmigrants, with their wagons
formed into two circles, with their families
IN the midst, trying to defend themselves
against the mcrcilcss and ood-thirsty saw
ages, who lay around in the Ambush, kill
ing them as Opportunity presented.
=" Hight and Lee formed their men in
two companies and made prccipitant rush
Mt the poor dcfcncclcss victims. The men
inside Of the circles rose up, hut instantly
fell dead or wounded under the fire of the
wrctchcs who so cruelty sought their lives
Nothing remained to be done except to kill
the frightened females and their innocent
children claspcd in their arms. Others
clung with desperation to their bleeding,
dying husbands, pleading in vain for mcr-
cy ut the hands Of the "ChriStianS' who
controlled the no more savage Indian as
sailants.
".Iom d. Lee now sent to the Indian
chief andihis men in ambush to como out
and finish the survivors, directing him to
Spnre only The little children who could not
talk. The savagcs came Instantly with
knives drawn, and speedily finished the
bloody work The scene bcwgars dcscrip-
ton. The dcmoniac yells of the savage
monsters, mingled with the shricks and
prayers of helpless mothers and daughters,
while the death. blows wcro dealing with
untlinchimg hands, and scalps were torn
from heads Which bloomcd with beauty
and innocence but few hours before. =
Now the work of butchcry ended The
murdcrers threw the dead into two heaps
covered them slightly with earth, and left
them to feed the wolves and birds of prey,
and returned home with their booty of cat
tie, and wagons, and great quantity of
goods, etc.
GoLD.-.t cubic inch of gold is worth
ono hundred and forty-six dollars a cubic
foot, two hundred and flty-two thousand.
two hundred and cightyeight dollars -
a cubic yard, six millions, eight hun
drcd and eleven thousand, seven hundred
and scvcnty-six dollars. The quantity of
gold now i'll existence is estimated to he
three thousand millions of dollars, which,
welded into one mass, could be contained
in a cube of twenty-threc feet The rcla
tive value of gold to silver, in the days of
the patriarch Abraham, was one to eight at
the period of b. C.. 1000, it was one to
twelve; b. G. 500, it was one to thirteen;
at the commencement Of the Christian Era,
it was one to nine n. ID. 800, it was one