Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1859-06-24
From the White Cloud Kansas) Chief, June 9th.
Horrible Tales of Suffering on the
pIafu=-

Two young men named Erastus B. Giffn'
and Preston Gates, of Williamsburg, Wayne
County, Indiana, have arrived here direct from
Denver City. They went out last October,
and left Denver on the 9th of May. A gentle
man in the place was acquainted with them,
and pronounces them to be perfectly reliable.
They prospected two months and made 50 40,
all told.
They prospected up and low the Platte,
and on the head waters of the Colorado
They think there may be some gold in the
mountains, but there is no chance to get it, as
there is deep snow all the year round, with the
exception of about two months. The best
days digging they did paid them 81 06. This
was on another mans claim, who wanted to
sell it and come home. They asked to try it
first, when they worked one day at washing
dirt the fellow had thrown up. They worked
with a long tom and sluice, and washed out
81 O6. They then worked four days longer,
digging up the dirt for themselves and in the
four days they took out fifteen cents! After
that the pay was still smaller, when they gave
it up. They are confident that the fellow had
prepared his pile of dirt as a bait.
They report horrible sufferings en- the Smoky
Hill route, which has been so b~e-puffed in som
of the papers. When they left, but ten per-
sons had reached the mines by that route, who
reported that three hundred had died on the
way. One of the men reported that he had
seen six dead men lying within reach of each
other and another said he had himself buried
twelve men. These men came struggling in
one by one. One of them had lived ten days
ON the flesh of his dog. They reported that
some had lost their way. Scouts were imme-
diateiy sent out, ard some of the lost ones
found within ten miles Of the camp, so weak
that they had to be fed with spoons.
In Denver City several months since lots
were selling as high as three hundred and fifty
dollars. When the young men left, donation
shares, containing eight lots, could be bought
for five dollars. Denver has several hundred
cabins, many of which have no roofs. They
are occupied by any one who chooses to do so.
The proprietors have made a poor speculation,
as there is not money enough in the country to
pay the house-rent. Provisions were very
scarce, and bread was selling at fifteen cents
per pound. The baker was the only person
who had any god dust, for those who had got
any were compelled to buy bread with it.
One of our informants gave the baker a gun,
Which, COot hln l~fHty SA uOlldFS, lE FOuT
pounds Of bread.
These young men threw their tools into the
Platte, and started home on foot, taking only
two blankets with them. For two hundred
miles they lived on p~rickly-pears and wild po-
tatoes. They built but two fires from Denver
to Fort Kearny. Once they killed a prairie
dog and roasted it. Another time, they came
to where a man and his family were encamped,
and asked for bread. The man at first refused
it, but at length agreed to let them have o
for which he took their blankets as pay -
They then had to sleep on the bare prairie,
and once the Cheyenne Indians came near ta-
king their coats from them
A young man named Wm. Fl. Joslyn and
another person, from Monroe County, New
York, have since arrived, and report similar to
the above, and much more which would be in
teresting had we room for it. They spent a
greater part of their time in the company of
old mountaineers, who assured them that gold
could not be found there in paying quantities.
We hear enough every week to fill our paper,
and are enabled to give but a few principal
items.