Red Wing sentinel. [volume] (Red Wing, M.T. [i.e. Minn.]) 1855-1861, 1859-02-12
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cate, failed TO answer your letter and failed
to make anything there, soft wasa, general
failure all around. You have heard Of the ex-
element the discovery Of the Frazer River
Gold diggings, raised throughout California.
and of the thousands who left to go there =
was among the number. Sci
! started from San Francisco the 10th day
of May, in 4 Sail vessel, iend sker tedious
passage of,twenty, siy days arrived at Viz
toria, vancouver's island, where, l, in COM
pany with four others, built = small boat
and loaded it with grub and started ibr
Frazer. Going up the straits Of Fuca and
crossing the cir d Georgia, ,ws = entered
the, mouth Of the river. II is two hundred
miles from the mouth, to Fort Yale, our dcs-
tination, which we, made in twenty days,
nard pulling. > The Frazer is = very difficult
stream to ascend, and is filled with rap
ids and swhirlpeols, So that aopes DIS we
We were,se.vehf idays ff6mR Victoria to Fort
Langley; ten from thence to Fort Hope, and
three from Fort Hope To- Fort sYale.s Many
persons have been drowned and many Kill
led by the Indians in making this trip, but
with Us were thirty: boats and ,.pwards Of q
hundred and 'fifty -men all we'll armed; SO the
Indians did not see fit to modest US. ga 1s;
AT Fort Yale we found the gold digpings
were reported far up the River, and that there
were but few diggings about the Fort which
would pay for working. The river was also
said to be too! high TO- expect good pay
There werea at least ,oo0 or {, 900 men about
the Fort, awaiting the good time when the
river should falf, when they would either
commence work there Or go further up. The
River is not navigable above the Fort, and
the; only wayfto reach the upper diggings is
by following an Indian trail over range Of
the Cascade mountains. This is no easv
matter, as found, by experience. No one
can form AN idea Of the difficulties and hard
ships Of this route who is unaequainted with
mountain trails; aud none can be worse than
this. The Indians were also very bad on
this route. but parties were starting dsily
over the mountains, with provisions, blank
cts and mining tools upentheir backs, trusty
rifles faver ready,1 and rcyolvers in their
..,. ;. man, If them were found minus
belts ~. '" ~ !, - fc.,,ed' s;u.sh !,
their heads. These indians .ca''eo 0'Wasn')
do not scalp but cut the head IT 1T as a .."D"y
The whites finally turned out, burned IT, ..cwn
their huts. destroyed many tons Of dried
salmon (Which constitutes their entire food
for winter,) besides giving many Of them
a taste Of American lead, after which there
was no further trouble from them.
1packed, on my back, three loads over this
trail, one OF IS lbs, over an hundred
miles. In the upper country provisions
were scarce, and high al summer. % When
left the forks Of Frazer and Thompson riv.
ers, which was, on the. 18th Of November
Flour was selling for sl,oo per pound, ba-
con 81 50 and beansl,oo; although there
was pack trail opened between the Fort
and the Forks, stocked with animals, aud
no diggngs to justify such three or
four dollars being more than average days
work ,e H.. a 2.''.' , -,
9d The River contrary to all California
streams got worse, instead Of better, as it fell,
three fourths of the miners
have like myself rettuirraa broke and bursted
up entirely. lam now working the claim
thst1 7 sold when I left, by the month