St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1862-10-02


and had , pow.wow. The St. Joe parry,
to get safely through, themselves j toll
taem W were following loaded With pres.
ents for them, It least the old chief said
they told them no. and they were disposed
to b. ssuty because thei, demands were
not complied with. However, our cap
tain made speech to them, telling them
that oar Government. was coming next
year to make treaty and buy their lsnds,
80 that the trouble will most probably
take place with the next years em'gra-
ton. But that, you know, viii not inter
eat ~; 60 that We get safely through. 1
tell you this 70 that you may judge Of the
management Of the expedition. Person.
lilly, speaking Of the officers, like them
very much indeed. but they had no ez.
perience, and therefore We could not e.
pect any thing else.
There is " great scarcit, Of wood and
water, aud not very good feed on this
route. The country n, generally speak
ing, pretty rough; but don't suppose
a much better route can be found as there
are no serious distractions on the road,
such as deep rivers or bad sloughs, AMI we
have not had to unload our teams at all.
As yet We have found all the rivers forda,
bic.
We get news here from the gold mines
BY Lieut.. Mn|len's men, who have passed
down the Missouri aud who confirm the
previous good news from that section, say
ing that Ii. average make there is about
SIS day.. But don't advise any one
to come this way unless in large parties,
as the Indians are very troublesome, hav-
ing abo It :wo ", ek~ since stolen al the
horses from this fort killed one man and
badly wounded another. They also stole
sevcn:y-fve horses from Fo:t Benton, and
We may account for cur immunity from
the fact that the Red River hunters had
ju t been over our route aud driven the
Indians South.
The quantity Of the game on the road
So passes belief, and one cannot wouder
at the tear the Indians have Of its being
driven away. l could write reams Of pa
ret about our adventures would time per
nit, but IS have just been summoned to
stand guard (confound it, it is pretty
cold mighty nuet close:
With kind regards,
Yours Truly, J.R. TrsEN.
AUGUST llth.-Since writing l have
visited Fort Union and saw gentlemen
there who has just returned from the Sal
mon River mines, arriving at the Fort
yesterday BY boat tiom Fort Benton, He
lett the mines this spring aud speaks very
discouragingly Of the prospect. He says
the Salmon River mines are very rich, but
Of small extent, and that no other paying
mines have been discovered. lie says
that the claims at Salmon River we're all
taken up last fall and that a. least 10000
persons have arrived there by way Of CAL
ifo1n,a. Provisions be says, are plenty
-four $40 hundred, bacon about the
same price, and coffee and sugar arc about
IS o. SO cents q pound, Distance from
Fort Benton to Salmon River by wagon
road, land not ve,y good one at that
is 500 miles At Deer Lodge the miues
do not yield more than 50 or So day,
but the feed is good and we shall most
probably winner there. Altogether the
prospects for mining look rather discourse
ging although not much had been done in the
way Of prospecting this spring when he
LEFT 1t is slso impossible to get to Sal.
mon River with teams and even difficult
with pack horses, and the winter there is
about nine months long He classes the
Salmon River mixes With Pixies Peake and
says the rush back to California is equal
to any Of the other rushes which history
tells Of in connection with mining He
also saw numbers OF persons coming hack
shis way. AM afraid that this news
will be disheartcninS to our party, but
hen l suppose they will console them.
selves with the hope Of finding some ether
rich digging.
J. -:
Me-, v,.,u >, A1:,rr.,o1