The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-11-22
Ravages Of a Pestilence.
now THE INDIANS WERE DESTROYED IN
CALIFORNIA IN 1888.


ton from Mr.. J. j. Warner, in the Los
Angeles (Cal.) Star:
have read of the horrors of the London
plague, and of the more than defamation
by pestilence of the inhabitants of the va
rions parts of the world, in different ages,
and of the destruction of mankind by the
| angels of the Lord, and by destroying an
gels but l have never read or heard of
such a general destruction of people by any
angel, good or bad, or by plague or pesti
| lence, as that which swept the valley of
the Sacramento and San Joaquin in the
summer of 1888.
In the autumn of 1882 party, of which
the writer was q member, travelled from
the mountains down along the banks of the
San joaquin River and up those of the
Sacramento to some distance above the
| confluence of the latter with the Feather
River. The number of Indians living along
and in the vicinity of the banks of the
rivers was SO much greater than l had
ever seen living upon the same area of
country, that it presented constant source
of surprise. The conclusion was then
reached by me that there was no other
place on the continent, north of the tropics,
the natural productions of which could sup
port 30 large q population as was then liv
ing in the section of the country to which
have referred.
In the latter part Of the summer of 1893
we entered the northern extremity of the
Sacramento valley from the klamath Lake
and Pitt River countries. We found the
| northern part of the valley strewn with the
| skeletons and fragments of skeletons of
Indians, under the shading trees, around
springs and the convenient watering places,
upon the banks of the river, aud over the
plain, where wolves and coyotes, waddling
| from tree to tree or over the plain, their
hides distended with unnatural fatness.
had dragged and denuded them. From the
l.
but one living Indian was seen, and he was
the most perfect personifcation of solitude
that was ever presented TO my view; his
| eyes, deeply sunk in their sockets, as if
there were no brain within the Uranium,
emitted dull, vacant gaze, as if astOpish
ed to behold a living human being, when
he believed that all, all were dead, and he
alone left, telling most emphatically of his
utter loneliness, of how he had seen the
destroying angel engaged in his work of
death on every hand, and wherever his
eyes were turned, until he himself was
Frustrated, not killed, but left to rise upon
| his feet, aud wander about among the
bones and fostering bodies of his folk.
| The dwellings of the Indians in the num-
| erous villages located upon and along the
banks of the Sacramento River and it's tri-
butaries were void. and no foot tracks but
| those of fowls and wild beasts were to be
seen in the lonely villages.
AS we travelled southerly the skeletons
were of a fresher appearance, and betore
reaching the bnttes, and from thence south
erly, the entire or partially deyoured DO
dies of the Indians, in all stages of decay,
were SO invariably found in and about ali
the convenient and desirable camping
places that it became necessary, in order
to escape the stencil of decomposing hu
manity, to seek our nights encampment
upon the open plain.
After crossing Feather River, the villages
nI& tha nnfn uN, Oh i.,f hn inf
previous were each inhabited by hundreds
of Indians were desolate and the abodes of
ruin The same appalling proofs of this
dire calamity were constantly presented to
us as we travelled up the San Joaquin.
Neither biblical nor profane history has
portrayed such mournful results of the
march of destroying angel as were pre-
sented to our senses as We repassed through,
| along by, and around those silent and va
Gated villages, which some ten months be-
fore we had seen swarming with Indian
life and resembling with voices from hun
dreds of human throats.
| Around the naked villages graves and
| the ashes of funeral pyres, the skeletons
and swollen bodies told a tale of death such
as to US no written record had ever reveal
ed. From the head of the Sacramento
| Valley until we reached the mouth of Kings
River, not exceeding five live Indians were
seen, and here we found encamped vii
lage of Indians among whom the destroy
ing angel was sating his greed of human
victims by CHASTITY carnage. During the
one night more than score of victims
were added to the hosts upon which he had
been feeding. The wailing of that stricken
village during that night was incessaut
and most terrible. The swerd of the de-
stroyer was a remittent fever, with which
the victims were first stricken down, to be
finished by hot air bath, followed by a
plunge into a cold water one. 1t was evil
dent to ma from the signs which we Jaw
that at the first the Indians buried their
dead but when the dead became SO num-
erous that the living could not bury them
resort was had to the burning of the dead
bodies, and when the living, from dimin-
ished numbers, were unable TO do this, they
abandoned their villages, the sick and the
dying, and fled in dismay, only to die by
the side of the springs and pools of water,
and beneath the shade of projecting trees.