The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-11-19
RAYAGEs OF A PESTILRNcE.
How the Indians were Destrsyed
CaTfforFaFo in SO


California in 1888.
The following appears as a communi-
cation from MIR. J. J. Warren, in the
Los Angeles (Cal.) Star
l have read of the horrors of the
London plague, and of the more than
defamation by pestiIence of the inhab-
itants of various parts of the world, in
| different ages, and of the destruction
of mankind by the angels of the Lord
and by destroying angels but have
never read or heard of such general
destruction of a people by any angel,
good or bad, or by plague or pestilence,
as that which swept the valley of the
Sacramento aud San Joaquin in the
summer of 1888. -
In the autumn of 1882, q party, OF
which the writer was 3 member, trav-
eled from the mountain 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
Feather river. The number of Indians
living along and in the vicinity of the
banks OF the rivers was so much greater
than had ever seen living upon the
same area of country, that it presented
a cons tsnt source of surprise. The con-
clusion was then reached by me that
there was no other place on the eonti-
nent, north of the tropic, the natural
productions of which could supppot SO
large population as was then living in
the section of country to which I have
referred. -r-rr',
In the latter part of the summer of
1888 we entered the northern extremity
of the Sacramento valley from the Kla-
math-lake and Pitt-river countries. We
found the northern part of the valley
euEasa L. Il IL. r
of skeletons of Indians under the shad-
ing trees, around springs and the con-
venient watering places, upon the banks
of the river and over the plain, where
wolves and coyotes, waddIing from tree
to tree or over the plain, their hides
distended with unnatural fatness. had
dragged and denuded them. From
the head of the valley to the American
river but one living Indian was seen,
and he was the most perfect personifica-
ton of solitude that was ever presented
to my view his wasted muscles, his
eyes deeply sunk in their sockets, as If
there were no brains within the crani-
um, emitted dull, vacant gaze, as if
astonished to behold a living being,
when he believed that all, all were dead,
and he alone left, telling most emphati-
cally 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 prostrated, not killed, but
left to rise upon his feet, and wander
about among the bones and fostering
bodies of his folk. The dwellings of
the Indians in the numerous villages ll-
Gated upon and along the banks of the
Sacramento river and it's tributaries
v1Tnr nd oh
of fowls and wild beasts were to be
seen IN the lonely villages.
As we travelled southerly the skeletons
were of q fresher appearance, and be-
fore reaching the buttes, and from
thence southerly, the entire or partially
devOured bodies of the Indians, in all
stages of decay, were so invariably
found in and about all the convenient
and desirable camping places that it
became necessary, in order to eScape
the stencil of decOmposing humanity,
to seek our nights encampmcnt upon the
open plain. E,--
After crossing Feather river, those
villages along the Sacramento which in
the winter previous were each inhabited
by hundreds OF Indians, were desolate
and the abode OF ruin. The same ap-
palling proofs of the dire calamity were
constantly presented to us as we trav-
eled up the San Joaquin. Neither
biblical nor profane history has =por-
trayed such mOurnful results of the
march of a destroying angel as were
presented to our senses as we repassed
through, along by and around those
silent and vacated villages, which some
ten months before we had seen swarm
ing with Indian life, and resounding
with voices from hundreds of human
throats.
Around the naked villages, graves,
and the ashes of funeral pyres, the skel-
etons and swollen bodies told tale of
death, such as no written record has
ever revealed. 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 a village of Indians |
among whom the destroying angel was |
sating his greed of human victims by a |
ghastly carnage. During the one night |
more than a score of victims were |
added to the hosts upon which he had |
been feeding. The wailing of that |
stricken village during that night was I
and most terrible. The sword |
of the destroyer was remittent fever, /
with which the victims were first strick- |
en- down, to be finished by a hot-air /
bath, followed by plunge into cold |
water one. It was evident to US, from |
the signs we saw, that at first the Indi- |
dians buried their dead but when the |
dead became so numerous that the liv- |
ing could not bury them, resort was had |
to the burning of the dead bodies, and |
when the living, from diminished num-
bers, were unable to do this, they aban-
doned their villages, the sick and the dy- !
ing, and fed in dismay, only to die by the
springs and pools of water, and beneath |
the shade of protecting trees.