The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-11-12
RAVAGES OF A PESTILENCE.
How the Indians were Destroyed I'm
California fn 1888.

California in 1898.
The following appears as a commu-
nication from Mr.. J. j. Warner in the
Los Angeles (Cal.) Star.
I have read of the horrors Of the
London plague, and of the more than
defamation by pestilence of the inhabi-
tants 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 L have
never read or heard of such general
destruction of people by any angel,
good or bad, or by plague or pestilence,
as that which swept the valley rof the
Sacramento and San Joaquin in the
summer of 1888.
In the autumn of 1882 party, of
which the writer was member,
travelled 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 bad ever
seen living upon the same area of coun-
try, that it presented a constant source
of surprise. The conclusion was then
reached by me that there was no other
place on the continent, north of the
tropic, the natural productions of
which could support so large popula-
tion as was then living in the section
of country to which have referred.
In the latter part of the summer Of
1888 we entered the northern extremity
of the Sacramento valley from the
klamath lake and Pitt river counties.
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, and over the
plain, where wolves and coyotes, wad-
ding from tree to tree or over the
plain, their hides distended with un-
natural fatness, had dragged and de-
nuded them. From the head of the
valley to the American river but one
living Indian was seen, and he was the
most perfect personifcation of solitude
that was ever presented to my view
his wasted muscles, his eyes deeply
sunk in their sockets, as if there were
no brain within the Uranium, emitted
dull, vacant gaze, as if astonished to
behold 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 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
located upon and along the banks of
the Sacramento river and its tributaries
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 skele-
tons were of fresher appearance, and
before 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 encampments upon
the open plain.
After crossing Feather river, those
villages along the Sacramento which in
the winter previous were each inhabited
by hundreds of Indians We're desolate
and the abodes of ruin. The same ap-
palling proofs of this dire calamity were
constantly presented to us as we
travelled up the San Joaquin. Neither
biblical nor profane history has por-
trayed such mournful results of the
march of 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 skele-
tons and swollen bodies told tale OF
death such as to us no written record
had ever revealed. From the head OF
the Sacramento valley until we reached
the mouth of Kings river, not exceed
ing five live Indians were seer, land here
we found encamped a village of Indians,
among whom the destroying angel was
sating his greed of human victims by
CHASTITY 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 incessant
and most terrible. The sword of the
destroyer was q remittent fever with
which the victims were first stricken
down, to be finished by hot-air bath,
followed by plunge into cold water
one. 1t was evident to us from the
signs which we saw that at first the In
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
numbers were unable to do this, they
abandoned their villages, the sick and
the dying, and fed in dismay, only to
die by the side of the springs and pools
of water, and beneath the shade OF pre-
tecting trees.