Connecticut western news., 1876-04-14
SALISBURY, CONN.,, FRIDAY APRIL IA, 1876.
The Rescue of the sDonner Party.o

1He ReScue or the " UOnner Party. ."
 Readers of Bret Harte's ssGabriel Conroy" will remember the following foot note which occurs in connection with the authors description of scenes in Starvation Camp:
 ''I fear must task the incredulous readers further patience by calling at tention to what may, perhaps. prove the most literal and thoroughly attested fact of this otherwise fanciful chronicle. The condition and situation of the ill., famed 'Donner Party '-then an un- known, unheralded cavalcade of immi- grants s-starving in an unfrequented pass of the Sierras, was first made known to Captain Yount, of Napa, l., 8 dream. The Spanish records of Cali fornia show that the relief party which succored the survivors was projected upon this spiritual inform ation."
 In the thorough scrutiny to which everything relating to the heroic age of California has been subjected, there are, probably, few beyond the noun tains who are not familiar with the details of the above expedition. There are many in the East, however, who will be interested in Captain Yount's own version of this strange occurrence, as related by him to the late Rev. Dr. Horace Bushnell. We quote from "Nature and the Supernatural ":
 As sat by the fire, one stormy No vember night, in hotel parlor, in the Napa valley of California, there came in a most venerable and benignant look ing person, with his wife, taking their seats in the circle. The stranger, as I afterward learned, was Captain Yount, 8 man who came over into California, as 8 trapper, more than forty years ago. Here he has lived, apart from the great immense landed estate, and becoming @ country. His tall, manly person, and his gracious, paternal look, as totally unsophisticated in the expression as if doubt or question in his life, marked him as the true patriarch. The conver- sation turned, I know not how, on spiritism and the modern necromancy, and he discovered degree of inclina- tion to believe in the reported mys- teries. His wife, much younger and apparently Christian person, intimated that probably he was predisposed to this kind of faith by very peculiar expert ence of bis own, and evidently desired that he might be drawn out by some in- telligent discussion of his queries.
 At my request, he gave me his story. About six or seven years previous in a mid-winter's night he had dream, in which he saw what appeared to be company of immigrants, arrested by the snows of the mountains, and perishing rapidly by cold and hunger. He noted the very cast of the scenery, marked by 8 huge perpendicular front of white rock cliff he saw men cutting off what appeared to be tree tops, rising out of deep 'gulfs of snow; he distinguished the very features. of the persons, and the look of their particular distress. He woke, profoundly impressed with the distinctness and apparent reality of his dream. At length he fell asleep, and dreamed exactly the same dream again. In the morning he could not expel it from his mind. Falling in, shortly, with an old hunter comrade, he told him the story, and was only the more deeply impressed by his recognizing, without hesitation, the scenery of the dream.
 This comrade came over the Sierra, by the Carson valley pass, and declared that spot in the pass answered exactly to his description. By this the unso- phisticated patriarch was decided. He immediately collected 8 company of men, with mules and blankets, and all necessary provisions. The neighbors were laughing, meantime at his credulity. |" No matter" said he, "I am able to do this, and I will, for I verify believe that the fact is according to my dream" The men were sent into the mountains, one hundred and fifty miles distant, di- rectly to the Carson valley pass. And there they found the company, in ex- actly the condition of the dream, and brought in the remnant alive.
 A gentleman present said: '' You need have no doubt of this; for we Cali fornians all know the facts, and the names of the families brought in, who now look upon our venerable friend as 8 kind of savior." These names he gave, and the places where they reside, and found, afterward. that the Cali fornia people were ready, everywhere, to second his testimony.-Scri6ner for