Port Royal standard and commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1876-04-27
The Rescue of the "D0nner Party"

distant.
The Rescue of the "D0nner Party"
Readers of Bret Harte's "Gabriel
Conroy" will remember the following
foot note which occurs in connection
with the authors description of scenes
in Starvation Camp:
81 fear I 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 starving in an unfrequented
pass of the Sierras, was first made
known to Captain Yount, of Napa, in
dream. The Spanish records of Cali
fornia show that the relief party which
succored the survivors was projected
upon this spiritual inform alton.
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
vemher night, in a 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 l
afterwar learned, was Captain Yount, a
man who came over into California, as
a trapper, more than forty years ago.
Here he has lived, apart from the great
world and its questions, acquiring an
immense landed estate, and becoming a
kind of acknowledged patriarch in the
country. His tall, manly person, and
his gracious, paternal look, as totally
unsophisticated in the expression as if
he had never heard of a philosophic
doubt or question in his life, marked
HIM as the true patriarch. The CONVEX
sation turned, I know not how, on
spiritism and the modern necromancy,
and ne discovered degree of inclina-
ton to believe in the reported mys-
teries. His wife, much younger and
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
night he had dream, in
which he saw what appeared to be a
company of immigrants, arrested by the
SHOWS of the mountains, and perishing
rapidly by cold and hunger. He noted
the very cast Of the scenery, marked by
q huge perpendicular front of white
rock cliff he saw men cutting off what
appeared to be tree tops, rising out OF
deep CULTS of snow; he distinguished
the very features of the persons, and
the look of their particular distress. He
woke, profoundly impressed with the
and apparent reality OF his
dresm. 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
thai spot in the pass answered exactly
10 his description. By this the unso-
phisticated patriarch was decided. He
collected company OF
mem, with mules and blankets, and all
necessary provisions. The neighbors
we're laughing, meantime, ,athis credulity.
'' No NATTER" said he, 81 am able to
10 this, and I will, for 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
here they found the company, in ex-
sctIy 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
'ornians all know the facts, and the
names of the families brought in, who
now look upon cur venerable friend as
, kind of savior" These names he
gave, and the places where they reside,
md I found, afterward. that the Cali
fornia people we're ready, everywhere, to
second his NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. for