Weekly Trinity journal., 1877-06-16

LIKE 4 RoMAYcE.-The death of Ste.
phen Lane, noticed elsewhere, recalls m
incident IN his lite which would be good
foundation fora romance, as indeed. il
has been. Lane was pretty we'll nos,.3
as to Indian character, and on one occa.
sion turned this knowledge to good nc.
count. The old Indians, who were grown
before the county was settled, retained
many of their old habits and customs.
one of which was upon the death of per.
son to bury or destroy everything of
which he died possessed. Prior to March,
1907, there WAS constant war between the
whites and Indians, and none can ever
Know how many of the adventurous spir-
Its who crossed the mountain in search
OF the golden treasure of the Trinity and
its branches, fell beneath the noiseless
arrows of the treacherous natives. II
was not until years after peace had been
established that the Indians outgrew their
fear of vengeance, and told of some of
their exploits in which little, parties of
miners and solitary travellers had fallen
victims to their vengeance, and many a
spot along Trinity River WAS marked by
them as the scene OF such an occurrence.
Among others told of WAS man travel
ing on Il white horse. Somewhere near
Point Bar he was attacked and killed,
his horse eaten, his rife thrown into the
river and his body buried or concealed.
But he made brave fight and wounded
one Of his assailants in the arm. The In.
dians had no knowledge of surgery and
the wounded arm mortified and fell off.
The dead man ha6 large sum in gold
dust with him, which was taken posses
sion of by his captors. When the wound
cd mans arm and hand came off it was
buried in little fiat half mile or more
below the mouth of Rush Creek, and the
gold dust taken from the white mans
body sown broadcast above the buried
hand. Lane heard the Indians talking
OF this many years after, and set himself
to work to find out the place where the
hand was buried and the treasure strewn.
This was not an easy task by any means,
for Indian superstition prohibits them
from talking of the dead in any manner,
believing that to mention a deceased In
dian by name would bring his spirit
around. He and Others finally succeed
ed in getting them to divulge the fact
that the hand was buried in field be
longing to Sherrin Chamberlain. They
went to work and we're ultimately re-
wardcd by finding the strewn treasure.
We never learned the exact amount re-
covered, but IL was over one thousand
,llars.
The helief ia prevalent among those ole
residents who know the Indian character
lstics, that many other places in the
county have been enriched with treasure
stolen from the whites during the first
7 three years after the mines here were dis
covered. Celtain it il that there have
been some marvellous " strikes " which
can he accounted for in no other wny, OF
places that yielded unexpected large
sums for a day or two, and then came
| down again 10 the old standard. But the
case we have mentinned, ', and that ut Jcn
/ kins, who took some 5000 from an Indi-
an grave on one of the forks of Grass Val
! ley Creek, are the only instances in
which it was kGown to II ceItninty that
the treasure hid been buried by the In.
dian thieves who took it from the original
| owners.