Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1895-11-08
nAzEp ON TIE DESERT.
A Man Dies Of Thirst within One Hundred
and Fifty Yards Of Lake Of Fresh Water

snd FIFTY Yards Of Lake of Fresh Water
On the burning sands Of Cocopah des-
srt, beside lake that appears to be OF
the coolest and the purest OF fresh wa
ter, lie the bones Of an American who
died Of thirst, and around him are five
OF six holes of two OF three feet in depth,
which he dug with his finger nails in a
frenzy Of thirst. His fingers are worn
of at the ends, and only his whitening
bones are left TO bear witness to the
tragedy.
Jose Garcia, who makes living by
peddling from one little camp to anoth-
or on the desert, has returned from q
trip which began ON Aug. 90. He left
here at that time and engaged guide
at the new placer camp at Los Picachos,
below the boundary line, to take him to
a mining camp in the Cocopah noun
tains in the heart Of the desert. The
guide was named Quirino Sosilio, q
half breed, and with them went also
Frank Gotta, Mexican. They left Los
Picachos in tho afternoon, travelled all
night, and by the next morning were
far out on the desert BY some miscal-
culation they were without water, and
though not lost they were bewildered as
TO the nearest way to well and spent
the next two days in travelling without
water, becoming almost insane from
thirst On the evening of the third day
they found water. They were then ON
the northeast side Of Great Salt lake, or
Laguna Salada, that lies between the
Cocopnh mountains ON the east and the
Painted mountains ON the west. The
lake is about six miles wide and 20 or
80 in length, varying in size according
TO the season, indicating that it is fed
by the gulf of California. 1t is very
shallow and saltier than the waters Of
the ocean.
The three men proceeded southwark
between the lake and Cocopahs for q
distance of ten miles or so and there en-
countered two Mexioans and q white
plan, The two former were named Mar
garlic Angulo and Felipe Moreno, and
the Americans name was not learned,
but from the description he is thought
to be Fred Wassum, who left this city
for the Cocopah placers some weeks ago.
Garcia continues the story as follows:
"The men came from Los Pioaohos by
way Of Mil and had been without wa,
ter for several days, and one Of them,
Margnrito Angulo, was already crazy.
He was as deaf as n post and wandered
around like a drunken man. He paid no
attention to my guide, and we had to
lay hold of him to make him drink In
few hours he was all right. The 9th
ers were in their right minds, but in a
terrible condition, and us | saw their
swollen tongues my own began to swell,
for ] had passed through tho same tor
ture only two days before, and even now
my tongue swells while think Of it.
We gave them water aud they soon re-
yived and continued on their way. They
wore burdened with dry washer and
many tools and moved slowly, 50 we
left them, my guido giving them direc-
tions where to find the next water
"a few miles farther we came upon
the bones of a'man lying stark on the
sand about 90 yards from the lake.
There was no flesh left The coyotes had
found the body. One leg was gone, but
the rest of the remains were there. The
head lay toward the north, face upward.
The whislKers were dark and turning
gray, and the hair was the same. The
man had worn a blue jumper, q red
wooden undershirt, one boot and q brown
slouoh hat. found cheap clasp purse
In his jumper pocket which contained
this paper, which is a piece Of an en-.
velope or paper saok, addressed James
Moore, paymaster A. T. and S. F.,
Topeka. In the purse was also part of
a greenback. There was nothing else to
identify the body. The boot was about
No, 0, and the man did not seem to
have been largo.
~ examined the fingers and found the
ends worn of, and there were five or six
holes in the ground around the body,
made by scratching for water. One of
the holes, farther away, seemed to have
been made with pick and shovel.
There were no tools around the man, no
canteen and no sign Of food. AS we pro-
oeeded / traced his barefoot tracks for
moro than five miles, coming from the
direction Of Yuma or New River and
going toward Coyote Wells The tracks
were irregular and frequently crossed
and sometimes went into the lake.
About lb0 yards from the body, away
from the lake, we found reservoir of
fine fresh water We found the body
ON Sept H."
As the body is in Mexico nothing can
be done by the officers here, and It will
In all probability rest whore it was
found. Coroner Woodward will take
steps 20 ascertain who the man was. -
Ca. nfao,n nOv. GaV, E,.anofcon Ewa,,af,o,.