Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1895-02-02
oAsED ON THE DESERT.
a ';-r Dies Of Thirst within One Hund

VI DteH of Thirst Within One Hundred
HhH tfty Yards ofa lake OF Fresh Water.
On the h.~iiny sands of Cocopab des-
ert' side q E'ko that appears to be Of
ti!o I 'olest a.d the purest of fresh wa.
ter, t3v / res Of an American who
died OF t,irst. aud around him are five
or flx holcs OF two or three feet in depth.
which he dig with his finger nails in a
frenzy of thirst His fingers are worn
lf 1T the ends, and only his whitening
Dones are lett to bear witness TO the
tragedy
jose Garcia, who makes living by
peddling from one little camp to anoth.
er ON the desert, has returned from a
trlp which began on Aug. 20. He left
mere "t that time and engaged a guide
at th9 new placer camp at Los Picachos,
below the boundary line, to take hin, to
a mining camp in the Cocopah noun.
tains in the heart of the desert The
guide was named Quirino Sosilio, a
half breed, and with them went also
Frank Gotta, Mexican. They left Los
Plcachos in the afternoon, travelled all
night, and by the next morning were
far out on the desert. By some miscal-
oulation they were without water, and
though not lost they were bewildered MS
to the nearest way to well and spent
the next two days i'll travelling without
water, becoming almost insane from
thirst On the evening of the third day
they found water. They were ther on
the northeast side of Great Salt lake. or
Laguna Salada, that lies between the
Cooopah mountains on the east and the
Painted mountains on the west. The
lake is about six miles wide and 20 or
30 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
distance of ten miles or so and there en-
countered two Mexicans and white
man. 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 Picachos by
way Of Mil and had been without wa
ter for several days, and one of them,
Margarito Angulo, was already crazy.
He was as deaf as post and wandered
around like 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 |
terrible condition, and as / saw their |
swollen tongues my own began to swell,
for | had passed through the same tor |
ture only two days before, and even now |
my tongue swells while / think of it.
We gave them water, and they soon re-
vived and continued on their way. They |
Were burdened with "a dry washer and |
many tools and moved slowly, so we
left them, my guide giving them direc-
tions where to find the next water.
"a few miles farther we came upon |
tho bones Of a man lying stark on the
sand about 20 yards from tho 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 whiskers We're dark and turning
gray, and the hair was the same The
man had worn n blue jumper, red
wooden undershirt, one boot and brown
slouch hat found "A cheap clasp purse
IN his jumper pocket which contained
this paper, which is n piece of an en-
yelope or paper sack, addressed James
Moore, paymaster A. 4, and s. f.,
Topeka In the purse was also part Of
4 greenback, There was nothing else 10
IDENTIFY the body The boot was about
! No. 0, aud the man did not seem 10
laye been large.
~ examined the fingers and found the
'nds worn OH, aud there were five. or six
loles Ia tho ground around the body,
made by scratching for water. Ono Of
lac holes, farther away, seemed % have
,oel made with pick aud shovel.
lhoro were no tools around the man, 40
'anteen aud no sign Of food. A. we pro-
'0edod ! traced his barefoot tracks for
more than tYa miles, eOming from tho
direction 0f Yuma on New River and
loing toward Coyote Wells Tho tracks
yere irregular and frequently CROSSED
Ind sometimes went Into ihe Lake
About 100 yards from lho body, away
rom tho lake, va found q reservoir ~
Dio fresh water Wo found tho body
~ kopt ~"
A. tho body h Ia Mealeo n0thinR can
~ done by 100 ahieerf hao, and u viii
u ali probability reai whore u Nas
ound Coroner WoodWmd viii take
inla ~ hceHaiH who ibe mal waa
.ail Diego lor hap tfmlpis0u tgaiuinoF