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K A.N SA S,1 A P
S H E W  N G  THE


I!;"- I.oildorl








A


VISIT TO


SALT LAKE;


BEING


A JOURNEY ACROSS THE PLAINS
AND A RIESIDENCE IN THE
MORMON SETTLEMENTS AT UTAH.
BY
WILLIAM CHANDLESS.


LONDON:
SMITH, ELDER, AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.
1857.


[The right of Translation is reserved.]




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I.
5:'
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PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KRIDER,
ANGEL COURT, SKINNER STREET, LONDON.




-t.PREFACE.
PREFACE.
A NARRATIVE merely personal, whatever its excesses
or defects, hardly stands in need of a preface. It is
enough, therefore, as regards the first part of this
volume, to say that in it is attempted a picture of the
journey across the Plains westward, as made by the
emigrant and the cattle-driver.
The second part is of a different character, and,
from the nature of its subject, may, perhaps, be read
with suspicion, or even charged with untruthfulness.
Fictions enough have been written about the Mormons. I wish, therefore, as briefly and plainly as possible, to say that nothing here written is fictitious.
Errors of fact there may be, and errors of opinion;
but no incident is introduced, either in support of
any opinion advanced, or in illustration of manners
and feelings, or for any purpose, or in any way whatever, unless it actually occurred; and no words are put




iv


PREFACE.


into the mouth of a Mormon but what-allowing for
the inaccuracies of memory-were actually spoken by
one. My object throughout has been rather to mention facts and incidents as they occurred, than to
theorise, or even to any great extent generalise, upon
them. The first four chapters upon Utah have, it is
true, a more systematic arrangement, as it would have
been difficult, if not impossible, to bring their contents into the ordinary course of the narrative. Religion at Salt Lake, as elsewhere, is so interwoven with
the laws and customs and daily life of the people, and
so much would be obscure without a knowledge of it,
that a short chapter on that subject may not be thought
superfluous.
And now a few words-and they will not, I hope,
be attributed to egotism-about myself.
My journey to Salt Lake was the accident or the
whim of an hour. Previous to that, the Mormons
were to me but mere shadows. I had no real opinions
about them. I had seen but two, and spoken to none,
of the sect. WVhat little I had read was most shadowy;
whether fair or unfair, at least evidently not taken
from personal, or anything like personal, observation.
In the course of my journey I made acquaintance with
a considerable number of Mormon emigrants; this,
and the very manner of my travelling (as a teamster
for pay), gave me, on my arrival at Salt Lake, certain




PREFACE.


V


advantages for observing, if not quite the creme de la
creme, at any rate Mormon society in general. I was
an object of suspicion to none: none had any object
in playing a part before me: none took me for a spy;
nor was I one. And it is but fair, both to the reader
and to myself, to add that my journal was but scanty,
and the idea of writing about the country or people had
never entered my head; that was filled rather with
visions of the tropics and an absence from England
that would have rendered my recollections of a country
where all changes so rapidly, quite antiquated. But
we know not where we go, nor when "the days of
mourning are at hand."
As before, so since my visit to Salt Lake, I have
read no books upon the subject; now, not wishing
either to borrow or controvert their facts or be impressed with their impressions. No English traveller,
so far as I am aware, has written about Salt Lake.
Among American writers Mrs. Ferris, if one may
judge from a review, gives an unfavourable account;
Captain Stansbury (vide Professor Forbes's "Literary
Papers," p. 268) writes, on the contrary, " So far as
my intercourse with the inhabitants afforded me an opportunity of judging, the practical operation of polygamy was quite different from what I had anticipated.
Peace, harmony, and cheerfulness seemed to prevail
where my preconceived notions led me to look for
A 2




vi                  PREFACE.
nothing but the exhibition of petty jealousies, envy,
bickerings, and strife. Confidence and sisterly affection among the different members of the family
seemed pre-eminently conspicuous."
This volume itself will show with which view my
own has more accordance.
LONDON,
April, 1857.




C 0 N'T E N T S.
PART I.
CROSSING THE PLAINS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY.....
St. Joe.-The Missouri.-My landlord.-Ilire as a
teamster.
CHAPTER II.
CORRAL. 
New companions.-Atchison. —Camp and its duties.
-Waggon -loading.-The little Frenchman.-" Italians."-Our mess.-A move.-My cattle.-A storm.
CHAPTER III.
THE, START... 2
Rolling prairie.-A mule-thief.-The first graves.Touch-and-go.-A night march.-Prairie wolves.Nemahaw Creek.-The old man.-Big Blue.-Mormon emigrant trains.-Desertions.-Our mess again.
-An Indian yarn.-Camp quarrels.-Little Tom.Irish and Germans in America.-Outward bound.



viii                 CONTENTS.
CHAPTERJIV.
PAGE
DEATH IN THE COMPANY...            52
Yokinig-up.-Morning start of the emigrant trains.
-Rock Creek.-IDeath and burial.-S-ickness prevalent.-Sick in a waggon.-The Mormon doctor.Little Blue.-The first buffalo.-Fort Kearney.
CHAPTER V.
THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE....64
River and bluff.-Buffalo.-Prairie dogs.-Rattlesnakes.-The constant lover and the long beard.Brother and sister.-The South Crossing.-Ash Hol-.
low. -Battle of Ash Hollow.- Characteristics of
United States' troops.-The plague of grasshoppers.
-Deep    sand. - Indian  buffalo-meat. - Night
watches.-Soldiers' coats.-The Chimney Rock.-A
long march. -A pleasant Sunday.
CHAPTER VI.
SAGE- BRUSH......92
Fort Laramie.-Prickly pears.-An Indian foray.Cheyennes.-False alarm.-Crows.-The last crossing.
-Artemisia. —The antelope.-Rock Independence.Sweetwater.-The Devil's Gap.-The first snow.South Pass.-Pacific springs.-Short commons.
CHAPTER VII.
THE: VALLEY AMONG THE MOUNTAINS..11
Little Sandy.-Big Sandy.-Great loss of cattle.Green River.-Pass.-Potatoes.-Holywell Street out
West.-Fort Bridger.-Mountaineers.-Fresh cattle.
-The Wahsatch Mountains. -Bear River.-The
three graves.-Weber.-Difficulties in the canions.



CONTENTS.                I


ix


PAGE
A skeleton in the bush.-The Big Mountain.-The
first bouse.-Emigration Canion.-Salt Lake Valley
and City.-Pa'id off.
PART II.
THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.
CHAPTER I.
NATuRE OFP THE COUNTRY, ETC.....137
Utah territory.-Valleys.-Water-power.-Rivers..Fish,-Crops.- Irrigation necessary.- Fruit.- Cattle, &c.-Lack of fuel.-Dobies.-Roads.-Coal and
iron.-Gold.-Salt.-Climate.-Description of Salt
Lake City.-Population.CHAPTER IL.
RELI GION........15
Belief in the materialism of the Deity.-" Without
passions."-The spirit-world.-Polygamy in heaven.
-Our future state.-The spiritual-wife system.-.-Acceptation of the Scriptures.-Apocryphal books.Literality of interpretation.-The book of Mormon.Gifts of the church.-Baptism.-Endowment.-Baptism. for the dead.-Mormon ideas of ecclesiastical
history. - Feeling towards Catholics. - Mormon
church government. - Missionaries. - Mormonism
why successful?-What genuine religious feeling.The Mormon creed.




x


K           ~~~~CONTENTS.


CHAPTER III.
]PAGE
GOVERNMENT.......177
Territorial government.-A sham'.-Brigham as President and Brigham as governor.-Loyalty to the
United States. - Admission to the Union. - Not
really intolerant.-Treatment of the Indians.-The
United States judges.-Probate judges.-EcciesiassBstical government.-Bishops.-Schools.-Provision
for the poor.-Tithes.-Litigation discouraged.Rude justice and no justice,.-Asking counsel.Titles and prayers.
CHAPTER IV.
IN4STITUTIONS AND MORALITY...190
Polygamy in Utah.-Inequality of the selxes.-Divorce.- Treatment of children.- Wretchedness of
wives.-Their fidelity.-Degrees of mnarriage.-General morality of the people.-.Swearing. —Intemperance.-Theft.-"-J Spoiling the Egyptians.".     CHAPTER     V.
STAY AT SALT LAKE......197
A Mormon family.-Sunday with the "Saints."Analysis of emigrants.-Hard times.-Payment in
cash and payment in " kind. " —Want of specie.Barter.-No copper coinage. -Effects.-" Othello"
before a Mormon audience.
CHAPTER VI.
THE NORTHERN SETTLEMENTS.                25
Who stole the revolver?7-Speedy justice.-Hot
spring.-Difficulties of asking one's way in Utah.




CONTENTS.                x


xi


PAGE.
-Ogden city.-A sulky hostess. —" Una de multis."
-A pleasant hostess.-Farmington.-Home again.The divorced wife'.-A discontented Mormon.-Peculiarities of Mormon conversation.-The library.Literature.-Music of art and nature.
CHAPTER VII.
MASICULINE'AND FEMININE.....248
Talks of my landlord.-Young Brig.-Divorced and
married again.-" Death on Polygamy."~-Discourses
at the Tabernacle.-A ball.-Jealousy of wives.Flirtation and love in Utah.-Love not sub rosdeThree wives in a day.-Mother and daughter.-How
to please all parties.-Westward ho!
CHAPTER VIII.
THRioUGH THlE SETTLEMENTS.....266
Leave Salt Lake City.-Utah Valley.-Provo,-Cold
and. dreary.-A city with walls and gates.-The Sevier.-Fillmore. ---Brigham laying on the lash.-Orson Pratt.-" All things in commo-n."-The 61ite of
Utah, Gentile and Mormon.-The judge in a "fix."
-The tavern.-Hard travelling.-Beaver Creek.Little Salt Lake Valley.-Parowan.-Indian evidence admissible?-Treatment of Indians.-Flayed
alive.-Cedar City.-A monogamic household.-Iron
works.-An old acquaintance.-Con-verted in a hurry.
CHAPTER IX.
UTAH TO CALIFORNIA....288
The rim of the basin.-Santa Clara.-Warmer weather.-Our bed on fire.-Rio Virgen.-Piede Indians.




Xli                  CONTENTS.
PAGE
-A bit of a hill.-Indian "1Saints."-Las Vegas..Mountain springs.-Bitter springs.-Bunch grass
and sand grass.-Mule freaks.-Moonlight journey
through a canion.-The Mohave.-Out of provisions.
-Pass the Sierra.-San Bernardino.-Effect of gold
on Mormnonism.-Slaves.-Decision in a slavery case.
CHAPTER X.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA                              3 08
A change of scene.-Uncle Bill and the young Jew.
-Listening to the waves at midnight.-San Pedro.
- A break-down.-Los Angeles.-Sp'aniards and
Americans.-Straws in the air.-Old friends.-On
board again.-Smoney makes the man.-S. Barbara.
-Monterey.-The Golden Gate.-In port at last.
CHAPTER XI.
SAN FRANCISCO...... 329
February, 1856.




CROSSING THE PLAINS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
ST. JOSEPH, or as it is more commonly and irreverently
called St. Joe, is a waterside town on the west of the
State of Missouri, and by river about 500 miles above
St. Louis. It was about the middle of July, 1855,
that I passed a few days there, waiting for an up-river
boat, my intention being to travel by water to Council
Bluffs, a notable town in the S.W. corner of Iowa,
and then turn eastward across that State to the Mississipi River at Keokuk, or Muscatine. Up to St. Joe
you have no trouble in finding a boat any day of the
week throughout the season, that is, till the ice forms;
for though the great river is full of snags and sandbars, yet there is mostly enough water in the channel,
and boats, even if they do get aground now and then
from the shifting of the bars, or the ignorance of the
pilot, can find their way up at last. Above St. Joe
1%                               1B




2


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


there is both less water and less trade; consequently,
except during the "June rise" side-wheel boats rarely
go up, and the stern-wheelers are few, slow, and ununcertain; for the chance of one of them, however, I
waited, and before any came another chance turned my
line of travel for many months westward.
St. Joe is one of the largest towns in the State of
Missouri, and on the whole a thriving place, though it
has not latterly, I am told, kept pace with its first
start. Once a great part of the overland emigration to
Oregon and California passed through it; now that
has dwindled to nothing; the Salt-Lake emigration
starts from Atchison, K.T., some distance below, the
mail from Independence, Mo., and government stores
from Fort Leavenworth, K.T.    The town is situated
at the upper end of a fine piece of level prairie, where
the Bluffs turn inland a little, and the level is sufficiently
above ordinary floods.  The Missouri, however, is a
terrible filibuster; he is always invading somebody's
land, and not merely in defiance of right and title
takes possession, but also carries it clean away with
him beyond the reach even of the tax-gatherer: a
goodly portion he bears down as an offering to his
bride the Mississippi, whose clear calm majesty of
feature, and gentle, womanly current of life, he overwhelms with the swirl of his impetuous and muddy
waters; but if he gives the character to the lower
river, she gives the direction, and, since maps and
men will have it so, the name also-she is, one may




INTRODUCTORY.


3


say, a rich heiress nobly sprung; he is rich, but has
come from nobody knows where; they wed, and he
takes her name, not she his. And yet, to do him
bare justice, all he lays hold on he does not carry
far, but like that giant of fairy land who sought to
weigh all things and compensate each that it lacked,
so this Titan of rivers pulls down and builds up,
takes from this shore, and gives to that, hurls down
a multitude of tangled snags, and, resting behind
them, raises an island, which in another mood some
few seasons later he annexes to the mainland, or sometimes altogether annihilates. Artegall the knight of
justice slew that other giant, but who shall stay-let
alone slay-the river-god?  Meanwhile he goes on
his way, perhaps rejoicing, and works his work continually; if he has not turned St. Joe upside down
he may at least be said to have turned it round, for
those streets which were parallel to the river are now
nearly at right angles, and vice versd; the extension of
the town has accordingly left the prairie, and sought
safety on the solid Bluffs: a very narrow backboneonly a few feet wide at the top-runs out from these
in front of a portion of the town, and gives an easy
ascent; once on the top one has an abundance of shady
trees; below in a rapid curve sweeps the river; beyond
it is the fine rolling prairie of Kansas, heavily timbered
as far as one can see; and over prairie and river blows
the fresh wind, an ample repayment for the ascent, and
a delightful change from 100~ and more Fahrenheit in
B 2




4


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


which the red brick houses behind one are basking.
Except at meal times, and in the early morning, when
I rambled further, most of my day was spent here,
between enjoyment of the air and scenery, building
castles, and reading Ariosto. The evening was pleasantest of all; sunsets and sunrises (and I have seen
the latter morning after morning for weeks and months
together) on the prairies have more of tranquillity than
of grandeur or gorgeousness; but the twilight, some
half hour or more later, was generally very clear and
beautiful, and the last look of brightness low in the
N.W. suited well the wild and open landscape over
which it travelled. Had I brought up a couple of
blankets I could certainly have slept more comfortably
than at the hotel; for my room there faced west, and
even at ten o'clock at night the front wall felt quite
hot to the hand. Mosquitoes there were none; that
was something; for the curtains are, if a cure, a cure
worse than the disease; but sleep melted away with
the heat, and each successive night grew " beautifully
less."
But my landlord-have I forgotten him? The besthearted man that ever breathed, and though a slaveholder, living on the borders of Kansas, very far from
a " nigger-driver " or " border ruffian "-characters
one sees abundantly in northern papers, but I have not
had the luck to meet them in their own localities, and
am therefore half sceptical as to their reality.  He
seemed fond of the little negro children, and they




INTRODUCTORY.


5


seemed fond of him, and fond of playing with him;
he did not think their touch pollution; sometimes they
were threatened with a whipping, but it seemed rather
in a paternal spirit, and probably would not have been
a very serious affair if put into practice. His cook, he
said, was a valuable negress, but required a smart
touch once a year or so; according to herself, " sometimes a devil of a temper got into her, and nothing
would bring it out but a good whipping." He asked
me how we got on in England without slaves, how we
got work done: the reply that the difficulty oftener was
to find work for all to do than doers of it seemed to
astonish him much.   The western part of Missouri
has by far the greatest proportion of slaves. At St.
Louis there is no superabundance, and in many parts
of the State they are scanty; probably, if slavery were
not a vexed question, there would not be a large
majority of the inhabitants in its favour. A considerable amount of tobacco is raised it is true, but the
climate is such that white labour would pour in sufficiently if it had not to compete with, and so lower
itself to the level of, slave labour.
"Where," I asked my host one evening as we sat
smoking under the verandah together, " where is that
herd of cattle going that crossed the river this afternoon?"    "To Salt Lake," said he.  "Salt Lake,
ho, ho!" and I pricked up my ears; " and who takes
'em there?" " They belong to a waggon train leaving
Atchison the end of this, week; one of the owners is




6


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


staying here now." "Is there any way to get along
with them? I 'd like to cross the plains." " Well,
they want hands very badly, and are offering twenty or
twenty-five dollars a month; but I suppose you'd
hardly like going as a common teamster." " Like it!
nothing better; but they mightn't like me, for I never
drove an ox-team  in my life."  "Well," said he,
"they've plenty of Dutchmen and French who can't
drive a bit, or understand what they 're told either."
The idea took my fancy at once; I had but 200 dollars
with me, and could not have started "on my own
hook" without returning to St. Louis for more money;
and turning back, not to say steaming three times
over the same 500 miles of river, is very distasteful work; there was, too, a delightful novelty in
working for less than a dollar a day, and mixing in a
wholly untried and very miscellaneous society; one was
sure to be amused, and likely to learn something too.
In a few minutes I determined to bid good-by to
Iowa and Illinois, and the Atlantic States and hotels at
two and a half dollars a day, for several months at
least, and look onwards to the Pacific, if I could get
hired as a driver. About this there was not much difficulty.
First thing in the morning I applied to Mr. Somerville, a gentleman of whose courtesy and kindness I cannot speak too highly. A tall big fellow,
pretty well dressed, was applying at the same time,
and, after magnifying his own skill from having been




INTRODUCTORY.


7


in Texas, urgently demanded twenty-five dollars a
month; he seemed to think the very name of Texas
ought to carry all before it. " I know nothing about
ox driving," said I, "but I want to go, and will
take what you like to give, twenty or twenty-five
dollars."  " Time is pressing," said Mr. S., "and you
may both have twenty-five dollars; but you must leave
by this morning's boat." There was but an hour to
get ready; I dashed off, and posted a couple of necessary letters; threw off all smooth dress, and donned a
woollen shirt and shooting jacket, still, as it seemed,
fragrant of last year's heather; emptied on the floor
the whole contents of my bag and portmanteau;
divided them into two heaps of useful and useless
things; stuffed into my bag as many of the former as
I could, including some simple medicines, a " Deane
and Adams," and a Bible-not a " Beecher's Bible"
(i. e. Sharp's rifle), as the collocation might suggest;
threw the rest of my things into the portmanteau;
carried it over to Mr. Somerville, who very kindly
offered to keep it for me, and announced myself ready
to start when ordered.




CHAPTER II.


CORRAL.
ON board our boat the Edinburgh, one had the last of
luxury for a long time, and my companions, not over
accustomed to the display, walked about the fine cabin,
and washed down jellies and creams with such draughts
of claret and Sauterne, as showed they appreciated their
advantages. From the time we engaged, we had no
more expenses to bear; our passage was paid for us,
not deck, but cabin passage, as is usual with raftsmen
returning up-river, and others of our class. My companions were three; the Texian already mentioned, a
big Missourian, and a French-American (not Canadian,
but of a French mother); the last was rather clever,
and could speak both French and English fluently;
he was also a very handy kind of man, and his chief
lack was a lack of good-nature, unless you caught him
in the vein. The Missourian, on the contrary, was a
great lout, who at once expressed his astonishment that
I could speak such good "American," having been so
short a time in the country. His name and nature
were good, the former being "Howard;" there was
little else good about him. He had neither education,
cleanliness, courage, good manners, industry, or ho



CORRAL.


9


nesty; at least he proved a terrible pilferer of all provisions, though I don't think he would have stolen
other property. He was, too, a thorough braggart of
the Captain Kearney sort, and, on this one point, displayed some inventive powers. All this, however, was
not perceptible in an hour, and one never could feel much
dislike of him, because his faults proceeded not from any
particular badness of heart, but sheer emptiness-emptiness of head, emptiness of heart, and emptiness of
stomach. Several passengers, finding out our destination, gathered round and painted for our benefit, fearful pictures of the Sioux Indians, then at war with the
United States, assuring us if we were only killed and
scalped, but not eaten, we should escape well; after a
while, seeing they could frighten no one but the Howard, who was not worth frightening, they gave over;
one then told me, with great privacy, that he should
very much like to cross the plains himself, but for the
Indians, adding, that the attorney-general of Utahnot a Mormon I suppose-had just arrived from Salt
Lake, and said he would not cross again to be President of the United States; poor Mr. Attorney, and still
poorer Mr.. Attorney's friend, I thought.
The Edinburgh stopped so often to take in bales of
hemp, the chief export from this district of Missouri,
that we did not reach Atchison, K.T., till evening.
Atchison was then quite a new settlement, consisting
of a few large warehouses near the river, and several
smaller stores here and there among the trees along the
B 3




10


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


roadside leading inland; whisky shops were the most
prevalent, and did the best stroke of business. The
work of waggon-loading was over for the day, but those
of us who had any baggage, stowed it in the warehouse, and we received each a pair of first-rate thick
blankets of a bright scarlet, such as it does one good
to look at in cold weather. I took the precaution at
once to cut a small piece out of the corner of mine
and pocket it, which was fortunate, as in the course of
the evening some one claimed them, but on my producing the piece cut out, and it being found to fit,
public opinion adjudged me my own. A short mile's
walk brought one to camp on a slope of the glorious
"rolling prairie," the finest descriptive name Americans have invented; " undulating" is a poor puny
word, but " rolling " breathes poetry, as of a wind that
swept over the earth's surface, while it was yet a liquid
globe.
Camp, alas! was a mere euphemism, and consisted of
but three or four loaded waggons and an empty one, from
which last, as a pulpit, a gigantic Irishman, with a strong
brogue, was discoursing about things in general, and, between times, taking long pulls at a whisky bottle three
parts gone, as was its owner. The name he was known by
was more descriptive than elegant, and doubtless welldeserved; it seems he had for several months, perhaps
a year, been working his way up the Missouri River,
stopping at each town to do a little work and a good
deal of stealing, till the place got too hot to hold him,




CORRAL.


11


then he moved higher up. Thus, at last he had reached
St. Joseph, when really having no higher to go, he determined to amend his ways, and start afresh west
of the Rocky Mountains-as a thief I suppose, though
the profession there is dangerous, and the professor apt
to be suspended sine die, and without process of law;
these perils, however, he did not incur, for next day of
his own accord he left camp and Kansas by a downriver boat, strange to say carrying off no one else's property except his own clothes-originally stolen. With
this for its " representative man," camp had but little
to boast of just then, so I very gladly volunteered to
" go down the hill to fetch a pail of water," and on my
return found things improved; supper was preparing
over a cheerful wood fire, rather long in preparation,
but short enough in duration; a camp-kettle bubbling
up with coffee, a small mountain of fried bacon, and a
tin bucket loaded with hot biscuits, and more in process
of baking, formed the foreground; at which point be
it noted that what we call rolls, in America are ycleped
biscuits, and biscuits in their turn hard bread. Such
was my commencement of camp-life, my first meal on
the plains, and not a bad beginning I thought. After
standing cattle-guard till midnight, I turned in beneath
a waggon, and, rolled up in my blankets, slept my
first comfortable sleep for several weeks: November was
half through before one slept again under a houseroof.
We were called up at daybreak. I rose at once,




12


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


mindful of the proverb, " He who gets a name for
early rising, may lie in bed till noon." Up with the
dawn, but not with the lark, for morning in America
has no such herald. I have since read in some newspaper, a proposition to import larks and other English
birds to populate and enliven the prairies of Iowa and
Illinois; whether the suggestion will be followed up, or
not, remains to be heard. One may hope, in the former
case, the bird's name will not be changed on account
of its ambiguity-as chanticleer is degraded to a
"rooster,"-for fear he should be confused with the
water tap.  "The rooster's clarion" does not sound
very poetical.
Two days we spent in loading waggons; these waggons were altogether of a lighter build than is common
in England, and carried from 3500 to 4500 lbs. each,
according to stowage. Some skill was requisite to load
well, and combine weight and bulk properly in such
a multiplicity of articles. The following may be a
specimen:-Tea, coffee, rice, sugar, tobacco, soap, candies, mustard, spices, &c., of all kinds, and also casks
of whisky, sdme of which I fear were tapped before
they reached Utah: boxes of hats, shoes, and readymade clothes generally; dressed leather, bags of nails
and shot, sheet iron, bar iron, block tin, and stoves of
all shapes and sizes. It was good hard work, particularly for one like myself, of little strength at the best
of times, and now enervated by six weeks of an American summer.  " The bread of the labouring man is




CORRAL.


13


sweet, whether he eat little or much," but we had a
supply of fresh meat, a squatter's pigs-abolitionist
pigs no doubt-having ventured too near camp; for
the sake of "law and order," however, as we were in
Kansas, we invariably spoke of the meat as bear-meat,
and the owner, coming to inquire after his swine, sat
down to our festive board (that is, the prairie grass),
and enjoyed a dinner off "bear-meat" himself. Meanwhile an affray sprung up from an accusation of theft,
made by the thief against the yet unawares loser,
and though bystanders prevented anything serious, the
thief, having thus taken time by the forelock, and
lending a good ear to the steamboat whistle, managed
to escape on board one as it started, with, it was said,
200 dollars; not, however, without a good half-mile
race, and a splendid "finish."  You meet not a few
queer characters on the plains.
During these days I struck up acquaintance with a
little Frenchman, with whom afterwards I was a good
deal thrown; by trade he was a silversmith, but also
an amateur artist; had served seven years in the French
army, four of them in Algeria; why he had left France,
or what were his politics, I could never draw from him
beyond an admiration of Lamoriciere, his old general,
from which I hope he was a republican. There was
another Frenchman in camp whom he called his " camarade;" a lazier fellow never breathed; nothing less
than a revolution could have moved him, and a fortnight afterwards he was sent off as incorrigible. The




14


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


little Frenchman, on the contrary, had a deep sense of
responsibility, and often carried it to a ludicrous extent. At bringing up a musket he was handy enough,
but on horseback, or muleback, looked considerably
more like a monkey than a man.
The officials of our train were three; two waggonmasters and a commissary. The duty of the two first
was to choose camping-places, see to the herding and
watering of the cattle, and to the forming corral, yoking
up, driving, &c. Better men than Carril Hughes and
Ben Duncan, one could not have wished for.  The
former had served in the Mexican war as a volunteer;
by birth an American, by parentage Irish, he combined
the shrewd good sense of the one, with the humour and
warmth of the other, and though apt to speak warmly
now and then, was liked by every one. Who minds an
oath from a thorough good-hearted man? He had always
a kind word for those who were sick, and a joke or two
for the rest, and a way of keeping men to work by a
truth said in jest. "It's no affair of mine," he'd say,
when we were in Indian country, " if you lose the cattle, they're not my cattle, only you'11 be left here to
starve. I've powder and lead, and my rifle, and can
get back at any time;" and so he got work done, when
rating might have failed. Duncan was very quiet and
undemonstrative while doing an almost incredible
amount of work, most of which it was our duty to have
done. He had been twice in California, had made a
good "pile" at the diggings, and was owner of a




CORRAL.


15


capital "claim" in Kansas, near St. Joseph, and too far
north, I hope, to have suffered in the riots and ravages
of the following year. The commissary, as I have
termed him, managed all the money affairs of the train,
and many internal arrangements, as well as the giving
out provisions. Of X., as he was no favourite of mine,
I shall say little; it takes men to manage men, particularly in America, and on the plains; and three such
as he would in a fortnight have been left alone to return to the place whence they came.
By Saturday evening all our waggons were loadedthirty-eight with goods, and three with provisions for
the way, coffee, sugar, flour, and bacon; there was also
a small waggon, known as the Office-waggon. We
were now able to form  a good " corral," * and consequently three or four of us at a time were sufficient for
* Corral-a Spanish word, signifying an enclosure for cattle, horses, &c. A corral of waggons is formed by driving
waggon after waggon aslant, so that the near fore-wheel of
one is against the off hind-wheel of the preceding one, (and
vice versd on the opposite side of the corral,) the poles, or
" tongues," as they are called, of all the waggons being outside the corral; but as perfect accuracy is not often gained,
the gaps between the waggons are chained up with the yokechains; the corral is generally of an oval shape, and the lower
end, fifteen or twenty yards across, is left open, through which
to drive the -cattle in and out; afterwards, when in regular
travelling, the cattle never being kept in corral at night, but
only for yoking-up, it was found more convenient to leave a
narrow opening at the upper end also, to save confusion in
bringing out teams. So much in explanation of " corral."




16


6  CROSSING THE PLAINS.


night guard. On Sunday we rested from our labours
of loading; but there was plenty more to be done:
Sunday was never a day of rest with us, and better not;
here it would have been spent in whisky, on the plains
in cards: the Mormon emigrant trains often abstained
from travelling on Sundays and had preaching; but
then their general plan was to make longer drives than
we did, and stop a day for the women to wash, &c.  I
believe the waggon-masters of one goods-train had
strict orders not to travel on Sundays; but as this was
necessarily conditional upon their being camped by
good grass and water, the waggon-masters invariably
managed not to be so on Saturday evenings, and so
evaded the rule. Our chief business, and one which
occupied us several days, was to brand the cattle.
Every train has its mark, so as easily to identify its
own if they happen to get mixed: our mark was a
large K. Branding is amusing work to look at, but
trying enough to the hands of those engaged in it. A
steer is caught by a lasso over his horns, which is then
passed round a waggon-wheel, and up to that he is
drawn and branded. After some time, we found it
better to slip another lasso round his off leg and jerk
him down on his side, as kicking prevented an elegant
brand. The fun consisted in the struggles of the steer
while being drawn up to the wheel (for many of our
cattle were half wild cattle), sometimes nearly pulling
himself loose again, at others darting upon those who
were at the rope's end, and creating a regular discom



CORRAL.


17


fiture, in which case some marvellous jumps were made
by men as well as animals, over wheels and waggons.
Some took the brand very quietly; but those which
had least pluck in resistance bellowed manfully at the
hot iron. This work and its accompaniments, guarding the mouth of corral, and fetching wood to keep up
the fire, employed most of us; but I managed to slip
away and brand my blankets by rubbing in gunpowder
and igniting it, and this, being indelible, saved me
much trouble; for by a search right through the waggons I was safe to find them; marking in thread was
useless with so many eyes to see, and hands to pick it
out. Taking another's blankets was a great shame, but
not actual dishonesty, as they did not belong to uswe only had the usufruct; but one might put them
among those things "quse ipso usu consumuntur," as
lawyers say.
One of these evenings seven Italians joined us; they
came up as we sat clustered around the camp kettle at
supper, and catching a word or two of their talk I at
once hailed them with, " Buona sera e buona cena," determined, though my Italian was slender, to make
acquaintance. They were delighted to find any one
who could speak their own language, and afterwards
proved the truth of a remark I have somewhere read,
that there are generally no friends more willing to serve
you than foreigners whose language you can speak.
When I had been sick, they were always glad to bring
me grapes or small birds, which they had a wonderful




18


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


adroitness in knocking over, and usually-for in camp
nobody knew nobody's name-called me "Italiano."
All of them were Piedmontese, but two brothers, having had some education, spoke good Italian-that is,
not unlike book language; the rest spoke more or less
a miserable puny dialect, dropping half the letters; for
instance, for "pigliare" (a word often used where
there was so much petty robbery), saying "piar;" but
they could understand me well enough, and pronounced
my language "molto polito," which, as it savoured a
good deal of the courtly speeches of Ariosto's ladies
and paladins, was not marvellous. Apart from them,
one was often reminded of Dante when standing guard
or herdsman over our cattle; for, says Dante, as a
comparison to the origin and growth of that worthless
public opinion of which he had good cause to speak
bitterly, " Se una pecora si gittasse da una ripa di mille
passi, tutte ' altre 1' andrebbono dietro; e i' ne vidi gia
molte in uno pozzos altare, per una che dentro vi saltb,
forse credendo saltare uno muro; non ostante che il
pastore, piangendo e gridando, colle braccia e col petto
dinanzi si parava."  Often was I the pastore, who
"piangendo e gridando," strove to head a sudden
stampede; often, too, if at night one strolled round
from the corral mouth to the camp fire to light one's
pipe of peace, on returning one could see"Come le pecorelle escon del chiuso [corral]
Ad una, a due, a tre, e l'altre stanno
Timidette atterrando l'occhio e chiuso," &c.




CORRAL.


19


passages, one may add, that seem to refute Mr. De
Quincey's remark, that "the iteration daily exhibited
in the habits of cattle had never forced itself into conscious notice until arrested by Wordsworth; and I rather think, long before Dante, the Hebrew prophets,
loving to draw their similes from pastoral life, had notice4 the same.
Though our cattle were not half branded, yet, as the
feed was becoming scarce and the dust atound camp
intolerable, a move of two miles was ordered-our first
move. But it was not till later that all the waggons
moved in a body, and the cattle were not unyoked for
several days, till they grew quieter and drivers began to
know their own cattle: five yoke went to a team. As
we started off, " Hurrah for Salt Lake!" was exclaimed
and heartily responded to: strange to say, the two most
forward in this enthusiasm never reached Salt Lake;
one died in less than a month, and the other was discharged near the Forks of the Platte. Some now began
to choose their waggons, and paint on the covers titles
and devices, such as " Polar Star," "Clipper No. 2,"
"City Hotel," "EXCELSIOR."     On my asking the
meaning of the last, the embellisher replied, " Regular
go-a-head, and no mistake," an interpretation that
might have astonished the poet; it was one of those instances where a name extends beyond, as it so often outlasts, that it belongs to. None of these names, however, but the " Polar Star," which happened to belong
to the leading waggon, and so had a propriety in fact,




20


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


obtained in camp. While the waggon-covers were clean
and the blue and red of the woodwork untarnished, a
train of forty, with as many drivers, also decked out in
bright blue and red overshirts, made really a brave
show as it stretched over a mile of road.
About the same time, we were divided into messes,
being allowed to group ourselves in tens. That I fell
into was the relic of the rest, and comprised a pretty
hotch-potch; four Germans, always called Dutchmen
in the West, two Irishmen, two Americans, a Mexican,
and myself, the solitary Englishman of the whole camp,
and hence always spoken of as " the Englishman," except in my own mess, where I went by my Christian
name. All the Dutchmen but one left us in a few days,
and were no loss; nature had made them so phlegmatic
that they would have seen the camp fire spread to the
prairie, and then to the waggons or cattle, without
stirring an inch to put it out. One of the Irishmen
was oldish, and always known as the " old man." According to his own account, he had been a wine-bottler
in the north of England, and left in consequence of
some Excise difficulty, and should return in three or
four years, when it had blown over. He was a man of
first-rate pluck, warm-hearted, with a jovial face, and a
sharp, but never abusive, tongue.  Mat, the other
Irishman, I consider in special my comrade; we slept
for three months in the same waggon and under the
same blankets. I made his acquaintance here by curing
him of ague with a dose of quinine, a good deed never




CORRAL.


21


forgotten. He had worked, like most Irishmen in America, as a navvy and steamboat hand, and also served in
and deserted from the United States' army; education
he had not much of beyond reading and writing, but a
better hand at telling a story one rarely meets; those of
the Arabian Nights sort he preferred, and threw into
them a wonderful amount of dramatic effect. This,
and his singing capital songs, made him much sought
for round the camp fire, but he had a cut ready for
every one, myself included; and discovering I had
studied law, begged politely to know if I was one of
two hundred able-bodied lawyers who had advertised
themselves as ready to turn the sod in Minnesota Territory. Such was our first mess; and, all in all, a sorry
affair it was.  None would be cook but a Dutchman,
who was a mere pettifogger of a cook. At meal-times,
the knives and forks we never used were bright enough,
but the bread was still dough; and in despair we often
ate it while warm dough. Worse still was it when he
succeeded in making a good loaf, for then, from inordinate vanity, he would give so much away to passers-by
that we who owned it were half-starved. Our cooking
utensils consisted of two or three camp-kettles, a frying-pan, skillet (or bake-pan), and a coffee-mill. We
had also tin cups and plates, and the above-mentioned
knives and forks. Each mess, too, had an axe, a spade,
and three or four six-gallon water-kegs. Rations were
served out every evening, for each man 1 lb. of flour,
the same of bacon; coffee and sugar in sufficiency: we




22


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


used to brown all the coffee each evening in the fryingpan.
We had hardly moved a score of miles by the end
of the month, as branding and choosing teams delayed
us. My first attempt at managing a team was a
ludicrous failure, ending, in fact, in a double knot,
every steer having its feet over every chain, and most
of the yokes turned upside down; some consolation,
however, was to be derived from finding the team also
a failure and unmanageable in other hands without a
change of leaders, mine leading everything to perdition
as fast as they could. One evening we had about the
heaviest rain-storm I ever had the luck to fall in with;
two-thirds of the train, including myself, were at
camp, but those bringing up waggons and loose cattle,
left behind the day before, caught it properly; some
waggons had to be left on the road now, as the teams
could not be got to face the wind and rain. Among
the sufferers was my friend the little Frenchman, who
had scarcely arrived in camp five minutes when he was
ordered off from the fire, drenched and supperless, to
stand guard; with a true soldierly spirit he declined
my offer of taking his place, saying it was his duty to
stand when and where he was commanded; but he
gladly accepted the loan of a coat-a very bad oneand afterwards, on sharing my dry blankets, with no
less true French demonstrativeness exclaimed that I was
no longer "un camarade, mais un frere:" we proved
the truth of this often subsequently by abusing each




CORRAL.                   23
other soundly-as brothers are wont to do-though
the Frenchman was never coarse in his language, and
fraternity and equality required as much politeness on
my part. Ah! mon frere, may we never sleep worse
than we did in No. 15 waggon on the night of July
30, 1855, though the corners of the boxes were very
perverse; and somehow in my diary is recorded,
"slept very badly; rough bed, and cold too." Yet the
night was pleasant after the storm, and the full moon
shone brightly over the log-house of a solitary squatter; and, since the squatter supplied us with fresh
milk at a fair price, I go in for squatter sovereignty.




CHAPTER III.


THE START.
I HAVE spoken of the glorious rolling prairie. Go out
on to the prairies of Illinois in the early summer-time
when the grass is greenest and the flowers are
brightest, and the flowers are so bright and so thick
you can hardly see that the grass is at its greenest,
and then say is not the prairie glorious? And when
you are tired of gazing on the beauty that woos your
feet, and as in dalliance flings on them its light dewdrops, treasured from sun and wind for your coming,
look far off how sun and wind scatter light and shade
over the unwooded landscape; drink in all you can of
the spirit of that expanse that seems " boundless as we
wish our souls to be," and then, too, say is not the
prairie glorious? But, between May and August, between Illinois and Kansas there is some difference; the
wild lupin, with a few companions, still blossomed; but
the season of flowers was past; the coarse prairie grass,
too, though from its height of eight or ten inches sufficient to prevent anything of bareness at a distance,
looks miserably thin close to you; and the waves of the
prairie are often as short, steep, and multitudinous as,




THE START.


25


those of the Moray Firth when a north-easter is blowing; seldom have they a slope of more than a quarter
of a mile, and such a uniformity of elevation that hour
after hour you may travel on without a view of a mile;
lucky if, once or twice in the day, by climbing high on
the waggon, you gain a further prospect. Road, in a
proper sense, there is none; the continual passage of
trains has indeed worn away the grass and made the
semblance of one, and two or three old tracks now
grassed over run parallel to the present; this next
season will give place to a new. In good weather, and
on moderately-sloping ground, you may travel smoothly
enough,but at the crossings of the creeks, and at the bottom of the steeper hills, the road is often rough, sidling,
and dangerous. At some of these places we had to chop
away the ground with an axe, for the sun had baked it
as hard as a brick, and spades were useless. All the
creeks, and most of the springs, have names, from their
nature or their discoverers, or mere fancy-c" Mud
Creek, "c Rock Creek," " Vermillion," &c.  Unfortunately in summer the smaller creeks become very scant
of water, in fact, merely strings of disconnected stagnant pools, far from wholesome for drinking. Wood
is scarcely ever wanting. Sometimes there are quite
picturesque little valleys, with beautiful groves of oak,
elm, maple, hickory, or cottonwood around the water,
that in the scorching days of August tempt passers-by
to stay and rest, and will soon tempt little bands of
settlers. Away from the creeks the land seems habitC




CROSSING THE PLAINS.


able enough, though not of special fertility. Probably
by sinking wells a sufficiency of water could be
obtained; at present you may go ten or fifteen miles
without seeing a drop.
The last day of July was a kind of epoch, being the
first time we travelled in one body; at the same time
two mule carriages joined us, in which were the owners
of the goods. We had but little to do with them; they
harnessed their own animals; made their own fire, and
cooked for themselves, as travellers on the plains do.
They had nothing to do with the management of the
train, and if they wanted any help rather asked than
commanded it. They travelled with us till early in
September.
August 2nd.-Last night one of the men was caught
running off with the mules (besides the mules of the
two carriages there were several for our " chiefs " to
ride); lie was of our mess, but had only joined the day
before, having deserted or been turned out of some
train ahead. It seems he had asked Mitchell, our new
cook (the Dutchman had been forced to abdicate), to
take part in the theft.  Mitchell declined, and told
X., who at first was for seizing the culprit forthwith; but subsequently on the police plan the affair
was carried out. A guard was posted and fell asleep,
as all the guards here do, and let the thief and
Mitchell pass, and the latter had great difficulty in
delaying him long enough for them to wake and come
up; if he had once mounted, "Good-bye."    One of




THE START.


27


the corrall guards called me up to stand in his place
while he went to see "the fun:" afterwards I found
him (the thief) tied to a waggon. Moved five miles;
camped near an Indian settlement; fine deep creek and
capital wood and grass; went down to the cottages in
the hopes of getting corn and milk; cows not yet
driven in; could not make the old squaw understand; stole some water-melons, not quite ripe, but
they were delicious, and did me a world of good; one
wants fresh vegetables and fruit occasionally.
August 3rd.-Terribly hot day. The nails in the
soles of my old shooting-boots a great nuisance; they
draw up the heat, and almost blistered my feet.
Moved ten miles; pleasant camping-place; creek rather
discontinuous, but with some deep large pools; close
beside it two springs, quite cold, but strongly mineral,
and soon drunk dry. On a beautiful slope of grass
towards the water, half surrounded by scrub oaks, were
several graves-the first we met with; almost every one
of the train gathered round them and read the inscriptions with interest-an interest lessened perhaps in
some minds when we met with such nearly every day,
in some perhaps increased after we had added two to the
number that mark the line of travel across the plains
-spots where one journey has been suddenly broken
off and another taken.
August 4th.-Had a delicious bathe in the creek;
water from four to five feet deep, and sandy bottom in
most parts; water-snakes gambolling about, but are
c 2




28


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


harmless. The Salt Lake mail from Independence
came up, and stopped during the heat of the day; two
mule carriages with six mules each, and two men on
mules to help; pay for the hands seventy-five dollars
a month; fare for passengers two hundred dollars;
there were two or three of them. Had an early supper
off bean soup; quite a luxury. A man from Fort
Laramie (700 miles from Missouri) joined our meal,
and then left us; he had travelled alone on foot in
about twenty days. This was not such a formidable
enterprise as it looks, for any one at that time of the
year travelling eastwards would be sure to meet six or
seven different trains at least, and therefore would not
require any large stock of provisions. Indians would
hardly observe one man on foot, generally walking at
night, and sleeping during the day.
Along with the mail Mr. Kinkead, one of the Salt
Lake firm (all Gentiles) which owned our freight, left
us. This gentlemen the preceding fall had a very
narrow escape. The mail from Salt Lake, in which he
was the only passenger, was attacked, apparently by a
band of Sioux, twenty miles east of Laramie, and at the
first fire all but himself were killed; he jumped out of
the mail waggon and mounted a mule, but was almost
immediately struck by six arrows, and fell to the
ground; an Indian then came up and signified to him
to lie still. After rifling the mail they went off, and
he with much difficulty crawled back to the house of a
settler not very far away. Whether the attacking party




THtI START.


29


were real or sham Indians, the robbery was evidently a
"plant," got up by white men. Mr. Kinkead had with
him a large amount of specie, as he was returning to
the States on business, and this was taken, though the
Sioux and other Indians of the plains have no knowledge of money. This account I read long afterwards,
though the story in our camp was not very different,
except that it transferred the scene from some propriety
in the name to the Devil's Gap, nearly 200 miles
west of Laramie.
Soon after the mail we also started with the last of
the twilight, and travelled far into the small hours.
In the stillness of the dark and breathless night, the
barking of the wolves sounded on all sides shrill and
clear: " Their horses are fierce as evening wolves,"
says Habakkuk; that evening I felt the force of the
expression, though, as a fact, the wolf of the plains is
by no means a gaunt savage-looking animal, but rather
a sleek, well-conditioned gentleman, too apt to sneak
into camp and steal a flitch of bacon or the remains of
a supper if he can, but never known to attack a man
or even cattle unless they are disabled; the buffalo
calf, if separated from its mother, sometimes fares
badly. A night without a breath of wind is as thirsty
a time as day, so a thunderstorm with heavy rain came
agreeably; I was glad to drink off the brim of my
"wide-awake:" the moon was high before we camped,
and soon all but the guard were fast asleep. This was
the first night march we made, and we made but five




30


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


or six altogether; only in fact when there were long
intervals without grass or water, and it was necessary
to push on and well (as now), to escape the heat.
Near this camping-place was a spring that deserves
special mention as the best perhaps on the whole
route; unluckily it was not discovered for several
hours, as it lay on the side of a bank half shut in by
low ground brush; a little basin hardly more than a
foot across, and about as deep, in the rich black mould,
and filling faster than we could draw from it, with the
clearest, coldest, and most healthful of water: the
overplus ran away into a narrow deep bed, overhung
by the long grass, and in fifty yards lost itself in a
small marsh with no exit. The " Cottonwood spring "
in the valley of the Platte is more famous, and like
this, quite cold, but its water seemed to me rather
insipid. This day another man from a train ahead
joined us; he was no thief like the former. California instils a respect for meum and tuum; he had
made a "pile" at the diggings-you never meet a
man who has been there and has not-and had lost it
gambling-I never met but one who had not lost his
pile gambling-and then supported himself with his
violin-I never met a fiddler whose instrument was
not a violin-and here was the violin, like the bricks
that proved Jack Cade's lineage, to testify to the whole
story. Previously he had served as interpreter to one
of the London police-courts, as he was an AngloItalian, or rather Welsh-Piedmontese, and a sort of




THE START.


31


putative Catholic; he was called the "old Italian,"
and joined the Italian mess, who disliked him almost
as much as he did them.
One of these nights I had a curious dream, viz. that
I saw and heard Milton recite the "Areopagitica"
before "the Lords and Commons of England."
Place, &c., were of the usual inconsistency, and the
passages one seemed to hear naturally those one knew
best. Nothing about our camp was very Miltonic, nor
in the daytime had a thought of Milton passed across
my brain. I suppose it came from some connection
between the prose works of Milton and Dante, which
last our cattle reminded me of.
Two succeeding days' travel of five and fifteen miles
respectively brought us to Big Nemahaw creek, at this
time rather shallow, but still a stream with an average
width of twenty-five feet: here there was a settlement
of some half-dozen houses, two of which were " groceries," and no doubt made a good thing of selling
whisky to passing trains, and villainous bad whisky
it was too; several of our men however indulged freely
in it, but then they did not know or had forgotten
Scotch and Irish whisky; a taste was quite enough
for me, after which I revelled in a quart of fresh milk,
only wishing I could have added to it honey to complete "the glory of all lands." A return empty train
from Fort Kearney camped by us. During the night
a heavy thunderstorm came on, with a strong wind, but
I covered my head up in my blankets and braved it a




82


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


long while beneath the waggon, till from the slope of
the ground inundation threatened below, upon which
I took refuge above; from this time I never but
once slept on the ground; hitherto, I had always
done so.
Morning brought a worse storm-three dismissals.
These were the lazy Frenchman, our Dutch ex-cook
(chiefly for impudence), and one of our Irishmen, "the
old man," John Dillon. There was something comical
in his discharge, though I was sincerely sorry for it;
he was cooking-for our second cook Mitchell, who
had entrapped the mule thief, had left our mess-and
rating me soundly in well-balanced sentences because
I had taken a bathe in the creek instead of bringing
water, concluding that he should report to Mr. J. how
little use I was, when that very gentleman appeared,
and informed him that as he was no use at all they
would pay him his wages, and had arranged with the
return-train to take him back.  The old man's spirit
was roused in a moment. "Thank you for nothing,"
said he; "you might have asked me first whether I
wished to go back, but I shan't go back, and '11 be
in Salt Lake before you yet:" and sure enough in
twenty minutes, without staying to take breakfast, he
was off by himself with an old carpet-bag over his
shoulder, and veteran hat-box in his hand; he was
quite moved when I shook hands with him, but we all
wished him well, and nearly the whole camp joined in
three cheers to him in spite of black looks from X.




THE START.


33


The old man walked twenty miles without a bite, but
his pluck never failed him; the next day a body of
troops caught him up, and he got along with them to
Fort Kearney. The officers liked him much, for he was
useful in his way, and would have gladly kept him, but he
had set his heart on going West, and joined a Mormon
goods train, working only for his board, but he was a
favourite there also, and received some pay at last, and
they tried hard to convert him; he would listen, I was
told, to any amount of argument, but remained a good
Catholic after all.  Irishmen seldom turn Mormons;
one, however, of the managers of an emigrant train
along with us was Irish, and all his countrymen in our
train, though friendly enough to the other emigrants,
were quite ashamed of him; each disclaimed him from
their country; "he couldn't be a Corkonian," "he
hadn't been raised in Dublin anyhow," &c. After
passing the Rocky Mountains we met "the old man"
again, but he ultimately got into Salt Lake City ahead
of us-by two days.  In place of the three dismissed
three joined us from the return train, and also one of
the settlers; the latter on the Scotch principle was
always called Nemahaw after his "claim," though as
the claim was but a claim, and the chance of payment
for it when due very uncertain, the nomenclature
seemed premature.  Little settled as this part of the
country is the land along or near the creek was entirely
in the hands of a land company: individual settlers
can rarely buy much worth having direct from the
c 3




34


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


government at the regular price of one dollar and a
quarter an acre.
Aug. 8th.-Left several head of cattle behind, half
dead or dead lame, chiefly from bad driving down hills,
not locking the wheels, &c., and drove away several
more we ought to have left. Made about eight miles
through a stupid, tiresome, grass country; I did not
get to camp till late, having remained behind driving
wo or three lame cattle, a terrible infliction on them
and me-shall shirk it for the future.
Aug. 9th.-After breakfast one hundred dragoons
passed our camp; all the men had revolvers; an
officer came up and had a talk with us; said that General Harney meant to pitch into the Indians right and
left.
Aug. 11th.-Heavy rain all the forenoon, drenching
us to the skin behind; about three it cleared off fine:
quite provoking! sun too far west: only got roasted
on one side without getting dry on the other. Camped
near Big Blue, a river from forty to fifty yards wide,
generally fordable, but now from the rains very high
and impassable except by ferry-boat. There is fine
timber all along the river bottom, and for the first time
we had a fire of red cedar wood; there was something
quite luxurious in the idea.
Near the Ferry were camped two Mormon emigrant
trains, of some thirty-five waggons and 400 emigrants
each. Flour was their chief load, over which appeared
a miscellaneous assortment of boxes and bedding, with




THE START.


35


sometimes a chair or two. Some of the richer families
had cows driven loose, and many had one or two as part
of their team, which had to draw a load much lighter
than ours, and lightening daily. Few, even of the women and children, unless sick or very young, were
accustomed to ride. At first, our men had had a great
prejudice against the Mormons, and whenever we passed
their waggons would abuse and order them out of the
road; but after seeing a bit more, we found they
were as good Christians as "the balance."  Perfect
morality it would be useless to expect: one knows
what -an emigrant ship's morality is (though, by-theby, the author of " The Mormons " reports, from what
captains told him, that Mormons are far better behaved
than the average run of emigrants across the Atlantic);
there arc quite as many temptations in an emigrant
train; but the immorality was exceptional, and never
scandalous. As a whole, they were a good, plain, honest sort of people, simple-minded, but not fools, nor
yet altogether uneducated; an omnium gatherum from
half-a-dozen nations, containing many excellent artizans
and some tradespeople, along with a large number of
mere labourers and some few men of talent and cultivation. Local papers in England occasionally mention
a departure of Mormons, and speak of them as poor
and ignorant people. This, no doubt, is correct; but
it would not be equally so to set down the entire class
of emigrants as such. The better class pay their own
expenses mainly; and though theyjoin at Liverpool, do




36


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


not travel in large bodies, or attract the attention which
those emigrating by help of the " Perpetual Emigration
Fund " (and therefore necessarily collected in the charge
of some " elder") do; these are the poor and ignorant;
and more shame for us there are so many such, and
that poverty and ignorance are cause and effect. In
the United States these people would have had a decent
education, and in Utah their children will have, no matter how poor they are.
Those emigrating by aid of the "Perpetual Emigration Fund," are required to pay back what has been
advanced as soon after their arrival in Utah as possible,
either in labour or produce, &c.  To save expense, it
was determined that after this time, instead of waggons
and cattle, merely hand-barrows or small carts should
be used; and most thought the journey could be made
as quickly that way, but it will come hard upon children and those who are sick. At Chicago, last June, I
fell in with 300 or 400 Welsh, still in the most primitive state of seini-civilisation, doomed to use the handbarrows. They seemed contented, though rather sorry
they could not settle at some of the pleasant places
they had seen in their R.R. journey from Boston. Had
they known the state of distress at Salt Lake, perhaps
they would have done so; but they would not have believed me had I told them.
Aug. 12th, Sunday.-No grouse killed by me, or any
one else to-day, I suppose. Day very fine, but the
level almost ankle-deep in water from the late rains.




THE START.


37


Idled away some time at the store, which was crowded
with men buying things at exorbitant prices-far more
so than anywhere else, considering the distance from
the States, only 150 miles. Then rambled through the
Mormon camps: they have tents, which adds a good
deal to their comfort, though, after all, in a waggon
you are surest of a dry bed to sleep on. Many women
were trying in vain to raise a fire from wet wood on the
wet ground: you can always tell the camping-place of
an emigrant train, there are the remains of so many
small fires; those of other trains are fewer and larger;
we never had more than half-a-dozen, and very seldom
as many.   Found a couple of Piedmontese families,
fifteen or sixteen together, with a waggon between
them. When I spoke of them to the Italians of our
camp, they expressed as much scorn as the Irish did at
the Mormon Irishmen, and would not go near them.
Perhaps it is a Catholic feeling; yet our Irish had half
dropped their religion: one to-day said to me, "I'm
Catholic, but all religions are ways to heaven, except
the Mormon; all their priests will go to hell." The
grown-up Piedmontese were ignorant, and spoke their
miserable dialect, but some of the children spoke very
plainly; one girl of twelve or thirteen was eager to
talk, and very quick, and promised to be pretty also.
Casually she spoke of the sunset as "tramontare."
"But there are no mountains here," said I.
"No," she said, catching my meaning at once,
"but it was the old word they used at home in the




38


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


'bel paese;' were there mountains where they were
going?"
"Yes," I said, "but the mountains were very far off;
it would be almost as easy to-get back to the 'bel
paese.' 
She looked sad; and I was sorry I had made the observation. From them I strolled on to the Welsh: one darkhaired beauty attracted my glance; she was but young,
and seemed travelling alone, without any relatives.  I
could make out her story but imperfectly, for she could
speak very little English, and not even understand it
readily; otherwise she was ready enough to talk, though
with more of the air and caprice one would fancy natural to a harem beauty than any Mormon girl I ever
met. A middle-aged woman from Dover was a curious
free-spoken person for a "saint," and almost put our
men to the blush; for a very trifling gratuity she
would have (and perhaps did) acted as the procuress of
the girls of her people. On common-place subjects
she talked sensibly; told me from having delayed so
long at Atchison they were already short of provisions,
and got only one pound of bacon a week each (perhaps
including all the children); complained bitterly that the
settler would not sell her any butter, he would keep it
all for the " captain's lady " (the captain of the United
States' troops)-that in a free country!-besides, he
had "extortionated" her for other trifles; but-and
this she told with immense gusto-she had sold his
wife some worsted stockings, and put just as much




THE START.


39


extra on the price of them. The story was not unlike
that of the Troglodyte wool-merchant and cornmerchant in the "Lettres Persanes."
On return to camp found Preston and O'Rourke had
deserted: neither were very courageous, a good deal
fonder of whisky than hardship, and terrible believers
in the Indians. The latter was a great humbug, pretended not to be of Irish birth, and wanted us to pronounce his name Orroack; he carried off a pocketcomb I had lent him. The other was a printer, had an
excellent memory, and could repeat whole passages of
the poets. Neither could drive well, or was much loss,
but Preston was a good-natured, jovial fellow; yet he,
too, borrowed another man's hat and went off with it.
The waggons were driven by one or two of the best
drivers to the ferry-boat; they crossed one by one, and
camped half-a-mile on the other side; a little before
dark we drove the rest of the cattle down, and swam
them across. Intended to have stolen some corn and
water-melons, but missed the opportunity; the storekeeper, the only settler here, has a good show of these,
besides lots of cattle.  His wife complains of loneliness and cold in winter.  " Nemahaw" lost my knife,
and then-impudent fellow!-said it was not of much
account, and he could get a better in St. Louis for
twenty-five cents. Thank you, N., but this is Big Blue,
not St. Louis.
Aug. 13th.-Had to keep second guard last night.
Heavy rain, but my blanket kept me dry,-when will




40


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


it be dry again?  Moran-idle scoundrel!-lay under
a waggon the whole time. Great difficulty in raising a
fire for breakfast. "Nemahaw," our cook, was a sloven,
content to leave things anyhow, and call that " roughing it,"-a type of a pretty large class in the world.
N. said it was too wet to cook, we must eat hard bread;
I opposed, and volunteered my blanket to be held over
the fire while some " slap-jacks " (pancakes) were fried.
All vociferously voted this to be magnanimous, but by
mistake, some one else's blanket was taken. Myself
and another stood one on each side of the fire, "like
Teneriffe or Atlas unremoved," with the blanket over
our shoulders, eyes, nose, and mouth so full of smoke
we could hardly see to swear. Made up for a bad
breakfast by dining at the store for half-a-dollar: we
had chickens and fresh vegetables, milk and cream, and
capital Java coffee-altogether a treat and a healthy
change. Settler's wife told me the reports of the devastation of grasshoppers at Salt Lake. She must have
to do with a great many rogues, or be very suspicious
by nature, for no sooner did I rise from dinner and
lounge half-way to the door, than she positively jumped
at me for the half-dollar, thinking I was trying to
sneak off.  Forty or fifty head of new cattle bought
from the settler; out herding them till late; lucky I
had made a good dinner. On coming in, found Nemahaw had fallen out with some of the mess and vacated
office-no great loss, but I lost my supper, everything
having gone to sixes and sevens, or rather to the six or




THE START.


41


seven who were ready for a scramble. Lost my supper,
and might say also "lost a day," not in the philosophical or the Cambridge sense, but we have not moved camp
to-day. Joined the "Great Western" as my sleeping
waggon; it is a famous large waggon, quite different
from the rest, and loaded with coffee and rice, so one
will have a good even bed.  The two Italian brothers,
my particular friends, are to be left behind, one being
lame, and the other staying to take care of him; both
are to receive their wages.
In consequence of the diminution of our numbers, the
messes were reduced to four, and guard and driving arranged accordingly. Each mess took a night's guard,
half standing till midnight, the remainder till daylight.
In rotation we had the lead in driving, not a mere distinction, but a practical advantage; the first waggons would
often get to camp an hour before the last, particularly
as forming corral takes some time; that hour might
change twilight into dark; many a time I've seen the
camp fire of the leading mess blazing up cheerfully,
when we were two miles or more away.
Of our messes I may give a short account. No. 1
was chiefly of professional teamsters, and entirely of
Americans. They were certainly the most useful and
willing, and the least quarrelsome,-but the varieties
of character among them were fewer. " Woodpecker,"
however,-surnames were not much in vogue with us
-having been among the Indians, could sing a good
song, or spin a yarn by the camp fire.




42


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


"We had been out a few days from the tradingpost, up the Yellow Stone, hunting; Pierre a FrenchCanadian, a Dutchman, myself and another American,
but we had not done much yet; that was the tradingpost, you know, we worked from. Well, it was just
after daylight, and the.Dutchman had shot a wolf-bitch,
and we made sure she had a litter somewhere, so we
scattered about, and at last we found the hole, and I
wanted to have one of the wolf-pups, so I put my arm
in, and pushed in myself as far as I could, and at last
got out a couple, but I can tell you those little beggars
have sharp teeth, you can see the mark still, only it's
too dark now. Put another bit of wood on the fire,
Tom. Any water in this keg I'm on?"
'"Take some coffee, Woodpecker."
"What! you 've got coffee left; well, we drink our
kettle dry, anyhow."
"Well, so do we, mostly, but we filled up again.
Go on, Woodpecker."
"Well, we'd just got the wolf-pup out you know;
he was a dog-wolf, and I stuck him in a bit of a sack,
and slung him over my shoulder. Somehow we'd been
after this the whole time, and kept no look-out, and we
hadn't seen any Indians yet since we'd been out; when
Dick-that's the American-turned round and didn't
say a word, but pointed to the hill. By Jove! there
were pretty near 100 Indians coming over, and they
saw us too, so it was no good trying to escape, for some
of them had ponies. Well, we wanted to fight it out,




THE START.


43


and kill what we could of them, for we knew they were
Sioux; but Pierre wouldn't hear of it, so we gave in to
him, and waited for the Indians to come up. They
came up, and asked us who we were. Pierre had told
us we must all make out we were French-Canadians, and
then they'd not kill us; Pierre knew their language,
and told 'ern we were French Canadians. Well they
saw he was, and I passed off pretty well, but the other
two couldn't pass, and two of the 'braves'-Pierre
whispered to me-said they must have a scalp; well,
I thought it was all up with us, for if they killed one,
they'd be likely to kill all, and I wanted to fire, but
Pierre said ' No.' Well, just at that moment, from the
other side comes up another band of Indians of the same
tribe [the Sioux nation consists of eight or nine different tribes, and these are subdivided in bands under
different chiefs] bigger than the others. These first
lot you know, were all young ' braves,' and they're always for killing the whites. But these others had with
them an old chief; that is, he wasn't young. Well,
they came up and claimed a share in us, and as they
were the strongest the first band could not help it;
but one of them stuck an arrow through the Dutchman's arm, and their chief said they must have a scalp.
Pierre told the old chief we were all Canadian-Frenchmen, and loved the Indians, and hated the Americans.
Well, they made us give up our arms, and then they
fell talking what they'd do with us, and meanwhile we
were stript pretty near of all we had on, just as they




44


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


fancied the things. Just as they were going to take
away my bag, the old chief turned round and asked
what it was, and the wolf-pup put out his head and
yelped, and the chief laughed. I think that put him
in a good humour, but Pierre said the others were still
for having our scalps, and the Dutchman and Dick
were a good deal kicked and knocked about. However, at last, they made out to let us go, because four
guns count as good as a scalp; so they told us we
might go, and off we went at once, but some of the
braves followed us at first, and the younger chief fired
a gun at us several times, but he only grazed Dick's
side once. I don't think he liked Dick. So we got
off at last, but we 'd no clothes and no food, or means
of killing any game. I can tell you it was hot to a
man's skin, for it was July you know, and we must
push on, having nothing to eat, and no friendly Indians nearer than the river. Just at dark a herd of
buffalo came along, and behind 'em all a buffalo cow
with a young calf; close by us there was a bit of a
bank, and the calf could not get up that easily; then a
big wolf slipped up and laid hold of the calf, but the
cow turned and drove him off; but while she was after
him, we set on the young one. Then she turned right
on us, but that brought the wolf back again, so between the two, the cow had a bad time of it, though I
was sorry for her, but we couldn't do without something
to eat. So at last we finished the calf with a blow on
the head, and drove off the cow and the wolf, though




THE START.


45


I know he didn't go far; then we got a bite, it was
raw though, for we hadn't a light. Well, in four days
we reached the Yellow Stone; but the sun had tanned
us so, the Indians took us for Black-feet, and began to
fire at us across the river; it's lucky we were not hit,
for they kept it up a good while after they found us to
be white men. Indians, you know, always kill a white
man they find in an enemy's country, as they suppose
him to be an ally of their enemy.  However, all's
well that end's well. At last we made 'em understand.
Then they took us over to their own side, gave us lots
to eat and drink, and we got back safe to the trading
post. That's all. Now give us another drink of
coffee."
" All gone, Woodpecker."
"Well, some water then."
" Not a drop left."
" Then I '11 go round to our mess. Good night."
" Good night, Woodpecker," from all, und voce.
" Oh, here 's a nice state of things," cries one of our
cooks, "how are we to get breakfast, and not a drop
of water to do it with? Whose turn is it?"
"Oh, I went for water this evening," cries one.
"And I for wood," cries another; and that great shirk,
Moran, slips away to his waggon.
" Oh, well, if none of you '11 go, it's no affair of
ours," says the cook, "we can do as well without
coffee as the balance, can't we Tom (to his sub)? I
know No. 2 mess '11 give us a drop."




46


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


"Call me up first thing, and I'll go," says Howard.
" No, we ve had plenty of that; you'd have had no
breakfast this morning, if some one hadn't lugged you
right out. Won't any one go?"
"I 'll go," says Dutch John, the most willing man
in camp, who never talks about his turn, or grumbles
that his bread and bacon is less than another man's.
"It 's too bad Dutch John should have to go, he
brought wood and water both this evening," says another, but never offers to go himself.
"Come along, William," says John, to myself,
"we '11 go together,"-for John and I were great
chums.
"Oh, William," says Nemahaw, insinuatingly, " if
you are going, you may as well take another keg."
"Well I guess I will take Mat's keg: we shall want
some water in the waggon, as we go along to morrow."
"Oh, that's just like you, William," say two or
three bitterly, "always thinking of the waggon and
yourself."
"Go to; -      the waggon doesn't drink any of the
water, nor I much. Don't we always give a drink to
any one who wants?  You'd have been thirsty enough
on Tuesday, if we had had none. Last time I trusted
to you there wasn't a drop, and I drank out of a rut
in the road, and afterwards of that putrid Vermillion
Creek. Bah! it was worse than Croton oil."
c Oh, make a speech now, you 're a lawyer."




THE START.


47


"I '11 give you more law than water to night, you
may swear to it; make that idle dog Moran bring
water if you want it brought."
Return of Moran, glaring savagely at me, foaming
at his mouth, putting his hand on his big knife, as he
always does when there 's a chance of a quarrel, and try.
ing to see if I have my revolver about me. Failing in
this he keeps quiet, and Dutch John and I go off tranquilly with our kegs.
Such are the common wranglings of camp life.
"No. 2," consisting in the main of American mechanics, was even worse. They would often squabble
and rail like so many angry women; but they were
handier than "ours" in getting a meal ready, and
much less wolf-like in taking it. One or two of our
Irish had no manners at all, and would try to grab
everything. The Emerald Isle had now a decided predominance in " ours," though we might still, like Midshipman Easy, have hoisted " the flag of all nations."
In place of our Mexican we had a Scotchman; he
was a sailor, had served on board a United States'
man-of-war, and deserted from it. " Scottie " was, all
in all, a good specimen. Before a select and appreciative audience he would sing "Highland Mary,"
and others of Burns' songs, but not coram populo;
there was a touch of genuine delicacy there; and, by
talking alone with him and hearing him speak with deep
affection of his dead mother, I learnt that there are
those whom you cannot know till they know you:




48


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


outwardly he was rough enough, though not unmannerly.
One American we had of great versatility. Landon
could anywhere have made at least a respectable show
as cook, confectioner, chemist, general practitioner and
poisoner, painter, actor, and tailor. I will vouch, with
proper materials he could have made a costume for any
stage character, and supported it very fairly himself.
Sometimes, when pacing round our herd on night
guard, one might hear in the distance a passage of Shakspere recited in imitation of some English or American
"star."  He was a doctor's son, and had come on to
the plains half for the fun of the thing, half to get to
California, and with a general self-confidence that he
could support himself wherever he went. Honest and
honourable as he was, even excessively good-natured, his
popularity was marred by a more excessive touchiness.
Among our Irish there was one character-besides my
comrade Mat of the " Great Western," the character of
the whole camp-known among us as " Little Tom."
His was a true Irish story. Born of parents fairly off,
well educated, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin;
put to some business, he had soon tired of it, and gone
off to America without a penny; stayed some months
with a rich uncle at Boston; again put in an office;
again tired of steady work, and ran off to New
Orleans; since that he had lived anyhow-teamster,
steam-boat hand, porter at hotels, &c.; two or three
times he had been nearly starved, both in cities and out




THE START.


49


in Indian country, and, unfortunately, still ate always
as if he were starved; but if he had lost the outside
polish, like a good coin he rang true and clear. Much
delighted he was to find any one with a little classical
knowledge, for his own, of Latin at least, was still
fresh. Sometimes we capped Latin verses by the campfire, to the intense astonishment of the rest of "ours,"
who had not given Tom credit for so much learning,
and he would hold his head a little higher after such
exhibitions. IHe always assured me there were no
such scholars as those of Dublin.  Related college
anecdotes, and delighted to propound "catches," such
as, "Mea mater est mala sus:' it was worth being
posed to see his pleasure. Prouder than of Dublin
was he of some remote-I dare say very.remote
-relationship to Cardinal Wiseman, who some ten
years before had patted him on the head, and spoken
a few kind encouraging words; still remembered every
syllable, though not likely ever to be turned to
account. Like the rest of our Irish (except Nemahaw,
who had been brought up as a surveyor, and on joining camp very foolishly boasted himself to be come of
"good people," a phrase he was often twitted with),
Little Tom had been in the United States Service,
and come out some irregular way or other. I think
on a plea of not being an American citizen.
Irish in America stick mainly to public works,
railroads, and the river; consequently they come but
little in competition with native American workmen.
D




50


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


The latter (of whom I have seen a good deal, both
here and elsewhere out West) have a great dislike of
Germans, who will underbid them entirely. -One told
me he and another American were working near Pittsburg at one dollar and a half a day, when two Germans came and offered for ten dollars a month, and,
of course, cut them out.   This, no doubt, to those
who think the sum of human wisdom is comprised in
buying in the cheapest and selling in the dearest
market, and who I dare say would sell their own souls
if they could find out the dearest market for those valuable articles, will seem the perfection of competition;
others may find less to admire in it. Englishmen and
Protestant Irish, both a very small number, are well
spoken of as workmen, and as very tenacious of proper
wages.
One feeling our Irishmen had in common, that of
an intense hatred towards England; this was mainly
national, but partly also republican. They had found
a greater equality in America, and spoke very bitterly
of such laws as the game laws. As a whole, they preferred the slave States, though asserting that on steamboats, &c., along with slaves, the latter, as being owned
not hired merely, were invariably put to the lightest
work-I think the greater hospitality in   country
places influenced their opinions. Scarcely less intense
than their hatred of England (or rather of the governing classes of England) was their hatred of the United
States army, while they would eulogise the English Ser



THE START.


51


vice. One quite roused the Americans to a K.N. feeling
against him, by boasting that the Scotch Grays, Enniskillens, 4th Light Dragoons, and 10th Itussars-regiments he happened to have seen formerly-out on the
prairie would in half an hour cut to pieces the entire
American army, infantry, cavalry, artillery, and all
they could muster. - Another Irish characteristic I
noticed. Though not specially given to lying, yet if
they swore "on their souls" a thing was true, then invariably it was false. A young naval officer, soon after
the Pacifico affair in Greece, told me that whenever a
Greek assured him of a fact with great solemnity, he
always assumed the direct contrary to be the case, and
always found it so.  I did the same when I heard anything of the Irishman's soul.
Though Kansas theoretically extends to the mountains, Big Blue is considered the boundary line of the
territory, and the great ocean of Indian country;
indeed we were not unlike a vessel outward bound,
nor our journey unlike a voyage.  We struck out
hence into a region, considered by our pace of travelling, as boundless, if not as trackless, as an ocean.
Fort Kearney and Laramie were our St. Helena and
Cape, the mountains and snow our icebergs, the mails
a monthly line of.steamers passing to and fro, the
buffalo and antelope our halibuts and flying-fish, the
wolves our sharks, and if the journey had continued a
little longer one might have added "scurvy was
scurvy.'  Was it not a voyage?
D2




CHAPTER IV.


DEATH IN THE COMPANY.
MORNING broke gloriously on August 14, such as
one rarely sees upon the plains, and not too often anywhere; it was, indeed, a "shining morrow," fit for
the start of the outward-bound. The rain-clouds, that
yesterday had swept over the prairie ocean upon the
swiftness of the western gale, were now on the point
of vanishing, when caught like lingering ghosts by the
rising daylight. Golden-hour, not the rosy-fingered
Eos, ruled the dawn. There was scarcely a tinge of
rose colour, but the whole sky was a sphere of gold, as
I walked down the hill-side to the spring; by the time
one returned the sun was up, as though shamed by our
earlier camp-fires. Our pleasant, if in fare simple and
unchanging, meal was soon over, and then less pleasant work began. The cattle had been two successive
nights in this same corral, and as a natural consequence the ground was knee-deep in mud. Corral
was but an elliptical space of fifty yards by thirty, not a
superfluity of room for four hundred and twenty head
of cattle, and forty men seeking their own in the melee.
At the hour of yoking up it was always a strange




DEATH IN THE COMPANY.


53


scene, and echoed with strange shoutings.  "Who
has seen my bald-faced steer?"-" Head my red stag,
or he '11 be out of corral!"-" ID  n you, but I '11
have you yet," from a big Southerner, as he is dragged
by a wild steer for the third time round corral, his
right arm holding to a horn, and his left hand clenched
on the bleeding nostrils of the animal.-" That's a
dear, good creature, Lines, always ready!" from an
Irishman, as he puts his arm affectionately round the
neck of a milk-white bull.-" Now, then, how am I to
yoke my wild cattle, and you cracking your whip close
by?"-" Look out, Dutch John, my off leader's a
kicker, he '11 break your leg in a moment."-" There's
Mexican Joe left his gap unchained as usual, and my
black yoke have got out and gone right down to the
creek. I don't care; I won't go after them; it's too
bad."-" Now look alive; are you going to be all day
yoking up?" from Carill Hughes, our first waggonmaster. Then a volley of Anglo-Italian oaths from
the old Italian, as his team, instead of coming out,
turns hopelessly back into corral; and then "Maledetto! maledetto!" from half a dozen mellifluous
voices, as every off steer of the afore-mentioned team
successively runs his head against the Italian mess-box
behind one of the waggons, ending in an upset and a
conglomeration of frying-pans, coffee-mill, bacon,
flour, green and brown coffee, fallen together on the
ground. But this day all was at its worst. Men,
some voluntarily entering the mire barefoot, some




54


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


emerging shoeless, some cursing a steer they could not
hold, some upset and uttering curses deep-in mud;
"keys" lost, chains entangled, lariettes thrown in
vain, yokes turned upside down, all to the eye in
hopeless confusion, like revolutions on the Continent;
and yet the work did go on, if the progress were slow,
-and at last, after two hours, we got clear of the mire.
May the revolutions end as happily!
The emigrant trains passed us a few minutes earlier,
and from this time to the end of the month we camped
near together. It was a pretty sight to watch them
starting off for the day's march; great numbers of
women and children walking in advance gaily, the little
ones picking flowers, the boys looking for grapes or
plums if there were trees near, and the mothers knitting as they went: all seemed willing to endure hardship, looking upon the journey as a pilgrimage to the
promised land, where they should have rest: many, I
fear, had a hard time the next winter, and perhaps
much disappointment, proceeding from a cause rumours
of which we now began to hear-the grasshoppers; but
they were a hopeful set, and in the main as fully believed themselves under divine guidance as though a
pillar of cloud had marched before them by day and a
pillar of fire given light to their camp at night. As
since [New York, June, 1856] charges have been
made against Mormon emigrants of ill-treating their
children, and even rejoicing in their deaths, as one
mouth less to feed, I may say that I saw nothing of




DEATH IN THE COMPANY.


55


the kind, though of course for all that it might have
existed.
From this time we began to travel in earnest, sixteen
to twenty miles a day-"' only," one unacquainted with
ox-teams might add; but this distance is quite as much
as cattle arc fit to continue at. Their pace being seldom
over two miles an hour, a journey took from morning
till night, for small accidents often occur, and a large
train is greatly delayed by any bad place in the road, as
the foremost waggons cannot go on a-head but must
wait for the rest to come up. Desertion having made
drivers scarce, I again had a team; three yoke, being
new cattle, were only unchained, not unyoked, at night
for some time.
Aug. 15th.-Finer weather; but the roads still very
dirty. My leaders, having just come from grass, were
mad to return to it, and would never keep for long together on the road, particularly delighting to turn off
to the long grass at the bottoms of hills, the most incon.
venient place for such pranks. Ran my waggon into a
chink at the side of the road; fortunately it was pulled
out without accident. Tom Brown is our new cook,
and a great improvement. A thoroughly good-natured
and half-generous Irishman was this Tom Brown, but a
regular wolf at meals, ready to lie or steal for an extra
biscuit, and altogether with loose notions as to meum
and tuum; his name was not exactly a nom de guerre,
as he had left his real name behind when he deserted
from the United States dragoons.




56


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


Aug. 16th. -The nights now seem completely
changed from pleasantly cool to sharp frost, and one
feels it after the heat of the day. This is the coming
in of the harvest moon: has that caused the change?
Water in the kegs all night is "iced" deliciously by
morning.
Aug. 17th.-Gloriously fine morning.  Drove five
miles before breakfast; hot enough even so early.
Camped by Rock Creek, a very pretty one, with abundance of wood round, but steep hills on each side, and
terribly rocky in the bottom. B. Duncan drove my
team across. Bad headache, perhaps from the heat;
intended to ask not to drive, but Roland just then said
he could not drive, as he was suffcring severely from
diarrhoea, so I did not ask. We camped in the evening
in good time. Felt bad every way and tired: took no
supper, and went to bed in N.'s waggon, as Roland
was in the "Great Western," very sick. Had a miserable night, being awake from before second guard till
daylight. N. is the most restless fellow imaginable,
but very good-natured.
Aug. 18th.-Roland died at two this morning; he
was one of the strongest men in our train; I don't
think I had spoken to him five times since he joined.
When I got up, he was lying on a blanket by the
" Great Western," his face drawn in a good deal, but
else unaltered. After a while, Carill Hughes, our first
waggon-master, came round, and had a blanket placed
over him; two or three men were engaged a short dis



DEATH IN THE COMPANY.


57


tance off in digging his grave by turns. On the other
side of the camp-a curious contrast-guns and ammunition were being distributed, as there were reports
of the Pawnees being collected some twelve miles in
advance. The Pawnees have the name of being about
the meanest and most rascally set of Indians in the
whole country; more ready to bully than to fight, and
most to pick off stragglers; as a tribe, they are at peace
with the United States. The rifles were what are called
" yagers," but rather old ones, formerly belonging to
the government; men seemed very eager to get the
rifles, but not many knew how to use them: I prophesied, in case of an attack, more would be killed by
our own accidents than by the Indians: the supply was
insufficient, and I did not get one, which I cared little
about, having a D. and A. The box that had contained
the guns was broken up to place in Roland's grave.
Our mess was only a few yards from where the body
lay, and breakfast was accompanied by sounds of "illseeming merriment."  When all was ready, Carill
Hughes, who seemed a good deal "cut up," called us
together "to help all in doing the last for him."
We carried him in his blanket to the grave, and when
he was lowered into it placed pieces of plank over him;
the grave was filled in very tenderly and smoothed all
round on the top; a wooden tomb-stone was put at the
head, with his name, &c., very neatly carved on. In a
couple of days he seemed forgotten, and his name unmentioned, except in such phrases as "' Roland's wagD 3




58


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


gon," "Roland's rifle," &c.; three weeks afterwards
his clothes, &c., were sold by auction, and fetched considerably above their cost-prices, or even their value on
the spot, but men bid freely when the payment is not
cash down, but a deduction from wages not payable for
two or three months later.
Howard and Rice being sick, I drove again to-day,
though not at all up to work. Very tired when we got
to camp, and sent to head the cattle, that continually
plunged into a wilderncss of sunflowers, dead the
wrong way. No water near at hand.
Aug. 20th.-Worse again, but there were no men
to spare. Carill Hughes very kind; helped me to yoke
up and offered to find a substitute, but I hoped to pull
through. Some charitable individual took my blanket,
which was spread out to air, Roland having used it, and
gave it to Howard, and I could not get it away again;
shared Mat's in the " Great Western" till he went out
on second guard; then was almost frozen, and slept, I
think, with my eyes open, dreaming the whole time
that I was surrounded by goblins, and the front of the
waggon was the mouth of a cavern which one had to
drive through and could not.
Aug. 22nd.-Drove till about noon, and then gave
out, being unable to walk a step further. This was the
last work I did for some time.
A time of sickness is, I suppose (never having tried
it but this once), a wearisome time at best and with
any alleviations, and a bed of coffee-sacks in a waggon




DEATI IN THE COMPANY.


59


is probably as healthy as a feather-bed in a close and halfpoisonous room; but to wear the same clothes night and
day for days together, to have water only now and then
for drinking, and never but for drinking, and to be
jolted over rough roads for ten or twelve hours at a time
through sun and dust-and often an almost stifling
dust-are unpleasant, and something more in a feverish
attack.
Wearisome and monotonous indeed those days were:
as the morning heat came on, one longed for night,
and yet the last two hours before sunset were the
hottest, for as our course was N.W., the sun then
shone full into the waggon; and before one could well
enjoy the evening cool, it turned to bitter cold, at least
one felt it so those frosty moonlight nights. The food
of our camp was not such as a sick person could cat;
medicines our "office" had none but some boxes of
quack pills, a culpable negligence that perhaps cost
two lives; my own stock was opium and quinine; the
former a good travelling companion, and useful here in
checking cholera, which the unwholesome water at this
time produced; but the latter failed to cure me. Fortunately the Mormon trains were near, and they had
doctors; one morning I went to their camp. How
long the distance seemed, yet it was not over 200
yards, but one could only make it in many stages.
The doctor was a young man, but he had regularly
studied and practised in Philadelphia, and had rather




60


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


come on the plains as a cure for pulmonary weakness *
than from any special zeal for Mormonism, though he
was, I daresay, a good saint for a medical student. His
own work he certainly understood, for after asking me
a few questions he told me all the rest himself, concluding with-" Well, you've no constitution, and it's
a toss-up whether you pull through." I admired his
plain-speaking, but thought my case had not quite
reached that; but the coup d'etat on my constitution,
thatI had always believed excellent-that was infamous;
henceforth Louis Napoleon, Santa Anna, &c., seem to
me very law-abiding characters. " However," added the
doctor, "I '11 give you some medicines." The principal
of these were taken in effervescing draughts, and though
of a strong and nasty taste, were then more delicious
than anything I had ever swallowed; one had longed,
almost dreamed, of effervescence as the highest physical gratification. These did me a great deal of good in
taking away my fever, but from want of food I grew
daily weaker, and could hardly walk ten yards away
from the waggons, and often sat long at the mouth of
the waggon, fearing to get down without help, and
waiting for a passer-by.
* Whatever be the cause, it is found as a fact that those
suffering from pulmonary diseases in the Eastern States are
much benefited by travelling West; and the converse is found
true to a great extent. This I have heard both in Illinois
and Minnesota.




DEATH IN THE COMPANY.


61


One of these days Rice died; some said from taking
too much laudanum, others from too much cold water
during his attack of cholera. He was buried at night,
decently enough, and the grave was deep-too deep
for the wolves-and bushes in place of boards were
placed over his blankets; there is a kind of repugnance to throwing and trampling the earth down upon
the very body; but altogether there was not the same
scrupulous care as in the former case.  I wedged myself in among the rest, and put a hand to the blanket
that carried him to his grave, for we had been friends
from the first, and I used to help him yoke his team,
which was wild.  He was as good-natured a man as
there was in camp, and there was not a better-natured
than he out of it.
Next day we reached Little Blue River, a stream
rather than a river, but now considerably swollen and
therefore less unwholesome drinking than usual.
Nemahaw was very kind, and helped me down to the
water, so at last I got a "wash;" it was as delightful
as the effervescing draught. The day after I took a
bathe, and must have been a ludicrous spectacle, as I
tottered about in shallowish water, clinging fast to the
boughs of a tree overhead; many thought me stark
mad to bathe, but cleanliness is a step not only towards
comfort but towards health.
We were now approaching the valley of the Platte,
and buffalo were looked for; a solitary " chip "-so
the buffalo droppings are called-found one evening




CROSSING THE PLAINS.


caused quite an excitement in camp; then some buffalo
were seen or thought to be seen miles off; then came
an actual chase, but after some near and exciting
chances an unsuccessful one; and finally came a fat
four-year-old cow, the very perfection of age and condition for the table, if one may say so where there
were no tables.  No one was more interested in the
result than myself, who might otherwise perhaps have
died of sheer weakness and want of food, as our escort
told me six or seven soldiers had died after sicknesses
in themselves not serious.  As it was, the fresh meat,
taken at first very moderately, brought one strength
rapidly, the more so perhaps from having lived
previously on salt food. For the same reason many
indulging too freely at first suffered accordingly.
About the full of the harvest moon we passed Fort
Kearney; it has no fortifications, but every post in
Indian country is termed " fort:" all I could see was
a large and tall square house, resembling a boardingschool just out of town, such as that at Hammersmith
Becky Sharp and Amelia in the picture are leaving,
and a few store-houses round.  Great disappointment
was felt at our not staying there at least a few hours to
buy some of the articles we most needed; tobacco and
soap were very scarce in camp, and on the plains are of
equal necessity.  Our cattle evidently sympathised
with us, as the main of them turned back that night,
and were found near the fort. We, however, lay
camped by the broad channel of the Platte, in which




DEATH IN THE COMPANY.


63


at this season a few shallow streams of water hardly
make their way through sand and shingle.  We had
completed the first stage of our long journey. We
had left the rolling prairie and creeks of Kansas behind, and were in Nebraska. Fort Laramie was less
than 400 miles off, and that did not seem so very far
now we were travelling fast; men began to talk of
getting there and conjecture the time; and hearing the
conversation I asked them the day of. the month. It
was the last of August: I had believed September was
half through. Do we then live faster or slower in
sickness than in health? Both possibly in a certain
sense. The motion of our life is one made up of
many motions.   So it is in the material world.  The
man walks to and fro along the deck; the vessel
moves on its course through the ocean; the ocean is
whirled around the earth's axis; the earth flies along
circling the sun; and sqme now hint that the entire
visible universe moves around some unknown and invisible centre.  So too it is in the life of man.  But
we often note the lesser motions and wholly forget the
greater.




CHAPTER V.


THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE.
THE valley of the Platte from Fort Kearney to the
South Crossing has an average width of six or eight
miles, closed in N. and S. by low bluffs from 200 to
300 feet high; while the river divides the level between
pretty evenly, having itself a width of little less than a
mile.  Cedar-wood is sprinkled thinly over the bluffs,
and now and then (but rarely), you may find a copse
on the river-side, half impervious through the tangled
masses of the wild vine; their grapes, though small and
acid, are wholesome and refreshing, and an excellent
remedy for either hunger or thirst.  We should, however, have fared badly if dependant upon wood for
fuel; our fires henceforth during several weeks were
entirely of buffalo-chips, which are thickly strewn over
any pasture on which you care to camp, and in a quarter of an hour with an old coffee-sack one could gather
up enough for a cooking; when dry they make admirable fuel, indeed, for baking, preferable to wood, as
they keep up a more even heat.  At first the idea and
the smell were a little unpleasant, but very soon one
was only too glad to put a slice of buffalo-steak to




THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE.


broil on the coals, and it tasted none the worse for a
sprinkling of the ashes-rather hard though upon the
buffalo, that he should supply the very fuel for himself
to be cooked upon.
The soil and the grass appear very good, both along
the river and sloping away to the Bluffs; on these
slopes feed herds of buffalo, many hundreds, perhaps
thousands, together, blackening the ground like a grove
of cedar trees; our own cattle numbering over 400
head one could make a fair guess by comparison of the
numbers of a buffalo herd. An old buffalo bull, with
his dark shaggy mane and grim broad head, is if not a
graceful at least a noble-looking animal, as he is in
fact noble and courageous: we admire and let him go
by, for if catering be the question one must reverse
the rule of pheasant-shooting. The meat of a fat
four-year-old cow is as juicy and tender as the best
beef, and with a specially delicate flavour of its own.
A young bull you may grumble over and just eat; an
old bull of five years or more you positively cannot; I
have nearly pulled out my teeth in the attempt; if you
boil the meat to rags, the rags are still shreds of
leather, and even pounding I fear would be too weak a
process.  Several of our people were good buffalohunters, but the best was a Frenchman, who joined us
here with a small mule-waggon, and agreed to exchange
his services against the buffalo for what other provisions
he needed.   He had previously been a purveyor of
fresh meat for the United States troops at 140 dollars




66


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


a month, and was assuredly a famous stalker; he would
go out alone of a morning, while our cattle were being
yoked up, and, slipping among a large herd not more
than a mile away, bring down two or three without disturbing any of the rest, and walk.back to camp with
their tongues in his hands. These delicacies he always
reserved for himself and his friends.
One morning, as we sat round the camp-fire breakfasting off the last of the cow, several hundred buffalo
came pouring down the Northern Bluffs towards the
river exactly opposite our camp; at first it was feared
they only came to drink, but in a few minutes they
were struggling over the loose sand. Then what a
chance! what a scene! a whole herd likely to pass
within gunshot, for they did not seem to notice us!
Guns were out, caps on, and every man felt himself a
man and a sportsman. All was in readiness; but the
buffalo gradually edged a little down stream, and
-reached the south bank, three furlongs off. Nothing
daunted at this, our sportsmen fired a volley of some
thirty bullets, many of them into the air, as if aimed
at birds, or only a salute to the buffalo. " Woodpecker," however, who was another sort of person, had
run ahead and concealed himself in a bit of a hollow,
from which he had a fine chance, and shot a good twoyear-old cow; it was lucky he was not himself shot
first among such indiscriminate firing. Very often
our waggons, travelling up wind, would approach a
herd quite close before they were alarmed; then if a




THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE.


67


chance unsavoury gust fell upon them, it swept all away
rapidly, as in a vast succession of dark tempestuous
waves. The bones of buffalo whiten the roadside, and
their bleached skulls serve in a double way as records
of the passers-by. Many are the names and bulletins
pencilled on them; and by continually reading one
begins to learn the biography of those in front, and
feel an interest and a companionship in their progress.
Perhaps we catch up another train, we all chat together, names drop out; " Oh! one answers, " I know
your name, I read it on a buffalo head three weeks
ago; you're from —, are not you?"    Sometimes
one reads short camp anecdotes or accidents, such as,
"Woman shot to-day by her husband taking his gun
loaded into the waggon-not expected to recover:"
then, " Woman shot on Thursday, doing well."  It
was strange, by-the-by, there were not many more such
accidents, particularly as our men would keep their
hammers down.    I was set down as an ignoramus
for objecting to it, at least till they saw what the
soldiers did; luckily the main-springs were too weak
to burst a cap, except from quite full cock.
In addition to wolves and buffalo, we saw plenty of
prairie dogs and rattlesnakes; the former look more
like large squirrels, and burrow in the ground like
rabbits; they were often fired at, but rarely hit, and
were certainly not worth the powder and lead; prairiedogs would not be delicacies under any name, and
under their own are quite the reverse. People say the




68


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


bite of the rattlesnake is fatal if on the bare skin, but
through clothes not so; I have no personal experience
on the subject. When attacked they certainly hiss
and vibrate their rattles, but I could never hear any
special sound of rattling, nor is the smell they then
emit very noticeable. I nearly trod on the biggest we
killed, about six feet in length. You kill them very
soon with a whip, and we destroyed two or three every
day: some men taking especial care to secure the
rattles, which are believed a specific for head-ache.
Their coats, as they darted along in the sunshine,
looked as bright as that of a Thames jack in good condition-" startlingly beautiful," as writes the poet of
the prairies.
All this time the weather continued fine and hot;
water excellent, and near at hand; roads firm and
level, therefore we made long drives every day; but a
most unpleasant system was adopted, viz. of driving
the cattle into corral at daylight and travelling till
noon without breakfast; perhaps the rest to the cattle
during the heat of the day made up for the loss of
time in a double forming and breaking-up of camp.
I was still unfit for any but very trifling work; but I
struggled for strength, walked short distances from
time to time, riding in the waggon when tired, and ate
as much buffalo meat as possible. About Sept. 4 we
met a return train from Laramie, and took one of their
hands, one of our own being at the same time dismissed,
principally for blasphemy of "the powers that be."




THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE.


69


He was a gentleman from St. Joseph; but, like
most men out West, up to most work, driving a team
or a plough, rafting logs, and what not. His idea
of coming on the plains was, I think, suggested
by my own determination; we were stopping at the
same inn there, and he was always afterwards very
friendly and willing to assist me. In appearance he
was rather striking; his shoulders were herculean, but
relieved by a magnificent beard of such length (except
when he fastened it up with hair-pins) as to fall halfway down his chest; long enough, indeed, to hang
a romance upon, and accordingly one was hung upon
it. That its owner loved a lady, young and fair, but
since young still subject to the tyranny of hardhearted parents,who looked upon the accepted lover with
an evil eye: that his letters were intercepted, and the
lady guarded from personal visits, if not by brazen tower
or the hundred-eyed sentinels and hundred-mouthed
dragons of mythology and fairy-land, at least by
several border-ruffians fully armed: still he hoped and
loved on, and looked for the hour that should free her,
and had sworn a mighty oath not to clip his beard until
he wedded her, even though in the interim it should
grow as long as that of the king in the " Sleeping
Beauty."  May his love be crowned with happiness,
and his beard never grow less! for as it was a distinguished ornament to him and our camp, I trust he
will be content to trim it slightly on his marriage
morn.




70


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


A sight more astonishing to us than that of buffalo
or rattlesnakes was "a gentle ladie riding o'er the
plain:" her sole companion was her brother. The
lady was "fair to look upon," dressed in a short riding
habit, and mounted on a small but handsome horse,
and was evidently an excellent horsewoman. To her
there attached a story far more tragical than the little
romance above; one too painful to believe too readily,
and yet in part it was but that which is very common,
the talc of love, and confidence, and wrong. They had
been thrown much together, she and one she thought
her lover; they travelled together, she, and he, and her
brother; she still clung to him, and loved him, though
scarcely any longer hoping the fulfilment of his promise; he still was fascinated by her beauty, and could
not leave her; all saw or feared the truth but her
brother; he and his sister's seducer had been fiiends
for years; that friendship at once had given the opportunity and blinded all watchfulness. Months passed;
then the truth flashed on the brother's mind; he
questioned her: learnt all; took his resolve. It was
not a country where men seek a discreditable pecuniary
compensation for the shame of those dearest to them,
nor where men go through the flimsy politenesses of a
duel with those whom they ought to " hate with the
hate of hell;" it was one in which a G6rdian knot, even
if tied in the thread of life, is soon cut. He took his
resolve; loaded his six-shooter; walked out smilingly
with his friend away from houses; then spoke, not with




THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE.


71


imprecations, not even bitterly-so he said afterwards
-but coolly; gave the man five minutes to considerwould he fulfil his promise or not? received an answer
in the negative; shot him dead then and there, and
went back and told his sister what he had done. Her
child was born prematurely; perhaps might not have
lived long; but her brother did not leave that to
chance; she was insane for many months afterwards;
he was tried and acquitted by Lynch law of both
murders; the provocation was thought to justify the
one; the other passed as an act of sudden grief and
passion. Now he was taking his sister home across
the plains, I suppose disliking the publicity of the
Panama route; perhaps for the sake of the distraction
from thought such a journey must produce. He was
said to have been very fond of her; one may doubt if
she could love him still. As far as I saw they had only
a couple of attendants with them. One of our train,
a man not given to exaggeration, had been in California
at the time and scene of the tragedy, and knew both
the facts and the faces well; hers he said was paler,
but not altered else.
The same evening-though not probably at all in
connection with these travellers-one of our mess
picked up a letter, and as the writing was small and
crabbed, brought it to me to read. Deciphering an
almost illegible MS. is one of the few things I pride
myself on, and this and the locality must be one's excuse for doing what would not have been quite honour



72


CROSSING TIE PLAINS.


able elsewhere. The contents were curious for such a
place.  The writer said his daughter-apparently an
authoress of some repute-had lately written a work
of fiction founded on the massacre of Glencoe, but
which, from the kind or the subject, he did not think
would add to her literary reputation, and was opposed
to its appearance under her name. If his friend, to
whom he was writing, liked to publish it under his
own name, he was welcome to all the possible profits
and fame, and not a syllable on the real authorship
should ever be whispered. Initials only were signed,
and the direction I have long since forgotten, nor if the
literary mystery were one likely to be guessed, should
now mention it.
Sept. 6th. —Started early after a rapid breakfast; five
miles' travel brought us to the South Crossing of the
Platte. The river here is quite shallow, but very broad,
and with a sandy bottom, tolerably firm; all the waggons double-teamed across.  Iad whisky served out to
us afterwards; sufficient, but rather spoilt by a bad cask.
There was a good deal of ascent from the river across
the Bluffs, and towards evening we wound through
barren rocky hills, wild and dreary as the top of the
pass of Glencoe. Then our waggons slid down one
terribly steep hill, with both hind-wheels locked; any
upset would have been a complete smash.*    The sun
* It is a fortunate. thing that the western side of all the
severe hills (i. e. the descending side for us and all heavy
traffic) is the steepest by far: this was one instance; and here,




THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE.


73


had set before we reached the notable Ash Hollow. As
far as one could see in the twilight it is from 150 to 200
yards wide, and three or four miles long: cliffs something less than 100 feet high close it in on each side,
and ash trees-whence the name-hanging over, seem
to increase the gloom. In the dusk of a dull evening,
as our waggons toiled through the deep loose sand, the
hindmost draggling along two miles from the front,
the Hollow seemed the very perfection of a place for
attack; it has an ill name with travellers, and the Sioux
were known to be near and hostile. Our cattle had
come far that day, and were tired out, so I too footed
it through the sand, soon tired also. A cheering sight
was the camp-fire of the leading mess, but it was far off,
and long before we reached the end of the hollow that
opens on the river-the North Fork of the Plattetwilight had passed away.
On the opposite bank was camped General Harney's army of 700 or 800 men, and their fires were
bright and thick as fire-flies. We heard they had
fought a battle with the Indians the day before;
this accounted for our seeing none at the Hollow,
but as they were supposed to be still about, and
only the more hostile, we were ordered to keep double
guard, two messes a night, and to be well armed.
Went out myself for the first time again, though
and at several hills in the last hundred miles to Salt Lake,
I am sure, if travelling eastwards, we must have unloaded our
waggons.
E




74


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


very much exhausted with walking through the sand;
did not care to have the weight of a revolver: the
rest had their rusty old yagers.
Sept. 7th.-A good many cattle missing; while they
were being hunted up, a lot of soldiers came into our
camp, some for provisions, of which they were very
short, and others having crossed to build a fort at the
mouth of Ash Hollow, that is, an earthwork high
enough to protect from arrows or bullets; it could be
entirely commanded from the top of the Bluffs with
Minie rifles. Heard plenty about the fight, infantry
and dragoons each making out they had borne the
brunt of it. The evening before the battle, General
Harney looking round with his glass, discovered the
Indians, who were unaware of the approach of the
troops. The general immediately addressed his men
with a classical spirit, if not in classical language.
"There," said he, "are those d-d red sons of -,
who massacred the soldiers near Laramie last year, in
time of peace. They killed your own kindred, your
own flesh and blood. Now, by —, men, there we
have them, and if you don't give it them, you deserve
to be —. Don't spare one of the d-d red sons of
-- " This speech was " short, but to the purpose,"
and no doubt General Harney's manner did not diminish its effect. The soldiers of themselves hate the
Indians, because they bring them out on the plains to
all sorts of privation, and fruitless marching to and
fro.  Before morning the Sioux were caught in a




THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE.


75


trap, such as, it is said, Indians never were caught
in before: but for some error in the execution of the
plan not a man could have escaped. Indians, like
wild beasts, are cowards till roused, and they wanted to
have a " talk," but " Old Harney," who is no joke of
a man to deal with, made his terms so stringent that
they were sure to be rejected, and the fight came off.
About 150 Sioux were killed, and a good many wounded, who escaped; some, however, when wounded, fought
desperately to the last, and would not die. Sixty
squaws and children were taken prisoners, and a large
number of ponies, and the whole stock of dried buffalo meat and robes of this band were captured, which
it was expected, taking place so late in the season,
would starve a good many more during the following
winter. The casualties among the soldiers were but
seven or eight.
Northern newspapers are apt to set down "Old
Harney," who is a Southerner, as a truculent barbarian; but he was certainly popular with his army,
and his policy was quite right.    Shilly-shallying
does not answer with Indians; the news of this battle spread like fire over the prairies, and many, not
merely of the Crows, but of tribes west of Green
River, 150 miles beyond the mountains, questioned us
as to the rifles that killed at half a mile, and spoke of
the loss of the Sioux, making the sign of that nation
-rather an unpleasant one, the hand drawn edgewise
across the throat. The sign of the Crows is the foreE 2




76


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


finger jerked about in the air peculiarly; of the Snakes
making an undulating line with the finger pointing to
the ground; and so of other nations or tribes. This
day we only travelled three or four miles for the sake
of better feed, as our cattle were tired from the
twenty-three mile drive of yesterday. From the south
Fork to the north Fork of the Platte, through Ash
Hollow, is eighteen miles.  The Bluffs on our side
were not far from the river, and we had a fire of red
cedar wood again. On the north bank, they were
some four or five miles off; and the battle took place
among them about that distance from the river. Landon, of our mess, crossed the water, and made for
the battle-field.  A good many wolves and ravens
were still at work, though most of the bodies had been
already picked clean. L. started on his return with a
large bag of buffalo meat that must have escaped notice previously, but when half-way to camp was fired
at by a soldier, who took him for an Indian from his
dusty face, which he might as well have washed when
crossing the river. L., having the sun in his eyes, could
not see plainly, and also took the soldier for an Indian,
and dropping the buffalo meat, ran for his life. The
soldier had no time to reload, but ran too, each believing the other wanted to cut him off from camp;
at last they came nearer and found out their mistake.
The soldier was a good deal laughed at by his comrades, but L. lost his buffalo meat.
At this time a company of mounted infantry, about




THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE.


77


fifty men in all, joined us as an escort; their arms were
rifles and revolvers. As they travelled more or less
along with us, and always camped close, one had an
opportunity of observing United States troops a little.
I can say but little for them; they were a medley of
French, English, Germans, and Irish, the last predominating, and with few native Americans among them.
As a rule the army is recruited from the riff-raff
of foreigners, too stupid or too indolent to get on by
industry; whether from this character of the men, or
because the army is thought a poor means of advancement in life, or for both reasons, great contempt is
felt for soldiers in the States; if one appears in a
town he is watched like a dog given to stealing, and
treated like a dog; this, almost necessarily, renders
the men worse, and so the ball keeps rolling-action
and reaction; but with this difference, that where
mind and feelings are concerned, elasticity is not less,
but greater than unity, and the motion tends to increase, not to die away; and while it lasts few good
men will enter the service. There are, of course, exceptions; the sergeants were such, and an Englishman, formerly a sergeant in an English regiment, now
receiving higher pay as a private.  With such a class
as the generality strictness, no doubt, is necessary, and
West-Point officers, having passed through a very
severe ordeal there themselves, are not apt to make
allowance for human weakness. But the meAods of
punishment arc to my mind far more odious and de



78


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


grading than the lash; tying a man to a waggon by
his thumbs, loading him with a heavy wooden or iron
collar (and even in a town like Leavenworth, K.T.,
making him stand guard in public with it on), chaining a heavy ball to his ancle, &c.; who can wonder that desertions are numerous, followed now and
then by recapture, flogging, branding, and imprisonment? And this, too, when men are but enlisted for
five years at a time.
Thus it was that Riley the Irishman deserted to
the Mexicans shortly before the war broke out, and
caused more trouble to the Americans than any
score of men or officers opposed to them; with a
few more like him the struggle would have been far
different in its course, though hardly in its result.
He was recaptured, and the court-martial itched to
hang him, but he had left a few weeks too soon, so
they adjudged him branding, and the utmost possible
number of lashes, to show the world how they appreciated valour in a foe. This account I have from an
American volunteer in Scott's army (whom I met elsewhere), an eyewitness of his capture and punishment;
he also told me of the great and indeed notorious
severity before Vera Cruz to prevent wholesale desertion and insubordination. I have seen something of
this myself, for the captain of our escort was a man
not more known as an able officer than as a harsh
disciplinarian-a man who had followed deserters
five hundred miles more than once, and whose




THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE.


79


name was a terror and byword among soldiers. Besides the Irish deserters in our own camp, I have
talked with many other soldiers of very different characters-the desponding man, who was sorry he had
not been killed in the last battle, and hoped to be in
the next; the unsoldierly man, who would lie down on
guard when he thought to escape notice, "for why
should he stand up there to be a mark for Indians
just to save the army-what reason had he to care
about the army?" the morose man of few words, brooding over his treatment, and half inclined to shoot his
captain; the triumphantly malignant man, who related
his plan for tying up an odious corporal to a tree and
after giving him one hundred lashes, himself with several
others to desert, and leave the corporal for the wolves.
These and others one talked with, on whom the common feeling of hatred to the service acted variously according to their varieties of character. Are such men
and such feelings common in the English service?
It would, however, be altogether a mistake to estimate the military strength of America by its regular
army; the militia throughout the country are a very
fine and well-disciplined body of men, and with the
esprit de corps of volunteers; for defence, now they
could be concentrated by railroads, they would be amply
sufficient, not to speak of the vast numbers of men
in the south and north-west, who as good riders and
good riflemen, would make admirable irregular troops
at once. A description of the Texas Rangers gives a




80


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


man some idea of useful light cavalry, such as we
wanted in the Crimea: men armed with sword, rifle,
and revolver, on small strong horses (a cross between
the American and the mustang), scattering before artillery, so that no two could be hit together, dismounting and using their saddles as a rest to fire from, up
and in a body at the first sign of a charge-in short,
ready for defence or attack with any kind of opponents, and always able to supply themselves by foraging.
Judging from what one has seen and read-particularly in the latter an article of the " New York Herald,"
June 24th, 1856-the regular army seems to be very
ill supplied with barracks and clothing-at least clothing suited to the climate-and, in fact, with any comforts. I have, however, dwelt long enough on this
subject.
Sept. 8th.-A day of grasshoppers; there was not
a square foot of ground without one: they were in
our eyes and in our bread; we saw, and could hardly
see for, grasshoppers; smelt grasshoppers; breathed
grasshoppers; ate grasshoppers; cursed grasshoppers;
nay, they raised a false alarm in camp, for the dense
cloud of them at a distance was mistaken for smoke
from the prairie fired by the Indians. Perhaps every
grasshopper has his day; this was assuredly the day of
a good many. While walking along with the waggons
I made acquaintance with Sergeant Trumball of our
escort; an Englishman; as countrymen we were soon
friends; he had been only eight months in the army,




THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE,


81


but had risen quick, being well informed, and such a
man as is wanted. Stood first guard from dark till
twelve; cattle in corral; heavy rain and thunderstorm;
left my blanket in my waggon, and took my drenching
philosophically: how comfortable it did seem afterwards to crawl between dry blankets and shut up the
front of the waggon all cosily! *
September 9th, Sunday.-Returned to work for the
first time to-day; must walk, any way, and therefore it
was best to do so for pay. X., indeed, had said that
when unable to work a man ought to pay for his
board at the rate of one dollar a day (!). Being informed it was illegal, determined to resist any such
deductions from my wages; the laws are fortunately
pretty strict, or poor teamsters would have a bad time
of it. Yesterday the sand was so deep and loose we
made but seven or eight miles all day. Last night's
rain has made travelling better. There are sixty miles
of this sand in all, thirty very bad, often very little
vegetation but dwarfish sunflowers, now and then by
the river a little good grass. Day much cooler. Our
road lay close along the Platte, so that one could get
+ I mention the rain because of its rarity; up to and at Big
Blue, we had as much rain as you might look for in England
at that time of year. From Big Blue to Salt Lake, one thousand miles as we travelled it, a period of more than twelve
weeks, we had no rain but this one night, and two nights by
Fort Laramie: none after that, but snow on two successive
nights. From this a person may judge of the drought of the
tract of country.
E3




82


CROSSI9G THE PLAINS.


plenty of water. The river up several inches, and full
of grasshoppers, drowned and rolling seawards (how
many will reach the gulf?); yesterday we ate them,
to-day we drink them; however, they have had their
day, and not one of them is left alive; plenty of them
dead all over the sand and grass. Much less fatigued
than I expected with fifteen miles' travelling, particularly after the previous night. Drove loose cattle,
or rather prevented them from coming among the
waggons; held on half the time behind the last
waggon. A Frenchman, who had joined while I was
sick, had my old team. Unluckily, after the South
Crossing we killed no more buffalo; in this sandy
district they are naturally not so plentiful, though we
saw a good many, but our French buffalo butcher was
sulky because some one had said the last buffalo was
infernally tough, and would kill no more-there was
no use in killing any more old bulls. Want of the
fresh meat threw me back again in strength a good
deal.
September lth. —Fine settled weather again. Went
in the evening to the sergeant's tent; saw there a
number of trophies, leggings, quivers, and saddlecloths, covered with very handsome bead-work. They
gave me a lot of dried buffalo meat, which they set
little store by, as they hate the Indians and all touched
by them; heard, myself unmoved, some nasty accounts
of the method of curing; thought the meat excellent.
It is dried in long thin strips, and is very good when




THE VALLEY OP THE PLATTE.


83


stewed; and I liked it raw, though it then has a
sweetish taste; frying makes it as hard as shoeleather. Camped nearly a mile from the river; grass
good the whole way to the bank. Kept second guard;
about one o'clock a bitter cold wind came on to blow
with positive fury; should have been almost frozen but
for a corner of Howard's blanket; he is good-natured
enough. Two of our mess, getting near the soldiers'
sentinels, were, in consequence of their blankets, mistaken for Indians, and fired at several times, fortunately
without harm. The soldiers' work was but light compared to ours. They had two changes at night, we
but one. Keeping guard half of every other night is
hard work, and worst of all being hard at work from
midnight to noon without any rest or a morsel of breakfast.
The work was hard; yet those night-watches had, and
still have in memory, not a strange but a most natural
charm: the whole sense of stillness and repose as one
walked backwards and forwards "through the long
and pleasant grass," now and then stopping to listen
to the wolves howling, or to the monotonous munching
of an ox here and there; then walking on again,
greeting and greeted by each comrade as we met with
a friendly word or two, always including question and
answer as to how wore the night, followed by a look at
our only clock, the Great Bear; and then, as the footsteps grew fainter, a little star-gazing on one's own




84


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


account, with thoughts of home, and how perhaps
this very night last year one had looked at the stars,
and who was then with one, and what they were doing
now; and whether they thought of the wanderer on
the prairie, and that it must be breakfast-time with
them, and that it could not be far from morning
with us, as oneself began to wish for breakfast. And
then another round (often a mile or two), the approach of day now certainly shown by the entire herd
beginning to graze, and the Pleiades to sink, and the
"Pointers" (of the Great Bear) rising so near to a
level with the pole-star that it must be hard on four
o'clock; and then at last a wee bit north of east the
pure light gliding up the cloudless sky, as one could
image the spirit of Laura fading from Avignon (like
the dying flame of a lamp that lacks sustenance), and
rising poco a poco with new light heavenwards.
So came the pure light fading from another hemisphere to brighten ours; but before one could muse on
any resemblance, the glad words flew round that it was
daylight, each one fancying himself the first to observe
the changing sky; and the camp-fires of the soldiers
rose cheerily as they busied themselves in getting
breakfast, and we drove in our straggling cattle
towards camp, with the somewhat gloomy reflection
that our breakfast was still seven hours off. Yes, there
was pleasure to be found in these night-watches:
destitute of books-except a couple-and with no




THE VALLEY OF fHE PLATTE.


85


time to read, one had at least these hours to think over
what one had read, and enjoy them doubly in the
recollection.
Hours of contemplation, however, are not wanting
to any traveller, and so far these would not be different
from many nights at sea; but this whole period was
one in which, if ever, one might feel the truth of
the poet:s " suave mari magno," &c., as I have often
felt its falsity. One seemed cut off from all the din
and turmoil of the world, and the hopes and fears of a
life in it, as much as if one had been a denizen of the
happy valley. There was the daily work to do and
the daily bread to eat (bad luck on it, there was no
fresh buffalo meat!); so it was yesterday, so it would
be to-morrow: one had no more anxieties as to the
morrow than a boy at school has, or a slave in the
South. And in estimating the condition of slaves this
should not be overlooked. Perpetual childhood may
not be a noble state of existence, but it certainly would
not be an unhappy one; they who would choose the
bliss of ignorance would consistently prefer such a life;
they who have the folly to be wise, and would snatch
at the fruit of the tree of knowledge, even if in doing
so they should bring on themselves " death, and all our
woe, with loss of Eden," would turn away from it, as
Ulysses from the lotus-eaters. At any rate, it is neither
unpleasant nor uninstructive to have a few such
months, like the small space of blue sky that often
appears between the clouds that have passed and those




86


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


that are coming up, and seems the very ideal of
tranquillity. True this life was not to last very long,
but while it did last one looked upon the future as
through a wall of glass very thick.
Sept. I lth.-In the afternoon we had an alarm of
Indians coming over the Bluffs on our side, four or five
miles ahead; waggons formed closely in battle corral;
great bustle and animation; caps and cartridges served
out; my revolver a good deal admired; the soldiers
determined to keep out of our range, very wisely: I
offered to bet that our men caused more casualties
among us than among the Indians, or than the Indians among us. It was amusing to note the different
view of the affair men took; one or two cowards, and
several habitual croakers, spoke very gloomily; others
were quite pleased, and thought " there'd be some
fun;" a third, and the largest part, looked upon the
great question as being whisky or no whisky. After
waiting the best part of an hour, the supposed Sioux
turned out to be a troop of cavalry scouring the country: so much for a cheap telescope.
Sept. 12th. —Very much fagged from intense hunger
and inability to eat our food at all. Sergeant Trumball
very kindly gave me a general invitation to their mess
at dinner (they take their dinner when we breakfast);
so I had a good meal off rice and dried buffalo meat
soup; he spoke of having some soldiers' coats to sell,
coats of deserters or dead men, and asked me to
mention it about. Rode in the waggon in the after



THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE.


87


noon, being knocked up; managed to have all the
six coats come into our mess at three dollars apiece:
(fourteen dollars had been refused half an hour before
for one in camp!) for camping out there is nothing
equal to a soldier's coat, the cape alone would be worth
the price; took first choice myself, and had the thickest and largest of them all. Ah, my coat!-good companion of my wanderings for several thousand miles, and
whom an eagle could not induce me to part withwhere are you now? How fares it with you since that
bright March morning, whose sky was as blue and
bright as your own original colour, when I reluctantly
left you on board the " Golden Gate " in the lake-like
harbour of Acapulco? methinks if we meet again I
shall know youJ by sundry scars, reminiscences of
when we sat down together on the remains of a campfire, "suppositos cineri doloso." Peace be with you,
though you are a soldier's coat! Great pride our
mess felt that night on turning out for guard so many
in uniform; one hero indeed expressed alarm that the
Indians might take us for soldiers and kill us; the
rest however only considered if it was necessary to
take arms out at all, or whether the coats alone would
not do all the work in any case; at last on reflection
that there was no moon, and the buttons would not
show, the old yagers were brought out.
This night we were camped within three or four
miles of the Chimney Rock, an object visible for many
miles, east or west; the lower portion, forming one-,




88


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


fourth or one-fifth of the whole height, is conical, with
about an angle of forty-five degrees, from the top of this
rises the chimney, in appearance much like a factory
chimney; the entire height is said to be 180 feet
and within memory to have been thirty feet higher;
the substance of it is a conglomerate of earth and
pebbles, and the rain, that has caused the remarkable
shape, is now rapidly lessening and destroying the
object. Earlier in the day we passed a detached rock,
(once no doubt a portion of the Bluffs) quite as
remarkable, and far more picturesque and beautiful;
a precipitous height, whose appearance was not unlike
that which, from the description in Waverley, I had
often imagined Stirling would present, and which the
Castle Hill, Edinburgh, looked at from the west, does;
but this was more beetling, and seemed hardly to need
the crown of battlements one's eye fancied around its
summit. I had been told many times-knew as a fact,
knew positively-there was no United States fortification nearer than Laramie, and yet I was deceived: deceived, too, though I had seen Fort Kearney and the fort
near Ash Hollow, and knew the character of Indian
posts to be utterly different from that of massive stone
walls on an impregnable rock; but in spite of all
improbabilities, for a couple of hours I was as fairly
deceived as ever Eastern traveller was by mirage.
Sept. 13th.-In the morning half the cattle gone;
the soldiers having caught some of the Italians, who
were second guard, asleep, cleared our mess. Rather




THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE.


89


glad of the delay; washed my clothes, making a fire
beside the river; one of the sergeants gave me soap,
which we could not get in our camp for love or money.
Had dinner in the afternoon; started off at three, and
travelled till dark; camped without grass or water, and
put the cattle in corral. We had no supper, nor any
fire, but I got a warm in the soldiers' camp, and from
Trumball a good piece of beef, as they had killed
a lame steer belonging to some train ahead.  X.
played me a dirty trick this day, offering me some
sham pills of bread; from his apparent kindness of
manner I suspected a cheat and was not taken in, and
we had the laugh at him in both camps: some said
the pills were of the right material for them if only
big enough; others recommended returning them, with
a remark that I could make plenty such myself;
others only said it was a d  d mean trick, that they
didn't think even X. would have played on a man
really sick; in fact, such a subject for bad jokes was
quite a godsend in camp.  By a sort of retribution,
some six weeks later, X. was attacked with low fever
or ague, and had to send to me for quinine, as no one
else had any.
Sept. 14th.-The Chimney Rock still in sight this
morning. Our road lay up a ravine, the hills on our
left being high and covered here- and there with pine
(the first we have seen), the fir-apples of which had
blown right down into the hollow. In a cross ravine or
watercourse that delayed our waggons nearly two hours,




90


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


I found some grapes; and most welcome they were,
for it was five in the evening before we reached
camp (on a glorious clear cool stream, Horse Creek
I think), not having had a meal for thirty hours:
this was the first day I felt really fit for work. Kept
second guard, but the grass was knee deep, and the
cattle revelled in it-they were too tired and hungry
to stray far.
Sept. 16th, Sunday.-The most miserable day, without exception, we had on the plains,: all the forenoon a
furious wind lashed the prairies, and drove along a
coarse cutting sand; towards evening the wind dropped,
and we had a fine dust that almost stifled us, and quite
prevented our seeing-even as far as one could in a
Scotch mist. Rain and snow, heat and cold, are no
hardships compared to dust: dust was a positive affliction that one never could get reconciled to, and compared to this evening's dust, all I have ever experienced
was like spring water by Mississippi water. The little
Frenchman incessantly cursed la poussiere, in the bitterness of his soul declaring he had never known half
such misery in Algerie, and that he would not come on
the plains again were he offered fifty dollars a day. We
were glad enough, after sundry mishaps, to reach camp
a short hour before midnight, and hear the good
news that we were close to Laramie. Truly, as one of
the soldiers remarked (for the day, if not kept, is not
altogether forgotten), a pleasant Sunday! And as T
turned in after a short first guard and a midnight sup



THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE.          91
per, closed by a serious affray between two of the mess
-knife drawn and pistol fired-I repeated to myself,
" Truly a pleasant Sunday!" and saying " Good night,
Mat," to my comrade, pulled the blankets over me,
and, falling asleep, dreamt of England.




CHAPTER VI.


SAGE-BRUSH.
As a nation's life resembles an individual's, so does a
ong journey resemble a short one; and thus, on the
morning of September 17, being only a short halfday's journey from Laramie, we felt that cheeriness and
bustling animation that travellers on a stage-coach exhibit as they rattle through the streets of the town where
they stop to dine; the same even is observable in a less
degree as one approaches York or Preston by railway,
and in a minimum at the five-minutes-here-for-refreshment places. No doubt, therefore, the feelings, and the
expression of them, are among the universalities of
human, or at least Anglo-Saxon, nature. The only exceptions among us were three or four who had a gloomy
apprehension of being apprehended as deserters, and
would fain have been too sick to drive, but could not
"come it."  Near us were camped a few friendly Indians, and some settlers out after stray cattle; from one
of whom, after a good deal of palaver, I managed to
buy a pretty fair fowl for half-a-dollar.  Soon afterwards we were in motion, and new scenery opened in
front: with the morning light falling from behind us
on to its silvery, but not snowy, pyramid, rose majesti



SAGE-BRUSH.


93


cally the peak of Laramie, in form not unlike Ben Lomond, but somewhat more bristling, and, to my thinking, larger and grander: such as one who had seen
the Scotch mountain when a child might in after years
fancy it to be.  Two months before what weariness of
the prairie one had expected to feel, and with what
pleasure to hail the first sight of mountains! but it
was not altogether so; the mountain, indeed, was we]come, as any noble or beautiful object ever is, but one
had come to love the plains-ay, love them; and it will
be long before I cease to do so. I should not like to
have a fixed home on them (for home should have some
individuality-its own rock, or tree, or slope, or landscape), any more than I should to live in a lighthouse
or lightship, or even to be becalmed at sea for twentyfour hours with plenty more vessels near; but in a less
degree I love the plains, even as the great ocean itself.
Cedars now crept down from the mountains, like coy
dark-robed maidens, to the very roadside. We passed
them by, and soon rolled down across the valley and
river of Laramie to the greener trees that wave and
rustle on the grass meadow lands bordering on our old
friend, the Platte; they were truly a summer view, still
unfaded and unparched, fair and tranquil. But the
Platte-he was quite changed; from the broad sandy
bed and scattered streamlets, that might have excited
the envy of the river-hating monarch of Persia, he had
become a compact stream, neither swift nor sluggish,
and which a good salmon-fisher could command with




94


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


his rod and line. There we camped, two miles from
Laramie.
Next morning, waggons were sent round for the
quantum of provisions we had lent to the soldiers, and
with two or three comrades I crossed the hills. At the
foot of these, in the Laramie Valley, we came upon
some prickly pear; the plant was small as compared to
what one sees in Lower California and Mexico, but only
the more troublesome to those who wore mocassins.
We had met with them for two or three days previously,
and continually afterwards, but only on this one spot
did we find them bearing fruit. The soil was not,
like that on which they chiefly grow, a dry, hard
sand, but a coarse pebbly gravel, almost cemented
into a conglomerate: the difference of soil may have
produced the difference in vegetation. The fruit is
nearly oval, about the size of a bantam's egg, and of a
dull crimson or puce colour; the skin of it is full of
the finest prickles, as one's fingers soon were; the fruit
inside, however, seemed to me perfectly luscious (only
with rather too many seeds), and I ate about a hundred
in the course of the day without any bad effect.
There is no fortification at Laramie, but the buildings are considerable, including storehouses and barracks, and all now was in a state of bustle and activity
on account of the Indian war; particularly as General
Harney was near, and expected to march in a day or
two. There is a very good store here, but prices of
course are high; whisky could not be obtained with



SAGE-BRUSH.


95


out a written order from the Governor, though many
soldiers, having just received pay, tried hard by sending civilians, protesting it was only for themselves.
Soldiers' coats cost twelve dollars; lemon syrup seventyfive cents a pint bottle; preserved peaches four dollars a
quart. Some of our men even indulged in these and
sardines, and other luxuries, besides wholesale in woollen shirts, socks, &c., and tobacco: one or two bought
first-rate buffalo robes for five dollars each. On the
door of the store was posted a notice of pains and
penalties to whoever should presume to trade with any
of the Sioux nation, then at war with the United
States; also another notice that some persons had, for
evil purposes, spread among peaceful Indians a false
and wicked rumour that General Harney meant to kill
every Indian he could catch, whether Sioux or not, and
that such persons and all others were forbidden to publish this rumour under pain, &c.
I bought very little; only three boxes of yeast-powder (at thirty cents each) to improve our bread, as saleratus is poor stuff, and a good-sized loaf of bread for
myself from the bakery. Before returning to camp, I
bade good-by to Carill Hughes, our ex-waggon-master,
whom I shall always respect for his warmth and manliness of nature, and regard with gratitude for his kindness to myself. When our mess knew I had bought
yeast-powder for the commonwealth, most were loud in
applause-more noise than gratitude; though I deserved
none, having bought it wholly on my own account.




96


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


One, however, said, " You had better have spent the
money on bread, and given us a good feed at once;"
but he was voted down. We remained at the same
camp two nights, and-what we little expected, while
so near Laramie-were victims to Indians; almost
all the mules being cut loose, and two or three finally
stolen: one Indian was fired at without effect.  Kerr,
the chief owner of the cattle and waggons, joined us
here, and acted to some extent as first waggon-master;
he was as good-hearted a man as one need wish to serve
under, but necessarily more removed from us than
Carill Hughes. One very agreeable change took place,
starting after breakfast instead of before.
Ten days more passed before we looked our last on
the Platte; meanwhile we often travelled along it and
crossed it often, and in these parts wood and grass
were seldom wanting. But when the river curved, or
hid itself in a dark canon between perpendicular cliffs,
we held our way alone, and in a different country; over
steep sandy hills and through fresh delicious hollows,
decked round with pine and cedar wood and red jutting rocks, and across desolate slopes, on which sage
-afterwards our constant companion-met one's eye
here and there.   The creeks we camped by were
poor and puny, with too little water for the traveller
to have much to spare for the freshening of their own
banks; and so, though we reduced our day's travel to
some fifteen miles, our cattle, one to-day, another tomorrow, began to droop and die.




SAGE-BRUSH.


97


The first day we camped only twelve miles from
Laramie, beside a trading post, which in consequence
of the late order was being deserted; near it were
some twenty lodges of Cheyennes, probably with the
object of obtaining what they could. This tribe is in
close alliance with the Sioux nation, and, like it, very
powerful, and these had with them a herd of nearly
200 ponies-the principal wealth of Indians. Men,
women, and children soon thronged around ourwaggons
after Indian fashion, and with tolerable friendliness, considering they were at war with the whites; though
very dirty, and with often no clothing but a buffalo
robe thrown around them (few children had any), unpainted and unadorned as they were, yet in the dark
hair, tall stature, and athletic forms of the men as they
paced to and fro, looking round on us and ours with a
panther-like glare, one could trace, or at least fancy,
some of those Indian characteristics that have been
set down as fiction and are poetry. Physically these
were by far the finest specimen of Indians I have seen,
and certainly the only ones approaching an ideal. Most
Indians will steal and beg, but they do the one in
something of that old Greek piratical spirit, and the
other, if with much importunity, at least not cringingly.
To judge fairly of any race whose habits differ from
your own and especially of an uncivilized race, you
must look beyond the mere repulsive exterior, or even
actions, to motives, feelings, and principles. I saw
among them few guns, each one had a few arrows and
F




98            CROSSING THE PLAINS.
his bow, much valued, as wood is scarce, and which
they will rarely part with; the bow is hardly three
feet long, but of great power, and strung with a cord
of twisted sinews.
The squaws had little beauty, and sometimes it was
hard enough to distinguish the sexes, and consequently
some ludicrous mistakes occurred; in general, I observed
it was much as in trolling, you sometimes think a weed is
a fish, but never the converse, so you could not mistake a
squaw for a buck Indian. About dark they had a dance
and song among their lodges; I heard the latter some
distance off, but could not leave the waggons to see
them; the children especially were ever looking out for
a chance to steal something.
Next day fifteen soldiers, with a sergeant and corporal, joined us; the latter was that corporal I have already
alluded to as being plotted against, and had not our
previous escort, an entire company, come up four days
later, no doubt he would have suffered terribly: as it
was, those under him caught it, and subsequently deserted.
One afternoon we had a fresh alarm; we had barely
started a mile after watering our cattle, as we now
often did in the middle of the day if water were
handy, when an orderly came galloping from the front,
to hasten up their baggage waggons which had loitered
behind, and called out to us," Indians!"  Their waggons being mule-teams soon hastened on, but we were
a good way in the rear, for among our mess, which that




SAGE-BRUSH.


99


day was last, were some terrible laggards; they, however showed themselves to be birds that could sing,
and made up the lost ground with astonishing rapidity.
Behind them was my friend Dutch John, whose team
could not go fast, and then myself, seated on the remains of a waggon, two hind-wheels with a fore-wheel
and waggon cover balanced between them, driving most
leisurely a rickety yoke of black cattle; and last of all
were the loose cattle, driven by the little Frenchman
and an Italian; who could hardly at all understand
each other, though the Frenchman assured me he knew
Tuscan well. John was by nature phlegmatic, and
said, "Let them come: I 'm paid to drive team, and I
shan't kill my leaders." For myself, I was very comfortable, and as the danger was in front, saw no use
in hurrying; my revolver-my better half-being in
front also; but the Frenchman believed we should be
cut off, and as it was against rule to drive loose cattle
past waggons, was furious at us for not going faster.
"Mon dieu!" he exclaimed, "Nous sommes perdus,
nous sommes perdus!" not a very courageous expression for an ex-French-soldier; but in truth he considered the cattle under his care quite a part of himself. The Italian, who was not given to much talking,
belaboured the poor creatures vigorously, only uttering
from time to time, "Maledetto! maledetto! maledetto!"
and some nearly sotto voce grumblings, to the effect
that the Indians were a "Maledetta cattiva gente."
The Frenchman's fear that we should go (as a Greek
r 2




100


CROSSING TIIE PLAINS.


would have said) "to the crows," was only, however,
realised after the fashion of a Pagan oracle. We presently found the Indians to be not Sioux but Crows, a
very friendly tribe: many of them sat by the roadside,
and as we passed along, saluted us with " How d'ye
do," which all Indians seem to know. Many also
came up and shook hands, sometimes saying, "Bishcuit," "tobacco," but if one expressed that he had
none, they bowed and smiled no less courteously.
Dutch John would argue the point with them in English, and seemed surprised he could not convince them.
They were certainly not as fine a looking tribe as the
Cheyennes, but I saw one or two pretty young squaws
among them. We travelled a good deal further, and
camped late, but a number of them came to us there
with things for sale; our men seemed to think the
formula "Me! you! biscuit! buffalo-robe!" and the
like, with pointing at the objects of barter, amply sufficient; Indians however are not so easily over-reached:
" Satan now is wiser than of yore." All they sold was
very poor of its kind, mocassins of bad leather, and
buffalo-robes of which the hair was just ready to fall
off: it requires besides great caution to avoid buying
anything they have used. These purchases largely increased and made universal (though they did not introduce) the presence of parasitical insects-an unpleasant
matter of discourse, and a still more unpleasant
reality. For our rations of coffee and sugar (a pint of
each), our mess obtained from a young squaw, whom




SAGE-BRUSI.


101


I found in the soldiers' camp, about a cubic foot of
fresh buffalo meat. The air in the valley of the Platte
is so pure, that meat, if kept from flies, does not
readily corrupt, and I have been told it will dry without corrupting; but I suspect only by a regular process,
in thin strips, &c.: dead steers corrupted the air only
too frequently.
That night was bitterly cold, and bright moonlight;
our cattle were across the river, unguarded, as Indians
seldom touch them, preferring buffalo; our thirteen
mules were close beside it, and though all the Indians
around camp were ordered within the soldiers' guard,
we expected they would pay us a visit. Crows never
kill a white man, and if they find him in want will
give him food, but they will strip him of all superfluities if they can: in summer leave him no clothes or
blanket, and in winter one and his shirt perhaps, but
they would not attack in a body.  At my suggestion
we made a fire, the first that was made on guard;
and which henceforth, considerably destroyed the efficacy of that institution. About an hour before dawn,
the time always chosen by Indians, who expect then
to find sentinels tired out and asleep, all the tethered
mules became restless, snorted violently, and finally
struggled and broke loose, and, with the rest, galloped
off; we went forward to the bank, which was four
or five feet high, and on the soft mud we found
fresh mocassin prints up to within fifty yards of the
nearest mule, and then turning back: but there were




102


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


copses of wood near, and we could see nothing of the
Indians.  White man never hated red man with more
than a mule's hatred; and keen, indeed, must be his
ear, and quick his voice, who would discover the approach and give the alarm of Indians, earlier than the
scent, and snort, and struggles of the hybrid: oxen
and horses show the same dislike, but in a less degree.
There had, on previous nights, been several false
alarms of Indians, but never on outr nights. Once the
whole camp were called up: I knew it was false and
lay still to be scalped. One of the guard dropped'his
blanket in a panic, but taking courage went forward to
look for it, and fired thrice into it; those, who like
myself had not turned out, thought the whole thing a
good joke. Next evening we camped, for the last
time, beside the Platte.  At the "Last Crossing,"
our escort left us, and turned aside to the "bridge,"
and we saw them no more; unfortunately, not having
anticipated this move, we lost some public and private
chattels lent to the soldiers.
And now we had a tract of barren and thirsty land
for fifty miles between us and the Sweetwater River;
that stream running into the Platte a good deal higher
up, and further south than our line of travel. The
greater part is covered with sage (Artemisia tridentata),
as Scotch moors are with heather; its leaves (if they can
be called such) are minute, and of a dull leaden green,
half way as it were between life and death; the roots
strong and tough, the stems thick and dry, and the




SAGE-BRUSH.


103


whole plant resembles a tree in miniature. Among
these, like grouse among heather, but far fewer, run
the sage-hens; birds with a plumage between that of
the gray-hen and guinea fowl, and on an average the
size of a good pullet, to which, as delicacies, they are
not inferior. Herds of antelope also bound gracefully
over the sage-brush, starting timidly at the discovery
of danger, but gazing wistfully and approaching, as by
fascination, any unknown moving object; thus, hidden
himself and waving his handkerchief, the hunter often
draws them within shot. Wolves and carrion crows are
never wanting where carcases are to be found. Sage
burns well, and with a high, swift, hissing blaze, when
first thrown on, like Christmas evergreens on Twelfthnight, only without that merry crackle; but it lasts so
short a time one needs a stack as big as two or three
cotton bales to start with, and one is half the time
scorched, half frozen: as an Irishman said, the coffee
got boiled all on one side; burnt, instead of browned in
the earlier process, it certainly did. The fifty miles took
us nearly four days, thirty of hard travelling and without water, except so strong of alkali that we had strict
orders to keep the cattle from tasting it as they passed.
Feed they had none for thirty-six hours, and several
dropped on the road and were left. Dry as the soil
was, I found a good many mushrooms, and after filling
my pockets, ate the rest raw as I went along.
Sept. 28th.-A subtle question of law arose.' No. 3
mess (ours) had to keep first guard; the guard changes




104


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


at midnight; we travel till midnight; has No. 3 any
guard to keep? I argued vehemently we had not, but
the court held, if not by law by equity, that every one
ought to have some sleep, and we must stand two hours.
Stood accordingly. Though it was bright moonlight,
Howard shot the cream-coloured mule; a beauty worth
100 dollars, at least, and a pair with a horse which it
would never separate from. Howard gave different
versions of the affair-that he thought it was an Indian-that he thought it was a wolf-that there was a
wolf and he did not see the mule-that there was an
Indian and he did not see the mule-the only argument for the truth of the last statements was that he
could hardly have hit anything he aimed at.  Kerr
took it very well, and said little about it; but we all declared, and Howard believed, he would get no wages at
Salt Lake and be put in gaol for the remainder of the
value.
Oct. lst.-Camped last night by a good burn, not
wider mostly than one could jump over, but deep and
rapid; tolerable grass eight or ten yards on either side,
then sage. On the second guard before daylight,
quantities of wild ducks passed over us; two or three
swam down the brook close by, but as we were in
the Crows' country, I had not my revolver out, and the
guns of the rest had no caps on. Very bright fresh
morning; cattle scattered several miles; while some
way ahead of the rest an antelope came trotting gently
to within forty yards of me. I stood still; at first he




SAGE-BRUSH.


105


snuffed the air for his own pleasure, without noticing
me, then he turned, but as I was dressed in shepherd's
plaid he could hardly make me out, not having a skyline. So he gazed-not looked, but gazed-intently
at me for about five minutes, and then slowly trotted
off again. I do not think I would have fired at him
if I could, though antelopes are good eating.
About noon three deserters caught us up, having left
their company fifty miles off at four o'clock the preceding afternoon; as they had carried their rifles but
no food, they were fagged enough. My friend, the
little Frenchman, on finding out their character, exclaimed "ldches!" and would not, if he could, have
spoken a word to them.
Towards evening we reached the Sweetwater, at the
mouth of a valley through the Rattlesnake Mountains, and crossed it by a bridge at a trading postthe only bridge on the whole route. The river here
was a good-sized trout stream-only there were no
trout in it-with grass stretching to some distance
on either side, but not a single tree.  The valley,
perhaps a mile and a half wide, and the mountain
ridges high, steep, and rocky, but with a few of the
accustomed cedar-wood trees. In the middle of the
valley stands the Rock Independence, a solid bare mass
of granite, some 500 yards in length, and 200 feet
in height; in itself somewhat a remarkable feature, but
rendered more so by the name, which is (excepting Indian names) the best I know of in the United States.
F 3




106


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


On this rock is the cross, placed there by Colonel
Fremont, and since a subject of foul-mouthed abuse
against him. If ever man made the direst vulgarity
almost poetical, Colonel Fremont has done so when he
speaks of the cross being " surrounded by the names of
many since dead, and for whom the rock is a giant
tombstone." I am sorry to say the Mammoth Cave,
Kentucky, is similarly a vast sepulchre of "names
forgotten, born to be forgot," and much defaced thereby. This vile habit is prevalent enough in England,
but perhaps less excusable in America, where people
have greater opportunities of "calling a place after
their own names," as several hundred Brownsvilles,
Joncsvilles, Greensvilles, &c., are evidence. The name
of the river is given from some fanciful idea of taste;
though I could no more perceive sweetness in its waters
than bitterness in those of the Bitter Springs towards
California; they are, however, full of alkali, and our
hands and lips and cattle suffered from this a good
deal.
Six miles from the Rock Independence, is the
Devil's Gap; but I am doubtful whether the pass we so
called, which is thirty-five yards wide at the narrowest
part and might be about filled with the rock inverted,
or the ravine parallel to it in which the stream runs,
is the veritable Gap: the latter I did not see. The
country to the south is open for miles; but something
of a ridge crosses the western end of the valley of the
Rock, and through the highest part of this, at the




SAGE-BRUSH..107


north side of the valley, as if in spite, the river has
forced its way.
Near "the three crossings," well known to teamsters, but not worth describing, we had a fall of snow;
as we might have expected from the cold and furious
wind (a bad combination of characters) that had given
us dirt to eat the night before. Sand is worse eating
than grasshoppers, I think. Unfortunately we took
no warning, and plates, &c., having been left on the
ground, sad to say, were lost. Rather cheerless work
too it was, long before daylight, shaking the snow from
the sage brush, and struggling painfully to keep alive
our pitiful fire. Our cooks were now always called up
at 4 A.M., but the rest, unless fuel or water was deficient, could sleep on till breakfast was nearly ready.
I, however, sleep lightly, and loving the camp-fire,
mostly turned out as soon as I saw its merry blaze.
I was the first by it at morning, and last from it at
night; some, if we reached camp very late, would go
to bed supperless. My doctrine was, it is bad to go
to bed hungry, and worse to go to bed full: " Spin a
yarn, somebody," and we sat on an hour or two.
Two more days, over a " cut off," little travelled,
brought us within a few miles of the mountains-the
mountains.   Here we met the mail from   Salt Lake
six days before; the journey took us a month. As the
September mail from the States was six weeks overdue, these carriers were in great trepidation of the
Indians; they were also, excepting one, most intole



108


CliOSSING THE PLAINS.


rable liars, and magnified the distance and difficulties
ahead of us considerably.   I chose to believe the
truthful one, or rather the facts, the distance and time,
and was accordingly set down by the croakers in camp
as " an obstinate fool."
On the morrow morning, Sunday, Oct. 7, we drank
for the last time of water flowing eastward; then
by a continuous, but never steep, ascent over a hard
gravelly soil, reached the top of the South Pass,
about 7400 feet above the sea. No mountain ravine is this-no gorge of Killiecrankie, that a few
highlanders might defend-no Thermopylae with space
for one chariot only; but an almost level table land,
of twenty miles from north to south, and four or
five across: a field of battle large enough for all the
armies of the world. Close on our left was Table
Mountain, one of the dullest and least graceful elevations I ever saw; and those to the north were in nowise remarkable. If, however, the character of the
scenery was not impressive, the character of the place
was; and the very breadth of the pass seemed suited to
the vastness of the regions it connected.
One could not but think of these regions. Behind us
the vast Prairie, watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries; the Ohio-la belle riviere-down which I had
travelled a few months before; the Upper Mississippi,
one of the fairest and most queenly of rivers; the huge
Missouri, bearing along to the Balize his snags and
drift-wood, and the soil of these very plains, with an




SAGE-BRUSHI.


109


unrelaxed and almost a steady impetuosity, as of one
bent on a purpose-and again the tributaries of all
these; each one of which, in Europe, would be a great
independent river, but here was only a tributary:
" Nec Oceani pervenit ad undas."
Behind us this vast plain, stretching from the Gulf to
the British frontiers, and from the Alleghanies to these
Rocky Mountains we stood on; and before us the
Colorado, the Great Basin, the Sierra, and the Pacific
slope. One had enough to think of as we passed over
those four miles of table land; ay, and as we descended 
by a narrow sandy ravine (probably one of many such l
from the pass), till at evening we reached water flow- 
ing towards the sunset from the Pacific springs. These 
springs were but a green quagmire, fifty yards wide
between the sandy ridges of sage brush; from which, at
last, a narrow streamlet oozed: but theywere the Pacific
springs. Our cattle got mired, but we hauled them
out; even the croakers felt that evening we were not
to be mired: indeed, our hungry souls found they had
more reason for congratulation than complaint.
We camped near two Mormon merchant trains, one
which had before passed us, the other all along in front;
both were short of provisions, the former having been
reduced to |lb. of flour a day, and coffee without sugar.
It is but just to say we in our Gentile train were paid
and fed five to three better than the Mormon drivers.
An emigrant train, our old companion 700 miles east,
was only three miles off, and one of their men out




110


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


after dark, mistaking our camp-fires for his own, came in
about midnight, and was regaled by my comrade, who
was on guard, with our best cheer. In gratitude, the
saint regaled him with explanations and arguments of
the Mormon creed-all of course wasted upon an Irishman. But any talk is welcome on guard; besides, from
my acquaintance with their doctor, I was well known in
their camp, and my comrade sent a civil message back
in my name. I, happy soul, was snoring in the waggon- for cattle-guard from this time was often excused; but those who had struggled for the honour of
corral guards got no excuse, only dignitatem sine otio.
The preceding nights had been all bitterly cold,
particularly since we struck the Sweetwater; but with
crossing the mountains came a change of temperature.
As we descended to the Pacific springs, the succession
of the seasons turned backwards a month: no small
boon; though perhaps some of us hardly thought so
next morning, when called before breakfast to extract a
steer mired in a morass, knee-deep for us, and frozen
so as just not to bear. Perhaps it was some satisfaction
to the animal, but not to his owners or us, that he died
on terra firma.  We travelled but a short distance
that day; for the week before, and in spite of the day's
rest afterwards, we lost three or four head of cattle
daily: some would drop on the road, some be found
dead in the morning, or die in corral: the wolves knew
it, and the carrion crows knew it. I have seen the latter
circling round and round in the air, lower and lower as




SAGE-BRUSH.


111


one by one our waggons started off, and, as the last
went, settle on the dead or dying animal. Some loss
of cattle must always be expected in crossing the
plains; but this season, in consequence of drought and
scanty feed, it was in all the trains quite unprecedented.
Towards evening the two other trains passed us, and
I took the opportunity of giving my ration of bacon
(which since my sickness I could'not eat a morsel of)
to one of the Mormons; he ran at it as a pike in clear
water-clear, but not too clear*-runs at a spinning
bait: for weeks they had not had enough to grease a
frying-pan. So we give and take, and learn contentment of one another. When I saw the fair Mrs.
Hardcastle of Norfolk (England, not Va) compounding
a rabbit pie, " truly these Mormons are epicures," I
thought; inquiry showed me that all their breadstuffs
of the day went to form the crust, and the fair compounder herself longed only for a pancake.


* "A basin of gruel, weak, but not too weak." —3iss Austen's " EMIA."




CHAPTER VII.


THE VALLEY AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.
AGAIN we travelled. The mountains were behind us
now, but for a day's travel they only grew as we left
them; and grand their ridge then looked upon the northeast.  I prefer hardly any view to that of mountains rising (at least apparently) with steepness out of a
low country, or a mountainous coast seen from the
offing. Some perverse spirits, who had been in California, maintained that there were three chains of the
Rocky Mountains, and this was only the lowest.
"How'then," said I, " does the water from these
Pacific springs get to the ocean?"
"Oh! "- said they, "it disappears and comes out
again the other side."
This I considered a subterfuge, but could get no
better answer; they probably thought that the Mountains were the Wahsatch range and the Sierra was a
single range-rather a large idea on the whole.
If possible, the country was more uninhabitable and
dreary in its aspect than the slope on the east of
the watershed; both have the same rolling character,
though they are very different from rolling prairie, and




THE VALLEY AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.   113


are covered with sand and sage-brush, and strewn along
the roadside with bones, not of buffalo, but of cattle.
One different feature there is; on the west, most streams
run in a small valley fifty to eighty feet below the general level of the country, and often with almost perpendicular cliffs on each side: such a valley as the
Rio Virgen, a tributary of the Colorado much lower
down, winds through.    Such was "Little Sandy,"
quite an English willow-fringed stream, here with a
deep hole fit for a sheep-washing, there running over
gravel and not ancle deep, winding backwards and forwards through the level grass-land 400 or 500 yards
wide. Big Sandy was a less tranquil stream, in a similar but narrower and deeper valley, consequently its
channel was straighter; there was, too, as it approached
Green River, very little feed on its banks.
The Pacific springs, Little Sandy, Big Sandy, Green
River, made something over 100 miles of travel from
first to last; all soon put on paper, but in the reality a
matter of long wearisome days, and longer intervals,
without water. Yet we travelled fast considering the
state of our cattle, and a good deal at night; when cattle
-and I think all animals at all seasons-travel easiest
and fastest.  One of our first duties on reaching camp
and bur last before leaving it, was the shoeing of unfortunate hoofless steers; very necessary no doubt,
but a good many were entirely lamed by it.  The two
other trains fared no better than ourselves, and companionship, even in misfortune, was pleasant; not to




114


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


speak of a sort of tortoise race tacitly agreed on
between us. The sage-brush occasionally grew very
large, and bush after bush, lighted by those on guard,
blazed till " All the night the country seemed on fire;"
though the whole charm of the guard-fire was lost this
way, and we looked at each other's faces in the glare
like the witches on the heath.
Oct., 13th.-Started at daybreak, and travelled six
miles: terrible work, almost an impossibility to keep
moving, so many cattle barely able to go that the rest
scatter off the road; but our orders are to keep up all we
can to Green River. Camped by Big Sandy for breakfast
about noon; sun scorchingly hot. Left again at three.
Several miles of mere sand and stones without vegetation, then sage again; out of forty-eight head of loose
cattle we left twenty-three on the road-much against
the Frenchman's will, but we outvoted him. Thought
we never should get to camp; fires made by the roadside disappointed us over and over again. We were
far behind the waggons, and when a man has watched
a fire for half-an-hour and every minute expects to see
corral, and supper cooking, desolation and dying embers
make him " feel like swearing." After five or six disappointments one became sceptical, not to say philosophical, and prepared for a night of it. On reaching
camp, found the fires had been meant to guide us: as
if we could not see as well as those in front!
Oct. 14th, Sunday.-In the twilight of the frosty
morning the river looked like blue steel, but as the




THE VALLEY AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.   115


day advanced, it seemed to warm and freshen. Green
River is a beautiful bright gushing river, at this point
forty to fifty yards wide. Oh! that there were salmon
in it, and I had my rod here! Its name I suppose
springs from its grassy banks, for the water is blue.
After the miserable country we have passed through,
grass and trees and a river like this are as much of a
banquet to us as to our cattle: I feasted my eyes upon
them (not the cattle) for a couple of hours incessantly.
When we last saw trees-on the Platte, except cedar
wood-their leaves were hardly changed from their
summer green, and now these are all yellow and falling
fast; the change seems unexpected, but autumn is the
season I love best-so, All hail! ye se*; and falling
leaves of the trees that wave around the Rio Verde!
Crossed the river, and camped three miles down it,
near a trading post. A kitten that found its way into
camp, created quite a furore, for it was the first sign of
our approach to homes; unluckily we had no milk, but
Puss shared our bread and bacon, not to speak of fresh
meat, by courtesy termed beef, really "such stuff as
sausages are made of:" nay, she was offered cold coffee
and a bed by my Irish comrade; but to this I demurred,
and she lodged elsewhere. Much merriment at the
expense of H., who had been sent across the river after
three stray oxen; he brought them over, but while he
was putting on'his lower habiliments one of them got
mired, another recrossed, and he had but one to
show.




116


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


Oct. 15th.-Went at the first daylight to the trading
post, and bought ten pounds of potatoes at fifteen
cents per pound: dear enough; but they were good, and
from Salt Lake. Also changed a blue overshirt for four
wolf-skins: I did not want them at all, but the trader,
though a French Canadian, as most Indian traders are,
hung about me like a Holywell Street Jew, eager to
trade for my soldier's coat, which he would have sold
again to mountaineers at a handsome profit; and eager
myself to get back to camp with my potatoes in time
for breakfast, I compromised on the shirt, one of the
academic-aquatic sort that did not often come over the
"hard road to travel."   Camped again by Green
River.
When leaving, we left behind all our loose cattle but
nine, for the loose had long been the turned-out and
worn-out. This was light work: three men to drive
nine steers; but a timely change, as for several days
afterwards a fierce head-wind blew on us, and brought
a sharp blinding dust, maddening the waggon-drivers;
but which we penetrated only with pebbles and maledictions, " Sacre! " or " Maledetto!" or"Get along, you horned thing,
Wild, seditious, rambling."
High level table lands, rising one above another by
sudden steps, and with quaintly-shaped sandy peaks,
often of many colours, rising high above them all, are
the characteristics of that portion of country; the
streams had some little brushwood about them service



TIIE VALLEY AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.  117


able for faggots. The first evening after leaving Green
River my friend Landon, our cook, was sick; the mess
were furious, not because he would not officiate, but
because while he said his sickness was incipient
scurvy, yet he refused to eat raw potatoes.  A diversion was caused by Nemahaw arguing scientifically
upon celestial phenomena, to wit, that the stars were
in the same position, due south for instance, at the
same hour every night throughout the year: N. at
each step of the argument taking care to remind his
hearers that the earth moved, not the stars. The public, being unconvinced, called on me to reply, which I
did, not scientifically, but by asking all present if the
"Dipper " (Great Bear) was not a good deal further
round now when we changed guard than it used to
be two months ago?    This was unanswerable, but
"Little Tom" (of Trinity College, Dublin) wanted
the why and wherefore, and would have me "explain
scientifically;" which I did, and very unscientifically
too most probably: however it pleased and satisfied Tom,
who then with a dictatorial air told Nemahaw he was
clearly wrong, as all the rest had told him long before.
We came from the stars to earth on a sudden (like
Bellerophon to the Aleian field), in consequence of a
fight, in American fashion pure and simple, between
two of the next mess; to this we all sped, and having
paper and pencil I took down a full account, such as
those which' appear in "Bell's Life," and appended
"Remarks," which are all I shall introduce here.




118


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


" Remarks.-We never witnessed a more disgusting exhibition." However the damages were not very serious;
no eyes were hooked; one of the combatants looked as
if he had received the tonsure; the ear of the other
was bored, and the fingers of both were a good deal
mauled; but rags and plaister set all right. Such is
"Rough-and-tumble."   When a. fight is not quite on
the sudden, men will sometimes agree on "Standup," or the other (OacTEaov), and sometimes disagree. I
recollect our all landing from a Mississippi steamer on
the Illinois side for a fight between two of the passengers; but when on the ground the men could not
agree which kind of fight to have; so at last, after an
hour's jangling, we allFreturned to the boat, the spectators more disappointed at missing the sight, tlan the
actors at missing the fight.
Fort Bridger was quite a gay rendezvous on the Sunday we reached it, for besides ourselves and two companion trains, the place was enlivened by a score or two of
mountaineers, and a band of Indians with ponies for
sale; the " sell" being usually completed by the ponies
disappearing the next night.  These Indians (Snakes
I think) were small-sized, but some of the younger
"braves" and squaws were very handsome; several of
them were wrapped round with folds of linen, and this
gave them when mounted something of an oriental appearance. The mountaineers were a grim-looking set,
principally from the Western States and Lower Canada, yet several of them were better than they looked,




THE VALLEY AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.  119


and improved on acquaintance; a sort of rough friendliness too they all had, which in the Canadians, when
drunk, turned into the most intolerable maudlin fondness. A word and a blow-or rather that "winged
word," a bullet-is the way of them all; and, unless I
misjudge, few of them but would shoot a stranger whose
buttons they chanced to fancy. On the whole I think
them rather better than the average of the world.
Oct. 22nd.-Most of us down at the store; for Kerr
allowed men to get what they liked on credit up to ten
or twelve dollars.  Met Nemahaw just coming away
in a leathern coat that he assured me was real buck-skin
(N.B.-Coats never by any chance are made of buckskin), and a great bargain at four dollars, as it would
fetch twice as much at Salt Lake, &c., &c. I threw
no cold water on the coat, but thought of Moses and
the spectacles. Cards and whisky were the order of
the day, followed of course by a fight: a " Stand-up"
this time, as two Irish, having floored their opponents,
disdained to jump on them. The storekeeper judiciously
slipped away my comrade's revolver, and I took it off to
camp; the latter on discovering his loss declared
he would have a "material guarantee " for it, and after
futile attempts at carrying off saddles, &c., marched
up to camp with two rifles and two pistols.  Finding
me out, he called for his revolver, and on my refusal to
surrender it, cocked one of the confounded big pistols
and held it right at me: not so pleasant; though when
sober he would as soon have shot himself as me; espe



120


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


cially as his weapon was a big single-barrel of a mountaineer, and had a bright cap on; with one of our own
guns it would have been at least an even chance for a
miss-fire or a burst barrel. Fortunately Ben Duncan
came up and straightened things a bit, and a sleep in
the waggon did the rest.
During first guard one of the men was discovered running off with a bag of sugar to the Indians; he dropped
it like a hot potato, and bolted into a waggon. A whole
bag! ninety-six pounds!  Magne pater divum! that
would have bought ten or twelve ponies. The affair was
duly reported, but not the offender, who was pretty well
known to be one of the Irishmen of our mess; he had
but a few days before stolen a rifle from a Canadian,
and after his regular open-hearted fashion told us all of
it, within half an hour: as a great secret, of course.
One might say of him-what Chaucer says of the
"shipman" his travelling companion"Certainly he was a good felaw,"
but alas! also
" Of nice conscience took he no kepe."
Next day we left Fort Bridger, with fifty head of
new cattle, a very needful reinforcement, distributed
among our teams.    A few miles of constant ascent
brought us to the high table land, from which you descend among the mountains of the Wahsatch range.
All at once we saw below us a panorama of valleys and
canons winding and climbing this way and that, the
hill-sides round, looking not unlike English downs, but




THE VALLEY AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.   121


clouded with patches of cedar-wood, and separated
here and there by running brooks. Henceforth we had
no more travelling on broad sandy plains, but over
steep ridges, beside pictured rocks (on the right hand,
never on the left), along deep gullies, and across glorious valleys, with then only a view of the hills close
on each side, and the sky roofing us over. The sun
rose late for us and left us early, and the nights grew
longer and colder, but during the day, as if the heat
were collected and reflected below, all was summer-like;
the roads were in the main better than their wont, there
was little dust, and some days hardly a furlong without
a beautiful bright spring oozing out from the cliff:
this last 100 miles, in truth, was the only portion of
our route that could make any pretensions to fine
scenery.
Oct. 24th.-Camped late, and in a cold position on
the top of a connecting and dividing ridge; but we
soon had a blazing wood fire of the right sort.  Drove
our cattle down a cafon to the right; there had been
grass knee-deep, but rather dry, at the bottom, but it
was almost spoilt by a train a few days ahead of us,
and our poor beasts had little forage. " Is it not
enough that ye have eaten of the deep pastures, but
ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your
pastures; and that ye have drunk of the clear waters,
but ye must foul the residue with your feet?"
While we were driving our oxen to the best places,
which they were too tired to look for themselves, the
G




122


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


moon was eclipsed, and stopped our operations. We
were relieved two hours before our time, as those who
called up second guard thought an eclipse of the moon
could only take place at midnight.
Oct. 26th.-A hill not much over 100 yards long,
but very steep, delayed us from one P.M. to six, as the
waggons had to be treble-teamed; the Mormon goods'
train behind us very much disgusted, as they could
have crossed it in less than two hours, being fewer and
lighter, but now were brought to a dead stop by us:
we only made four miles all day. Bear River, by which
we camped, is not so large as Green River, but a rapid
sparkling river of the same character, and curiously
enough with water of a greenish colour. I saw a few
fair-sized trout, and "Woodpecker" caught one over
1 lb., a very handsome fish. Bears there were no signs
of, nor yet of mountain-sheep, except a horned skull or
two. The valley was very picturesque, with the russet
colouring and round yet rocky hills characteristic of
the "borders," and an abundance of timber along the
river-banks: a pleasanter scene on a fine October
morning one could not wish to look on.
Oct. 28th, Sunday.-Bitterly cold morning, particularly as we had been delayed by a bad hill the night
before till near ten, and could get little supper for want
of fuel. All now scattered for the latter, and for a long
while in vain; at last some one pitched on an old camping-place studded with "ox-chips," and we all flocked
thither as eagerly as if to a gold-mine. After six or




THE VALLEY AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.   123


seven miles' travel, the hills on the right broke into
limestone cliffs of great beauty, resembling gateways,
castles, turrets, and towns, all of a rich deep red: the
Frenchman, who was an artist, was in ecstacies and
longed to sketch them.
A grave placed below on a small circular rising
ground at a bend of Echo Canon struck me perhaps more: wistfully one reads these records of the
dead; one may people the castles on the cliffs with
aerial warriors from faery land, but human sympathies,
and something more than idle curiosities, group around
these lonely tombs. Here, for instance, is one but a
week old, that tells us the emigrant train was just so
far ahead of us. The name is Cadoret, a Frenchman,
I suppose; my companion reads with interest the
name of his countryman, and tells me it is a Breton
name; we both wonder why he joined the Mormons,
and came hither. Side by side is another grave: read
that slab; "aged 76:" were there no graves in Egypt,
that the old man came out to perish in the wilderness?
Was it zeal for a faith adopted late in life, or the intenser thirst for the gold of California, that brought him
to the mouth of Echo Carnon, and to the side of the
rapid Weber, and within a day's walk of the valley in
the mountains? Look at this one more: Bewick might
have chosen it as the subject of a vignette; the
slab of wood is neatly carved, and tells us a woman
was buried here; her place of birth, her age, and whose
wife she was, we can read; but the ground was soft and
G2




124


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


the grave shallow, and the wolves have torn up the body
-perhaps before the first night's dew settled on the
tombstone, or the cheek of the mourner was dry. But
we have stayed too long; the waggons are almost out
of sight, and the Frenchman, satiated with the beauty
of the red cliffs, is eager to drive on the straggling invalids of our herd.
Weber Valley, down which we turned, but for the
excessive brilliancy of the day would have appeared a
little stern, for it has none of the herbage or colour
that clothes Bear River; but before and behind the
mountains rose up with noble grey and red peaks
against the clear blue sky, while from the hill-sides on
the right rocks of cemented gravel stood out like the
ruins of some old cathedral.  Weber, like Bear River,
is a tributary of the Salt Lake, and with a somewhat
concentrical course, but considerably shorter and
smaller; the stream wanders among tall cottonwoodtrees in an inner valley from two to three furlongs wide,
but the greater part of the main valley is " bench,"
dry and herbless enough; there were, however, some
remains of cultivation, and one house, now deserted,
overlooked the water and a mill beside it. Two or
three attempts at a settlement have been made, but
with too small numbers to resist the hostility of the
Indians; otherwise the position is thought favourable:
and certainly this whole mountain district, but for Indians and wolves, is quite as well adapted to sheep
farming as the Highlands of Scotland; nearly all the




THE VALLEY AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.  125


larger canons have water running throughout the year,
and both they and the smaller ones have plenty of
grass: at most, a supply of roots during the depth of
the winter snow would be necessary.
The crossing of the Weber is barely thirty miles
from the entrance to Salt Lake Valley. We did not
much expect to be seven days more in the caftons;
but the difficulties of the route increase continually:
the burns wash the rock on either side so closely that
the track must necessarily change sides often, and the
large amount of travelling has worn the stream-bed
into a hole where you want a ford; in these places
waggons would occasionally upset, often stick fast, and
a single impediment in such places brings the whole
train to a stand-still. Sometimes the bed of the canon
itself was but little wider than to allow a passage at
all, and so uneven that several men were needed to
support each waggon over bad places; sometimes so
strewn with fragments of rock that the cattle could
hardly move the load an inch: in these " fixes," while
the leading waggons struggled along one by one, men
behind lit fires, if fuel were handy; and then we sat
round near an hour at a time chatting, and as we progressed had but to throw a little more on the fires
already lighted by our predecessors. Several times
one of the other trains ahead forced us to camp in
unsuitable places; once where the bush was impenetrably thick-it must have been a complete barrier to
the pioneers of the route-so that next morning it




126


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


took us hours to get our cattle out of it, though the
space was not much over that of Bloomsbury Square;
indeed several times I thought I must have cut my own
way out, for you may force your way into underwood
with the boughs, and be unable to force it out against
them. In the middle of the bush we found a skeleton,
its skull cleft in two as by a blow from an axe; the
murdered man-for such doubtless he was-had lain
there long; but it was a place where even beasts would
hardly come in search of prey, or the bones would
have been torn apart: very likely we were the first
living being who had ever entered that thicket since
the murderer cast there the body of the murdered.
At last we began the ascent of the Big Mountain, an
ominous name that had haunted us for weeks before; in
reality rather a pass between mountains than a mountain itself. It is strange how the pass should have
been found, for the entrance is out of a large canion
almost a valley, and is itself narrow and insignificant
at first, and with by no means a look of leading anywhere. At its mouth was a grave piled up with stones,
as if each traveller here at the "foot of the mountain " had added one, as an offering to the genius of
the pass: the stern grim cairn accorded well with the
features of the spot; and I, too, paid the tribute of a
pebble. The ascent is five miles long; the lower half
of which is exceedingly rough and narrow, but not
very steep; higher up it opens out a little, and for the
last half mile rises sharply: tall gaunt pines, scattered




THE VALLEY AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.  127


here and there, some with a semblance of life, others
stripped by the wind, some bare blackened poles, some
charred and fallen, added to the desolation of the
canon. Half way up we camped, though the ground
did not permit anything like a proper corral; our
cattle we drove up a sort of scrambling gully onto the
hill tops, several hundred feet above us, there to shift
for themselves: we could do no more for them.
Gradually a rumour spread through camp that we
were on the morrow to drive the remaining twentytwo miles to the city; something of the joviality
of a last evening was aroused; songs were sung,
tales were told, and a little caricature acting was
performed, as we sat around our fires watching the
bread baking for our early breakfast.  "0   curas
hominum! quantum est in rebus inane!"  We were
called up before three, and such was the enthusiasm,
that even the laziest were out at once: and, truth to
say, it was quite too cold to sleep with any comfort in
the waggons. By the time Orion began to sink we
had finished breakfast, and when the morning star
rose at the bottom of the pass, we groped our way out
in the dark, and with the first twilight were on the
mountains; excitement and exercise gave one warmth
to enjoy the glory of that cold November sunrise.
Half our cattle we soon drove in, but the restWala wa!-had not merely scattered, but travelled,
some back, some Sion-wards; it was three in the
afternoon, twelve hours from the time we had turned




128


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


out, and not very far from dusk, when we got under
way again.  By dark two-thirds of the waggons had
double teamed up, and gone down the other side,
almost in full trot, though with both hind wheels
locked. From   the "top of the mountain," a small
space of level ground fifty yards across, one saw the
camp-fires blazing cheerily far, far below; the road
down most resembled the bottom of a gigantic trough,
placed at an angle of forty-five degrees, and in the
darkness  at each footfall it seemed   as if one
stepped over a precipice.  Camp was in no sort of
order; half our mess and all our cooking utensils
were still on the wrong side of the mountain, and the
snow was falling fast; but after a most decided negative on a proposition to go supperless to bed, we
borrowed things here and there, and voted, as in
defiance, to cook two rations at once and trust for the
morrow. Our faith was rewarded; by the aid of some
unsettled claim and some generosity we received a
new supply: but it was worth a morrow's fast that
evening to see the agreeable surprise of our really
tired-out comrades, when several hours later they
came in expecting nothing, and found warmth and
abundance. In the morning we had another troublesome, and still more unsuccessful, hunt after our poor
half-starved worn-out cattle; the hill sides were so
steep, one had literally to push the oxen down; driving
was useless: I pushed seven oxen by stages down for
a thousand feet or more.




THE VALLEY AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.  129


Our journey had a sort of fitting resemblance to the
journey of life. When we left the Missouri, but half
our train moved at once: that was childhood; in our
middle course along the valley of the Platte, we made
our eighteen or twenty miles daily; now we had sunk
to the decrepitude of old age and moved in detachments. Our day's travel was but four miles, but it
brought us into rather warmer weather, and we camped
near a cottage; trading posts, we had passed many of on
our road, but this was the first " wonning:" its habitants were Mormons, but (as I afterwards heard, though
I cannot positively vouch for the truth of it) ejected
from the valley for misconduct; in fact, the man had
seduced, as he might not marry, his own daughter. Mormonism stood aghast: avw rap or0oTa/v To0yT0rE-this
was water flowing up stream, and pretty considerably
too. They were, however, civil and pleasant people
enough, and I took supper there; fresh butter and a
quart of milk being the greatest of luxuries to me. They
told me that one of the emigrant trains camped close
by a few days back, had run quite out of provisions,
and the children were crying for hunger, till a supply
was brought from the city: it made me feel how little
hardship I had passed through.
A third time we travelled but three or four miles,
having to cross the Little Mountain; an ascent shorter
but more troublesome than the Big Mountain, and
fortunately our descending (i. e. the western) side was
in both cases infinitely the worst of the two; this was
G 3




130


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


the last obstacle to pass. We camped at the head of
Emigration Canon on the evening of November 6, having made just one hundred miles since October 23.
I have dwelt at some length on these last days of
the journey, as well to show the manner in which Salt
Lake Valley is walled in, as the difficulties of the
route; and not least that a reader may thus appreciate
both the actual relief and intense exhilaration of recovered light, and space, and prospect. At twilight, or
in gloomy daylight, all the canons feel like coffins:
before you can well see the clouds above you they have
passed out of your sight; either you feel no breeze or
else a gust rendered fierce by compression. Emigration
Canion is one of the deepest and narrowest of them
all; its cliffs are relieved by no beauty of form or
colour, they are stern, grim, unpitying; the snow
higher up looks warmer; you may fancy Giant Despair
looking over their edge at his prisoners. Actually, a few
Indians might destroy an army: masses of rock (like
that by which Beatrice Cenci designates the spot for
Cenci's murder) seem ready to fall, and falling would,
in many places, block up all passage. The day was
dull and cold, such as in England when a north-east
wind blows-not breathes; towards noon it brightened,
though as the canon runs east and west, the sunshine
could not reach us; half an hour later, turning a projection of rock, like many before and therefore exciting
no expectation in us, we passed all at once, and almost
unawares, from the cold, deep, viewless canon into the




THE VALLEY AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.  131


open sunshine, and breathing prospect of the longwished-for valley. I do not know what may be the
feeling of emigrants who have left all to come hither,
and look, for the first time, upon this their Sion and
Promised Land. I recollect my own well: instinctively I rushed up a small eminence to the right, and
then turned and gazed. I said nothing, but in my
heart shouted, Oaacro-a! O abaaa! while the Frenchman
below gave utterance to his artistic delight, and also to
sundry moral apophthegms with a philosophical sound.
Frenchmen have plenty of them.
Some persons complained of disappointment at the
want of timber; nothing, however, to one looking from
above is more sombre than a forest: I did not wish
for any. The length and breadth of the valley spread
before us; the snowy Sierra opposite, but ten leagues
off; the range behind us black-looking, but whitecrested, a mountain wave and a mountain wall, grander
now we had passed it;, most of all the Great Lake, blue
and bright in the afternoon sunshine, circling a mountainous island, and itself encircled by mountains,
shining as it were a bed of sapphires set in silver,these, the whole view then, whatever one might have
thought at any other moment, like water to a thirsty
man, seemed at once to repay all the fatigues and hardships of the journey. Salt Lake City, visible as a multitude of white specks on the plain at the bottom,
served rather to excite our curiosity than to improve
the landscape. Next morning we drove into the city;




132


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


its appearance I shall describe elsewhere, and only here
remark that any one not knowing what to expect would
probably have been disappointed: our own appearance
was strange enough. My dress, for instance, would
have rivalled the cynic's, " a coat with many doors,
fluttering about in every gust of wind, and overlaid
with an embroidery of rags;" it had been supported
by voluntary contributions of every colour and texture,
and the embroidery, as tailors love to say, had been
"all done with the needle."  Such sights were too
common to attract the notice or laughter even of the
children in the streets.
I chanced that evening to wait half an hour or so
at the workshop of a shoemaker, apparently, at close of
day, the resort of a few choice spirits of Mormonism.
Songs were sung in turn: songs of Sion. The cobbler
sang as he worked: his was a stirring air, such as would
have suited that matchless war-cry, " The sword of the
Lord and of Gideon;" the words, too, were vigorous,
part denunciatory, part hopeful: one could almost have
fancied the singer one of the stern old Puritans. I
recollect one stanza commenced " Tremble ye nations,"
and the chorus repeated after each denunciation was —
"But Sion shall have peace,
Israel must increase;
Glory to the Lord of Hosts!
Israel is free!"
By the end of the week our freight was unloaded,
and we were paid off; my own amount was 76 dollars




THE VALLEY AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.       133
76 cents. I was again my own master. Some others
were eager to start for California, but for my part,
considering Utah, if not one of the most interesting,
at least one of the most out-of-the-way places in the
world, and also from some slight weariness of daily
travel and one's own company, I preferred remaining
at Salt Lake City for a season, and took up my abode
in a Mormon family.




I




PART II.
THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.
" MoppAc 8a KVE&L 'Tros'."
THEOCRITUS.




I
I
N




CHAPTER I.


NATURE OF THE COUNTRY, PRODUCTS, AND
COLONIZATION.
THE territory of Utah lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, and from lat. 37~ to 42~
north; an extent of country about six times as large
as Pennsylvania. Of this the strip some 150 miles
wide, east of the Wahsatch ranges, and watered by the
tributaries of the Colorado, is uninhabited and almost
uninhabitable, except by Indians. West of the latter
range lies the Great Basin, the waters of which find
no outlet to the ocean, but fall into a number of lakes,
of which the Great Salt Lake is the chief.
The country as yet is by no means fully explored;
but all the known part is strewn over with mountain
ridges more or less connected, and having a general
north and south direction, parallel to the great chains
of the continent; these enclose a multitude of valleys,
many of which no doubt in time will be colonized. At
present the settlements extend more or less thickly in
a line from north to south of 300 miles, along a string
of valleys from rim to rim of the Basin; with one or
two exceptions, they have not as yet diverged on either
side.
In character these valleys differ entirely from what




138


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


we call the valley of a river; more resembling such as
the valley of Mexico, large tracts of almost level lands
surrounded by mountain ridges; these are jagged
sierras, rising into numberless peaks of an almost equal
altitude, and cleft below by steep narrow canions fully
as numerous, only a few of which, however, penetrate
any distance through the chain.  Most cations in their
sheltered parts have some growth of wood, and they serve
as watercourses for the melting snow. The mountain
springs also are numerous, and except when ice-bound,
valuable for consumption and irrigation; to be diverted
along the streets of the young settlements, turn the
waterwheels, grind the corn, saw the lumber, and finally,
"leaping to music and to light," help to raise another
crop on the fertile soil of the valley bottom. Few places
have a more abundant supply of water and water-power.
Between the mountains of the valley intervenes a strip
of dry sterility, known as the "bench;" a sort of table
land sloping slightly to the base of the former, but
commonly falling with a sudden step to the latter: its
soil and nature is pretty much the same as that of the
plains of sage-brush on either side the Rocky Mountains.
The appearance of Salt Lake Valley, as we entered
it from Emigration Canion, I have already described;
but it may be worth while giving a few details. Opposite the city it is nearly thirty miles wide and continues
to widen for the lake, which lies twenty miles north;
twenty-five miles to the south the mountains approach,




NATURE OF THE COUNTRY, ETC.


139


and the bench on each side meets, but for the deep gully
through which their river Jordan passes from the freshwater lake Utah in the adjoining valley towards the
Salt Lake. The similitude of this to the river of
Palestine, falling into the Dead Sea, gives a propriety
to the name; no other could have been as fit: it has
also a sort of religious propriety in the faith and language of the colonists, for Utah is their Promised Land.
Salt Lake City is their Sion, and in these waters, they
say, there is baptism for the remission of sins. I was
not a little surprised to hear from some of the first
Mormon settlers, that they "found the name."
Though by no means the principal tributary of the
lake, the Jordan is the chief stream of the valley,
and in its own valley-an imperium     in imperio-is
the very finest pasture-land. The bunch-grass shoots
up in spring with astonishing rapidity and luxuriance, and the herds revel and grow fat in a fortnight; sometimes nimals eat themselves to death in
their first eagerness for the green food, and though
in a short time the grass dries up, it retains all the
year its sweetness and a good deal of its nutritiousness: unfortunately in the preceding summer (1855),
the grasshoppers had eaten almost every blade, and
the place was desert and deserted. The river has an
abundance of fine trout and chub, and in Lake Utah,
trout are almost as thick as " mackarel schools," and, I
am told, run to great size; but in winter, the larger
ones go to the deep water beyond netting, and I saw




140


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


none over two pounds: these were splendid fish, cutting
red, and coloured and marked like sea trout. An inferior
sort of fish called suckers, and with the appearance of
small barbel, are also abundant.. In the Salt Lake no
fish are found, nor is it supposed any could live; this
marred utterly my philanthropic and philo-piscatorial
scheme of importing salmon from California, which at
the right season could have gone down to the salt
water. None of these waters are navigated, nor as yet
are the settlements in a position, locally or otherwise,
to make much of it; yet it was in contemplation to
start a small steamer on Salt Lake, that in high water
might run up the Jordan near the city and connect it
with the most northern settlements; or even up Bear
River, if emigration should come by a more northerly
route than at present. The necessity of importing
machinery with vast expense and difficulty, must render
such a scheme, even if otherwise practicable, quite
visionary, until the Mormons have extended their ironworks; machinery, if imported, could be applied to fifty
more useful purposes.
The soil of the valley bottom differs greatly: in parts
it is of exceeding fertility; even as much as eighty
bushels of wheat have been raised to the acre, and
thirty or forty are still not uncommon, though above
the average; good and bad land, however, are very
much mixed up —not to speak of wholesale desert
tracts-and it is hard to find a farm site, one-third of
which is not nearly worthless. The climate is also




PRODUCTS OF THE COUNTRY, ETC.


141


adverse: from the early summer till long after harvest
home not a drop of rain falls, so that irrigation several
times during the season is absolutely necessary to keep
alive the growing crops; and though, as I have said
above, the supply of water is good, still it is in part
uncertain, being derived from the melting snow. Inhabitants say that the coldness of the water injures
the crop, and irrigation has a tendency to impoverish
the land.
If accounts be true, the drought, always feared,
has this year (1856) in their utmost need withered
among the people of Utah all hope of abundance;
and that more terrible scourge the grasshoppers,
following upon the drought, has raised a panic of
actual starvation: if they should come for a succession
of years, as they now have for two, a famine and a
new emigration seem inevitable. The people, however,
struggle bravely, dig ditches around their fields, and
try to sweep the foe away; failing that, they plant crop
after crop as each is eaten off, to the end of the season.
Brigham Young tells the Mormons it is a judgment on
them for wasting the superabundance of 1853; when
much could have been stored up, but was recklessly
given to animals, and almost thrown away. Till lately,
corn was hardly grown as a crop, except in the southern
valleys; but its advantages of quick growth have, the
last year or two, introduced it very largely at the north,
and it now equals the growth of wheat.
Potatoes, beets, pumpkins, all succeed well, and




142


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


nothing better than potatoes; they have a monopoly
in the ground, like that of herrings in Loch Fyne, two
of fish to one of water; and for their quality you
could hardly match them in London. Sugar works
were ready for operation, and a large manufacture had
been calculated on; but the beet crop suffered even
beyond the rest. All ordinary garden vegetablesseem
to thrive, and some fruits; strawberries, and water
melons in particular. Standard peach and apple trees
have been introduced, and hitherto stood the winter,
and though as yet but young, peaches were sold by
the bushel in the city; most gardens have a few trees,
and there are several extensive orchards. This success
has encouraged some enterprising persons to attempt
vine-growing, which has advanced, on the banks of the
Ohio into a regular branch of agriculture, and even
established a new item in the vast commerce of Cincinnati. Many thousands of vine-cuttings were ordered
from the neighbourhood of Los Angeles, in Southern
California, and before this time the experiment has
been tried; the winter is the test: there are fine slopes
to the south and west, in every way suited for vineyards,
and it is a pity if they cannot after all be rendered
productive.  So much for the cultivation of the
country.
The first emigrants brought to the valley nearly a
myriad of cattle, and every caravan still brings its
hundreds, so that cattle are numerous; and hardly one
man is so poor, if he own a roof to his head, but has




COLONIZATION.


143


a cow or two or a yoke of oxen: indeed stock-raising
must needs be profitable where you pay nothing for
pasture land; that is, if the Indians do not make an
incursion like the Sabeans of old upon Job's herd, or if
the winter be not such a one as that commencing when
I was in the country. Pasture, as I have before said,
there was none left by the grasshoppers in the southern
part of the valley; and 100 miles to the north, along
Bear River and in Cache Valley, the snow in December
thawed and froze again, covering the whole face of the
country with a coating of ice, through which the cattle
could not, except here and there, reach a blade of
grass, or even a bunch of sage-brush. Truly (according
to the words of the prophet) "the cattle were perplexed because there was no pasture;" some starved
on the spot, others rushed, as in despair, to the mountains, where the snow was not frozen but only four to
seven feet deep; a few kept alive by browsing on the
small shoots of the kinnik-kinnik that grows like willow
along the stream sides. S., my host, was, I fear, one
of the great losers, and a great part of the church
herd perished; while of the 400 head of cattle that
had belonged to our train, according to the papers, not
a single one lived through the winter. Cattle that have
crossed the plains are always feeble, and fetch a considerably lower price for many months to come. As
may be supposed, where horses and mules are scarce,
a good Indian pony fetching 50 dollars or more, and
a good mule 150 dollars, all heavy carting, as well as




144


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


ploughing, is done with oxen. Mules have as yet been
imported only. A gigantic jackass from Tennessee,
standing about fifteen hands, drew together a considerable crowd: gaunt as he looked, for he would eat none
of the corn brought on the plains for him, his owner
valued him at 350 dollars; but even in the States,
particularly Kentucky or Tennessee, owing to the
demand for mules, a first-rate donkey fetches a price
rather astonishing to an Englishman.
Sheep are scarce; not being like cattle a means of
travelling, and even very troublesome to bring over the
plains on account of the wolves: at Salt Lake they
require watching in the daytime, and folding at night:
as for feed there is mostly sufficient picking for sheep
on the "bench."   S. pressed me very much to return
to Salt Lake the following year (1856) with 1000 or
1500 sheep, mostly ewes; assuring me they would
fetch from four to five times their price in Missouri,
and that if kept for a couple of seasons the return
would be a considerable profit: to him perhaps. I
do not mean that he would have cheated me; and
very likely after expenses and losses there would be a
considerable profit; but to turn that profit and the
principal into coin would be so difficult as, practically, for any but a settler, to nullify the gain. I
never saw mutton once in Utah.    Sheep are very
seldom killed, for the owners are few, and desirous of
raising large flocks for the sale of the wool. There is
already some little manufacture of cloth, but the raw




COLONIZATION.


145


material is as yet too scanty; otherwise this, like all
manufactures, ought to flourish with such an immense
protective duty as the cost of importation in effect
gives them. Pigs are scarcer than cattle, but far
more numerous than sheep; beef is quite the staple
food.
The greatest of all deficiencies is that of wood, and, unluckily, where most wanted; near Salt Lake City, with
the exception of a fringe of cottonwood along a few
creeks, there is literally none in the valley. Fuel must
be hauled from among the mountains, a yearly-increasing
distance-now from twenty to twenty-five miles: oak,
pine, cedar, and maple are the commonest, and fetch
eight dollars a " cord," viz. a pile eight feet by four, and
four high. Wood hauling is a regular business, and considering that a trip for a " cord " occupies a man and
a yoke of oxen-and they must be no weaklings-two
days, the price is not unreasonable; but it is the
severest item in household expenditure. A family,
with two stoves constantly burning, will run very near
to 300 dollars in the course of the winter. Very unwisely, hardly a soul thinks of laying in a stock till
October, when the roads are becoming bad; and even
then most live from hand to mouth. For lumber the
white and red pine are chiefly used; the quality is
good, though seasoning is out of the qhcstion, and the
abundance of water power and saw-mills at the mouths
of the carions only just keeps up a sufficient supply.
Frame houses, so universal in the States, you never
H




146


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


see; sun-baked bricks, called "dobies," a corruption
of the word " adobe," are the sole building material:
as regards the name, I may remark that the fifty
dollar California pieces, now almost in disuse, were
called "dobies," because octagonal-a very foolish
shape: and the name was suitable thus far, that both
coin and brick rub away far too easily.  Owing to
tithes (on which I may touch hereafter) being paid in
kind, and the obvious inconvenience of a motley collection of bricks, dobies are by law required to be of
one shape and size. Mormon descriptions of the city
speak of the resemblance these bricks bear to freestone;
I rather dislike the sickly colour: perhaps they are but
a temporary resource, and some future "Prophet " may
(like the Roman emperor) be able to say he found the
city of dobies and left it of stone. The foundations
of houses are always of stone, rough hewn. There are
good quarries fourteen or fifteen miles from the city;
but, without greater facilities of carriage, it can be
used only for necessities.
The people are alive to the need of better communication, but with so much else to do little of
this has been yet done.     Across the rivers and
larger streams substantial wooden bridges have been
constructed: undoubtedly the first requisite; but
proper roads are wanted in place of the present
mere tracks. Those in the richest and most settled
parts of the valley become, in wet weather or thaws,
downright sloughs of mire; wasting hours, and




COLONIZATION.


147


wearing out the team with a double draught; and in
the frost, if not impassable, very dangerous for travelling over beyond a foot's pace. Railroads will, no
doubt, spread in due season from the Pacific Railroad;
perhaps in connection with two or three, across the
country: without the basis of another railroad they
are impracticable.
Canals, however, though in parts difficult, might
well be constructed. The first was being excavated
in Nov., 1855, by aid of the tithe labour: this
was to connect the quarries with the city; but,
owing to the necessary windings, it will be nearly
thirty miles in length-double the direct distance.
Jordan might possibly be deepened by means of locks;
which would give water communication to the southern
end of Lake Utah, a distance of fifty miles from the
city, and nearly half way to the coal-beds in San Pete
Valley. These, as they lie almost on the surface, are
worked very cheaply; though not for consumption,
beyond the immediate neighbourhood: but with such
a scarcity of wood, sooner or later, unless others be
found at a less distance, they will have to supply Salt
Lake City with fuel. One hundred and fifty miles still
further south you come upon coal and iron ore in great
abundance, the latter producing seventy per cent. of
pure metal.  Want of better machinery and more
capital, the distance from Salt Lake City causing a
deficiency of hands and teams and a consequently irregular supply of ore and fuel, with a frequent and
H 2




148


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


(as every one knows it must be) a ruinous extinction of
the furnaces, has much crippled the efforts of the iron
works; and an entire dependence upon water for the
working power brings the whole to a stand-still after
the first hard frost.  Skilled labour in this, as in
almost every other kind of work, Utah has no
lack of.
Gold is said to have been found in the territory, though
probably not in sufficient quantities to pay the miner;
and the search is discouraged, for fear, if successful, it
might draw in an alien emigration, and so bring not
only the church in peril of antagonism, but the entire
population in danger of a famine: produce being
limited, and supplies from abroad impossible to obtain.
Alum and sulphur abound on the two mountains called
by their names, as if in rivalry of the celebrated " Iron
Mountain," of Missouri, a solid mass of iron ore.
Saltpetre is yet to be found, though most desired, as
that which would make the people no longer dependent on the States for ammunition: 500 or 1000
dollars has been offered as a premium for the first
pound of gunpowder genuinely manufactured and produced in the territory.
In some compensation for other deficiencies, Nature
has supplied that which is most indispensable, and
could not be supplied by importation-namely, salt.
On the margin of the great lake, which from time to
time advances and retires, salt covers the ground for
many inches in thickness with a coating as white as




CLIMATE.


149


snow, and it can be shovelled up and carted off as
easily as'sand. The level around the lake on the south
and south-east, the sides on which I have approached
it, is for several miles low, and the lands are marshy and
unfit for cultivation; but those living on its borders,
and indeed in other marshy districts, do not suffer from
fever and ague: either the pure dry mountain air or the
saline element is a curative.  Consumption is almost
unknown, and the climate is in general very healthful:
nor could one call it unpleasant, but for the want of
rain; which, during the summer months, renders city
and country alike arid and dusty, agreeable neither to
live in nor travel through, swept as they are by dry
hot winds, and unshaded by a single tree. Though in
winter the snow lies among the mountains many feet
deep, and prevents all communication with the Eastern
States, or Upper California, for several months; yet,
in the valleys, the temperature is not below that of a
cold English winter, and the frost is broken by frequent
thaws. Since the first settlement, in 1847, the longest
and severest term of cold weather was that during
which I was at Salt Lake City; when the mercury fell
to seventeen degrees below zero for a night or two.
In concluding this branch of the subject, one may remark that if, as compared with most other countries
sought by emigrants, Utah may have little to recommend it, yet considering it actually was sought as a refuge from persecution, and because islanded by many
hundred miles of uninhabited country on every side-a




150


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


barrier more difficult of passage than the ocean-as a
place where there was little to be coveted by enemies,
and few could know of that little; certainly more advantages have been found than could have been, or indeed were, anticipated.  Considering, again, how all
efforts for the improvement of these advantages must
necessarily be self-dependent in such a place, one cannot say they have been tardily developed. Indeed, to
me, the manufactures, few as they were, and the products and settlements sprung up so extensively in so
short a time, spoke not of a sensual but of a thrifty and
industrious population; who, whatever might be their
delusions in matters of belief, or the corrupting influence of their customs, at least determined to put
their hands to the plough, and, looking forwards, to
work, out of hardship and adversity, a comfortable,
if not an enviable, prosperity.  Observe Salt Lake
City-not a San Francisco, certainly-but remember
that eight years ago not a house stood here, nor a
stick, nor a stone to build one of.
The city lies immediately at the foot, and on the
southern and western sides, of a jutting ridge of the
mountains that terminate in Ensign Peak; a buttress
of Nature's architecture, and a warder overlooking the
whole valley. A few streets rest on the " bench," here
little more than a terrace,but rising in successive terraces
to a height of several hundred feet; below them the city
stretches on either side over the plain, and forms around
the peak the figure of a gnomon, three-fourths of a




SALT LAKE CITY.


151


square. The whole space occupied is about four square
miles, laid out in "blocks" (squares) of ten acres:
that is with a side of a furlong's length, by streets intersecting at right angles. Each block contains eight
lots, and originally there were no more houses than
lots, the rest being garden-ground; now, lots have been
divided and subdivided: for the city, as it does not extend, must thicken, till one or two principal streets have
contiguous houses. For a good way round, the houses
are as thick as suburban villas; but on the outskirts
you may still find only three houses to the furlong of
frontage, and even lots unbuilt on.
The designers of the city, warned perhaps by
the defect of many even of the newest American
cities, and possibly with a presentiment of future
magnificence in their own, very wisely gave a great
width to their roadways, whilst it could be done
for nothing.  The streets of Cincinnati, closed in
by seven-story houses, begin to look narrow; those
of Salt Lake, whatever be its destiny, Mormon or
Gentile, can'scarcely become so. They have a width
of eight rods; and as the houses stand back a regular
distance within their own palings, the entire width
from wall to wall, as in the principal street where palings have disappeared, is fully 160 feet. Pavement,
or paving, there is none; side walk and road is in
its primitive state, and good or bad merely according
to an accident of soil. Water has been made the
most of-not certainly " laid on " to the houses, for




152


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


society does not yet require that, or I suppose it could
easily be done-but drawn off from Temple Creek, a
glorious mountain stream, and " spirited" by the
gentle inclination of the ground, south and west along
each side of almost every street. Beside these runnels
are planted young trees, such as can be obtained
from the mountains, locust, maple, or cottonwood; the
planting is compulsory on the owner of the lot behind,
or on the ward if any individual be too poor, so that,
without fail, the city may in a few years have pleasant
avenues, such as are the delight of Philadelphians in
their scorching summer time. The condition of the
trees is a pretty fair indication of the idleness or industry of those living near them.
Architecturally, the city is nothing; few houses
are over two stories, and many of one only: style
there is none; it should be added there are no
"follies."  Brigham  Young's house alone is pretentious, and looks well enough because it is large,
and its walls are newly painted white, and the green
of the venetians refreshed continually: another large
building almost detached —a sort of harem -was
just completed in orthodox Gothic style.  I felt a
pity for those who had to live between the gables.
The social hall, a place that may be used for any kind
of public amusement, balls, theatre, &c., and the tabernacle and council house are mere useful conventicles.
The foundations of the Temple are laid, and very
substantially too; but till the canal to the quarries




SALT LAKE CITY.


153


is complete the work will not proceed. Beyond evidences of large pillars and a frontage to the east, I
could not guess at the future result, nor is there any
published design; but most expected it would be on
the model of the Nauvoo Temple, in its time the
finest building of the West, and the ruins of which
I passed, unfortunately in the dark, last May. The
ground plan is 180 feet by 120, as I found by stepping. The temple block, a furlong square (containing
the tabernacle, endowment house, and temple foundations), is enclosed by a strong pannelled wall of stone
and dobies, with gateways-about-to-be; at present
openings, on each side: unless for purposes of security
or concealment, the wall seems a mistake, it being a
screen to the glories of the temple.
The whole city, except on the south, is closed in by
an earthen wall ten or twelve feet high, here and there
jutting out into small bastions, and pierced at intervals
by gateless gateways. This work is utterly useless, for
the line of defence would be nearly ten miles, and can
at any part be climbed over with ease, particularly by a
barefooted Indian. The terraces of bench land and
Ensign Peak, when you look at them from a mile or
two's distance, bear a great resemblance to parts of the
Undercliff, in the Isle of Wight, except for the lack of
any woodland or cheerful vegetation; while the view
from them, though sombre in the dreariness of
autumn, must be bright and pleasant when the gardens
H 3




154


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


below are green with young trees and vegetables and
rustle with their jungles of Indian corn.
From the description I have given, any one will see
that Salt Lake by no means fulfils our ideas of a city,
but is rather a gigantic village, or a collection of suburbs.
Such as it is, all other settlements in the country have
taken it as their prototype; and though security, and
in some points convenience, are sacrificed on this plan,
yet a population, not commercial, but pastoral or agricultural, may be repaid by the increased healthiness of
scattered dwellings, and in the future city (if a city it
be) by the advantages of unusual roominess.
I have not seen the census taken in March, 1856, with
a view to the admission of the Territory as a State, but
Salt Lake was generally considered, in 1855, to have
nearly 15,000 inhabitants: a quarter of the entire white
population of the country. These included Americans,
who hold all the chief offices in church and state: not
without a national jealousy on the part of their subjects,
often expressed to me, though not in public; English, a
fair sprinkling of Scotch, a large number of Welsh, who
have their own separate colonies in a neighbouring
valley on the west, and are not thick elsewhere; a considerable population of French and Danish, with a few
Germans and Italians, chiefly Picdmontese; one Irishman, one Jew and one negro complete the list of nationalities mingled in the ever-increasing swarm of the
hive of Deseret. I am sorry I cannot give their nume



POPULATION OF SALT LAKE.          155
rical proportions with even an approximate accuracy;
still more so with respect to the ratio of the two sexes,
and of those men who have more than one wife, to the
entire male population. Judging from those families
with which I have been.more or less acquainted, and also
from the build of the houses (which last, though of
course uncertain, is a better test than might be supposed), I should conjecture the polygamist households
throughout the city to be in a decided minority. But
this is a mere guess, and the substitution of guesswork
for ascertained fact sadly hinders the arrival at any
positive truth.




CHAPTER 'II.


RELIGION.
IN the last chapter was given a sketch of the physical
character, products, settlements, and development of
Utah.   In this will be attempted a sketch of the
religion of the settlers; not so much gathered from
books (though from leisure hours among few but
Mormon books, I am tolerably versed in their written
theology) as from intercourse with the people, and
observation of its character, at Salt Lake, its headquarters: and it must be remembered that no Mormon even is considered more than half initiated in the
faith until he has visited the seat of the First Presidency of the church of Latter-day Saints. Before
entering on the subject it may be as well to remark
that I shall never intentionally speak with irreverence
of what any Christian church or sect may hold sacred;
nor on the other hand indulge in sneers at the faith I
am writing of-still less in the vulgarity of nick-naming
its author or propagators, whatever may be their real
or supposed character.
To begin, then, with the first of all, the Deity. It
is a little hard to say whether Mormonism is Trinita



RELIGION.


157


rian or Unitarian, for on the one hand it believes in
three Divine persons, and on the other not in these
three as equally divine or equal in power, majesty, and
eternity, least of all as three persons in one God. It
believes in one eternal, self-existent, Divine being, from
whom the other two, completely distinct persons, derive
their being and divinity, and receive their power as delegated. But the one God, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and Father of Spirits, Mormons conceive to be
not a spirit, but a material being, with the form and
image in the likeness of which He made man.   Not,
indeed,-if you converse with the more intelligent-of
the same substance as human flesh and blood, but of
some more pure and ethereal substance; for they
assert it is impossible to form any actual conception
of a being wholly immaterial, and that if you believe
in such a being, you are in fact believing in nothing:
are in truth an atheist.
Bishop Berkeley, after denying the possibility of
forming an abstract general idea, leaves the question to the experimentalism of each individual reader.
I shall in some sort follow his example here, and
not attempt to set forth, much less to discuss, the
certainly ingenious and acute argumentation of
Orson Pratt, partly physical, partly metaphysical, on
this point. - Berkeley's assertion of atheism necessarily accompanying a belief in the existence of
matter, is a curious contrast and parallel to the Mormon dogma. The words in the first article of the




158


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


Church of England, which are also embodied in the
Methodist belief (at least in America), "without passions " are the object of constant attacks.  "What! "
say they, " we read in Scripture ' God loved the world,'
'God is angry with the wicked every day,' &c; 'are
not anger and love passions?"' I do not suppose
Mr. Pratt or men of his stamp to be so ignorant of
the meaning of the word "passion," as themselves to
be deceived by such an argument; but with ill-informed
persons it takes admirably, for the reasoning is plain
and the fraud obscure. A church with such an article
is clearly unscriptural, and the sooner left the better.
Almost every one to whom I explained the error, set
down the explanation as a.sophistry, and me as dishonest. Considering the Deity as a material being,
~they do not attribute to Him omnipotence, omniscience,
or omnipresence, in the same sense as most Christian
sects do. They regard Him as omnipotent, but subject
to certain laws not of his own making; as omniscient,
only by means of angels and ministering spirits; and as
not pervading all space, but occupying a small limited
portion: not at all really omnipresent.
Intelligent Mormons are rather given to speculation
upon these and kindred subjects; one is therefore in
some danger of including in the general belief merely
individual opinions, particularly when writing from.
memory.    Among the doctrines, however, is that of a
spirit-world, wherein we existed before our incarnation
-rather a Platonic doctrine-and in support of which




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they mention those cases where one seems to recognise
a face one has never seen before.  "You have met,"
say they, "in the spirit-world:" not that we existed in
that from all eternity, but were born into it as we are
into this; being all children, in a literal sense, of one
Great Father, the one God and the Father of Spirits,
and-the strangest doctrine of all-of spiritual mothers. Who these spiritual mothers are or were, I had
some difficulty to ascertain; but after a good deal of
indirect questioning, I found them to be considered as
beings created with a spiritual (but of course not an
immaterial) nature by the Deity, of and for his own pleasure. Thus the doctrine of polygamy is not merely introduced into Heaven, but planted on the throne of the
Highest! The idea approximates to paganism: that of
our origin might have been held by a Greek philosopher;
and the conception of the Deity is as low as any in
mythology.
One man, well educated, and with some popular
knowledge of astronomy, told me that he personally
believed each different solar system  had its own
Supreme Being, and he quoted, though not as his
ground of belief, "There be gods many and lords
many, but to us"-i. e. the planets of our solar system
-" there is but one God," &c. It seems strange that
he should have overlooked the words immediately preceding-"there be that are called gods," as well as
the whole drift and object of the chapter: probably
the quotation was off-hand; but Mormons have more




160


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


readiness than exactness in argument. To return: our
spirits are supposed from their birth to have been more
or less in a state of probation, and according as they were
pure and good, they were sent in due season into nobler
earthly tenements. I believe I am correct in adding
that Mormons consider the spirit of Christ was similar
to our spirits, but of a more pure and holy character;
therefore whereas we all have one Father of our spirits
and another of our bodies, He alone had the same
Father of both: the Divine Father who made Him
divine also.
It may be convenient, in connection with this part of
the subject to consider polygamy, so far as it is a doctrine of the religion. Mormons believe in a future
state of existence; a sort of renewed life in the spirit
world, capable of all the physical enjoyments of our
present life, and unclogged with its coarser materialities.
"Then," said a high-priest to me, "you will move
from place to place bodily with as much ease as your
mind alone can now travel from this Salt Lake Valley
to England." The comparison was not what Coleridge
terms "rhetoric turned into logic," for my friend believed in the actual capability of the mind to travel from
the body, and, on the mesmeric principle, exercise its
fluence on those far distant from you. The locality allotted to the good and the bad after death or judgment
is undecided: one tells you there is no hell but this
earth we live in; another, that this earth will then become heaven; while a third, unconsciously, I suppose,




RELIGION.


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following Dante, assured me we should be distributed
among the planets and their satellites. Nor are all but
the " saints " to be excluded from the new heaven: every
one will be judged according to his works, and those
who have never heard the "Gospel" preached, or have
rejected it from mere dulness, will be admitted, though
in some inferior or even servile position, into the kingdom of some of the saints: several Mormons promised
to do their best to get me into theirs; I thanked them
and accepted the offer, for it was kind of them, and
could do no harm to me.
In the new heaven, each original believer in Mormonism-that is, the first of his family to believewill rule over a kingdom, numbering among his
subjects his wives and male descendants with their
wives; his daughters will belong to the kingdoms
of their different husbands.  "But a man    may
marry a widow, and there might be two claimants."
No; for there is marriage either "for time" or "for
eternity."  A girl on her first marriage is almost
invariably " sealed to her husband as his spiritual wife
for all eternity," and in that case, if she becomes a
widow, she can only marry "for time," and after her
death belongs to the kingdom of her original husband:
a register being kept to prevent any collisions hereafter. "A  widow indeed," said one man expounding to me 1 Timothy iv., "is one who has no living
husband; 'a widow' one who has married again, but
whose husband 'for eternity' is dead: the former




~t
r


162        THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.
alone needs protection and support; and therefore St.
Paul writes, ' Honour widows that are widows indeed."'
To another I quoted, "In the kingdom of heaven
there shall be neither marrying nor giving in marriage."
"No," said he, "all the marrying is done first upon
earth."  One exhorting from the "stand" (pulpit),
said, "Wives should obey their husbands in all things,
no matter what they are commanded, or whether they
know it to be wrong. What then?     Will they be
punished? No; the wicked husband will go to hell,
and be damned to all eternity; but his wives will be
taken from him and given to some better man." This
last seems a little like marriage in heaven.
The more wives a man has, the larger probably will be
the numerical extent of his "kingdom;" but I do not
suppose that this doctrine relating to the next world
really influences Mormons at all in multiplying their
wives.  The "spiritual-wife system," a phrase that
has been turned very naturally a good deal to the
disrepute of the Mormons, is nothing but a phrase as
affecting practical life and morality: how far, on the
first introduction of polygamy at Nauvoo, it was used
as a means of overcoming the scruples of women I am
unable to say.
It must not be supposed that Mormons consider
these their peculiar views contrary to the Bible; far
from it, they not only receive the entire Scriptures, but
assert that they alone, by literality of interpretation,
do receive and believe the truth contained in Scripture.




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Dante's "quarto senso, che e sopra senso " of interpretation finds little favour with them. Origen and
Neo-Platonism, say their learned men, drew away the
whole world into a mist of vain imaginations, since
which time half the Bible is understood figuratively.
If Noah, say the less erudite, had received the command to build the ark in the manner in which you
read prophecy, he 'd have been drowned to a certainty.
Literality of interpretation is, accordingly, the great
principle of Mormon divinity: though I could see no
consistency in their disbelief of transubstantiation.
Thus they believe in a literal gathering of the Jews to
their own country, and of the hosts of the earth against
Jerusalem; and that Christ himself will come to plead
with the nations; and in the great destruction of the
" sectarian world "-" multitudes, multitudes in the
valley of decision "- and then the Millennium. This,
however, they do not expect by any means at once.
True we are living in "the last days;" but then, as
they allow the last days to have commenced when St.
Peter spoke, the period included in the phrase must
needs be long. To the Bible they append (though not
practically, for you never see them) sundry apocryphal
books; some unheard of before, as the book of
Abraham, and others alluded to in the Old Testament.
An additional book of the New Testament contains a
narrative of the quarrels of St. Paul's two wives (!!),
and how he pacified them: this grief is said to be the
"thorn in the flesh" that has so exhausted the inge



164


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


-nuity of commentators, and probably will have plenty
more written about it. I have not seen this book, and
am inclined to think it a hoax.
Of the Book of Mormon I shall say little: indeed I
have not read much, for I found it hopelessly dull.
Not but what it contains much good: to wit, some of the
finest passages of Isaiah, and the whole " Sermon on the
Mount."   The first book, professedly written 500 B.c.,
was evidently written after the Epistle to the Romans,
and the prophecies throughout (for I glanced through)
have the very ideal of the tone of forgeries. Joseph
Smith's account of the angels appearing and revealing
to him where to dig up the golden plates, which he
translated by the aid of the Urim and Thummim, is
well known; by the same assistance, Mormons have
told me, had he lived he would have retranslated the
Bible, without calling in aid any acquaintance with
Greek or Hebrew.   The opposition account of the
book of Mormon that it was written by some one for
amusement-more I should think than it was ever
read for-and fell into the hands of Sidney Rigdon
who started the affair, may possibly be true. There is
plenty of good hard swearing on each side; nor can I
say which has the best of it. The internal evidence
of the book, which really tells one nothing worth
knowing, is rather damnatory of its genuineness.
Its earlier portions contain accounts of the origin of
two races, called respectively Nephites and Lamanites,
both descended from one family, which left Jerusalem




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in the reign of Zedekiah, and in some mysterious way
reached America, and of their subsequent multiplication and good and evil doings. Then how Christ,
after his ascension from Judaea, descended among
them; already forewarned by prophets of their own,
and by storms and thick darkness and convulsions of
nature which during the hours of the crucifixion extended also over the Western continent; that the
people believed, and He, after appointing twelve
apostles and continuing with them   certain  days,
re-ascended to heaven. The subsequent portion of the
book relates how, after being Christianized, these people
relapsed to evil, and by constant internecine wars were
tending to mutual extermination. Mormons consider
the North-American Indians to be a remnant of the
Lamanites, and say they are to become " a white and
delightsome people." This is the only practical teaching of the Book of Mormon, and I suppose very
sufficient reasons of common sense teach the people to
make friends of the Indians.
While believing implicitly in the inspiration of
the Scriptures, the Mormons do not hold that
either these or their own books contain all that is
necessary for all ages; which in their process must
depend for guidance upon a continuing inspiration:
but, for the sake of unity in the church, revelations of
public import are given only to men of public character. Visions and dreams poured out in these last days
upon all (Mormon) flesh, speaking in unknown




166


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


tongues; the interpretation of tongues and prophesying; the healing of the sick by laying on of hands;
and miracles as a sign following them that believe-but
not as an inducement to believe-arc among the supposed gifts of the church. Inspiration and its limits
are certainly a subject difficult enough to any one who
thinks but is not a sceptic. It is curious to observe
that on this point Mormons agree with Theodore
Parker and his school; as to the unknown tongues
with the Irvingites; and in form of church government not a little with the Catholics. The " tongues"
are with Gentiles a favourite point on which to hang
a ridiculous story: such as, that an elder gave a most
wonderful interpretation of Kanaki (spoken by one
newly returned from the Sandwich Islands), believing
it to be an unknown tongue; but, however probable,
I do not care to record stories the accuracy of which
one has no means of testing.
I have met very few who professed to have seen
miracles worked; but many persons of undoubted
honesty and intelligence on ordinary subjects have told
me they have seen visions. I am not of the disposition
to ask such people, jestingly and most unprofitably,
the question put to Joan of Arc, whether the angel was
naked or not: religious belief, that in its intensity can
make the kind-hearted man a tiger and the timid man
a hero, may perhaps clothe sometimes a leaden intellect with the wings of a golden imagination. The healing the sick by laying on of hands they do not consider




RELIGION.


167


miraculous, but as an ordinary and certain result from
a sufficient cause; and as clearly it was never used for
the same purpose as the Christian miracles, and had
not therefore the same reason for being limited in its
efficacy to a short period, Mormons say, not irrationally, " if ever efficacious, why not still? and how
can you know it is not so till you have seen it tried in
faith and then fail of success?" Whether they are
theoretically right, theologians may decide, and whether
practically I cannot say; those few cases of which I
had fairly reliable evidence were all of the class that
may be effected by an excited imagination acting on a
disordered system.
One may, perhaps, consider that they receive the two
sacraments; though baptism is administered "for the
remission of sins," and generally at eight years old, as
an age when actual sin has been committed. Any one
ejected from the church for misconduct may be readmitted by baptism, if considered penitent; but a
third ejection is final. All emigrants on their first
arrival at Salt Lake are rebaptized; and, if elders, reordained also.  "Endowment" is a still higher rite,
not conferred on every one by any means, and conferred
only in the " Endowment House" at Salt Lake.    Of
the ceremonial I could obtain no account, and of the
essence of the rite only thus much; that it was an
initiation into greater mysteries, and reception of greater
light, chiefly concerning spiritual things, accompanied
by the most stringent oaths never in word to gainsay,




168


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


much less in act oppose, the authorities of the church
in any matter. Baptism for the dead is one of the
most peculiar doctrines. If any find by vision that a
relative of theirs has been converted to the faith by
the preaching to the souls in prison, then the nearest
living relative of and of the same sex as the convert
is baptized as a proxy: for though there may be
preaching, there is no baptism in prison; and a record
is kept of all such baptisms. The dead, though thus
admitted to the church, have no kingdom of their own,
but belong to that of the first of their family who
believed. So much for doctrine; of which I do not
pretend to give more than an outline.
The Mormon idea of ecclesiastical history is, that in
the course of a century or two from the ascension, persecutions had destroyed the church; true doctrine and
apostolical succession were then lost, and consequently
all we now call Christianity, having only fragmentary
truths and lacking the gifts of the primitive church, a
new revelation became necessary; to this end those
contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants were
given: as this book only professes to be a selection of
the most important, some very trivial revelations, not
much above the dignity of clairvoyance, had better have
been omitted. Of the apostles themselves, they believe St. John to be still alive-probably in the north
country-and that he, with St. James and St. Peter,
formed a first presidency of the church; St. Peter being head over all. So far they allow the origin of the




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169


Papacy; and they consider the Roman Catholic church
is, in its form of hierarchy, the nearest right of any but
themselves, and that if apostolical succession had been
preserved, the head of the church thereby preserving
infallibility, that church would have been free from
error and the true church. But while they thus feel
a sort of respect for the church of Rome, they feel no
small hatred, and even fear of it, not merely from per- 
sonal danger incurred when proselytising within its
boundaries, but from some current prophecy as to a
future persecution of their whole community by the
Catholics, after the latter have gained the mastery in
all other parts of the Union. With this view, it is
very fitting the Mormons should admire, as they do,
Mr. Fillmore, who, as Know Nothing candidate for
the presidency, was pledged to the diminution of Roman Catholic power and influence in America. 
Their own church government consists of the president and his two counsellors, forming what is called
the first presidency; the president can appoint his successor and his own counsellors, but the appointment
must be ratified by the general assembly. Next in
rank come the twelve apostles, the unanimous vote of
whom is of equal authority with that of the three
unanimous: the apostles travel from time to time on
missions, but the first presidency never leave Salt
Lake. These are practically the governing powers.
"Seventies," "high priests," "priests," &c., hold
quorums,-and talk, but nothing beyond. More cloudy
I




170


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


still to an outsider are the two orders of priesthood, the Melchisedec and Aaronic: the latter is specially fictitious, as at present they do not consider they
have any descendant of Aaron among them; but by a
lucky propriety those of the other or superior priesthood can, in defect of these, hold the offices; which, it
is but just to add, are of no particular emolument.
Bishops rather correspond to the deacons of the early
church, for their duties are chiefly secular-with respect to provision for the poor, maintenance of schools,
collection of tithe dues, and exaction of tithe labour,
&c.: they also preside at local religious meetings.
Each bishop has his two assistants or counsellors,
and this model of the church is carried out everywhere.
In settlements at a considerable distance, as also in
American or English cities, there is usually a president,
sworn, however, to obey the orders of the first presidency at Salt Lake City.
In the main, the whole adult male population are
ordained elders, and they boast themselves to be a
nation of priests, unlike those of " the sectarian world"
-their favourite phrase for all other religious denominations-who serve as hirelings for their pay.
They, on the contrary, are bound to strict obedience
and unpaid service: at the call of their superiors
they must leave their wives and children, and home,
and all they have, and go wherever they are ordered,
and for as long as they are ordered. This must needs
give Mormonism a certain vitality, and something of




RELIGION.


171


the force of the early Jesuits.  Man is necessarily
strengthened and elevated by any self-sacrifice, and
most of all when it is for an object which he believes
high, and reaching beyond this world. All missionaries
probably feel this; but Moimons, like Catholics, believe theirs to be the only true church, and, doubting
nothing of its ultimate and universal success, go forth
desirous to be co-workers for that success. " 'T is a
fine thing to be a king; but heaven make me a hand,"
is a feeling not uncommon either among them or
others. They go out too-the great majority at least,
exceptions there may be-strengthened by the belief
that all they speak is the utterance of the Holy Ghost
speaking by them; not as in the sectarian world, where
preachers manufacture their sermons beforehand, or
trust to their own brain to teach them what they shall
speak.
The missionaries are nominated by the presidency
before the general assembly; A. to the British Isles,
B. to Denmark, C. to Austria, D. to Australia, &c.:
they have no previous knowledge of their appointment,
and are allowed little time, and little or no money,
for a start. During their absence the district supports
their wives and families, if in actual distress, like all
other poor; but not otherwise. Their mission commonly lasts but from three to five years; and if this
makes the sacrifice less, it probably does not give time
for the first enthusiasm to slacken, and leave the man
to fall back on that rarer found strength of character
I 2




172


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


that can struggle on and on against repeated failures;
and they look forward to the time when they will return home and be received with honour. Each on his
return gives publicly in the tabernacle an account of
his mission; and except for a more frequent acknowledgment of ill success, many of these accounts might
have passed for those of any missionaries whatever.
One man, from India, confessed that the feeling of
caste among the natives was too strong for any present
success among them; another, from the Sandwich Islands, said, "We make a good many converts, just a
larger number than those who keep leaving us." An
Australian narrative was both interesting and humorous. His party had run out of cash by the time they
reached San Bernardino, in Southern California; and
while the rest made collections, he, like a sensible man,
went to the diggings and made a " pile." At last they
sailed from San Francisco; but, as luck would have it,
one of them took the small pox on board with him, so,
of course, all were considered Jonahs, and treated with
no extra civility; however, the fulfilment of a prophecy
that all taken ill would recover, sent them up again a
little in public estimation. The hire of buildings in
Australia was too expensive for much city work, so he
donned a blue shirt and again went to the diggings,
preaching on Sundays and at odd times; and, as he said,
with some success, by the special aid of the blue shirt:
in a black coat he could have done nothing, as all the
greatest rogues wore black coats, and the people fought




RELIGION.


173


shy of them. From these adventures he had acquired
among his brethren the name of the "gold-digging
elder."
As regards the effect of this missionary system on
the Mormons themselves, one may remark that it insures a considerable number of them to have travelled
and seen the world outside: no small benefit to those
who are valley-bred; otherwise, their minds might
become as narrow as the valleys they live in. Yet
the contrast of physical comforts and advantages may
render a new generation discontented with their own
country, and, from this more than from any other
reason, inclined to apostacy. That other religions would
attract them is very doubtful; we mostly look at others
from our own point of view, and to born-and-bred
Mormons, the systems of the external world may (and,
I have heard, actually do) seem fully as monstrous
as their own can appear to us.
The question naturally arises to what does this religion owe its success? for a considerable success undoubtedly it has had. First for external causes. Persecution has aided it: men who have been two or three
times driven from their homes, and driven from all inhabited country for their religion's sake, if at first
but half believers in it, are sure to be thoroughly so
after suffering for it; and such men have some right to
say they are not mere impostors. Again, these missionaries mingle with the people, live amongst them,
and often work amongst them; use every means to




174


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


catch men subtilly and by guile, following out the principle of doing evil that good (as they think) may come.
They waste no time on the rich, being satisfied with
the text-" A rich man cannot enter into the kingdom
of heaven:" very wisely, even if Mormonism were ever
so true, for no religion that requires great sacrifices
can attract many of those who have much to sacrifice.
Their converts are of the neglected poor in country villages, and of the class of mechanics and small tradespeople in large towns. The rustics have little doctrinal knowledge, whatever faith they belong to; and,
according to Wordsworth, the incense of their prayers
to Heaven is "but such as offered up by beasts and
birds." The townsfolk are attracted in much the same
way as those of a higher class have been to the church
of Rome-by the assumed certainty of what they believe: once in it you need have no doubts. There is the
revelation and the anointing of the new priesthood;
here the prophet and the priests: obey these, it is said,
and you cannot go wrong. Nor is it so difficult, in the
mass of evil all around, to persuade them that a new
dispensation is necessary. Very true, that " Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation," but who
can say there is nothing left that could be revealed?
How many of those who hear Mormonism preached
will look to the test-whether it really does reveal anything of what is and must be unknown without revelation? How many distinguish between the Christianity
of Scripture and the Christianity of the world?




RELIGION.


175


I do not think that polygamy is at all held out
as an inducement; but rather kept back from the
generality, lest they should be scandalised: "milk for
babes, strong meat for men." It might be an inducement to emigrate to Utah, but not to become Mormons; and the sacrifices to be made, and the hardships to be overcome before practising it, are such that
no sensualist would be much tempted. How far the
names " brother" and " sister" in common use among
Mormons one to another, and the feeling, inculcated
and expressed by their use, that the whole " Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" is one family, with
one God and Father of all-how far this may have
advanced the religion (as men now look for deeper
causes for the success of Mahometanism than brute
force and brutish impulses), or how far it may only be
judged to have done so when Mormonism is as old and
has been as successful as Mahometanism, I shall not
undertake to say.
Lastly, it may be asked, is there any religion of the
heart in Utah? Not a great deal, I fear, beyond what
has been brought there. It has been said that sailors
are seldom irreligious: the long journey, the eternal separation from home will have a similar tendency; and
as we love home after we have left it, and even if we
have left it in disgust, so the religious feeling acquired
in one faith lingers in the heart that now believes another. I do not think depth of feeling is absent in
this people more than in any other; but in Mormonism




176


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


there is little to nourish it, or even keep it alive
through another generation. In the Roman Catholic
church there are many forms, which, if they become
dead to some, yet, with most, while they may lead to
superstition, necessitate some turning away of the
thoughts from the earth to something above the earth.
Mormonism admits too much scepticism, and too little
form for a faith requiring such implicit obedience; and
the chances are, if the country should not be overwhelmed otherwise, that infidelity will gradually spread
over it.
Prophecies, however, about the future of any religious sect are at best but hap-hazard, and I shall
not try my luck; content, if in this chapter I have
delineated somewhat of the religious belief, speculations and sentiments of existing Mormonism. What
is commonly called the Mormon creed is a very useful one; worth, perhaps, several metaphysical subtilties: "Mind your own business."  But the business
of a traveller is to look around him.




CHAPTER III.


GOVERNMENT.
UTAH, like Oregon or Minnesota, has a regular
territorial government, an upper and lower house of
legislature chosen by the people, and the governor
appointed by the President of the United States; the
chief judges are similarly appointed by the President.
On the other hand, the "Church of Latter-day Saints,"
of which almost all the inhabitants of the territory
are members, has its own government: the first presidency and the twelve apostles, presidents and bishops.
Neither of these is exactly superseded by the other,
but there is a unity of church and state: as with the
courts at Doctors' Commons, according to David Copperfield, so it is here; there are plenty of different
names, but it is all a family party. Brigham Young
is governor, his two counsellors are presidents of the
legislative houses-one of them, by-the-by, is also
mayor of Salt Lake City-and the members are the
notabilities of the church. The people are told by
their spiritual rulers whom to elect as their temporal
rulers; and since, of course, they "vote that ticket,"
the fusion is complete. Those who were apostles at
8




178


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


Salt Lake are legislators at Fillmore. Evidently there
is no freedom of election here: the ballot-box, that
much-vaunted safeguard of American liberty-particularly if some one, as at San Francisco, has taken the
liberty to " stuff" it-" fails of its mission," for there
are no opposing candidates. The Mormon newspaper
always boasts of this as harmony; but it is tyranny:
and the worst of tyranny, since it is an oligarchy working under and deadening the forms of a democracy.
I think this the very worst feature of Mormonism.
How long such a system can last is hard to say;
but it is to be remembered that the ruling body are
Americans, and their countrymen submit the more readily perhaps to them: the emigrants from other countries, who have enjoyed no political liberty previously,
do not miss it here. The present chiefs having been
among the earliest adherents of the church, naturally
have a special standing ground that one can scarcely
suppose the spiritual leaders of another generation
will acquire. Priestly power can hardly be greater
anywhere; but a priestly tone is by no means used,
merely an insolent and often coarse tirade. The same
tone is assumed in speaking of the authorities of the
United States and the " Gentiles" in and out of Utah:
assumed, I say, for I think it is done with a purpose;
perhaps, in the present position of the Mormons, not
a foolish one, of inducing the people to suppose the
speakers do not fear a contest with the general government, and therefore themselves to be up to the fighting




GOVERNMENT.


179


point at any moment. There is, however, a certain
class of Mormons, answering to the " dough faces" of
the Northern States, a little too ready to fawn upon
"Gentiles;" and this to men who have been driven out
of house and home by Gentiles is utterly hateful: they
would have true Mormons keep away from "the accursed thing." But in the gubernatorial or legislative
capacity, the tone and language are quite different.
The governor's annual message in November, 1855,
was a well-written business-like document, mingling
statistics and recommendations, and giving a good
picture of the present state of the territory. Assistance to the -iron works and other branches of manufacture; the establishment of better schools, and at
least one higher school or college; and the opening of
better routes for emigration than at present across the
plains, by way of the Upper Missouri or the Colorado,
were particularly pressed on the attention of the legislature. A census, to be followed by an application for
admission to the Union, was the last and most important recommendation; and the message closed with
a comparison between the peaceful state of their
" young and growing territory" and the wars in the
East, and the strong sectional and party feeling in the
United States themselves. The general government
was spoken of with the greatest respect, and the territorial system abused as "a system of colonial government the most absurd aid tyrannical, which, emanating
from the British throne, had in the last century become




180


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


so oppressive that our fathers threw it off, and we,
their children, standing in the same position to the
federal government as they did to the British, ask to
be relieved, and placed on a footing of complete equality
and self-government." I quote from memory, and very
likely Brigham's sentence was better turned, but the
words are pretty nearly correct. Mark the words " our
fathers:" the claim to be children of tho revolutionary
sires: what greater loyalty could be desired?
The advantages of a state constitution would be
this; they could then elect their own governors
and judges, and legislate for themselves, without
Congress having the right, which had [1855] never
yet been exercised, of overruling their domestic legislation: on the other hand, they would lose the influx of federal salaries, which is of some importance;
and, to make the best of a bad bargain, when it was
rumoured that Utah would be cut up into two or three
different territories and pieced on with slices of Oregon
and New Mexico, Brigham drew this comfort that twice
three times as much money would then be paid as is
now. I have seen the " constitution" since made; it
is very short; says nothing about polygamy; makes
religious toleration one of its articles, and is in every
way a most proper document.   Slavery-which then
did not exist, there being but one negro in the territory, and no law by which unwilling slaves could be
compelled to work-I think could be introduced under
the new constitution. The feeling on the subject was
b




GOVERNMENT.


181


pretty much according to the fatherland of each
person: a New Englander was sure to be half an
abolitionist, and a Mississippian a staunch pro-slavery
man; both considered the negro of a degraded race:
"the descendants of Cain and Canaan," said the latter
to me; "of Cain" puzzled me and the Mormon at
first, when I cross-questioned him, but after a bit he
answered ingeniously that Ham's wife was one of the
"daughters of men."    Of course polygamy only
requires the absence of any law forbidding it; at present it violates no statute law of the United States, for
every state and territory has its own criminal code.
I have heard the Supreme Court last autumn made
some decision as to its being forbidden by the common
law and therefore by the constitution of the United
States; but I was on the Atlantic at the time, and
missed reading it.
The Mormons are not an intolerant people, in spite
of all the prophecies of the destruction of the nations
of the earth. One or two of Brigham's "discourses" '
were very liberal, others again had a little of "blood,
and fire, and pillars of smoke." It is not improbable
that a minister of any denomination would, if desirous,
be allowed to speak in the tabernacle, and have a
civil audience; but, of course, a reply from some
president or apostle utterly contemptuous. Whether
the establishment of any church, or even any opposition newspaper, would actually be tolerated, is more
doubtful.




182


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


Respecting the loyalty of the Mormons to the United
States-a question often mooted. When they left
Nauvoo and travelled 1500 miles into the wilderness,
they certainly hoped to make a cheap purchase of the
sovereignty over an immense district, from the Mexican
government, and set up a " nation and kingdom " of
their own, perfectly independent of the United States:
the cession of California prevented this. Admission as
an organized territory was the next best thing for them;
this General Taylor refused, and even was for expelling
them from Salt Lake at once, from a fear they might
form alliances with the Indians, and cut off the overland communication with California: "the end is not
yet;" but hitherto a settlement at Salt Lake has been
of the greatest assistance to Californian emigrants.
General Taylor died soon afterwards, and at a public
dinner, Brigham Young said of him, " He is now
rotting in hell for it;" and, on one of the United
States judges present, objecting to the words, he
added, "You'll see him there some day, and believe
it then:" the judge after some quarrelling, left the
territory.
Mr. Fillmore, soon after he became President,
signed the "Organic Act," and appointed Brigham
as governor; hence Mormons are always ready with
three cheers at the name of Millard Fillmore, as
they are with three groans at that of Martin Van
Buren; who did not, possibly could not, protect them
from being driven out of Missouri during his presiI




GOVERNMENT.


183


dency. July 4th is always celebrated here, though the
20th, the day on which the pioneers entered the valley,
is the great festival of the year.
Some persons from the Mormon interpretation of
prophecy, spoken of above, have attributed to them an
intense hatred of the world at large; but this is ignorance both of Mormon nature and human nature: many
a settler looks back with affection to his birthplace;
this to the north, that to the south, and a third across
the ocean to "Old England:" ties and associations are
not cut in two by prophecies of no present application.
No doubt those who have been driven from Jackson
county and Nauvoo, have little affection for the people
of Missouri or Illinois, and not much for the Federal
Government that did not protect them; but if they
once obtained admission as a State, and if they could
be (what perhaps they never can be) free from all fear
of being attacked with violence, or outnumbered by
settlers, probably their disloyalty would be very negative. The people, believing themselves free, may sympathize with a republican form of government, but
the rulers hardly: still, more dogs bite from fear
than from dislike or a savage temper. With a democratic president and a democratic majority in both
houses of Congress, pledged not to refuse any territory
admission as a State on mere domestic questions, if the
principle be not a mere sham, Utah ought to have
some chance of admission. Meanwhile it is no small
advantage to Brigham to be governor, as this gives




184


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


him the dispensing a large amount of federal money
to the Indians in his agency.
The religious belief of Mormons, as I said in the
last chapter, is that the Indians are to be restored to
a high position among the races of the world; and
their own practical interest is to make the Indians
their friends: when driven from Nauvoo, but for the
kindness and assistance of the Iowa tribes-a strange
contrast to the enmity of white men-the Mormons
must have suffered during the winter of 1846-7, far
more intensely. If, hopeless as the contest appears,
the Mormons should ever determine to resist the
sovereignty of the United States, they could have no
better allies than roving Indians, who might steal or
starve all the animals of an invading army. There
have nevertheless, been several predatory incursions of
the Utes; particularly before Brigham had Walker
their chief, a very determined foe of the Mormons,
secretly put to death and buried by Jordan, for
venturing into the city, nominally as a friend, but in
reality, as was ascertained, " to spy out their liberty"
and plan an attack. Feeding Indians is at all times
cheaper than fighting them; and while carrying out
his own purposes, Brigham can honestly boast to the
treasury at Washington, that, on this point, Utah is
the least expensive of all the territories. Since his
first appointment, he has continued governor; Colonel
Steptoe, who had been sent to Salt Lake with a large
body of troops, having, for some reason of military




GOVERNMENT.


185


promotion, declined the governorship offered him by
President Pierce, and left Brigham his substitute.
There are three judges (a chief justice and two puisne
judges,) appointed by the President of the United
States, and of course not Mormons; to them belongs
the entire judicature, and also the power of deciding
any law unconstitutional, if a case is brought before
them. By the "Organic Act" (generally in Utah
called the Oregonic Act, as hard words get miscalled;
Oregon having been constituted a territory at the same
time), the people could appoint their own judges in
probate. The Mormons, finding no definition of "probate," forthwith made a law, declaring "probate"
should include criminal jurisdiction. The cool audacity
and flagrant bad law of such a usurpation very naturally roused the zeal of a federal officer and a lawyer;
and Judge Drummond, the last appointed, strove, like
a new broom, to make a clean sweep of it; but his
colleagues who had previously winked at it, would not
make themselves unpopular, so by the time I left the
country, he had not succeeded-except in falling
himself into the toils. The present chief justice was
thought a little bit of a humbug, ready to "softsawder" the people, rulers, and institutions, if only
he were left undisturbed to plunder "Uncle Sam:"
he owned a considerable boarding-house, and I was
told, though it is almost incredible, held his court
there, and managed to keep juries living with him for
ninety days-a very elegant draw upon the federal ex



186


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


chequer.  With the exception of the particulars
already mentioned, the territory is taxed to pay its
own expenses.
Let us now consider the ecclesiastical government.
The general form of this has been described in the
last chapter, but not the details. Salt Lake City is
divided into wards, consisting of nine "blocks;" every
ward has its own bishop, and a school-house in the
central block, which is also used for local religious
meetings.  Inhabitants are required to send their
children to school when of a proper age, and pay according to the number sent; but if they are too poor,
the ward pays. A schoolmaster receives about fifty dollars a month, but not much of the amount in money;
the education is secular, and a "Gentile" may —one
of our train did-obtain the office, but of course would
not be allowed to teach anti-Mormon doctrine. The
bishop also has to see that the poor are maintained,
and that tithes are duly paid: no person, whatever his
faith, if sick or unable to find employment, is allowed
to want food and clothes and lodging; but idlers are
not encouraged.
Tithes are of two, or even three kinds: every
Mormon upon his first arriving at Salt Lake (or
joining the church elsewhere-I am not sure which)
is required to pay one-tenth of the property he
then possesses; afterwards he must pay annually a
tithe of his profits and also tithe-labour; the latter is
employed in public works, building the temple, dig



GOVERNMENT.


187


ging the canal, &c.: most people above mere day
labourers employ substitutes on their own terms. The
tithes are chiefly paid in "kind," and what cannot be
used in "kind " is used as money in payment; there
are warehouses for the reception of grain, &c., and the
church herd receives cattle. These tithes superadded
to the territorial taxes, press heavily on the people,
and one may hear occasional grumblings. I do not
know enough of the amount or application of the tithes
to assert that they are applied to the private use of
the heads of the church; though I could not discover
sufficient public objects for their total absorption; the
people, however, are satisfied on this point, and both
they and "Gentiles " who have resided a long while at
Salt Lake, have assured me of Brigham's perfect
honesty: indeed, with the best of the land open to
him at the first colonization, and an entire "block"
for his city lot (which, by its position is now most
valuable) he is placed, pecuniarily, almost above temptation; for his underlings, and some of the apostles,
I should not like to say as much.
Litigation is much discouraged, and it is specially
thought improper "for brother to go to law with
brother, and that before unbelievers;" so each bishop is a sort of county court judge between man
and man, with an appeal to the whole "bench,"
and a final resort to Brigham, who does good practical justice without any embarrassment from statute
or common law. His opinion of the bishops seemed




188


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


not very high: "they are not fit to decide a case
between two old women, let alone two men," said
he, and gave fearful hints of a change of the whole
"bench," if they did not improve. This rude patriarchal style of judicature may answer while property is simple, and rights and wrongs a question of
evidence; but few would like to bring an apostle to
the bar of such a court. Erastus Snow, one of "the
twelve," induced a number of emigrants to work for
him as teamsters without pay, under the belief that
his train was loaded with church goods: as it ought to
have been; for his waggons and cattle belonged to the
church. Three waggons he filled with church goods,
and nearly thirty with his own merchandise; for he
was a store-keeper at Salt Lake, and not over well
spoken of as that. His teamsters were half starved
on the road, and treated most stingily on their arrival,
but though all said "Brigham would make him pay,"
when it came to the point, none dare bell the cat, and
they remained without a cent.
On all subjects the dicta of the presidency are the
law of the church.  "You shall not sell wheat for
more than two dollars a bushel, and you shall not pay it
to the Gentiles for coffee and 'sugar and such things,"
says Brigham, " and if you do I will cut you off from
the church." The people hear and, for the most part,
obey. Besides, no one ought to take any important
step in life without the preliminary form of "asking
counsel"-of Brigham himself, if possible; leaving the




GOVERNMENT.


189


country without having asked counsel and obtained a favourable answer, is considered apostacy. The necessary
facility of access must be a nuisance to him, for people
differ in their opinion of the importance of events: an
old woman will go to the president to know whether she
had better change her old cloak for a tippet, or the
new calf for a pig. In spite of his often vituperative
language in public, Brigham, in private life (I am told),
is agreeable and amusing; he affects no singularity of
dress or superiority of manner, and will shake hands
freely with brother This and brother That: which, no
doubt, increases his popularity.
Mormons are fond of great titles. So now and then
they speak of " the governor," or even " his excellency
the governor;" more commonly of Brigham, or brother
Brigham, or occasionally, with some want of reverence,
of "the old boss."  But in every Mormon family he
is prayed for morning and evening, the words being
usually the same, "Bless thy servant, Brigham, bless
him in so and so, &c.; bless his counsellors, brother
Kimball and brother Grant," &c. The two last cannot
dispense with their surnames; this privilege seems a
prerogative of the prophetic crown.  Joseph and
Brigham have shaken off their chrysalis, Smith and
Young.




CHAPTER IV.


INSTITUTIONS AND MORALITY.
PROBABLY few people have been more abused than
the Mormons. Feelings and prejudices against them
are very natural and very strong. By natural prejudices, I mean opinions that appear very natural deductions from admitted facts, but which when you
come to actual observation, are found to be untrue,
and are therefore prejudices.
The course of this narrative will best distinguish the
real and imaginary effects of polygamy in Utah: polygamy, as it exists elsewhere, is no part of my subject;
nor would it be safe to draw inferences from Eastern
countries, where the seclusion of women is a main element of the system, as to a country where it is not so.
Apart from the deeper and more social deterioration
polygamy must effect, it will, wherever it exists, be
abused more or less for mere purposes of sensuality;
nevertheless, where it is not regarded as illicit or
opposed to religion, and is sanctioned by law and custom, the generality of men (I think) are scarcely more
impelled by mere sensual feeling in taking a second or
a third wife than others in a first marriage. Of the
Mormons, thus much I can say from having mixed with
them: first, the community at large-for about the few




INSTITUTIONS AND MORALITY.


191


who maintain large harems I say nothing-believe the
custom allowable and good. Secondly, as a matter of
fact, they are not a specially sensual people; nor, from
the nature of the country, as already described, could
an indolent race avoid starving.
The institutions relating to marriage (regarded from
their point of view) are judiciously planned, and tend
to mitigate, in some degree, the external evils of the
system; but the inequality of the sexes is a doctrine of
their religious belief, as well as a rule of life. The
husband is regarded as a patriarch, and his family is
subject to him as its head: wives are bound to obey
their husbands in all things, wrong or right. The husband's command is accounted their justification, both in
this world and the next; he is said to be their " priest
and king," they should not look beyond him: nay, the
time is looked for when disobedient children shall be
stoned with all the Mosaic rigour.  Every-day life,
however, modifies such extreme theories very much in
practice. Solomon's heart, we know, was turned by his
wives, and so are those of many less wise than he.
No man is allowed to marry more wives than he can
show he is capable of supporting properly, and in the
humblest class, at least a separate bedchamber for each
wife is required. Men cannot obtain divorces, except
for adultery; women for very trivial causes-disagreement with other wives, &e. Divorces of this kind are
neither common nor yet exceedingly rare, and the divorced wives obtain new partners with as much ease as




192


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


widows elsewhere in the world: they, too, have the care
of their children, while their ex-husband must give a
portion of his property for their support. Were men
the subjects and women the objects of sensuality, or
were the latter looked upon as mere concubines, even if
the mother's love were not debased, children would stand
a great chance of neglect and ill-treatment. Probably
no people (speaking collectively) set a higher value upon
their children than Mormons do; and (though women
must in time become a scarce article) upon boys particularly: not certainly without a sort of Spartan feeling that
their sons belong to their country and faith, to co-operate in the building up of the " church and kingdom."
Polygamy, rightly or wrongly, is valued as a means of
numerical increase.
The wretchedness of wives in Utah has been greatly
exaggerated. It is true there can be no position more
painful than that of a woman who has come to Salt
Lake half ignorant of the existence of polygamy, and,
perhaps, a Mormon only because her husband is so,
when she finds him about to take anotherwife. Many
actually do live in a continually vague fear of such an
event, and, perhaps, by the favour of poverty after all
escape it; those again who have been divorced, no
doubt, have little love for this " peculiar institution,"
though from more external reasons. But one must look
to the average, not to the exceptions; and if most first
wives feel some disappointment at the presence of a
rival, as we should say, but a sister as they are taught




INSTITUTIONS AND MORALITY.


193


to consider each other, this-judging from actual ob 
servation-wears off: human nature is apt to suit itself
to necessities, and many among their daily occupations
have little time for repining, and find their life in the
main pass happily enough; while to those, who have
been Mormons from    their birth or girlhood, polygamy seems not merely a law of the society but
natural: they have never looked forward to being
"sole wives." Certainly a man can love each of
several wives, and they may all love him; if the affection in marriage is less than in monogamic countries,
infidelity is not more frequent: most women, I know,
would repel, as an insult, a proposition from another
man quite as strongly as wives of any other country
could do; though fidelity may be supported in some
cases by a vague terror of "disappearing," and in more
still by dread of the houseless, hopeless condition of a
east-off wife in Utah. Whatever be the cause, no unprejudiced person can doubt of the fact; and the only
unprejudiced newspaper writings on the country I have
seen-a series of letters in the Eco du Pacifique, a
French paper at San Francisco-say as much.
The degrees within which marriage is forbidden are
narrow. Agreeably to patriarchal (that is ante-Mosaic)
custom, two sisters may have the same husband; and
such marriages are not uncommon: possibly, no idea
of incest being entertained, they are among the happiest. Whether, after the example of Abraham, halfbrother and sister may intermarry is an open question
K




194


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


that has scarcely required an answer as yet; but all the
children of one father are taught to consider themselves
brothers and sisters without any distinction of half-blood.
I believe Brigham says " the time has not yet come, but
the time will come"-a regular Mormon phrase. Probably, as the King of Persia could not marry his sister,
but might do whatever he pleased, a tip-top "saint"
could even now marry as he chose. One mother told
me she hoped her daughter would marry her half-brother, as then, they both-mother and daughter-would
be in the same " kingdom" in the next world: the observation proved, at least, her faith in Mormonism and
her motherly affection. On the other hand, that mother
and daughter should become sister-wives of one man
is, if not incestuous, at least, repugnant to all propriety: there are but a few cases of it, and these chiefly
among the heads of the church; and I have heard many
Mormons altogether condemn it.
Apart from their practice of polygamy-which, it
may be said, perhaps, gives a vent for sensualitythe Mormons are not a licentious people. I do not,
of course, mean to say there is no immorality; one
or two houses even have a reputation such as we call
"bad," but their frequenters are in the main Gentiles,
and the subject is not much more than whispered, and
then with a glance to leeward: anything like systematised or public prostitution would not be tolerated
for a moment. A liquor-law, enforced pretty strictly,
compels sobriety: which virtue is, therefore, no subject




INSTITUTIONS AND MORALITY.


195


for praise. Swearing, at least blasphemous swearing,
in the public streets is prohibited under pain of a fivedollars fine for each offence; the fine is scarcely ever
imposed, but violation of the law is uncommon, and very
rarely in public or private do you hear an oath.
Theft, even of petty things, such as vegetables or fuel,
is prevented not by prosecution, but by the known rule,
that if a man steals two or three times he is ordered
to leave the country or become honest for good; if he
plays thief again it may be his last act-he may disappear. The people say they will not have thieves among
them, and, after fair warning, a man must look to himself. How far the charges of depredation brought
against the Mormons at Nauvoo, and those till lately
settled on Beaver Island, Lake Michigan, may be true,
one cannot tell: very possibly "spoiling the Egyptians" was not discouraged where it could be safely
practised. In California, too, one hears complaints
from early emigrants of losing animals while camped
near Salt Lake; while Mormons, in their turn, say
that Californian emigrants continually " ran off" their
horses and lived on their cattle: most likely there is
truth on both sides; but in California you should
always take American language regarding Mormons
or Spaniards-the latter particularly-with a considerable amount of salt. One of the chief Mormon
merchants, who has just now [Nov. 1856], it appears, been sent on a mission, as a punishment for
rescuing a Gentile from some Mormon assailants, had
K 2




196


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


the reputation of a master in the art of stealing;
indeed, he had raised stealing to the level of one of
the fine arts. While at Nauvoo, he stole, one Sunday, the whole machinery of a small sawmill, and
sunk it in the Mississippi till all search was given
over; a yoke of cattle he concealed in a hollow haystack, but the necessity of an opening to take in water
gave the stack some queer look that betrayed him;
above all, as a horse thief he was not second even to an
Indian; all this, however, was freebooting on the enemy,
not injuring brethren.
Not that Mormons ever pretend there are no bad
men among them; nay, agreeably to their principles,
they will tell you that a Mormon, if bad, will be worse
than other men, because he sins against greater light
and knowledge, and after receiving the Spirit of God.
Confirmatory of this, I have met at Salt Lake with two
or three very proper scoundrels; but, taking the people
all round, I consider them as moral, industrious, fairdealing, and hospitable a set, as one is apt to fall in
with.




CHAPTER V.


STAY AT SALT LAKE.
MucH as persons are struck with the weirdness and
grandeur and beauty of the Mammoth Cave, they are
even more so on their return to daylight after a summer
day's wandering in the cavern. The little glen is of
itself a picturesque spot, and tall trees hang around the
entrance: at a step sideways you pass from the current of subterranean air (dry as the " dry light" of
philosophers, and of the same temperature all the year
round) into one warm and odorous of vegetation;
and with that step you learn how much sweetness
floats around you daily, unknown because perpetual.
Not merely every flower, but every leaf, those even that
we consider scentless, then seems to yield a special
fragrance. So, too, more or less, I found it after four
months' journeying across the plains. My companions,
many of them, were neither bad-hearted nor lacking
sense and humour; but the society as a whole, lacking
the feminine element, lacked fragrance: was rude, uncultivated, unhumanising -  in  short, cavern-like.
"The starlight smile of children, the sweet looks of
women," Mormons though they were, and possessing




198


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


neither wealth nor accomplishments, had a charm such
as one might perhaps have felt less but for the contrast.
A mere chance first led me to the particular house,
but certainly one might have gone further and fared
worse. Of course I had an eye to the peculiar institution. To have spent my time at Salt Lake City
in a monogamic household would have been unsatisfactory, and almost ridiculous.  The expression, "Mr.
S.'s children," dropping from a handsome young wife,
when I first called, had determined me in my choice;
but I was agreeably surprised in finding several hostesses on my arrival. What if they should quarrel so
terribly?  Had not I my revolver?   Why, no, for it
had been stolen; but then I was not aware of the fact.
Were they, then, termagants deserving pity for tempers
soured by misfortune, or women self-shamed or shameless in the consciousness of adultery? Nothing of the
kind: though in a different state of society, neither
their characters, nor feelings, nor manner of life,
materially differed from those of women elsewhere in
the world.
The family, or triple or quadruple family, consisted
of sixteen or seventeen in all, of which the lord and
master was a worthy Saint and High Priest, the centre
of a fair quartette of wives; just as a church spire is of
the four pinnacles at the corners of the tower, the polished corners of the temple.
S., my host, was a native of Massachusetts, and, it
is hardly necessary to add, an intelligent and enter



STAY AT SALT LAKE.


199


prising man: by his own exertions he had risen from
penury to the position of a wealthy farmer in the "Bay
State," where he had lived, though one of the early Mormons, till the expulsion from Nauvoo; then he left all,
joined the emigration westward, and arrived in Utah
with the first settlers in September, 1847; he had since
been absent three years on a mission in England, and
knew pretty well as much about the country as I did. In
all dealings I found him strictly honourable, though too
much of a Yankee not to love driving a hard bargain;
yet if one trusted to his fairness he took no advantage.
To call him an exemplary husband might sound ridiculous, but he had at least chosen well, and not without
an eye to beauty, and certainly was an affectionate
father-none of his dozen children could complain of
neglect. I ought to add that he was thoroughly kindhearted and hospitable: his age was forty-three or
forty-four.
His first wife was five or six years younger, and from
the same part of the country as himself: she often
talked over with me her early life in New England,
when she was a cotton-spinner (a very different class
from factory-girls in this country-in fact, as clean,
clever, handy, and often nice-looking girls as you could
find anywhere), and laying up money fast before she
married; and then of her time of affluence, as the wife
of a New England farmer, with their cows and poultry, peach orchard and apple orchard, the home-made
cyder, and sugar from the maple trees. Perhaps those




200


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


times had also their wants; but in retrospect they were
all fair, though not talked of repiningly. She told
me also how she and her husband had sat at nights
reading over the Mormon books and the Bible till
they became sure of the truth, and her family had
thrown her off in shame because she was the first
woman baptized in that district; and how after years
of alienation she and they came together only for a new
and almost eternal separation, and they had offered
her almost anything if she would not go to Salt
Lake; and then came the long, long journey over
the prairies (which she, half-dead with consumption,
never expected to cross) and their life at Salt Lake.
Here the veil dropped: if she suffered any pang at
the presence of another wife, she never intimated it
to me: probably would not had I inquired; but I
am no vivisector.  Sometimes she said, "That was
before Lizzy (the third wife) came:" but only as a
date.
When the second wife was married I never knew,
but it was either just before or just after the journey
to Salt Lake; and she had nursed the other, of whom
she was a previous acquaintance, on the way: this
perhaps, both being sincere Mormons, had softened
any bitter feeling, if such existed. The latter was one
of those who had given up much for the faith's sake:
she had left husband, and child, and home. This, of
course, no one would approve; but one must remember that divorces are given for trivial causes in




STAY AT SALT LAKE.


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America. She was a strong believer, and her husband
had tried to prevent her joining Mormon services; possibly, but for the antipathy to the Mormons, she could
have obtained a divorce for this. Of him she spoke
neither with hatred nor regard; no doubt quarrels had
preceded their separation. She considered he was honest, but had shut his ears to the truth. But of her
"boy" she spoke oftener, counted up how old he was,
if alive-ah! there was the mother's doubt!-it was
more than eight years since she had seen or heard of
him: still she built castles of seeing him some day
when the Pacific Railroad passed by Salt Lake, and
hoped he would then know her-or at least recollect
what his mother was like.
" Lizzy," the third wife, was very pretty, and though
with a little girl nearly four years old, hardly herself
full-blown. She was an English girl, from Bedfordshire, but taken over to Nauvoo so young that practically she was a native Mormon; and had married at fifteen, almost as soon as she came to Salt Lake. The
others sometimes rallied her about having begun life so
young, and more than once spoke to me of her girlish
prettiness.  In spite of this, she was certainly the
strictest mother of all, and woe betide the little offender!
but like a young mother, she would sit and cry over
her sick child.
The fourth wife was a handsome girl of seventeen;
her husband's cousin, and not long married; but she
was a vast favourite with all their children, whom
K3




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THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


she petted immensely: perhaps she had been a playmate previously. "Give me a drink, Liddy," "Do
toss me, Liddy," " Won't you mend my coat (or my
frock), Liddy?" resounded through the household.
They never called her " aunt," as they did the others,
and as they are taught to do, upon the principle of all
the wives being sisters: not but what the rest were
fond enough of each other's children-almost as fond,
indeed, as if they had been really aunts, and the children were quite as fond of them. The latter, indeed,
when they wanted a game at play, always congregated
into "Aunt Elizabeth's" (the eldest wife's) room, for
she was less particular about a " racket" than the
others, and her threatenings were long delayed in execution: she had besides a gentleness of manner acting
almost as a fascination: infants who were ill or could
not sleep were often carried to her as the best practitioner; for like a good hen, she could manage her own
brood of chickens as well as a brood of ducklings at
the same time. Her own children were six, a remnant
of eleven, two of them nearly grown up: I thought it
a good sign of family concord that her eldest boys
would nurse their young half-brothers and sisters.
The wives lived two and two-that is, in their
sitting-rooms; for by Mormon law every wife must
have a separate bed-chamber-the eldest and youngest
together: whether from any greater sympathy, or on
the mathematical principle of the product of the extremes equalling the product of the means, which was




STAY AT SALT LAKE.


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about true here, they divided the household pretty
evenly: but they passed from room to room constantly,
and at this time had all their meals together.
The house, like most at Salt Lake, was a rambling
sort of a place, capable of indefinite extension, and
only in part of two stories; every room had two or
three doors, and as,. in the continual demand from the
first, wood is rarely seasoned, most of them had
shrunk, and poured on one's feet wholesome currents
of cold air, unless checked by some device or other.
The furniture was simple; emigrants can never bring
much over, and least of all could the first settlers,
laden with the provisions for an entire season before a
harvest could be looked for.  All made on the spot is
expensive and not very good; but each room had a
capital stove (worth at St. Louis perhaps 25 dollars
and here 125 dollars), that economised fuel and trouble
in cooking (but an Englishman always swears by an
open fireplace and genuine roast meat); and their supply of crockery and bright saucepans would have done
honour to the kitchen of any farmhouse in " the old
country."
Besides the ladies' gold watches, relics of wealthier
days, and a few mirrors, the walls were garnished
with clustering skeins of spun yarn, to be made into
cloth "when there was time."  New England fingers
ply the spinning-wheel or the hand-loom cheerily.
I meditated a purchase of some "home-spun" myself, and roused their emulation by a display of




204


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


sundry habiliments made from the handiwork of an
auld wife in Sutherlandshire. But the "time)" never
came; keeping down the demands for mending and
making in such a family was pretty well enough
to do without manufacture.   Several chests large
enough, if not old enough, to be associated with " The
mistletoe bough," still contained a goodly store of
cloths and cottons; for the returned missionary appreciates, and seldom fails to bring with him, a brave show
of English manufacture, and New Orleans is an easy
port for emigrants or travellers: in fact, the very opposite of London. During the summer the family
had been regularly separated, one-half being up at the
hills with the cattle (for S. was a large stock-owner),
attending to the dairy, and the other in the city to
look after the selling of its products; so a vast arrear
of work was on hand.
I took my part alternately in quieting and romping
with the children; my special pets and playmates
being three little half-sisters all about of an age: I
liked to mark their mutual resemblance, and variety
in face and form and temper. Very bonny children they all were; two of them genuine little
Anglo-Saxon rosebuds, the other darker and paler,
and wild and shy as a young antelope; till one snowy
evening I carried her home from school, and after
that we were sworn friends, and she was the greatest
romp of the lot. All the children old enough were
sent to the school of the ward; but the education




STAY AT SALT LAKE.


205


there is entirely secular: nor did I ever find Mormons
very anxious for the early religious instruction of their
children. Very wisely, too, they do not inflict on
them or the public their premature attendance at
church; at the same time they are brought up carefully enough: certain newspaper paragraphs about
"the terrible immorality, blasphemous language, and
ungovernable temper of the rising generation in Utah,"
I look upon as so much sheer nonsense.
Sunday is not viewed in the strict Sabbatarian
light, nor is labour on the Sunday, though discouraged, actually forbidden by church law; but it is
uncommon, for the people are fond of a day's rest or
enjoyment: they have more of the contented German
than of the restless American temperament; besides,
who at least selfishly could care to build up a fortune
in such a corner of the world, and from which they
might be driven at any time? The book of Mormon
has done well to borrow the words-" Take no thought
for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought
for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof."
I felt a little curiosity to attend service in the tabernacle, and went the very first Sunday. The building
was a large oblong without galleries, the seats looking,
and descending as a " pit," towards the centre of one
side, where was the "stand," with a row of seats for
the apostles and principal elders, and a rostrum for the
speaker; in front of that was the orchestra.  The




206


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


building will hold about 3000: as there is no kneeling
people require less room, and all can hear excellently.
The service commenced with a hymn, followed by
prayer; during which all stand up, and no one is admitted: for the words and matter, this was about
equal* to the average of extempore prayers-that is,
indifferent enough. After a second hymn-" Come,
all ye sons of Sion, who have received the priesthood,"
in which, as the words were known to all, all joined
with a really fine effect-came the discourse; unluckily
that morning it was almost inconceivable trash, but I
was glad of an opportunity of seeing the redoubted
Brigham Young.
He is a portly man of middle height, apparently
about fifty-four; his face bespeaks strong common
sense, and when in the prayer he was spoken of as
the "prophet and revelator," I tried-but in vainto discover any sign of contempt in his countenance.
After the main discourse he spoke for a few minutes;
he complained that men would come to his house
without any sufficient object, and that women would
come and ask for Sister Young, (which?) and then try
to see over the house, and the thing had become a
nuisance: he had lost shirts; his wives had lost articles of dress. There were capacious offices for the transaction of business, to which strangers could come;
* I do not, of course, mean as regards the doctrinal truth
supposed in them; though in their prayers very little doctrine
is actually introduced.




STAY AT SALT LAKE.            207
friends he should always be happy to see at his own
house, but he wished to give warning to all present that
he had just received from London a new pair of boots
with particularly strong toes, and that he should not scruple to use them on intruders. He then-I forget howturned aside to the subject of inspiration, and how,
because the American people would not believe in
visions and spirits, " God had sent on them a strong
delusion that they should believe a lie;" and those
who rejected Joseph were now deluged with evil
spirits: with this he concluded.
The last remark I did not at the time understand,
but on inquiry found the allusion was to table-turning;
which Mormons refer to the agency of evil spirits, permitted, and even sent forth, to deceive the "sectarian
world."  The previous remarks of Brigham Young are
a characteristic specimen: he never flatters the people,
nor apes the supposed mien and language of a prophet.
Neither would succeed: the Mormons are not fond of
"soft sawder," and would suspect affectation. He rather affects coarse and common language, merely now
and then adding with conscious superiority, "I feel to
speak of these things is beneath my position and my
office, but the people are such dolts and fools I am
obliged to do so."  He is in shrewdness and energy
well fitted to be the head, though by no means the
most intellectual or most eloquent in the " Church."
To return to the previous subject: the afternoon
service is similar to that in the morning, except that


g




208


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


then the sacrament is administered; the elements, after
consecration, being carried round and offered to all,
during the delivery of the discourse. Water is substituted for wine, from the impossibility of obtaining the
latter unadulterated, they say; one may add, also to
avoid the great expense. All the services are closed
with prayer and benediction. Mormon prayers invariably commence with the words " Our Father in
heaven." From a very proper dislike for the ranting
or whining or affected tone of voice used in prayer by
some Dissenters, Mormons have run into an opposite
extreme, and themselves acquired a very definite tone,
partaking, though not intentionally, far more of familiarity than reverence. I ought to add, that that
morning's discourse was not a fair specimen: I have
heard Amasa Lyman, one of the apostles, speak for an
hour and a half at a time, with considerable power
and eloquence; though he had a love of theorising and
subtilising, till few of his hearers, I think, could have
grasped anything: nor was he a favourite with the
generality. The narratives of returned missionaries were
also often interesting, and sometimes amusing. A fair
speaker could generally command attention, and the demeanour of the people was reverent throughout.
The collected womanhood of the city did not impress
me favourably as to the amount of beauty to be found
there; but perhaps the fairest stay at home: my hostesses never went once the whole time I was in Utah;
but they spoke of the time they used to go, all




STAY AT SALT LAKE.


209


three —for there were only three then-dressed alike:
a sign of good taste, I thought. In the evening there
are meetings in the schoolhouses of each ward, under
the presidency of the respective Bishops. Here any
one might do anything: start a hymn, a prayer, a discourse, a testimony, speaking in unknown tongues,
prophesying, or relating experiences. This gave opportunity and practice to young elders, and women also
might speak; but one fears "relating experiences"
must everywhere tend more or less to hypocrisy: those
who have experienced nothing, thought nothing, felt
nothing, and have nothing to relate, will yet pour out
frothy unrealities; and how many are the exceptions?
Generally those who know most, say least; others
flounder about on the surface, and if they reach the
bottom, do it only as the drowning man does, not as
the resolute diver, searching for the pearl of great price.
The speaking in unknown tongues never took place
in my presence: once a woman prophesied; the language was much better than I should have expected,
though delivered with great agitation, but the matter
of fact prophesied seemed next to nothing. "C The
spirit of the Lord is upon me to prophesy: brother,
thou hast asked for wisdom, and thou shalt have
it granted thee," is a summary of the whole. But
these evening meetings of forty or fifty neighbours together, must encourage acquaintance and friendliness,
and so, week by week, not pass by altogether unprofitably. Such is Sunday in Utah. I rarely missed




210


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


two out of the three services; whether from curiosity,
or principle, or habit, or association, or mere want of
something else to do, I hardly know: perhaps a little
of them all.
Curiosity also I had respecting those newly arrived
in Utah-to know what they thought of the place, and
their reasons for having joined Mormonism.  Those
in the immediate neighbourhood formed a tolerable
variety: a cabinet-maker, a carpenter, a tinman, a
Nottingham  stocking-weaver, a Cornish miner, and
a Yorkshire tailor.
The cabinet-maker had a good opinion of Mormonism, and a better of himself; he prophesied vast
success to the Church, and hinted at his own rise in
it: visions and dreams he had had plenty of-more
by far than my host S., who was twice his age, and
a high priest to boot-and was inclined to boast of his
great faith and his large subscriptions to the Church
while in England. His wife he had left there-she
had denied the faith, so he was not "worse than an
infidel" for leaving her; before leaving he had paid a
month's rent in advance and not sold the furniture:
what more could a man do? said he. Nothing he
wished more than that she would come to Salt Lake;
for why? she was a good cook, and used to earn also
fifteen shillings to twenty shillings a week as a polisher,
when he worked for Collard, or Erard. I am afraid
that, though a good mechanic, and one who spent his
leisure hours in reading, and-preferred chess to skittles,




STAY AT SALT LAKE.


211


and was refined in manners and in act honest enough,
his principles were lax: certainly he had imbibed the
worst principle of Catholicism and Mormonism-to
do evil that good might come, and put darkness for
light, and light for darkness. He was of a restless,
ambitious temperament, and if he had not been a
Mormon, would certainly have been a Chartist, and
an unfavourable specimen of that. Here, though times
were bad, he was no grumbler, and since he could not
obtain good wages, took low cheerfully.
David the carpenter was a cheerful, honest little fellow, who could get plenty of work and had no reason
to complain. As for the religion, he believed it with
a child-like simplicity, as many do that they are born
in, but did not else trouble his head about the matter: he had come to Salt Lake because he was told,
and if ordered elsewhere, would go as a matter of
course: that was the history of his mind.
The tailor was jovial-in fact, a Yorkshireman-and,
I think, must have become a " saint" when oblivious
to the outer world, and on that one point remained intoxicated ever since, for he professed a special admiration of the book of Mormon, and declared its beauty
to be far beyond that of the Bible: this however was
all talk, for he, knew nothing about either book.
Mormonism was the creed of his last year or two,
but the Doncaster Races of his whole life: Brigham
Young, in his eyes, was less than the owner of the St.
Leger winner. He had seen every St. Lcger since he




212


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


was five years old, and could recount the names of all
the winners; he would do a job five per cent. cheaper
for me than for any one else, because I had seen
Voltigeur run the dead heat, and had I only seen the
Dutchman beaten for the Cup on the Friday, I could
have knocked off ten or fifteen more. His local pride
was immense; no ten-year-old saint expressed such
grief for the ruined Temple of Nauvoo, as he for Doncaster Church; and, if I mistake not, he will see the
new Church before the new Temple, anid instead of
going to Mount Sion with Ephraim, will sit down
among his old comrades to a raised pie and a tankard of ale.
The stocking-weaver and miner were both older
men, with wives and children, Mormons like themselves, " back in the old country," and who were to
come over when they could manage it; meanwhile
the Church would help keep them. As might be supposed, neither of these men could obtain their own
work, and they soon grew discontented. Salt Lake
was not what they had expected; wages were not so
good as in the old country: the stocking-weaver was
fond of reading, the miner illiterate, and proportionally more obstinate. The weaver at last engaged as a
farm labourer, for a whole year at two hundred dollars,
and " found:" S. offered to become his surety, and the
money was paid in advance, that he might send it to
his family. The miner daily grew more sulky: he had
joined Mormonism on a money question. A brother of




STAY AT SALT LAKE.


213


his, he said, had died near London (in the Isle of
Dogs, I think) and he came up from Cornwall for the
funeral; he was then a staunch member of the Established Church; the clergyman wanted thirty shillings
for reading the service; they could not afford the sum,
so his brother was buried without a word said over him,
and he, thinking a Church so set on filthy lucre could
not be the true Church, turned to the Dissenters. Sect
after sect bled him: they, he said, were ten times as
bad as the Church. He heard of a strange set of men
called Mormons, who charged nothing for their services in religion; he was baptized at once without
inquiry as to doctrine: that he was sure was right
enough, but the rate of wages at Salt Lake was all
wrong. He would sooner merely keep body and soul
together through the winter, than let any one have
his labour below its value; he would die sooner than
work for his board: d-n the odds.      So he lingered on the whole time I was at Salt Lake, and but
that S. allowed him and several more to live in a detached portion of the house, at a nominal rent to be
paid at some indefinite future time, and lent them
cooking utensils, and sometimes flour-everything, in
fact, but wood, which is like gold here-they would
have starved, or worked; as it was they did but a few
hours' work in the whole week, just to raise a little
flour or meal or a few potatoes.
With such a scarcity of provisions-flour at six dollars per 100 lbs. and the rest in proportion-times were




214


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


sure to be hard enough even for old inhabitants; and,
unfortunately, the very time when emigrants arrive, is
always the dullest of the year: agriculture ceases,
and with it nearly the entire market for mere labour.
Few farmers care to engage a labourer even at a low
rate for six months or a year, with three or four dead
months to begin upon, and the great chance of the
man leaving in the spring when wages rise. From
March till November, 25 to 35 dollars a month is common; but in the winter, offering to take a man for his
board and a trifling remuneration is rather charitable
than stingy. Good lumbermen or woodchoppers have
a better chance, and at least one class of mechanicsthose connected with house-building: the dobie-maker,
the mason, the shingle-layer, the house carpenter, the
plasterer, and the painter. Some of these are of course
dependent upon good weather; but with a constantly
increasing population, and a corresponding need of new
tenements, not a possible day is let pass unused. One
of our men at once obtained work as a plasterer, for
two dollars and a half per day and his board; another,
a painter, when he chose to come down to house
painting, got even more. But it is always to be remembered that in Utah wages are scarcely ever paid in
hard cash, and a man has practically to pay a heavy
discount before he can turn what he receives into what
he requires. Think of a mechanic paid on the Saturday
afternoon for his week's work 15 dollars-in hats!
Money at Salt Lake has always been scarce, and




STAY AT SALT LAKE.


215


yearly increases in scarcity. The first settlers were in
great part the ejected citizens of Nauvoo, who had sold
most of their property in that neighbourhood, and
though necessarily below the just value, yet in a certain sense they enriched themselves; they turned the
industry of years into coin. This they carried to Salt
Lake, and it was at first nearly sufficient for the wants
of the people; for every man did his own work; bought
of none, for there was nothing to buy; hired none, for
there was none to be hired. One or two early travellers supposed the colony was a realization of a Utopia,
where every man 'should be "self-sufficient" (in the
Greek sense), dependent only on himself for the corn
he ate, the clothes he wore, and the house he lived in.
It was simply a very primitive and very natural state
of society-to exist but not to continue; and it did
not continue: with the first interchange of necessities
arose the want of specie.
The discovery of gold in California followed; the
Mormon colonists as a generality-and it is to the credit
of their self-control-did not yield to the gold fever.
Brigham told them that England had risen to greatness,
not by the possession of gold, but of iron and coal, and
that Utah had both; he did not add that Salt Lake
was 800 miles from any seaport or navigable river.
Many of course deserted, and a few returned with a
pile. Emigrants from the Atlantic States passed by in
thousands, parting with their wares, as impediments, for
a trifle, and lavishing their gold in the purchase of ani



216


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


mals to prosecute their journey. In a short time miners
in California were starving amidst their wealth-a commentary on " dust to dust." The Mormons had cattle;
they drove them to the mines, and a stream of money
poured into Salt Lake. But Southern California also
had cattle upon a thousand hills; Oregon sent hundreds; Texas sent thousands; Alta California was at
last fully supplied, and the scale of prices changed:
now cattle are dearer at Salt Lake than in California,
and dearer in Missouri than in either. Meanwhile adventurous traders brought over goods to Salt Lake;
many of these were what we should consider necessaries, some few luxuries. The Mormons bought freely
-nay, fiercely: the first stores were besieged from
morning till night, and in ten days or a fortnight all
was sold and paid for in specie; for the merchants must
pay in the States for their goods in gold. Here was a
drain established, which still continues.
Since the influx of gold from California, and the
passage of emigrants-at least rich or lavish emigrants-has ceased, the amount of money in the
country is augmented from two sources only, neither of them very ample:-lst. The money brought
by Mormon emigrants. 2nd. The salaries, &c., paid
by the Federal Government of the United States.
The exceptional case of 1000 United States troops
wintering in Utah (in 1854-5) for nearly six months,
was in this respect a very great advantage to the
country; but taking into consideration the quantity




STAY AT SALT LAKE.


217


of grain they consumed-for they were cavalry, or
mounted infantry-and the subsequent failure of the
crops from the onslaught of grasshoppers, perhaps the
loss and gain were pretty evenly balanced. The exact
proportion of the influx to the drain of specie, is beyond my knowledge, but it is clear that even if they
balance, so long as population increases, the amount of
the currency is practically diminished. It is in consideration of these facts that the people are advised,
though not ordered, by their authorities to spend as
little as possible on imported luxuries, and by every
means to keep and introduce specie within the limits
of the territory. The sale of land-warrants (for other
reasons) was alone discouraged.
Probably since Mr. Macaulay's description of the
distress produced in our own country by a want of silver coinage, no one even of the " laity " will consider
a deficiency of specie a trivial, or an artificial and imaginary evil to a country. Political economists might
suggest remedies: I know too little of the science to
venture upon the boundless ocean of theory, and shall
be simply a narrator. If I use the present tense
" have," &c., it is for convenience, not to indicate universality. Want of specie produces barter, the direct
interchange of one commodity for another; but, as far
as possible, to avoid the obvious inconvenience (just as
merchants now have no warehouses), promissory notes
of one sort or another are in use. Labour, it must be
remembered, is a commodity. Thus, for example, A.,
L




218


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


who lives in the house of B., does some work as a
painter for one of the stores; the trader gives him in
return-not money, be quite sure, for he, the trader,
has to keep close every cent that comes into his hands,
or he '11 never be able to buy any more goods in the
States next year; nor goods, for A. probably does not
want any, being a single man: no; A. is given an
"order on the store" for so much. A. gives this to
his landlord B. who does want some things of the kind;
B. takes it to the store, and gets perhaps the whole
amount, perhaps a part; in which latter case the amount
taken is endorsed on the bill, and B. retains the bill for
further use. Similarly if A. had painted for C., a carpenter, the latter would have given A., in return, an
order for so many days' work as a carpenter, and have
given that order to B. Unfortunately, perhaps, neither
B. nor any one A. has to do with wants carpenter's
work; but B. wants his pay for board and lodging, so
A. has (as one may say) to get the " order " discounted:
not, probably, then in money, but some other order that
does suit B. But then if A. and C. are both unknown,
people will be shy of taking the order: what if it were
all a fraud of A.'s? These are simple every-day cases.
The complications and inconveniences, however, as
any one can see, are continually much greater in practice; so that money is at a premium, or orders are at a
discount always. I recollect a man who brought a load of
wood to S., my host, taking only, after much wrangling,
and then most unwillingly, an order on a store for six




STAY AT SALT LAKE.


219


dollars, though long before he had offered to take four
dollars in cash; that order had been paid to S. by
a carpenter: it was on rather a small store, and as
very seldom the person who takes the order wants to
use it himself, or therefore knows what kind of goods
any next holder may require, one on a large store with
a great variety of goods, necessarily is most valuable.
There are, however, some goods, an order for which
is always valued at par, if there be a certainty of the
immediate delivery of the goods. Such is flour. Any
one would in November, 1855, take an order for one
hundred pounds of flour at six dollars, the current
price: if he did not want flour just then he soon
would, and ten to one his next neighbour did at that
moment.   Such, too, are sugar, coffee, &c., and most
kinds of hardware. The larger stores that have "something of everything" usually divide their stock into
shelf goods and cash goods, and if they pay any one by
an order on the store, unless the order specially says the
whole or so much to be paid in cash goods, they will give
only shelf goods on it, viz. cloths, cottons, ready-made
clothes, &c.  All the stores make butter also a cash
article, which they will not part with except for actual
cash; this is because the country people pay a good
deal in it: the whole stock of butter passes into the
hands of the traders, and they, of course, make
doubly-on the sale of their goods, and on the sale of
the butter with which they were paid for the goods.
But such is the difficulty of obtaining cash, that even
L 2




220


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


for cash, the traders will not sell any large amount of
cash goods without a proportionate part of shelf-goods
being taken in the same purchase, and also paid for
in cash. Forty dollars is the regular price for one
hundred pounds of sugar, but no one could buy a bag
by offering his forty dollars; for say the traders "if
we get rid of all our cash goods for cash without also
getting rid of our shelf-goods, we shall never be able
to sell these last by themselves at all for cash, and
where shall we be? No: we must dole out the one
that people may take the other."  In those stores
where importation and manufacture are combinedsuch as tinmongers-any amount made in specie
beyond enough to carry on the business, must be considered very fortunate; and small non-importing stores
hardly see a coin from the beginning to the end of
the year. Consequently, now, Utah, though a country
where settlers may accumulate wealth in land and
houses, in factories and mines, or in flocks and herds,
is one from which, owing to the inconvertibility of
property into money, a person could hardly expect to
bring away a fortune.
Much as this presses on the development of the
country, its severest effect is on the poorest: no
labourers or mechanics, as a rule, are paid in coin,
and unless they have previously inquired in what
they are to be paid, they may on the Saturday evening
(as I before said), on the conclusion of their work,
find two or three hats, or some shoes, or a heap




STAY AT SALT LAKE.


221


of bricks to carry home with them.   Among the
poorest it comes rather to helping each other in a
friendly way, and taking each from each what the
other can best spare; but it opens a temptation to those
above, which in Utah, as elsewhere, some will give way
to, and " keep back by fraud the hire of the labourer."
Flour, groceries, and even wood and bricks, have a
definite value; but who is to decide the value of hats,
or shoes, or chairs? The most honest man has an insensible bias in his own favour; unscrupulous men
cheat as much as they dare. I have heard of some
buying up trumpery, wholesale and cheap, deliberately
on purpose to pass it off on their employes at double
the price. Undoubtedly when this becomes notorious
it fails, and when there is a demand for labour, the
labourer, if prudent, agrees beforehand; but in hard
times the hard man says, "Take this, or go about
your business."
Such are some of the bad effects of a want of specie.
One may notice a few other results, both here and
elsewhere, in the United States.  In Utah, as in
California, and to a great extent throughout the whole
West, there is no copper currency. At New Orleans,
if the post-office give you a cent in change you may
as well cut a dick-duck-drake with it on the Mississippi the first time you come to the river; for a
"picayune" (five cents) is the smallest current coin.
In California there is nothing under a "bit "-twelve
and a half cents; for the "dime," or ten-cent coin,




222


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


passes for a bit. In Utah five cents is the least;
as a natural consequence, apart from any other cause,
for very small individual things you have to pay
higher: think of England with no coin under twopence
halfpenny! I do not, of course, mean that one dip
candle costs five cents; but the orange that with us
would cost a penny, at New Orleans costs five cents,
and at San Francisco twelve and a half cents, though
the price as imported wholesale is probably no more.
And at New York, because the old Spanish coins were,
under the names of shillings and sixpences, the small
current silver (though all coins, silver and copper, are
now plentiful enough there), the mint julep that in the
Crescent city you may enjoy for ten cents, costs you
twelve and half in the Empire city, and I grieve to add
is twenty per cent. worse at that. Congress has lately
decreed the extinction and non-currency of Spanish
money, which in a year or two will knock off twenty
per cent. from the price of " drinks " at New York: and
bar-keepers can hardly deteriorate their quality any further. At Salt Lake a three-cent coin passes for five:
the postmaster ought to make a handsome fortune with
no stamps in use and a three-cent postage. At present
no one, I think, has imported three-cent pieces for the
sake of the forty per cent. profit; as with dimes at
San Francisco, where one restaurant never paid out a
single legitimate bit, but only four dimes for your fiftycents change, meal after meal.
Taking all things together, I certainly never was at




STAY AT SALT LAKE.


223


a place where " the almighty dollar" went such a little
way; and whichever side one was on seemed to be the
losing side. If you had anything to sell you could
get nothing for it, because money was so scarce; if
you wanted to buy that very thing and offered cash,
you would pay immensely high, because the article
was a rarity: in fact you paid a higher price if in
goods, but not a lower if in money. Fortunately, if
my dollars were few, the temptations to expenditure
were few also: not that the city was wholly devoid of
places of amusement; three times a week the drama
ruled in the Social Hall-nay, the legitimate drama!
"The performances will commence with "-who
could have thought it?-" Othello: Act 3."  Shakspere in Utah! And what a moral for such a people!
the murder of a fond and falsely-suspected wife; and
the act chosen that in which the husband's suspicion is
first aroused.  Mormonism might take lessons from
a worse teacher than Shakspere, and read them out of
a better edition than the representation I saw: fortunately, it was but one act. The parts of Othello and
Iago were, for the place, not badly filled; but Desde.
mona-the gentle womanly Desdemona, child-like even
in her dignity, and hurt not angered at the refusal of
her boon-she was a tall masculine female, with cheeks
painted beyond the possibility of a blush. But for the
play-bill-for there were play-bills-one might have
supposed that, as on the ancient Greek stage, the part
of the heroine was acted by a man; the acting and




224


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


tone was up to the appearance: quite ungracious, not
to say that of a virago. Even worse was Emilia; an
old dowdy she looked, who might have been chambermaid at a third-rate hotel for a quarter of a century,
and then attended for five or ten years more on a deaf
elderly lady. I fear I shall ever associate the lost
handkerchief with their acting. The afterpiece, one
of the two-act Lyceum dramas, was, on the contrary,
very well performed; though any one must seem lame
in Charles Matthews' part: the country girl was
better played than at the Lyceum, for there was an
absence of the traditional tone of a rustic, and she was
pretty and unpainted.   The audience, which had
listened attentively, but with as little enjoyment as myself to Othello, entered thoroughly into this piece, and
laughed and applauded from end to end, despite a few
unknown phrases and allusions; "the corner" being
the mystery of mysteries. So we separated in a good
humour; and many a merry word slipped out, and
laughter glanced on pretty faces with a radiant phosphorescence, as with downward turned but not dejected
faces we picked out for ourselves and the ladies a safe
route over the many running streamlets that hastened
down towards the plain along either side of the moonlit
streets of the Mormon capital.




CHAPTER VI.


SALT LAKE AND ITS ENVIRONS.
ONE of the first discoveries I made at Salt Lake was, that
my " Deane and Adams " had been stolen from the top
of my bag: fortunately a bend in the iron of the bag,
noticed but unthought of the morning we came into
town, supplied me with a date. Two Irishmen ycleped
Brown and Moran I most suspected, and my loss being
no secret, all our men had something to say on the
subject, and amongst them these very two. The former
tried so hard to convince me "some d-d Mormon
must have taken it, they were all thieves," &c., that I
obtained a search-warrant against him, including for
civility Brown also. I first had to make an affidavit in
very legal form before Judge Smith, one of the Mormon probate judges, clothed by the legislature with
criminal jurisdiction; though his name was Elias, he
was no relation to the prophet Smith, only postmastergeneral by the gift of the Washington functionary,
but he was by gift of nature a civil, gentlemanlike
sort of a person, whom you might have taken, from
his abstruse absent look, for an alchemist. I repeated
L3




226


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


the words of the oath after him, and swore it in the
name of the Most Holy Trinity, with my right hand
uplifted; the warrant was put in execution at the last
moment when Moran was leaving for California, and
the constable at any rate, had alchemy enough to produce the revolver. The amusing part was, first, that
Moran declared he had bought it from Brown, and
both were such queer characters it might possibly be
true; either of them I knew would steal if they got
the chance: secondly, that, blustering bully as he ordinarily was, now he sank to the most abject terror, believing his throat would be cut. I had no desire to
prosecute, and only stipulated for my property free of
expense; the authorities, considering to be rid of a
thief is better than to punish him, and also, that grain
was high, permitted him to go free, on condition that
he left the city before sundown the next evening; but
the constable, who had had some trouble, and saw the
currish nature of Moran, worked out of his fears
twenty or twenty-five dollars-about all he had;
and as, in compensation for stealing my pistol, he now
had to sell his own gun, so he verified his own rascally
hypocritical words, "the pistol won't do any good to
the man who's taken it."
Towards the end of November I started on a walking tour of the Northern settlements, intending to
cross from thence into Cache Valley; still a resort of
beavers, and full of fine fishing streams, but unoccupied,
except by some hundred head of cattle and stray




SALT LAKE AND ITS ENVIRONS.


227


Indians, with a few herdsmen to watch both the one
and the other. S., my landlord at Salt Lake, had a
large herd and a small shanty there, with his son and
heir to superintend their safe-keeping, so I looked for
a week's stay in the valley. Accordingly one afternoon
I shouldered my havresack (containing among the rest
a small stock of provisions, for I consider the man who
has a meal, not the price of a meal, in his pocket, the
truly independent man), and left the "city" by the
north gate of the redoubtable earthen wall. Hard by
was the warm spring, but now the earth has "caved
in," according to the language of miners; the water is
conveyed through pipes to supply warm baths, and
such baths, despite their rude construction and the
occasional broken bottles in them, as are not to be
enjoyed everywhere. Two or three miles further north
is the hot spring, the sulphurous smell of which one
perceives a long distance off: the water oozes out at
the foot of a small cliff into a circular basin, eight or
nine feet deep and five or six times as much across,
clothed at the bottom with weeds of the brightest emerald green. There is a current story that a " Gentile,"
taking this for the warm spring where people used to
bathe, said, "Well, I cah bathe wherever the d  d
Mormons can," and, jumping in, was scalded to death.
In a channel several yards away from the basin, I found
the water too hot to do more than dip one's hands in;
so the story may be true, though it has the tone of an
invention.




228


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


Easy as it might seem to find one's way in a treeless
country, and with the mountains as a wall on one side,
in reality it is quite the contrary; roads, the best defined and most plausible, edge off to mountain canions
on the right, or marshes on the left; continually around
the settlements, too, the country is laid out for miles
by roads intersecting at right angles, and which of
these to choose, as you successively come to them, is
puzzling. Moreover, though the Mormons are certainly
a hospitable people, they have a prodigious number of
savage inhospitable dogs about their houses, and worse
still, almost impassable ditches, so that the benighted
traveller has pretty well as much work to find his way
into a house to inquire, as to find the one he is inquiring
for without information: even when ditch and dog are
safely passed, you may find the householder a Dutchman or a Dane, which is perplexing to a bad linguist
like myself; or possibly your Saxon ears are refreshed
with "Dim Sassenach," from a saint of a Welshman.
The moon, and not for the first, or the hundredth
time either, was my best friend, and by aid of the increased light, I found the hostel bearing above its door
the word "Entertainment." The hour was good; the
family were at supper; their meal, though simple
enough, was to me luxurious, for there was milk and
butter on the table; and the absence of beef, which had
been set before me till my soul loathed it, was something of itself: there was no tea or coffee; one of the
pieces of advice from the Mormon chiefs, known as the




SALT LAKE AND ITS ENVIRONS.


229


"Words of Wisdom," is to abstain from such things;
but this was the only family, so far as I have seen, that,
while rich enough to disobey, followed the advice.
The first question to a stranger in Utah is, "When
did you come to the valley, and in whose train?" and
the next, "Are you in the Church?"  My reply naturally gave rise to a long talk with my host, a well-informed, enterprising man, who had founded and given
his name to the settlement, now scattered over several
miles. He told me "plurality" (for the word polygamy
is never used, and would be considered insulting from a
stranger), when first promulgated, almost turned him
from the faith, and that he had even begun to doubt,
not whether Joseph was a prophet, for that had already
been confirmed to him by visions and the testimony
of the Spirit, but whether he was not erring and given
over to Satan: now, however, the whole was plain as
daylight. He had three wives living, and one dead,
whom he spoke of affectionately, and said she would
be his wife in the world to come.  On the nature of
which " world to come," he was diffuse and speculative.
Passages of the Bible, he complained, were mis-translated, and he quoted some of the New Testament which
were not so.  I let it pass, for a knowledge of Greek
hardly suited my supposed character of a man looking
out for employment: this character I never affirmed
but gladly accepted it; since a person avowedly travelling from curiosity among people who have been so
written against, could hardly avoid being eyed with




230


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


suspicion. My host and I parted very good friends
next morning.
A thirty-mile stretch lay before me, but the view of
the lake that opened more and more as I went on,
ever changing, and yet, as it were, a companion along
with me, prevented any feeling of loneliness. Crossing my old friend the Weber, that enters the valley
through an impassable ravine on its way to the saltwater, I reached the village of the same name, a single
street of cottages for some 300 yards in length, with
their gardens behind, and the whole enclosed by an
earthen wall, with a gateway at each end of the oblong; the wall gave rather a snug look to the place,
and against Indians may be effectual.  Every place I
now discovered was, or was to be, fortified thus, though
often there is an outer town, and straggling houses far
beyond. My road lay close under the mountains: the
dull crimson of a wintry sunset had fallen upon their
snowy peaks, the shadow of the western ranges had
crossed the lake and darkened its rugged island, and
the half-thawed snow on the " bench" was beginning to freeze, when I came in sight of Ogden Citywhat a grandiloquent vulgarity is in that name, and all
thrown away on-Ogden City!    Mormons are a little
pretentious and not very happy in their nomenclature.
With a trifle less difficulty than on the preceding night
I reached the quarters recommended me: I am happy
to say this house was the only one in Utah at which I
have met with a want of civil hospitality.




SALT LAKE AND ITS ENVIRONS.


231


The head of the house was one Captain Brown, then
absent upon his attendance as a member of the territorial legislature in session, and whose military title was
derived from service in the Nauvoo legion, a "sacred
band" of that city, and also in the " Mormon battalion," in California. He was one of the chief men of
Ogden City, though not a bishop-nor in Utah do
bishops sit in either house of the legislature.
Thirteen wives were the captain's share of the
"daughters of Sion;" but they occupied separate
houses: this was the captain's own house, a primitive
log house, with two large rooms, and beds in each.
The mistress of this mansion could hardly have been
the eldest, but she was, I hope, the most sour-tempered of the whole thirteen. Possibly, from my not
leaving the next morning, she thought me a moneyless fellow, trying, in Captain Brown's absence, to
quarter myself upon them till I could obtain work:
the family had no dinner, I verily believe, for fear I
should get any of it. However, I strolled into a neighbouring house to buy a drink of milk, and the old lady
there, alone in her glory with her gudeman-" a stout
farmer for the nonce "-asked me to stay dinner with
them; and their dinner was as good as their hospitality: the farmer spoke rather gloomily of a lost cow,
and rather threateningly of a man who, it seems, had
beef to eat, though he ought not to have had it.
On my return to my quarters at dark, ugly Mrs.
Brown told me I could stay there no longer, but must




232


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


go to the bishop, who is a receiver-general of destitute
travellers. This I positively refused to do; and moreover said I must have supper, but agreed to leave
next morning: in fact one could have no wish to stay
longer in such a house. What most disgusted me
was, that she set the children to talk at me-you feel
sorry for them at least.  In the evening another wife
came in to have a talk; she was a pleasant sort of
woman, a Danish widow, but able to speak English
fairly.  I could not help being amused, and at the
same time touched, at her little boy obstinately refusing
to call Captain Brown " father," or ugly Mrs. Brown
"aunt;" no threats or coaxing would induce him.
The two ladies talked a long while on the probability
of Captain Brown taking to himself a fourteenth
wife before his return, and canvassed the chances and
qualities of this and that young lady, just as elsewhere
in the world any two gossiping women might canvass
the marriage of one of their own relatives, and with
not an atom more repugnance to it.
Ogden City was a specimen of the settlements in
Utah on the model of Salt Lake; precisely a mile
square, part on the bench, part in the valley-bottom,
enclosed by an earthen wall, and laid out in "blocks:"
a large portion was still unoccupied, but dobie-houses
were fast springing up. In the middle of the place
was a school-house, also used as a church, and its
door plastered over with parochial notices; near it
were two small stores-few settlements have as many,




SALT LAKE AND ITS ENVIRONS.


233


and what people want they must get direct from "the
city," as best they can.  The roads, except on the
"bench," were a miserable alternation of mud and
water, and if not frozen over, hardly passable for a foot
traveller; there was little cleanliness or neatness about
them.   Several small mountain burns ran through
the place, and to the north lay a small, deep, sluggish,
river, closed in by kinnik-kinnik, and crossed by a substantial wooden bridge; to this a list of tolls were
affixed, but as far as I could see they were never
exacted. Cattle on all sides straggle about, picking up
what they can find, and at night return, or are driven
within the walls; the cultivated land is necessarily
more or less distant, but danger gathers the inhabitants and their stock to a single place.
The next morning set in with such a heavy snow
that it was useless to think of going further north,
so reluctantly I turned back, taking as a change the
lower road-i. e. furthest from the mountains.   A
waggon, with a load of wheat from Box Elder, the
most northerly of all the settlements, caught me up,
and we joined company; but I half feared from the
manner of the man it was one for me and two for
himself. He carried me down hill, and wanted me to
push and scotch up hill, for his team were none too
strong, and twice he " stalled " hopelessly, and had to
send to the nearest farm for a yoke of cattle. As the
bad hills were on creek sides, the farms were not far
off, and Mormons will always help one another in this




234


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


way without charge.  Like the Green-River trader
this man bothered me to change or sell my soldier's
coat, gradually rising in his offers from four to nine
dollars-in flour: money I suppose he had none. Travelling was of the dreariest as we crossed the barren
sandy bench, " with the face of day shut out by blinding snow;" and between loose sand and snow on the
ground, I was foot-weary by dark, and glad to drop
into the first house near Farmington, a pleasant
English name, such as Mr. Emerson delights in, and
which Utah might well have more of.
My wet things were soon hung to dry, and myself
ensconced in the chimney-corner near a blazing woodfire; for wood was more plentiful here. The gudeman
was a brawny blacksmith, the gudewife a bustling overanxious woman, who had much ado to keep in order a
trio of pretty, and pretty well spoilt, daughters; but a
word from the blacksmith sufficed. The household was
a pleasant one, such as one likes to fall in with at any
part of the world; but it had no Mormon peculiarities:
at meals they were thrifty, and spoke rather in dread of
the coming winter, but with a certain religious feeling
and confidence quite different from superstition, and
not often met with. We talked till late; and the
blacksmith, among other things, told me he had three
15-shooting rifles, and that the people in general were
better armed than was commonly supposed. They had
no spare bedstead, but made me a capital bed on the
floor, with my feet to the glowing wood embers. They




SALT LAKE AND ITS ENVIRONS.


235


charged me a mere trifle-fifty cents, I think, for the
two meals and lodging: little enough where everything
is so dear.  The following day I reached Salt Lake
City, walking the last few miles with a mason I caught
up: he was returning from a job up north, and said a
man must keep a good look-out for work at that time of
the year, and not stickle at the price too much; but
in summer he often got one hundred dollars a month,
though, of course, not much of it in money. He had
been three years in the valley, but was still unmarried,
thinking it best to have a "pile" first. It was Sunday
evening, and we met a good many open waggons full
of people, who had come ten or fifteen miles to attend
the tabernacle; they were now rattling back merrily,
laughing at the cold among their ample buffalo robes.
I received a kind welcome back to my old quarters, and
my misadventures and semi-starvation in the hands of
ugly Mrs. Brown furnished a subject of amusement
as we sat down to a more plentiful supper.
By this time most of my old "plains"' acquaintances
had left for California, grouped in small parties, and
equipped according to their means; some on foot,
others with a pack-horse or two, others with an oxteam; and my friends the Italians, who were the
richest of the lot, with a small waggon and a span
of mules. A few had determined to winter at Salt
Lake; several of them kept "bachelors' hall" together
in a small house: not, after all, much cheaper than they
could have lived separately.  Mormons look upon a




236


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


"bach" with great suspicion: first, because they consider all men should marry; next, they find men living
in this manner apt to make free with their neighbours'
wood and garden stuff: I suppose because such un-domestic individuals are apt to be of an unscrupulous
freebooting spirit. My friend Landon, painter and
actor, took up his abode with a " widowed wife" (rather
a dangerous place), and became a mine of wealth to the
poor woman; for he having on the first sign he got to
paint lavished a luxuriance of ornamentation quite unknown in " the valley among the mountains " (so that
none walked up East Temple Street without inquiring
who painted it), orders came thick and fast on him.
That house was a contrast to the busy merry home I
lived in; the children had no playthings to sigh
among, but they were quiet and wistful, except when
L. painted strange faces, or acted odd scraps of longforgotten plays for their amusement.  Their mother
was a Welshwoman of twenty-four or twenty-five,
hardly pretty, but with a very pleasing face; her husband had taken another spouse-one, if inuendoes
were to be trusted, not creditable for any one to marry.
This, not the mere fact of a second marriage, had been
the grievance. She had obtained her divorce the first
day I saw her, rather against her husband's will, and
not without a long dispute as to a division of the property; for she refused to abide by the award of the
bishop, the arbiter of such matters, and Brigham, she
said, with some triumph, had not enforced it.




SALT LAKE AND ITS ENVIRONS.


237


"If Bishop Jones has awarded you the plough,
why don't you take it? " said Brigham to the husband.
"Because she has hidden it," answered he.
"Why have you hidden the plough?" said Brigham
to the wife.
"That he mayn't get it," answered she, "and he
shan't have it; didn't I give his wife-not that I want
to say anything about her ---"
" No," said Brigham.
"Didn't I give her one of two shawls my mother
sent me from England?-where's that?"
" Don't grant the divorce," said the husband, " or I
shall never get the plough."
"Well," said Brigham, "never mind, I dare say
you can do without; but this matter had better be
finished," and told him to sign the divorce.
"And," said the divorced wife to us, "after what he
has done, he wanted to come here and see Gwendoline"
-Welsh people give strange heathenish Christian
names to their children.
We all agreed that her husband had behaved as a
brute, and lavished our caresses on the mother's favourite, the golden-haired Gwendoline.  Sometimes
afterwards he wold come and demand to see the
child; and failing that, to see the plough; and failing
that, threaten to break the stove, the one and very important piece of wealth in the house; but the mother,
though trembling, would sternly refuse the plough, and
still more sternly a sight of the children. I often went




238


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


to her cottage of an evening, for with another husband
and wife newly come from the old country, and who
shared the house, L. and I could make up a rubber at
whist or euchre. There is a strong feeling of friendliness in Utah between people of the old country, and
when the children were all lulled to sleep we put out
the candles-too expensive to burn long —and gathered round the stove, the open doors of which let a
cheerful glow into the room; and then we told stories
of America and England, and Bagdad and Faerieland;
and between times the women would sing hymns with
their clear sweet voices. Mormon hymns they were,
yet not all devoid of pathos, at least in those evening
hours; one, for instance, that spoke of those whom we
should never see "till the resurrection morn."  Who
has not lost some dear one? and who, turning his
thoughts homeward, across mountain, and prairie, and
Atlantic, might not fear some loss yet unknown?
Walking home on such evenings along the quiet
streets, one could not think the Mormons altogether a
"filthy, sensual people."
Among my special acquaintances was my Mormon
doctor on the plains.  He was a disappointed man;disappointed with the appearance of the city and the
country, and above all with his chance of making any
money there. Mormons do not encourage doctors at
all, they consider " administering" (i. e. anointing with
oil, &c.) more efficacious. Some people say-not I, for
I know nothing of the subject-that homoeopathy and




SALT LAKE AND ITS ENVIRONS.


239


hydropathy succeed by doing nothing; "administering " very likely answers better than over-dosing: yet
the druggist was considered to have made more money
in the two months after his stock arrived than any
other merchant; but then one waggon will carry a prodigious value of medicines, therefore freight is really
cheap on such things. Anyhow my friend the doctor
could get no professional work, and schoolmastering,
after a trial, did not suit him, so he was a disappointed
man. Disappointment soon became disgust, and disgust hatred; I never met him but he told me something
bad of the people, and a good deal of his desire to get
to California, where money could be made-real
money, not mere flour, or pigs, or poultry, or cottoncloth.
"An old brute," he said, "who had three wives
before, has just married a pretty young girl of our
train. I do believe the captains of the emigrant trains
sell these girls to old men of this kind: at least they
offer to find the girls work and send them to the house,
and then of course it follows. Well now, the very
morning after she was married, he set her to work at
saddler's work; she wasn't used to it, and came crying
to me and told me she was miserable, and would sooner
die than go on that way: now I could seduce that
woman at any moment-isn't this shocking?"    No
doubt there was truth in his story: though polygamy
need not make a whole people sensual, sensual men
will of course use it sensually. Some other of the




240


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


doctor's stories had a little of the cock-and-bull
nature: ex. gr. that Brigham had a number of sham
Indians (i. e. white men in disguise) to attack and
kill those trying to leave the territory, and "one of
them," said he, "lives in that house opposite." Nothing Brigham would like better than a general belief
in his possessing vast secret agencies. " I have threads
through the whole territory, and know what you do
and what you say," said Brigham publicly; but this
in the main was humbug. That some special offenders
or known enemies may have been secretly dispatched
is likely enough, but the number who leave for California without " counsel," and though on one pretext
or another notoriously with no animus revertendi, are
quite too many for the white Indians.
For many weeks my host made strenuous efforts to
convert me, encouraged principally by my being the
only unprejudiced Gentile he had ever met; and by contrast impartiality seemed partiality. So as he would
not talk of the golden plates, or read passages of the
Book of Mormon, I would always listen: those were
unbearable; but one often was amused by quaint and
not uningenious expoundings of prophecies and doctrinal epistles; still more by half-speculative discussions
of our former and future state and manner of existence
in the " spirit-world," of which, if he knew no more than
I, certainly I knew no more than he. Two or three things
one may remark in all discussions with Mormons; they
speak of the subject of "plurality" before their wives




SALT LAKE AND ITS ENVIRONS.


241


without any restraint, argue the physical and mental
inferiority of the female sex, and even touch on subjects too delicate, or too indelicate, to be heard without
calling up a blush on the cheeks of any modest woman
elsewhere. Sometimes the women would become very
brusque with their husbands, and half savage with myself, the innocent cause of the argument; but a blush
seldom rises in Utah: Mormons rather think it a merit
to speak in very plain language of "those things we
know naturally," and run freedom from affectation into
coarseness. Whether or not this springs necessarily
from polygamy (as I hardly suppose), it is a sign, and
must be a cause, of moral deterioration; while different
sleeping apartments are required for the different wives,
and usually for the children of different sex as they grow
up, language is used before both that almost annuls the
utility of the one, and the decency of both customs.
Anywhere it is difficult to get at the truth of facts;
people represent them so differently, according to the
object of the conversation. If a Mormon is trying to
induce you to join the Church, he will probably speak
of the faith as having the promise of this life; that
having given up houses and land for Christ's sake, he
has already, according to the promise, received more
abundantly houses and wives and children; Salt Lake
Valley, he will tell you, is the lot of Joseph, that fruitful vine whom the archers shot sore at, but could not
reach; that it is Paradise, and the garden of the Lord.
But turn the subject on the expulsion from Nauvoo, he
M




242


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


will, step by step, rise in indignation and paint the
persecution in deeper and deeper colours till, at last, he
declares the valley is a dog-hole where no one would
live if he could live elsewhere; a place with no fruittrees or timber-trees, where you can't raise a bushel of
grain without irrigation, and have dust in your eyes
all the summer long-perhaps, all the year round.
I never was able to come at the truth regarding
the " Mormon battalion," contributed by the people
for the invasion of California, while they were camped
in Iowa and Nebraska, before crossing the plains.
Some would say it was the cruellest act of oppression; that, pressed as they were to keep alive at all,
they were compelled, under threats of a general massacre, to furnish a large body of volunteers who could
ill be spared at such a time; others have told me that
President Polk, knowing the Mormons were going to
California, managed, as an act of kindness, that as large
a number as possible should go there for pay, but
never be (as they never actually were) in any serious
engagement: not one was killed after all. It was impossible to help laughing at S.'s imitations of his old
friends the Methodists, the whining tone of their
prayers and the affected pathos of trumpery stories in
their sermons. "One day I was walking in the woods,
and I had my dog with me, and he got sight of a
woodchuck, and the poor little woodchuck tried to
escape, but my great cruel dog laid hold of the poor
little woodchuck and bit him, and the poor little wood



SALT LAKE AND ITS ENVIRONS.


243


chuck turned up his eyes to heaven and died." Such
prolonged emotion was thrown on each syllable, that
the anecdote of five lines could not be properly told
under a quarter of an hour. "But," said S., "don't
these Methodists preachers deserve all to be d-d for
their hypocrisy, in first denying the continuance of inspiration and then drawling out long prayers for inspiration to show them if they have the truth? And then
they say they hope they have a hope; I would not
give a cent for such a hope."  Other sects or churches
he knew less of, and was less bitter against.
One was more willing to listen to such talk, owing
to the scarcity of books to read. Salt Lake does not
boast any bookseller's shop; school-books are imported
as a branch of trade, but no others. One out-of-theway house, denominating itself a "Variety's Store," a
sort of place where they would change anything for
anything and cheat you on both sides, had a secondhand collection, evidently taken in ones and twos, for
bad cider, or worse pastry, or flashy moccasins, or flunmery of some kind: Xenophon's "Memorabilia,"
the "Analecta Graeca Minora," and a mutilated Virgil,
filled the classical department; but who on earth could
have brought these here? and what persons were expected to buy them? Less astonishing were wellthumbed copies of the " Bible," and " Pilgrim's Progress;" and "Books of Mormon," with the names of
their old owners written on the fly-leaf, but otherwise
unused. Scott's Ballads and Burns were among the
2




244


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


poets; Dr. Dick's works formed the heavy reading; an
odd " Waverley " or two, " Jane Eyre," and an English
"Paul and Virginia" were the best of the novels; but
there must have been near 200 shilling novels, which
were for sale at one dollar each, or for circulation at
ten cents a volume.   Fifty uncut copies of "The
Howadji in Egypt," an American book of travels, and
about as many of Lamartine's " Raphael," lay covered
with the dust of ages: it was a strange speculation to
bring- them here; unless the shelf or house has fallen
down, no doubt they lie there still.  The two first
volumes of Macaulay's " History" stood beside two
odd volumes of Butler's "Lives of the Saints;"
these monopolised history and biography, as Butler's
"Ancient Atlas" did geography. Such was the one
book store and circulating library of Salt Lake. Floreat Utavensis bibliotheca!
Beyond certain theological writers, Mormonism does
not boast much authorship of its own: a new faith
ought to produce its own historians, poets, and novelists.  Mormons could appreciate the "Lettrcs Persanes " better than the plot of a three-volume novel;
a polygamist could not realise the position of "Jane
Eyre" (for instance) when the existence of a previous wife is discovered, any more than we can
the self-devotion of Antigone to the burial of her
brother: wemay know what ought to be felt, but
we cannot feel it.  A lofty genius-and such, if
it could not embrace, might be born to, Mor



SALT LAKE AND ITS ENVIRONS.


245


monism-if penetrated with the spirit of the ancient
Hebrews, might find a worthy subject in the flight and
emigration across the plains, and take, as a motto, "In
exitu Israel." Mormons, even now, do not despise
poetry, but they arc afraid of anything fanciful, except
their own fancies; and nothing great can spring up under
a spiritual despotism. Dante scourged popes and princes,
dead and living, but no saint dare malign the infallible
prophet and revelator, and the salaried territorial governor. W. II. Mills, a votary of phrenology as well
as of poetry, had some nerve and strength of versification, and rather a freshness (I do not mean Mormon
peculiarity) in his treatment of trite subjects-"Past and
Present," for instance. Eliza Snow, the Sappho of the
valley, who should plant herself, harp in hand, on the
top of Ensign Peak, wrote, with smoothness and case,
and an occasional touch of sentiment"I feel its soft responses roll
Mid the lone echoes of the night,
And whisper softly through my soul,
I would not be forgotten quite."
More oddly read some odes on festal occasions-as
when the judges of Illinois decided against delivering
up Joseph Smith to the authorities of the Missouri" When foul Oppression's course was stay'd,
A feast of liberty
The prophet and his lady made," &c.
And, again,"Now let the prophet's heart rejoice,
His noble lady's too."




246


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


That was in the days when prophet and saints had but
one "lady" apiece.
Utah is not much better off for music than for literature; the city boasted one decent band, which was
called in upon all occasions of Church and State: on
cotillon nights a quadrille band, on Sundays a choir.
The "old Italian" of our train brought a fiddle along
with him-a Strad he swore it was-and obtained
thirty-five dollars for it. Fiddles and fiddlers are not
lacking, but all the pianos you might count on one
hand; every one knows their number and present
locality as well as an old Thames puntman does those
of the big trout. Nor has Nature been bountiful in
"sounds of music, words of wonder."  It is a country
where one ought to believe that silence is musical, and
that" Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter."
There is no "sound of bleak grown pines," no
branches for the autumn winds to sigh through, nor
for birds to build among and sing " in darkling
covert hid;" there are neither singing birds nor
humming bees, nor "sounds of vernal showers on
the twinkling grass;" only the voice of "shallow
rivers to whose falls" there is no accompaniment of
madrigals: this and, in summer time, the rustling of
the wind through the fields of Indian corn; this, and
no more. Yes, one more musical sound, of the " one
joyous thing in a world of sorrowing "-the grass



SALT LAKE AND ITS ENVIRONS.       247
hopper, the terrible grasshopper; welcomer than
this were the shrill fifes of an invading army: and are
not these a part of a great army, that have slain more
than Napoleon ever did or could have done-the palmerworm, the locust, the canker-worm, the caterpillar, and
the grasshopper?  "Behold He formed grasshoppers
in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter
growth." "What hath been shall be."




CHAPTER VII.


MASCULINE AND FEMININE.
"OHMr. C.," said Shorncliffe, one day, enthusiastically,
"you ought to be a Mormon; but I know what sticks
in your throat, it 's ' plurality:' it was hard enough for
some of us at first to swallow it. You think it's against
Scripture-I 'll show you the contrary."
"Thank you, never mind," said I; "when marriage
with a deceased wife's sister was debated in Parliament,
I always cut speeches on the scriptural question."
" Well, then, I'11 show you it is in accordance with
the first principles of human nature."
"No; I found the speeches theorising on human
nature more unsatisfactory than the former kind, and
quite as dull.  Stick to the facts, Shorncliffe, stick
to the facts."
"Don't you think a large number of wives in
England are ill-treated?"
"I dare say, but I never had one to ill-treat; so
it 's not my fault."
"Yes, it is; any one who can support a wife, and
would treat her well, ought to marry; then there
would be fewer left for brutes to marry."




MASCULINE AND FEMININE.


249


" Maybe I'mn a brute, if you knew it; or maybe I can't support a wife; or perhaps some lady
jilted me."
"Not support a wife? why, you've hands and feet
and two hundred dollars. The man who rented our
front room all last summer, married on thirty dollars,
and he has just bought a bit of my lot here; they'll
begin the house next week: people soon get on here."
"Has he paid you for the lot yet?"
"No, but he'll give me a mortgage for the four
hundred dollars; and the house, when it 's built, will
make it safe."
" How '11 he pay for building the house?"
" Oh, he 's a carpenter himself, so he '11 only have to
pay the dobie-layer, besides the expense of dobies and
stone for the foundation, and lumber for the roof; he
can do the rest himself, and I dare say they'll not
plaster it till spring."
" Ay, but how '11 he pay even that?"
"In work, I suppose; he has nothing else to
pay in."
" Has he paid up the rent of your front room yet?"
" No."
"Dear me! people soon get on here, as you say.
I hope you don't expect to finger your rent before the
end of next year."
" Indeed, I do."
"The lumberman and dobie-layer won't wait, you
know, and the man must live all the time; and
M3




250


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


knocking off Sundays, there are but 313 days in the
year."
"314; next year 's leap-year."
" Make the most of it: but there 's that ugly tithelabour; a month and more of that; 31 days 4 hours,
is it not, by decimals, Hebcr?" said I, appealing to
one of the boys.
"No, 31 days, 9 hours, 36 minutes," said he
briskly; for he was versed in fractions, and could
rapidly turn a dollar to a dime if he got one.
" Well, Mr. Shorncliffe," said I, "I hope you may
get your rent and the interest on your four hundred
dollars; how much is it?"
"Only eighty dollars: I think I ought to have asked
twenty-five per cent."
"I hope you may get them all: but I expect you
never married on thirty dollars."
"No, but that was back in Massachusetts, not
here."
" I 'm not likely to marry here unless you convert
me, so you had better go back to the subject, and try
and build up the Church; and leave neighbour Jones's
house: besides you haven't to pay four hundred
dollars for ground to build the church on."
" The Temple lot would be worth nearer forty thousand dollars; but I suppose you're speaking figuratively, as the sectarian world say the Bible does."
"I 'm sure I thought ' building up the Church and
kingdom,' a most orthodox phrase: I heard it from one




MASCULINE AND FEMININE.


251


of the apostles last Sunday at the Tabernacle; but
go on."
" Oh! you were speaking of a girl jilting you; well,
if that's not all talk you'd be better off here."
"How so?"
"It's not the way here: besides there are as good
fish in the sea as have come out of it; that's our way
of looking at it."
"Well, do you make girls marry against their
wills?"
"No, we don't make them, but they should do
what their father wishes, and ought not to disobey
'counsel,' and if they've once agreed they must
keep to their word."
"Then if Brigham 'counsels' that your daughter
should marry Jones, for instance, you would not like
to refuse her?"
" One might do so, but one would not like to, and
one would be thought worse of."
"Would Jones having another wife make any
difference, or is it all the same as if he were a
bachelor?"
" Oh, it makes no difference if he can properly support another wife; but Jones can't. We have this
great advantage," continued Shorncliffe, "you stake
all on one chance; if we are not satisfied, we can try
our luck again."
" That 's all very nice for you, on the surface at any
rate; but how does it cut for the women?"




252


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


"Why, that's just what I began with. A great
number of men in other countries marry who never
ought to marry: they are brutes, not fit to have the
care of a woman, and then they ill-treat her; but
women, sooner than remain unmarried, will have
them."
" Why, ill-treatment as often follows love matches
as money matches."
"Yes, but then you don't marry by 'counsel' as
we do."
" Counsel of our hearts or pockets, as the case may
be; not any other, certainly."
"Besides, women have a chance of seeing what sort
of husband a man has made before they accept him."
"Then you would calculate on a large number of
men remaining unmarried."
Yes."
"You say plurality decreases immorality; but how
do you expect all these semi-compulsory bachelors
would content themselves? Even now you complain of
the morality of a 'bachelor's hall;' and does not it
say little for the influence of Mormonism, if there
be a large class of brethren it cannot make decent
husbands of?"
"You're running on too fast with so many questions. We allow there are plenty of scoundrels who
believe Mormonism because they know it is true and
can't help themselves, but yet won't live up to it;
and they'll be doubly d-d hereafter. Some of 'em




MASCULINE AND FEMININE.


253


apostatise and run off; not that they disbelieve really
then. Judas was not an infidel because he was a
traitor: he couldn't have been. And with us it is not
mere belief, it's sight: if I could tell you all I 've
seen    "
"I should want to see it myself, perhaps."
"Then join the Church; have faith: these signs
follow them that believe."
"I like to look before I leap; but does every one
baptized have these signs?"
" Not those who have no faith, and join the Church
from worldly motives. But you must not be scandalised at seeing bad men among us; the evil is ever
mingled with the good, in the Church as in the
world."
I smiled at such an orthodox expression in the
mouth of a Mormon.
"Then," said I, "you consider all men are not fit
for husbands; what is your belief as to women?"
" All women are fit for wives."
"I'm glad to hear such a gallant sentiment from
you, Mr. Shorncliffe. I know you won't think the
prettiest the least fit to be your own."
"Then what an advantage for the children, if their
mother dies. You 've seen no harsh step-mothers
here?"
N "No,"-for honestly I have not.-" But don't kill
off the women yet, unless you mean to be a Bluebeard."




254


THIE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


" Well, what can the women here want more than
they have?-comfortable homes, and everything else;
they've only to obey their husbands, and all goes
smoothly. Then, you know women get old sooner than
men; you know in the sectarian world, when wives get
to forty or forty-five, their husbands don't stick very
closely to them. Now is not it better for a man then
to marry a young. wife and increase the population
legitimately, than do what else he will?  You'll be
convinced about plurality some day, and then you'll1
become a Mormon."
"Why my thinking plurality right, would be no
better reason for my becoming a Mormon than a Mussulman."
"No, but it's the great difficulty out of the way.
Now I'11 tell you about the necessity of new revelations,
and how they were made. The angel Gabriel came to
Joseph, and instructed him concerning the golden
plates."
" I would not hear you on that if you were an angel
yourself, and promised me the golden plates to melt
down afterwards; at any rate unless you were a feminine angel. Some time you may tell me the Mormon
theory of angels.  By the by, is that Brigham who
has taken another wife?"
"No, it's young Brig."
"The Ligger Brig they'd call him, near John
o' Groat's House. How many has he already?"
" This is his first marriage."




MASCULINE AND FEMININE.


255


"Dear me, what a privilege to be here at the time
of young Brig's first marriage! Is he very rich?"
"No; we've no idlers here: we don't want rich
people who think themselves above working; but he
has a good start; he's a saddler, his place is under
Stuart's store, close by the Council House, and he's
a good workman himself."
"Then I'll get a pistol case and belt there, for I
never got mine back after the revolver was stolen."
So I went that same afternoon to young Brig's workshop, and ordered the case and belt. They have often
since reminded me of the valleys among the mountains,
when riding along valleys that look upon the Southern
Cross: I have the belt still, and shall keep it as a
memento. If any one should buy a secondhand D.
and A., first quality, middle size, No. 14,007, and with
it a white leather case, let him know and appreciate the
latter as the workmanship of young Brig.
Thursday.-Made acquaintance with Thrupp, a Mormon merchant, converted four years ago at San Francisco. His first wife died two years afterwards in California, and he only came here this summer, without any
intention of staying, but now has married. His house is
small, but for this place handsomely furnished, and he
has, positively, a servant; nevertheless, on calling, I
found T. lighting the fire himself. His new wife is rather
good-looking, and "quite the lady," in dress, manner,
&c. She had one of the five pianos in Utah. Astonished,
as the honeymoon was scarcely over, to hear the crying




256


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


of a child; on subsequent inquiry I found the lady had
been previously married and obtained a divorce-having therefore the care of her child. Her story was
told me thus. " Evans had two wives before he married
Liddy: Evans, you know, is as fine a man as you '11
often meet, and one of the best-tempered; but the
women could not get on together. Liddy and the old
woman (the first wife) were great allies; but they could
not abide Lucy, the second wife. Evans had to go on
business to California, and took Lucy with him; then
the other two wrote to him that if he brought back
Lucy they'd both leave him: however, he paid no attention. When it came to the point, the old woman's
heart failed her; but Liddy kept her word. Now she
has as good a husband as she could wish; but Thrupp
tells me she 's death on plurality now, and that if he
ever takes another wife, there 'll be no peace for him.
Liddy has a quick tongue, and is not afraid to use it.
The other day she said, before several people, she could
not see why men should not be content with one wife,
as well as women with one husband apiece: the doctrine of women being subject did not suit her at all.
But then you see she's the old judge's daughter, and he
has a good stroke of money and is somebody, or she
daren't talk on in that way.
Sunday.-Heard a good but rambling discourse from
Amasa Lyman, one of the apostles: remarked these
words. "It is twenty-two years since I joined the
Church, and I have not yet learnt the Gospel; I 've




MASCULINE AND FEMININE.


257


only been learning of it. You're all too apt to think
you 'e learnt all Mormonism as soon as you've been
baptized and endowed, and read all the Mormon books:
it is not so. If we try, we are all learning more and
more of the Gospel our whole life, and at last know but
a little of it-brother Brigham and all of us."  Also,
"I go on missions and preach to the Gentiles quite as
much for my own sake as for theirs; by labouring for
the Gospel I learn of the Gospel."  Also, "If you
value Mormonism so little as to wish in your hearts to
change it for a little coffee, or a little sugar, or a little
gold dust, you had better apostatise and run off to
California: you're not good Mormons; we can do
without you. We don't want bad materials to build the
Church of. You '11 all be damned who go; but no matter how few of us stay, or where we may be driven from
here-the Church of God won't perish: it is founded
on a rock."  Brigham a few Sundays back said:"You all want to see the temple built: that 's right;
but I 've seen a temple before this, and that was destroyed, and this may be. But that won't destroy the
Church: and you're all in a great hurry to receive your
endowments; but you had better first live more up to
what you know of Mormonism. If you live Mormonism, you '11 learn it, and then be more fit to receive new
light."
Tuesday.-Went to a dance in the evening; it was
begun and ended with prayer. - At the returned missionaries' ball some time back, they had hymns, prayers,




258


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


speeches, and comic songs between the dances. We
had no dances but quadrilles (called here cotillons)
and country-dances. The collection of beauty was tolerable; not much more.
The one special point of romance here (and you
must look close for it), is the relation in which
married men and girls stand to each other: elsewhere, the attentions of the former to the latter pass
for nothing; here a girl knows that her partner may
at any moment be her lover and her suitor, though
his wife is dancing in the vis-a-vis; and many a flirtation is buoyed up by the circumstance. Men, too,
of the brighter sort, love to use their position, and
carry on canvas that would capsize a monogamist
craft. Second and third wives take little heed of the
flirting or the wooing; but you may now and then see
a woman glancing too eagerly round, and from her halfconcealed jealousy and hatred, and fear predominating
over the other two, you may guess, what you will be told,
that the watcher is an only wife: other women, if they
see her, will come and tell her she is no Mormon to
look so after her husband, and laugh at her foolish expectation of keeping an entire husband to herself.
That girl now evidently knows the wife is watching her,
and coquets all the more eagerly with the husband:
perhaps she may refuse him after all, perhaps not
wish to do so, perhaps find herself unable if she
wishes; but they are not the only couple followed by
eyes struggling to see, and yet not to believe. They




MASCULINE AND FEMININE.


259


tell me F-   yonder loves his wife beyond the wont
of husbands in this part of the world, and will not
marry another; so my partner, herself a wife, though
not in the first lustrum of wives, tells me, and intimates
her opinion, that F — and his wife are both fools to
set themselves against the fashion of the place. "But
F —    surely is flirting with Kate Copeland pretty
strongly at this moment," one suggests. "Flirtingthat's a gentile word, we never use it; but he's not
really courting Kate, he's only teasing his wife: though
he won't marry again, he likes doing that. Were I
unmarried, I would ask the President to make him
marry me."  "What for? to tease her?"  "No, to
teach her; then she would not think herself better
than the balance of us: why should she?"  I turned
the subject, having no wish for an argumentum ad hominem; and some places are unsuitable for the real argumentum ad feminam.
Perhaps there is not much romance of love in all
this, only the groundwork for a Mormon novel; yet
even this little is quite exceptional: you do not see
the anxious wife, or the coquetting damsel, or the loverlike husband (the last words in a new sense), at every
ball. Truth to tell, Utah is not a country of romance:
polygamy, accompanied by harems and veiled beauties,
and in the clime of the sun, might produce it; but
polygamy without mystery or cavalieri serventi, and in
that country, does not: a wooing is commonly as short
as Hiawatha's, and the girl says or has to say, "I




260


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


will follow you my husband." Most men think anything of a lover-like deference to the fair sex a humiliation of the superior sex. Even along with this, there
is more of a pleasing simplicity than you might well
expect; but the general result is not pleasing: girls
have but little of sensibility, the greatest charm of
woman: love that is never sub rosd, will scarcely gain
a roseate hue or the perfume of roses.
Time passed on smoothly; so smoothly, one has little
to write of it. December came, and Thanksgiving
Day: remembered, though no longer kept by the New
England family in Utah; and then Christmas-time,
here as elsewhere, a season of hospitality and merriment. The absence of the elite of the Church and city
at Fillmorc, took off a little from the outside show, the
sleighs and carriages; but country-folks gathered in
till the place had no look of emptiness.
Among those who visited Shorncliffe, was one Andries,
a man of wealth, and the head of one of the emigrant
trains along with ours: his second wife was a sister of
S.'s first, therefore the visit. Since his return from
abroad on a mission (to England I think), he had married three wives-a mother and daughter and a third
woman-all on one day! chosen from the fair emigrants in his charge. Fortune, perhaps, had not been
overlooked in the choice: either mother or daughter, I
forget which, had for Salt Lake a good income; and,
probably, worthy brother Andries took the old lady,
as he called her, for the sake of daughter or dowry.




MASCULINE AND FEMININE.


261


The old lady did not make her appearance; but three
or four of the others came, rustling in silks, and even
with some glitter of jewellery: a husband returning
from a mission must bring his wives each a present of
some sort.
One may distinguish married life at Utah into three
sorts: the harem  life, where numbers of wives (as
those of Brigham) live together and apart from their
husbands; the belle amie life, where they occupy
separate houses scattered over the place; and lastly,
the domestic sort, where all live under one roof,
but to some extent with their separate apartments. I
found the Andries ladies passed their life on the domestic system. "Adeline and I live together," said
one of them, "since Mr. Andries married, the other
day." In spite of their dress and appearance, it seemed
that only the Englishwoman had a personal attendant, the rest did most of the house-work themselves;
they did not speak of her at all enviously, but all had,
between themselves, rather a distant politeness. The
mother and daughter lived together, paying all their
own household expenses: I dare say the " old lady"
was too shrewd to let the money slip through her
fingers into Andries's fist.
After the visitors had left, my eldest hostess lamented to me that all, even her own sister, had been
admiring the other two of my three little playmates,
the Anglo-Saxon rosebuds, but not her girl, the wild
and shy young antelope as I called her.   Mothers




262


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


so placed, must needs feel some pride and jealousy
of the beauty and admiration of their respective children; and what must you do among them all? why,
without telling fibs, try to keep peace and give all
pleasure: say this one's cheek is the brightest, and
the skin of that the fairest and clearest, and the
eyes of the other the darkest and largest; praise the
hair of one, the eyebrows of another, and the long
silken lashes of a third; prophesy for this, a beautiful
hand and foot; for that, a tall and elegant figure; and
of the remaining one, if you can do no better, say
childhood is no criterion of the future loveliness of
womanhood, or, better still, hint she will be as handsome as her mother. One might find a little dispraise,
or apparent dispraise perhaps, serviceable at those
times. If you would please a Bostonian, tell him that
New York has no "Common;" that it is noisy; that
the streets are dirty; that Broadway is straight: all of
which is true. To a New Yorker-though they of the
Empire City rather affect a contempt of Boston-say
nothing about Boston Common; say that Broadway is
straight; that the streets of Boston are crooked, and
have an old look about them-you need not say you
like crooked quaint old streets; that there is no Hudson; that there is a quantity of unwholesome-looking
mud uncovered at low tide, and so on: all true: and
both New Yorker and Bostonian will be gratified by a
judicious distribution of truths between them.
But one must not turn so abruptly and so easily




MASCULINE AND FEMININE.


263


from Salt Lake to the Atlantic cities; one has to
journey more slowly westwards, and it is time to be
stirring.
It was unsafe to travel alone, important to travel
quickly, uncomfortable to travel on horseback: at least,
without an additional pack animal; and finally, speculative to travel at my own peculiar risk, with so little
money to fall back upon. These considerations limited
me a good deal; but as soon as it was known among
my old Plains acquaintances that I was meditating a
start, several wanted to join me on the journey. Unluckily my own object was to join some other party, not
to form one for myself.  The man who forms a party,
whether for grouse-shooting, or a drag to Epsom or
Ascot, or, as in this case, a journey to California,
unless paid in advance, will generally find himself a good
deal out of pocket at last; moreover, these, my friends,
were mostly without a cent.  One very soft-spoken
Gentile-but none of my acquaintance-volunteered to
travel with me and look after the animals, and suggested where I could buy a span of mules cheap.
Salt Lake has colonists from so many different places
that you can very soon find out any one's antecedents
-as the phrase is. The antecedents of this man were
very bad; though, while at Salt Lake, he had kept his
hands from picking and stealing: perhaps through fear
of a Lynching. His brother, however, had been Lynched
in California, for murder and robbery; and from his




264


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


own extreme desire to be my only companion, no
doubt he would have murdered me, and, on an imaginary
joint-tenancy, succeeded to my share of the aforesaid
span of mules. None of this was to be.
Among those I applied to was Amasa Lyman, the
apostle; he received me very politely, but I had been
misinformed as to his immediate return to his presidency of San Bernardino.  My friend Thrupp, the
new-made Benedict, was about to leave for California,
to close up his affairs in that country and bring his
children to Salt Lake. But Thrupp, though not badly
off, nor a bad fellow, was a little close-fisted when it
came to business; and, in point of fact, mules were
a bad investment, as you may buy them    twenty
or twenty-five per cent. cheaper in California than
at Salt Lake. Finally, I agreed with the mail-carrier
to take me through to San Bernardino for one hundred dollars; waggoning through the settlements for
nearly three hundred miles to the southward, and
thence "packing" to California: Thrupp also determined to ride along with us on a mule of his own.
Savage, the mail-carrier, was a rugged Canadian
Mormon, but a man of sterling honesty; or he might
easily have cheated me instead of honourably fulfilling
his contract: and, as it turned out, at no great profit
to himself. He possessed good common sense, and a
good acquaintance with our route, and the Indians to be
met on it, but he had a very short memory-except of




MASCULINE AND FEMININE.


265


injuries and kindnesses-and a thriftlessness and want
of foresight very dangerous in a travelling companion.
He had more pluck than " go," and more soundness
than rapidity of discernment and decision. Though
one of the old inhabitants of Nauvoo, and the original
settlers of Utah, he was, strange to say, a monogamist.
Yet that polygamist house in Salt Lake City I left
not without some sort of feeling like leaving home.
I have been a visitor, and met with hospitality at other
homes in America, but it was as a visitor; during
a somewhat lengthened absence from England, this was
the one house in which I lived as in a home, became
one of the family, intimate with the eldest, a playmate
of the youngest, a friend, I hope, of all; for all were
friendly to me. All seemed sorry I was leaving them,
and I am not ashamed to say I, too, felt sorry. Travellers had need to be hardier plants than most in the
world, since they endure such frequent transplantation; for, I think, they take root quicker than most,
and not less deeply.


N




CHAPTER VIII.


THROUGH THE SETTLEMENTS.
WITH the coming in of the new year I started for
California: a cold winter's night it was, and few were
in the streets as our mules dashed along over the
caked snow; but, in celebration of the day, within the
homes on either side, merry log fires were burning, and
one could hear the sound of the flute and fiddle, and
the measured tread of the " dancers dancing in tune,"
and the laugh and song of unrestrained mirth and
friendliness. When we passed out from among houses,
we heard nothing but the clicking of our harness.
Great Cottonwood, a village just such as I have
described Weber, was silent enough when we entered
its gateway and single street; but Savage, who,
from constantly travelling the road, had made the
greatest beholden to him for some errand done or
parcel brought, never failed to seek out the best
quarters; and as his "orders" were always honoured
in cash or cash-goods by the mail agents (who receive
their pay in hard dollars from the United States Post
Office), he too, and I, as his passenger, were honoured
wherever we went.  Beds, however, we neither asked




THROUGH THE SETTLEMENTS.


267


for nor got, only a good fire, before which we lay, rolled
up in our own bedding on the floor. One needs plenty
of warm things for a winter journey in that country;
I had two blankets-a good eight dollars' worth-and
a wolf-skin robe worth half-a-dozen blankets: the
skins I bought at Green River for a blue over-shirt,
dressed and sewn together. The currier walked round
me a little in the affair, though, for he cut off the
heads that he might claim the bounty money given for
every wolf killed in the Valley; the production of the
skin of the head being taken as proof: heads will soon
be imported, one would think. My soldier's coat, a pair
of over-shoes of buffalo-robe, with the hair turned
inside, and a cap to cover my ears well, formed the
rest of my equipment. Savage had "American overshoes," and though he was far more inured to cold
than myself, his feet began to deaden long before mine,
on every occasion.
There were two or three wives in our night quarters
at Cottonwood; but they were dull, unimpressible
women, and the children stupid and dirty. We had a
sort of foot companion on our journey, a young Scotchman belonging to Cedar City, the most southern
settlement and S.'s place of abode. All the summer
he had been working in the City as a carpenter, and
sending home money and household goods to his
young wife; but work having become dull, and his
money having run out, he wanted S., as a fellow
townsman, to carry him for nothing, three hundred
N 2




268


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


miles. S., though not liking absolutely to refuse
a penniless " brother," excused himself on account of
the snow, and his having but a span of mules, and
would do no more than carry his bundle and provisions, and promise to give a lift when he could. By
some mistake, due to an upper and lower road and a
Great and Little Cottonwood, he had missed us and
walked all night back from the latter place to the city
and out again; but he kept on pluckily with the
help of a five-mile lift from us, having walked sixtyfive miles in the twenty-four hours, without any sleep,
or a meal beyond dry biscuits: and he followed it up
with forty on the following day. Plenty of men will
deny themselves for their families, in Utah as elsewhere, but I hardly expected to meet here such a
lover-like eagerness; it turned out he had been a
husband only six weeks when he left home, and that
after two years' attendance as a lover: certainly he had
no thought of taking another spouse, nor any eyes for
the prettiest girl we met.
The cold was intense, as we passed out of Salt Lake
Valley round the " corner of the mountain," along a
zigzag road cut on the precipitous hill-side at a considerable elevation; but it lessened very much as we descended into Utah Valley, and the snow there was less
also. Utah Valley is scarcely twenty-five miles in length
by ten or twelve across, and has therefore a far more
mountainous appearance; and the distant peaks and
cliffs, where they were too steep for the snow to lie, had




THROUGH THE SETTLEMENTS.


269


a stern, dark, iron-blue tint, quite unlike the deep soft
purple, common to distant hills: the sombre effect was
aided by dark masses of cedar wood perched on the
mountain side, and swept clear of snow by the keen wind
at that height. Lake Utah was frozen and covered with
snow, and Savage lamented we could not cut across it,
instead of dropping and picking up mails at a number
of villages on its eastern side: to make the best of it,
he stopped for dinner at one. Lehi was its orthodox
name, out of the book of Mormon, but the people
always call it Dry Creek as they do Manti " Salt Creek,"
and others similarly: these villages are small, but fairly
neat, and all close together. Why I do not know, but
no settlements are located except on the eastern side
of the valleys, and close at the foot of the mountains.
At Battle Creek, where we stopped for supper,
and several neighbours were asked in on the sudden,
Savage, who was an old resident of the place, said many
irreverent things of the bishop, an old enemy of his,
and prophesied he would not die a bishop, and the company seemed to sympathize; the bishop's delight, like
Dr. Busby's, had been that none under him should think
there was any greater than he: notwithstanding some
new "prophet" had recently appeared, and declared
strange visions and revelations of all sorts, though not
derogatory to the heads of the Church. The people
spoke of "the prophet" just as Gentiles do of Joseph
Smith, as a lunatic or a knave; yet they believe in the




270


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


continuance of revelations: but consistency is hard to
find, and no prophet has honour in his own country.
Provo, where we slept, was much like Ogden City,
but not so miry, and without a Mrs. Brown. We stayed
in a comfortable house: everything, and every one, was
clean, and tidy, and bright; there was but one wife, a
pleasant hostess, and a very pretty daughter; the pastoral delicacies (and they were becoming more plentiful
as we got further South) tasted none the worse for being
served up by her.
We made a long day's travel of fifty miles: pretty
well for our span of mules, with from six inches to a
foot of snow on the ground. The scenery was very
dreary, for the valley narrowed, and the " divide " was
a good way on towards the level of the mountain tops.
I never recollect such a cold tedious night; we did
not reach Salt Creek (Manti) in Juab Valley till near
midnight. The place, having been once burned down
by the Indians, is well walled in and strong wooden
gates fixed, and as these were locked it was necessary
to climb the walls; this Savage did, after two or three
attempts, in the course of which he tumbled into a
snow-drift in the ditch, and uttered at least twenty
dollars' worth of oaths according to Mormon law;
however, no one heard him, and at last he got the key
and we got in: all of us glad enough; and most of all
the Scotchman, whom we had carried the last six or
seven miles, having found him ready to drop.




THROUGH THE SETTLEMENTS.


271


Our host apologised for the entertainment, though
it was good enough, by saying he had formerly kept
a good house for travellers, which had been destroyed
by the Indians, and, as yet, he was not rich enough to
build another. We took all in good part, even the
locking of the gates; though, with the thermometer
twenty degrees or more below zero, being kept half an
hour outside the walls must needs seem a cold reception. I heard that a party of three, whom I had
been very near joining, from Salt Lake, a week before,
had arrived here with their feet and ancles frozen per- 
fectly stiff: the cold had been a good deal severer; but
people oftenest are frozen through their own fault in
sitting still too long and wearing tight shoes.
From Salt Creek there is a gap of sixty miles
without a settlement; and fifty without a house: the
route was very dreary, over bare round hill tops and
through canons, sometimes narrow, but not deep or
grand. In the first hour we quite lost the track, and
wandered backwards and forwards across the head of
the valley a long while before we could hit it again;
later in the day the tire of one of our forewheels
broke-rather a troublesome accident-and we had to
splice it with a lariette, so that by dusk we only made
the Sevier, a sharp stream, here some forty yards
across, and the half-way point between Salt Creek and
Fillmore. There was an excellent bridge, the second
built there, one having been destroyed by the Indians;
but we had to chop for a quarter of an hour at the ice




72


CROSSING THE PLAINS.


able elsewhere. The contents were curious for such a
place.  The writer said his daughter-apparently an
authoress of some repute-had lately written a work
of fiction founded on the massacre of Glencoe, but
which, from the kind or the subject, he did not think
would add to her literary reputation, and was opposed
to its appearance under her name. If his friend, to
whom he was writing, liked to publish it under his
own name, he was welcome to all the possible profits
and fame, and not a syllable on the real authorship
should ever be whispered. Initials only were signed,
and the direction I have long since forgotten, nor if the
literary mystery were one likely to be guessed, should
now mention it.
Sept. 6th.-Started early after a rapid breakfast; five
miles' travel brought us to the South Crossing of the
Platte. The river here is quite shallow, but very broad,
and with a sandy bottom, tolerably firm; all the waggons double-teamed across. Had whisky served out to
us afterwards; sufficient, but rather spoilt by a bad cask.
There was a good deal of ascent from the river across
the Bluffs, and towards evening we wound through
barren rocky hills, wild and dreary as the top of the
pass of Glencoe. Then our waggons slid down one
terribly steep hill, with both hind-wheels locked; any
upset would have been a complete smash.*   The sun
* It is a fortunate. thing that the western side of all the
severe hills (i. e. the descending side for us and all heavy
traffic) is the steepest by far: this was one instance; and here,




THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE.


73


had set before we reached the notable Ash Hollow. As
far as one could see in the twilight it is from 150 to 200
yards wide, and three or four miles long: cliffs something less than 100 feet high close it in on each side,
and ash trees-whence the name-hanging over, seem
to increase the gloom. In the dusk of a dull evening,
as our waggons toiled through the deep loose sand, the
hindmost draggling along two miles from the front,
the Hollow seemed the very perfection of a place for
attack; it has an ill name with travellers, and the Sioux
were known to be near and hostile. Our cattle had
come far that day, and were tired out, so I too footed
it through the sand, soon tired also. A cheering sight
was the camp-fire of the leading mess, but it was far off,
and long before we reached the end of the hollow that
opens on the river-the North Fork of the Plattetwilight had passed away.
On the opposite bank was camped General Harney's army of 700 or 800 men, and their fires were
bright and thick as fire-flies. We heard they had
fought a battle with the Indians the day before;
this accounted for our seeing-none at the Hollow,
but as they were supposed to be still about, and
only the more hostile, we were ordered to keep double
guard, two messes a night, and to be well armed.
Went out myself for the first time again, though
and at several hills in the last hundred miles to Salt Lake,
I am sure, if travelling eastwards, we must have unloaded our
waggons.
E




274


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


"we have not paid for one acre of land we now
occupy; some day or other the United States will
have all these valleys surveyed, and the land will come
-into market; now if you keep all these land-warrants
there will gradually be enough to secure among ourselves all the land we have, otherwise you won't be
able to pay for it: Gentiles will come and claim your
farms; you can't submit; then the United States will
have the opportunity they're always on the look-out
for: they'll send a large army, and then there'll be
hell." The last expression had a clever ambiguity as
to how the United States army would be received: the
advice shows Brigham's shrewdness and foresight.
One of the Mormon merchants present, rose and said
he had never meant to have taken the warrants to the
States without consulting the President; but knowing
how difficult it was to manage a number of people, he
thought to buy the warrants up and deal with them as
he should direct. Brigham evidently thought the
answer humbug, for he said in a loud voice,
" Brother Thomas, I am very glad to hear your explanation, and I hope all present will remember it well,
for I shall certainly hold you to it."  Brother Thomas
looked unutterable things: he was fairly caught.
In the evening I heard a " discourse " from Orson
Pratt, intellectually the ablest man among the Mormons-at least of those known. Mormons seldom
preach from a text, but from the nature of his subject,
Orson Pratt was, I dare say, glad to brink in a little




THROUGH THE SETTLEMENTS.


275


Scripture. He read the account of "the young man
who went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.'
After some comment, in good language, but not otherwise remarkable, he turned aside to the real topicthe propriety of individuals surrendering their property to the Church. This, he said, had been ordered
on two previous occasions-in Missouri and at Nauvoo
I think-but few had complied.  Now no order was
made, but " our beloved First Presidency " gave those
who wished, the opportunity of doing so; five or six
had already embraced it; he hoped more would: there
would be trustees of the Church in whom all such property would be vested. He dwelt on the community
of all things in the Primitive Church, and on the scriptural duty of a universal equality, which would be realized by no one having anything. " But some," he continued, "may ask 'How then are we to live?' Why
the Church will give you stewardships, to one of ten
talents, to another of five, to another of one talent according to your fitness: equality of property is enjoined, but nowhere equality of stewardships. Of the
profits each of you make annually, the Church will
grant you according to your needs, fear not."
He then argued at some length on the advantages of
this power vested in the Church, while, as now, they
were hampered by the laws of the United States; which
he did not recommend being disobeyed. "If," said he,
"the Church owned the whole of Salt Lake City, and
any one, Gentile or Mormon, became an abomination




276


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


to us, the Church would say to the man, ' Leave this
house: it is our house;' and to all others,' if you let this
man live with you, you also shall leave your house, and
the city.' And if the Church owned all the settlements,
it could say to the offender ' You shall not stay among
us;' and if the whole country, ' You shall not stay in
this land at all.' And all this could be done without
violating a single law of the United States." Truly, if
this plan were carried out, a man would feel comfortable, knowing that at any moment he could be kicked
out of house and city and country: why, one might
almost as well be a Sutherlandshire cottier. For the
fun of the thing, I often suggested to Mormons the
duty of at once giving up their property; but from the
very grumpy way in which they received the suggestion, I doubt whether a dozen in all will avail themselves of the opportunity afforded them by " our beloved First Presidency."  Still, one must give Orson
Pratt the credit of having argued well in a very bad
cause, and of possessing great fluency of speech, a
sufficient command of language, and a fair delivery.
We stayed at the principal inn or boarding-house;
though for the matter of " principal," Fillmore only
possesses two, and no other settlement any.  The
house was thronged with dignitaries-ecclesiastical, legislative, and  judicial.  I felt infinitely smaller
among them than at Willard's Hotel, Washington,
among the national legislators: it was all-" What do
you think of this, judge?"  "What came next, colo



THROUGH THE SETTLEMENTS.


277


nel?" There was only one lady at dinner, a Gentile
lady, the wife of one of the United States judges;
she was rather handsome, and rather reserved: the latter very naturally in such society. Mormons, of course,
could not find accommodation here for half a dozen
wives apiece, and, therefore, leave them all at home.
The chief topic of discussion was a proposal just
made to establish a daily line of stages from the Missouri, through Salt Lake to California; the journey to
be made in fifteen days, and, therefore, even from New
York, three or four days quicker than by the Panama
route. The difficulties of the plan, the vast expense
of providing animals for nearly 2000 miles' coaching,
the necessity of establishing inns of some kind every
ten or fifteen miles, the danger from Indians, and
the clear impossibility of continuing the line through
the winter, were set forth by one party; others demonstrated the certain profit from the scheme as a business, the advantages to the country of an influx of
wealth, the probability of their carrying the United
States mails, and receiving a good fat sum for the
work, &c. The Chief Justice particularly advocated
the plan, saying what a grandeur it would add to the
Church: people would say, "These Mormons we
abused and persecuted have succeeded in what our Federal Government dare not attempt; there must be
something in Mormonism, after all: " it must increase
the Church both numerically and in reputation. This
fiom a Gentile judge sounded rather like "soft saw



278


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


der," for which the Chief Justice had somewhat a character, as I have before mentioned.
Another and more amusing subject, though one not to
be broached before the Chief Justice, was the impending
trial of Judge Drummond; the same who very properly
denied the criminal jurisdiction of the Mormon probate
judges. The story ran thus:The judge fell to playing at cards with Abraham,
the one Jew of Utah; a quarrel arose; the judge
restrained his own hands, but next morning his servant
Cato, the one negro in Utah, spat in Abraham's face
and pulled his nose. The Jew appealed to the laws
of his country; for he was a Mormon and an Ameican citizen. Here was a grievous offence: it was
not simply an assault, but the assailant was one of the
accursed race, " the descendants of Cain and Canaan,"
and he attacked one of the chosen race, and the solitary one whom Mormonism had a claim to. The judge
and Cato were summoned before the very probate judge
whose jurisdiction Judge Drummond denied: in fact,
he ought himself to have heard the case. Here was
an elegant complication: the judge refused to come.
What could be done next?  Some said he would be
taken vi et armis, and probably have three months in
the Penitentiary; others thought the Chief Justice
should hear the case.
There also was a civil action against the Chief Justice,
for refusing to give a certificate to practise law to a man
pronounced competent by examiners whom he had ap



THROUGH THE SETTLEMENTS.


279


pointed; but somehow, for reasons no one knew, the
examiners, though Mormons, were expected to run
counter to their own signatures and support the Chief
Justice. Thirdly, there was a civil action against Judge
Drummond for false imprisonment.
Some months before, a Mormon freebooter, named
Munro, had fortified himself with a few companions
near the Humboldt River, on the Northern route to
California, and from thence plundered, and occasionally
murdered passers-by: Mormon or Gentile, all came
alike to him. Late in October a band of forty men,
strongly armed, were sent to effect his capture; which
they did by a surprise: no one commonly travels that
route after the snow sets in, so it was not difficult.
Munro's wife, it was said-for apparently he had
but one-begged them piteously, and at last with
hysterical vehemence, to let her husband go, promising that he should at once make for California;
but they refused her, for he had brought discredit on
the Mormon name: they returned to Salt Lake with
their prisoner, after six weeks' absence; not before
much anxiety for them had been expressed. On investigation it seemed next to impossible to obtain a conviction, all the witnesses being in California; accordingly the authorities determined to try him on some
traditional murder of an Indian on the Santa Clara.
As this place lies to the South, and in Judge Drummond's district, the prisoner was taken to Fillmore;
but, for want of evidence, the trial was postponed, and,




280


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


there being no safe prison at Fillmore, the Secretary of
State carried him back to Salt Lake City. Judge
Drummond, considering this act a breach of his judicial
authority, sent and seized on the persons of the Secretary
and two or three other officials, and both they and the
prisoner were brought back to Fillmore-in irons, the
last version of the story said. After a while they obtained a release, and now had brought an action against
the judge for false imprisonment; and this trial also
Drummond himself ought to have heard: assuredly the
judiciary of Utah was altogether in a queer jumble.
Jan. 7th.-Ninety miles from Fillmore to Parowan,
the next settlement. Left about noon; Savage having
been delayed by an interview with Brigham, from
whom he had several letters to convey: a fourhorse waggon in company; the Scotchman and
Thrupp, our real travelling companion, who caught
us up this morning, along with it. Camped from six
to eight for supper at the southern end of the
valley.  Plenty of dry cedar wood; no water but
melted snow. Travelled till one A.M. up the canon,
often a steep ascent. Camped from one till three, for
supper, or breakfast, at the c" Tavern," formed by two
cedar-trees interlacing their boughs so thickly as to
keep out snow and even rain fairly: it is a point of
honour not to build your fire so near either tree as to
injure it, nor yet to cut branches off them for fuel.
Still only thirty miles from Fillmore. Left at three,
the other waggon remaining behind. After sunrise,




THROUGH THE SETTLEMENTS.


281


began to descend; but, for several miles, the snow in
the canon was pretty well two feet deep-sometimes
more. The valley beyond a very fine one; mountains
on each side, and the bottom divided by low cross
ridges, pleasant shrubberies of pitch-pine and cedarwood. Reached Beaver Creek at noon-thirty miles
in nine hours; tolerably fagged ourselves, having
walked a great deal-the worst if not the best part-of
the way; the mules looked done up, but, after they
had found a bit of ground free from snow, and taken
a good roll in the dirt, they seemed to revive wonderfully: rolling, I think, does a mule more good than
either grain or water. The creek had a sharp bright
current; as we found, after, with great difficulty, breaking a hole in the ice, which was eight or nine inches
thick. The day was very brilliant, and the white stems
of the cottonwood trees around the creek shone like
marble columns against the blue sky. Beaver Creek
would be a fine position for a settlement: one was then
spoken of, and, probably, before now has been commenced.
Started at four: at sundown reached the end of the
valley, and began to ascend the cation; snow bad, but
not, as in the canion, at the North of the valley. After
three hours' ascent crossed the "divide;" then all
downhill into and along Little Salt Lake Valley: very
little snow. S. and myself both sleepy, or we might
have got on quicker, as the mules rattled on finely when
we kept them at it.  Reached Parowan at two A.M.



282


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


thirty-eight hours, and thirty of them actual travelling hours, over our ninety miles from Fillmore.
Hungry, and cold, and tired-the last most-so, as
soon as possible, we lay down to sleep on the floor before the fire.
Jan. 9th.-Little Salt Lake Valley is about the size
of Utah Valley, I should think; the hill-sides-except high up, where the snow is on them-are of a
bright red: we are in Iron County now. Parowan is
but a small settlement, with rather a dreary look; but
a fine stream, and a pretty hostess: the former frozen,
the latter frigid. At the same house with us, were two
or three men taking to Fillmore some Indian witnesses
against Munro: in spite of protestations to the Indians that they will be fed and well treated (and eventually become " a white and delightsome people "), they
have already made two or three attempts at escape.
Savage, though pretty friendly to Indians, only half
likes this plan of trying to convict a man of killing an
Indian on the evidence of Indians.  It is a difficult
question.  If a white man kills an Indian wantonly,
is it not murder? if you do not punish such acts, can
you blame Indians for taking the law into their own
hands?   But again: Indians, nine times out of ten,
will rob you if they can; this being their character,
if you shoot an Indian from a belief you are in danger, can you be blamed?  Ought a jury to convict a
white man of murder upon mere Indian testimony?
It is not unlike the case of negro evidence against




THROUGH THE SETTLEMENTS.


283


white men in the slave States: you may blame the
slavery system, but not along with that system the refusal to admit black evidence against white men-it
could not be done with safety.  So of uncivilized
tribes in a country professedly organized: but Munro
being an undoubted murderer, the Mormons-and it
is one of the defects in all their ideas of law-chose
to strain a point in the individual case.
I do not like Indians; no one travelling across Indian country does: they are a nuisance. Besides, you
see too much or too little of them: anything between a
paper acquaintance and a life among them is nasty and
uninteresting. But much of their hostility (as in the
last wars in Oregon and Washington Territories) has
been caused by emigrants wantonly firing at natives, just
for rifle practice, when they thought it safe; sometimes
when it was not so. Six men were camped on the Mohave; across the river, in the brushwood, a few Indians
were gathered around a fire; a squaw was cooking.
One of the Americans had made a bet that he would kill
an Indian before they got through. There was but another hundred miles of travel; and his companions had
twitted him with the loss of his bet. " Now," said he,
" I will save myself." The rest begged him not to fire,
both on account of the cruelty, as well as the danger
to the whole party if more Indians were in the neighbourhood; and the bet was offered to be drawn.
He laughed, brought up his rifle, and shot the squaw
dead. In half an hour the scene was changed: the




284


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


Mohaves are a warlike tribe, and there were many in
the rear; they gathered silently; silently crossed the
river, the few around the fire still busied about their
cooking and the dead squaw: the first sign of danger the travellers had was the sudden stampede of
their animals, several of which the Mohaves laid hold
of, and then advanced. At 100 yards the arrow of
the Indian is almost as deadly as the rifle bullet, and
150 against 6 are long odds. The Mohaves sent an ambassador to demand the surrender of the murderer;
he, to do him justice, was not a coward, and, unwilling that the lives of all should be sacrificed to his own
folly (for anything else I do not suppose he thought
it), prevailed on his comrades to let him go.  The Indians brought back the captured animals, and recrossed
the river with their prisoner; then, on the spot where
the squaw fell, they flayed him alive, and buried her,
wrapped round in the skin of her murderer. Spaniards, who have no love for their conquerors, say the
American still wanders on the banks of the Mohave,
and on cold frosty nights may be heard piteously wailing for his lost skin.  I have slept near the legendary
spot, and the night was among the coldest of those in January, when the moon is bright; but whether the sound
I heard was the wailing of the American, or the bark bf
a distant cayote, I cannot tell: cold as that night was, I
put my head far out of the blankets; for on such an
unromantic soil, one cannot afford to disbelieve a single
legend, or miss the sight or sound of a single ghost.




THROUGH TIE SETTLEMENTS.


285


Easy travelling to-day after the hard work of yesterday; very little snow even on the " divide," which is
merely a gradual rise of the valley bottom: the mountains on each side do not approach. The wind blew
very strongly from  the South, making quite a thaw.
This valley is a large one, stretching away far to the
West. Reached Cedar City, the last of the settlements, before dark, having made the 275 miles from
Salt Lake City under the week, one day of which we
laid by: not bad travelling, with the same animals all
through, and considering the snow on the ground.
Cedar City is not more of a city than any other
of the cities in Utah, but I like it best of the settlements. It is a square of half a mile, with almost contiguous houses on each side, and the hinder wall of
these forms the fortification of the place; the centre of
the enclosure is used as farm-yard ground, corrals
for cattle, &c., so that the place is very open and with
a delightful airiness; but, of course, in time, there
will be cross streets. We had often bantered Savage
about his having but one wife, as, being mail-carrier,
he ought, we said, at least to have one at each end and
one in the middle of the journey; but when I saw
what a pretty wife his was-for we stopped at the
house-I no longer wondered: she had the finest
eyes of any woman in Utah. Three or four bonny
children-for my part I think " bonny " the bonniest
word of any language-had come to the gate of the
city to hail their sire's return, and climb into his wag



286


TIIE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


gon for a ride. Found the mail-contractor had sold
the contract, and come to pay off Savage and take
away his mules; so we shall carry the mail no further.
Jan. 10th.-Walked up to the iron works, a little
North of the city; the foundry seems well built, but
nothing was being done now, as Coal Creek, their
water power, was frozen up.  The ore is brought
from some twenty miles off on the Western side of the
valley, as the settlement, like all others, is on the
Eastern side. I do not know why they do not smelt
on the spot. Wood and coal are used together for the
smelting, and there is plenty of pitch-pine and cedar
wood round. Fell in with an old " plains"' acquaintance, an Englishman-not of our train: he was an
iron roller by profession. I suppose he will become a
Mormon, for he said he thought polygamy right
enough; but not men of sixty marrying girls of sixteen, as is not very uncommon.  Tithes and taxes
most stuck in his throat. I wrote two letters for him;
to his brother, who was engaged in iron works at Philadelphia, and to a friend at a St. Louis rolling mill. I
could not help laughing, for he commenced the dictation
"I take up my pen to write these few lines," &c.
Met also, the "old Italian." HIe had started from
Salt Lake on a pony, and for precaution always slept
with the end of the picquet rope under his head; but
as it was of leather the wolves had gnawed it in two, and
the pony escaped a few miles beyond Cedar. So he re



THROUGH THE SETTLEMENTS.


287


turned to Cedar; and that he might the quicker recover
his pony and obtain more work (though I have never
found religion made a question in employment), he became a Mormon, with most indecent speed: partly for
fear the creek should freeze all over and prevent his receiving baptism. To me he did not profess any belief
in the religion, but said, "Now I can get as much tinkering work as I like, and charge what I like, for
they've all old coffee-pots, and no one to mend them;
and they make a great deal of me, for I can play the
violin (not the fiddle, even now!) and play for them
at church, and when there's a dance, and at theatricals.  I 'm  going to be married next week to a
pretty girl, and I shall have another before the winter 's out. Then in spring I shall pretend I'm going
to the next settlement, and slip away to California.
I '11 leave my wives what I 've made, and they '11 soon
marry again.  I want to go where there's money
to be made."




CHAPTER IX.


UTAH TO CALIFORNIA.
THE happiest lives are not those treated of in biographies, nor does the pleasantest journey always
afford the best materials of a narrative. If it is new
scenery that delights you from day to day, or the
incidents of travel, or the friendliness or peculiarities
of the people among whom you travel, you may find
plenty to write of; yet a journey with few incidents,
and through a country neither in the main beautiful
nor inhabited, does not necessarily lack a continuous
charm-that inherent in a rambling and gypsy life.
Our own company was but a trio, Thrupp, Savage, and
myself; though for two or three days we camped along
with the ex-mail contractor and his lieutenant.
Thrupp rode; we drove a couple of fresh mules; but
often he was glad to rest in the waggon, and one of us
glad of a turn riding. We took a little grain for our
mules.
Jan. 12th.-Camped on the Mountain Meadows-a
long valley bottom of grassland, now dry enough.
This is properly the Rim, as it rises slightly in the




UTAH TO CALIFORNIA.           289
middle, and water from one end falls into the great
Basin, from the other into the Colorado.
Jan. 13th, Sunday.-No   way along the water.
Crossed two ridges, and then had twenty-five or thirty
miles almost all down hill. The road wound, as it
were, through a shrubbery of fine juniper and brushwood, the red soil and scattered rocks continually
peering out. The Santa Clari is a rapid and sparkling
mountain burn; its valley is often very narrow between
high ridges and precipices, then widening out again,
and giving a view of big rugged mountains far in
front. Abundance of cottonwood along the water.
Indians used to be very hostile here, and from the
nature of the ground difficult to contend with on a
sudden; now they are friendly. Towards evening left
the Santa Clari; then ten or twelve miles of ascent,
and through some passes only a few yards wide: almost fine scenery. Camped, after forty miles in all:
plenty of cedar-wood and sage-brush; but no water
for the animals. Built a roaring fire, and after supper
made our bed on the ground, which was frozen hard.
Thrupp seemed very chary about dirtying his brannew blankets; put mine and the wolf-skins all below.
We stuck our coats, boots, and revolvers under our
heads, and slept capitally; protected by boughs of cedar
wood, formed into a hedge, against the wind which
blew fiercely, and with our feet to the fire. A cotton
quilt having been put uppermost caught fire in the
night from a spark, and burnt through all the upper
0




290


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


blankets, till it reached Thrupp's leg, and woke him.
Felt like laughing; Thrupp's blankets all with holes
big enough for a horse to put his head through; mine
escaped. Thrupp very angry with Savage for having
brought a cotton quilt; but Thrupp put it on the top
himself to keep his own bedding from the frost. Since
we left the Basin the day is quite hot, but the night as
cold as ever.
Jan. 14th.-Made twenty miles before breakfast (at
noon), down a long slope, with little vegetation but
various kinds of cactus, the very dreariest of all vegetation. Early in the afternoon struck the Rio Virgin,
a stream very unworthy of its name: it was muddy, but
with plenty of water, and a strong current, though
there had been no rain. The river winds about in its
valley, a hollow seldom half a mile wide, and shut in
on either side by cliffs; from the top of these the
" bench " spreads in almost level plains to the foot of
the low mountain ridges several miles off. Some timber and plenty of brush-wood along the water, but no
richness or pasture; soil a deep sand, very tiring to
our animals, and we had to walk most of the way ourselves. Crossed the river eight or nine times; water
never deep enough to wet the waggon-bed. Made
forty miles again to-day. Good bunch grass-though
quite dry-for the mules; enough sage-brush for fuel.
Jan. 15th.-Up, according to the order of the day,
when the morning star appeared. Met the up mail to
Salt Lake, a little behind time: it was carried on pack




UTAH TO CALIFORNIA.


291


mules. Soon after, to our great disgust, met a number of Piede Indians; there was no danger from them,
as we formed a strong party, five men and eight revolvers: besides, they knew S. well from his having
often travelled along that way, and one after another
came up crying, " How do, Suvvidge? " He gave them
biscuits and raw potatoes- a great deal more liberally
than I, knowing our limited stock, half fancied. They
were dressed, or semi-dressed, in grey rabbit-skins, and
though they have little to eat looked fat enough. If
they manage to steal a mule or horse they kill and eat
him; for they own no animals themselves, not even
dogs; and there are very few bits of ground where
you could raise an ear of corn after the Santa Clari:
we saw a few patches on that. They all had bows
and arrows, but looked very eagerly at a large bundle
of both which Leach (the ex-contractor) had bought
of Indians further North, and now tied on a packsaddle; but we kept a good look-out against their
stealing. One of them begged us to carry for him
a large ball of sitcup, dry stuff, looking like buffalo
chips, in reality made of juniper berries; it is sawdusty, and with a peculiar flavour, but still eatable;
one would not think it very nourishing. Another
Indian managed to reach and break a piece off the
ball, but was soon discovered munching by the rightful
owner, when an amusing scene took place.
We travelled, in all, about thirty miles along
the Rio Virgin, in which distance the river had sunk
o 2




292


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


from 100 feet or so below the level of the beach,
to a good deal over 300 feet; the ascent was up a
kind of buttress, projecting from the cliffs, very steep
and very narrow. The Indians helped us along by
pushing the waggon. Beach land no longer covered
with sage-brush, but very thinly with a very thin
shrub, of which no one here seems to know nor to
have a name: difficult enough to make anything like
a fire of it.
Camped early and started off again about sundown, wishing to strike the Muddy an hour or two
after dark, so as to escape the annoyance of Indians; but they had heard of our coming, and were
soon up on seeing our fire; only however a dozen or
so. Two of them were chiefs of the Muddy and Rio
Virgin bands of Piedes, respectively; and within the
last year they had been baptized Mormons, but, I suspect, knew little of Mormon theology. One of them
pointed ludicrously to his own filthy naked figure, and
said, "Toe -- mas!" and then to that of his compeer, who was a trifle cleaner, "I - - sak!"  More
wretched-looking savages one could hardly imagine:
they were fully as far below Crows or Cheyennes, as
the latter are below white men; yet they are those
who have had but little intercourse with whites: none,
probably, till within the last ten years; for this was
never a trapping country. They used to be hostile,
but, since their baptism, are friendly, and were not illmannered: they sat patiently around the fire till we




UTAH TO CALIFORNIA.


293


had finished our supper, and gave them one; that,
certainly, they soon cleared off, and, like Oliver Twist's
early companions, polished our dishes and spoons
afterwards.
The Muddy is a deepish and somewhat rapid stream,
a few yards wide, and of a luke-warm temperature,
but not at all bad-tasted. From this stream to Los
Vegos there is an interval of fifty-five miles without
water; in summer it is necessary-and even now it
was desirable-to travel some part of the way at
night. Started at two A.M. An Indian boy who had
expressed a desire to go, with Leach to California
turned traitor; the bows and arrows were his temptation.  As he could not untie their fastenings, he
unbuckled the pack-saddle, and went off with the
whole batch; to have followed him in the dark would
have been impossible, for the robbery was not discovered for half an hour, so he got off.
Terribly deep sand for miles together, so that when
we camped for breakfast at eight we had made less
than twenty miles. Los Vegos stands in the middle
of a valley some thirty or thirty-five miles wide, and
of considerable length, its lower end opening on the
Colorado.  It had during the last summer been occupied by a small party of Mormons, though, probably
(for geography in these parts is a little uncertain),
lying in a corner of New Mexico. The fort was a
space eighty or ninety yards square, enclosed by a wall
of dobies twelve feet high; except where the backs of




294


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


the two or three houses are built upon it. Close beside it flows a small delicious stream, such as you may
jump across, but deep, clear, and very swift-in fact,
truly a gushing stream.  Lower down there were
ploughed lands and cattle grazing.  The place is
not ill-suited for a settlement, and is already very serviceable to travellers; at this time there were two
dozen men there, but no woman. One man, I understood, had wished for a squaw as his wife: not one
specially pretty squaw, but only some squaw or other;
the president of Los Vegos (for even this fort had its
president-spiritual, not temporal-and we brought
him a long letter from Brigham) sent an embassy to
the Colorado Indians. They answered that they had but
few squaws and valued them very highly, in fact, loved
them quite as much as the Mormons did their cattle,
and could not spare one; however, on being pressed
further, they offered to give a squaw if a white woman
were brought in her stead: but this did not suit the
views of the ambassadors, so the wedding did not take
place. From the Mormon belief as to Indians, a marriage of this kind would not be objected to; though
the converse, I suppose, would: but a Mormon certainly would not be allowed to marry a negress; and
I have been told that if an elder were to ordain a
negro (though, perhaps, the ordination would be valid,
and confer the spiritual gifts of eldership), the elder
so doing would certainly be damned for it to all
eternity.




UTAH TO CALIFORNIA.


295


We stayed at Los Vegos to rest; having made the
200 miles from Cedar City in five days. We got our
mules shod, and also a fresh mule as a change; for
the travelling before us was, at least, as bad as the
preceding.  One evening a meeting was held, and
brother Savage was called on to address the meeting;
he acquitted himself better than I expected by farMormons have no nervousness in getting up off-hand
to speak. The president asked me to speak, but I
declined, not wishing either to soft-sawder, or have
a controversy.
Jan. 18th.-The cliffs soon after you leave the
valley of Los Vegos are very beautiful from their colour,
the purple and crimson as rich as those of the most
gorgeous sunset. The Mountain Springs, too, was a
pretty spot, among pine, and cedar-wood, and high
mountain tops; and though a regular camping place
on the route, yet with an air of solitude very impressive. A small bright-blue bird, the first sign of a
warmer climate, kept hopping round and, as it seemed,
warming himself at our pine-wood fire, all the time
singing merrily. Though at a considerable elevation,
we found no snow here, nor even saw it on the peaks
very much above us; but at Cottonwood Creek, fifteen
miles back, and before you begin to ascend, we came
upon a little in a sheltered place-the only snow we
saw in the four hundred miles from the rim of the
Basin to the Sierra Nevada. From the Mountain Springs
to the Kingston Springs you have forty miles without




296


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


water; the ground, till you descend from among the
mountains, is hard, but then loose sand again-wide
plains of dreary cactuses, and one long region of
utterly herbless sand, known as the Dry Lake. This
name is very applicable to the appearance; but I
believe there is no sufficient reason for supposing water
ever covered this or any of the "Dry lakes:" they
are not uncommon in this country.     Low mountain ridges are visible in the distance, but not in all
directions. We travelled from sundown to noon, with
only a couple of hours' halt between. The last few
miles there was all the appearance of a dry watercourse, with bushes round it here and there; but there
was no sign of a spring. I suppose it once used to
rain in this region, but not within the memory of late
travellers; and the mountains have no snow on them.
The Kingston Springs, several in number, rise out of
a small hillock of rotten black earth, covered on the
surface with a white crust; the effect of the alkali with
which the water is very strongly impregnated and made
unpleasant to drink. We left again about sundown
for a similar forty-mile journey to the Bitter Springs.
Early in tlhe evening a meteor as it fell passed distinctly
between us and a ridge some five miles in front; it
had an apparent size nearly twice that of Venus.
Reached the Bitter Springs at noon, in which I could
taste no bitterness at all, only an alkali taste as usual.
The water seemed to run southwards towards the
Colorado, but very likely never reached it: this is in




UTAH TO CALIFORNIA.


297


fact the explanation of the unfavourable nature of the
route; you are travelling the whole time parallel to the
Colorado, and yet-Los Vegos was an exceptionabove the head of the valleys that (I suppose) open on
to it. According to what I was told by some of the
Los Vegos Mormons who had explored a part of the
country, you cannot travel along the Colorado itself,
as the river continually passes between perpendicular
cliffs; nor nearer it than the common route, on account
of the impassable cross ridges. I do not know how
far the Great Basin may be considered to extend along
the Sierra Nevada to the South-West; but the whole
way on from the river where we crossed it, not a drop
of water conies from the right of our line of travel to
the Colorado, or consequently to the Pacific.
As there was tolerable bunch grass near the Bitter
Springs, we turned our mules out to feed; for they
had had nothing but a short allowance of grain during
the hundred and fifteen miles from   Los Vegos.
Thrupp and I lay down to sleep; Savage was to keep
one eye on the mules, but unluckily took out a Piede
vocabulary to learn the language, and being tired,
very naturally fell asleep too; so when we woke about
sundown the mules were all gone. Thrupp and Savage went different ways after them, and I, as soon as
possible, raised a fire; expecting, what happened, that
Thrupp would lose himself; and by the time the fire
blazed up high he found he was a mile away exactly
in the opposite direction from that he had started in.
o 3




298


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


Afterwards they both went out together, and when the
moon rose, found the track, turning back the way we
had come and striking the road eight miles off; but
several times the mules trotted away before they could
get near, and it was only after a long circumbendibus
they caught them, twenty miles from camp. Meanwhile I kept camp alone, and for security slept in the
waggon with my Deane and Adams and a big Colt
quite handy. Indians a short time before had killed a
man near the Kingston Springs; but there is not often
much fear of them in such a desolate country. The
stillness was intense: I do not believe there can be a
living animal round there at all, and vegetable life,
Heaven knows! is scanty enough; though here there
was a small thick prickly shrub not bad to make a
camp-kettle boil: but winter is not the time for
botanical observations, so this description must suffice. My two companions returned tired enough, and
not sorry for the contents of my whisky-flask, prudently kept during the whole journey for a pinch like
this. They and our mules had travelled eighty miles
in the twenty-four hours, and it is a bad choice between going on foot or riding without a saddle.
From the Bitter Springs one has fifteen miles
of gradual ascent till the ground rises almost to a level
with the tops of the ridges, and then a sudden steep
descent into a canion, and so to an entirely lower
range of country, viz. the valley of the Mohave. This
contrast of the slope on either side of the summit




UTAH TO CALIFORNIA.


299


appears one of the characteristics of the region. At
the very bottom of the canon were signs of former
running water; but all now was sand, hopelessly deep
and dry, and with scarcely a particle of herbage. The
ridges on each side, though by no means of enormous
height, were remarkable for the grace and variety of
their outline; which, in the clear cold moonlight, was
" blackly shadowed" on the white ground. I think I
never till that night half appreciated Byron's lines:
" 'T is midnight: on the mountains brown
The cold, round moon looks calmly down."
The mountains themselves looked intensely brown,
as their shadows did intensely black.
After passing the mouth of the cation we found
sand grass here and there: sand grass is smaller and
finer than bunch grass, and of the two the best feed,
though neither are bad, even when dry. The Mohave
is a tributary of the Colorado, and has at this point a
North-East direction: that is, right away from the coast
and the intervening watershed of the Sierra; further
on it turns Eastward till its junction with the greater
river. We travelled up it, with the exception of a
cut-off here and there, for fifty miles: the scenery at
parts is not unpleasing, and generally has a good deal
of what, for want of a better phrase, I call the
"border" colour and character; there is woodland
and some grass along the water, and animal life
begins to reappear. In the dusk, as I was getting




300


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


water, a cayote came down to drink, only four or five
yards off; after a minute or two he saw me and
trotted off gently. My revolver was in the waggon,
but I should not have fired at him any way; I enjoy
fishing and shooting as much as any one, but I will
not kill even a poor cayote for the mere sake of
killing, or to keep my hand in practice. Next
morning we luckily fell in with a provision waggon
taking supplies to a surveying party somewhere on the
river; for the Mohave lies within the boundary of the
State of California. People in an uninhabited country
are a good deal like ships at sea; they supply one
another as they can spare. Owing to Savage's hyperliberality to the Indians, we were out of everything
but a little flour, which is not very cookable without
adjuncts, and having made but a single meal the
preceding day, were quite in the frame of mind when
the smallest contributions are thankfully received.
We were now in Lat. thirty-four degrees, and the days
were very warm, but the nights continued as cold as
ever: one night we left some water in a kettle and it
was frozen into a solid lump by morning. Speaking
by guess, I should think the temperature of 2 P.M.
and an hour before daybreak must have differed
nearly fifty degrees Fahrenheit.
From the last crossing of the Mohave there is a
long gradual rise precisely like that described a page
or two back, except for a sprinkling of cedar wood
-the first for 180 miles-over the highest part; and




UTAH TO CALIFORNIA.


301


this rise terminates similarly in a sudden steep descent
and a caion, but on a far larger scale than the
preceding. We had travelled from an hour or two
after midnight, and when the sun rose, the snowy
peaks of the Sierra Nevada glistened to the right and
left before us, but not by any means at a very great
elevation above us. Mounting a small steep bank, in
a moment one looked down into this gigantic cleft or
caion between the mountains. The descent is steep,
perilously steep, except to walk down; and so sudd n
from your very feet, when you have reached the top of
the bank, that the fore and hind wheels of a waggon
seem almost to have a wedge between them. Cactus,
of a somewhat more graceful kind than what we had
previously seen, along with other prickly plants and
some evergreen shrubs and small trees, gave almost a
cheerful aspect to the mountain sides; then came live
oak, and afterwards running water, with cottonwood
trees as usual beside it. Though the main gap between the mountains widened out gradually, the cafon
rather narrowed as we advanced, becoming in fact but
the inmost of a number of folds (as a Greek would
have said); and at times our route lay in the stream
bed, with perpendicular cliffs on each side. Our progress was delayed a good deal by Savage in his reckless way driving fast down a stony descent, and breaking the tire of one of the wheels, which had to be
fixed with a rope and withe bands.
The sun disappeared from us very early; but as we




302


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


approached the mouth of the canon, the detached
pinnacles of Mount San Bernardino were still rosy.
Eagerly I looked westward, not for the faded sunlight, but for the ocean behind which it had faded:
one knew the ocean was still a good way off, but all
my heart and every sense turned none the less thitherward. Late in the evening we reached the outskirts of
San Bernardino, after a fifty-mile journey since our
morning start; but to reach San Bernardino itself was
quite a different thing: here, as around the settlement
of Utah, roads intersecting at right angles perplex and
mislead a stranger travelling after nightfall. We
wandered backwards and forwards for an hour and
more, and might at last have been obliged to camp out
again, had not some native passed along that way and
directed us; then we drove ill. Thrupp bade us farewell and went to his friends; we drove to the Bishop's
-a relative of Savage's, and the keeper of a hostelrynot sorry the day was done, and with the day the
journey, for we were in California. And yet I had
enjoyed the journey so much I was half sorry, though
eager for the Pacific, and letters from home: not very
eager, in truth, for a return to the restraints of city
life or civilised touring.
San Bernardino is a Mormon settlement, colonised
four years previously from Salt Lake; and, though in
California, polygamy is practised the same as elsewhere. A very large majority of the inhabitants of
the country are Mormons, and, in accordance with the




UTAH TO CALIFORNIA.


303


State Constitution, elect their own officers; who, very
naturally, do not indict themselves or their electors.
San Francisco papers now and then publish strong
articles upon the subject, but the low morality of that
city itself, and four hundred miles distance, make
people there far too apathetic for a most unprofitable crusade south. The semi-Spanish population of
Southern California are altogether friendly to the newcomers; who have in no wise interfered with them, but
on the contrary proved a very useful rear-guard against
Indian incursions. The place is built in orthodox
Mormon fashion, with detached houses and rectangular streets; but there is no earthen wall round it.
Agriculture is carried on to some extent in the neighbourhood, but owing to the drought can hardly be
said to prosper in the best seasons; grazing is the
chief business, and there is an excellent ranche purchased from some of the rich Spaniards of Los
Angelos, for about 30,000 dollars: but, unluckily,
by no means all paid for at present.  Two of the
twelve apostles, Rich and Lyman, were presidents
here, and under them three bishops formed the ecclesiastical government.
Sunday.-Went to meeting at the School-house,
but it was full before I got there-there is no other
church: benches were placed for some distance round
the door, by which the speaker stood, so as to be
heard outside as well as in. The sacrament was administered; but here, as at Salt Lake, water was used,




304


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


though pure wine can be obtained within forty or fifty
miles. Mine host the bishop seemed an enthusiastic
Saint, and gesticulated violently, though speaking
merely on the spiritual part of Mormonism. Afterwards Rich the apostle-usually called General Rich,
from his commission in the Nauvoo legion-spoke,
quietly, and in the main sensibly, like the good
plain sensible man he looked; except when once or
twice he essayed the metaphysical, which did not suit
him nearly as well as his compeer, Anasa Lyman.
Rich said that he had just received a letter from the
First Presidency, appointing him to a mission in England, for which he should start in a short time. He
was sorry to leave them, but his going or staying ought
to make no difference in their prosperity.  Brother
Amasa (then absent at Salt Lake) would probably return to them; but whoever should be sent to preside
over them, they ought to obey him, and then all would
go well with them. Then he spoke on some local
rights and wrongs. Brethren, he was told, had been
in the habit of making a short cut across Brother
-— 's land instead of going round by the road, and
the cattle had done a good deal of mischief; this
was most unjust, and must stop: he trusted to hear
no more of it.   Also on some provision for an
aged widow: she could support herself by making and
selling mats or baskets (I think) if she were once
started; she wanted a cottage built and roughly furnished for her; surely among them they could sub



UTAH TO CALIFORNIA.


305


scribe enough for that: he had appointed the Bishop
and four others he mentioned, as a committee to
attend to it. He should preach that evening at -
(six miles off); he did not know that any of those
present would want to come so far to hear hirn; still
he would mention it. When the meeting separated,
a great many people came up and shook hands with
him and he seemed very friendly and familiar with
them all. In the evening there was another meeting;
some women-old women-spoke, but they had nothing to say: it does not seem much the fashion for
the young women to speak.
There is now a considerable mixture of Gentiles in
the place, and it is not unlikely that sooner or later
this may lead to disturbances; for already they were
becoming discontented with the Mormon ecclesiastical government (which, by its nominees, is the civil
government also), and had organized an opposition
"ticket."  The tone of society is far less agreeable,
and more money-making, than in Utah; conversation
generally turned upon how much this man had lost,
or that man gained, and who would get such a
contract, and what was to be made of it: men seemed
hankering to run away to the mines, and yet without
pluck to do it-morally I mean, for there is no physical danger whatever. Some of the better sort complained of the double-facedness and dough-facedness
of both Mormons and Gentiles in San Bernardino,
who were afraid to speak their minds boldly, but




306


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


would "speak smooth words, having war in their
hearts." Altogether there was very little attraction
about the place.
The good Bishop was the husband of one, and but
one wife; a stout old lady, who could, I fancy, in case
of need have proved a thorough termagant. Household work she did none; there were negroes to do
that: niggers of all ages; half a dozen of them. The
Bishop had originally owned them when slavery existed in California, and afterwards they continued with
him in a voluntary servitude: now he was rather
anxious to get rid of them, as they had little to do,
and ate a good deal more than they worked.
At this time there was much noise about two
negro families, some fourteen or fifteen in all, that
their previous owner wished to carry away to Texas;
and some one appealed to the United States district
court on behalf of the children. Within a certain
time after California became a free State, slaveholders
were allowed to carry off their property; that time
had expired, and the "property" had a voice in
the matter: the plea made was that all the blacks
were going with their former masters of their own
free will, the mothers willing for their infant children. The court decided that the children should
not be carried off, nor any of the others; unless,
after being made fully aware of the effects of the step
they were taking, they should adhere to their alleged
previous choice; and the Marshal was ordered to pre



UTAH TO CALIFORNIA.


307


vent their abduction. The case was very similar to that
where a slaveholder takes his slaves, personal domestics for instance, into a free State; if they choose to
stay, as occasionally, but not very often, occurs, their
master has no remedy: they are not fugitives who
have come there by violating the laws of another State,
but he has voluntarily brought them where his rights of
property in them cease. According to legal phraseology, it is his own folly, and the law will not help
him.*
After a few days' stay at San Bernardino, the Bishop
had occasion to send down a waggon to the coast for a
load of flour from the north. Lower California is
never much of a wheat country, and this year the
corn had failed very largely. San Bernardino is by
road ninety miles from San Pedro and 120 from
San Diego, the latter by far the worst road. I took
the opportunity of a cheap conveyance to the former,
and my good friend and comrade Savage came along
a portion of the way, on a tour in search of cheap
ponies, that he might drive back a dozen of them to
the settlements in Utah and sell them for three times
their original cost. Once more then en route.


* This was written before the recent decision in Dred
Scott's case.




CHAPTER X.


SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
ONCE more en route, and for the last time. How long
even two or three days appear when you are but fifty
miles, as the crow flies, from that ocean you have been
approaching for months! The journey is very different from that of last week; we have left the snow
far north, except where it hangs hoarily on the mountain peaks. This is a climate where the January sun
scorches with a summer-like heat at noon; and, instead of a biting frost, the drooping mist and night
dew drench the blanket of the sleeping traveller, deliciously compensated by the unsurpassable freshness of the morning air.   Mountain ridges many
thousand feet high, look down upon pasture lands of
young green clover or newly-ploughed fields, enclosed
by high willow hedges already in leaf, or rows of
dark stumps that you could hardly think the parents
of the luscious grape; and here and there you may
see a flat-roofed Spanish house, having in its rear a
little grove of trees, through the dark leaves of which
the bright oranges peep to tell you they are ripening,




SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.


309


though a white blossom  or two still remains.  In
front of the house a dark haired lady sits in the verandah, idly fanning herself, while at a short distance her
lord, or father, dressed in black, and with a highpeaked straw hat on, stands quite as indolent, his
hands in his pockets, or one of them holding a cigaretto, as he directs a little band of Indians in the cultivation of his garden or vineyard. Further on you may
see scattered live oak, and low green sand-hills occasionally breaking into cliffs. But while my companion, Uncle Bill, calculates how many thousand head
of cattle and horses old Domingas may have feeding
on the green pasture-land, and how much he may
still be worth after all the Americans have swindled
him of-for Uncle Bill is a Mormon, and so but half
an American-I, oblivious both of him  and old Domingas, and of the scenery round, and even (shame
on me!) of the dark-haired Spanish girl in the verandah, look forward eagerly to where, through a gap in
the low green sand-hills westward, a dark blue line appears on the horizon, and that I believe to be no other
than the broad Pacific.
If one could have cried out the cry of the Ten
Thousand at one's first sight of the Salt Lake, how
much more so at that of the veritable ocean! But
then my companion would not vouch that one was
able to see the Pacific from this point: nay, he
could see no blue line at all, so my enthusiasm
was reduced to the luxury of expectation.   This




310


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


was interrupted-and very amusingly-by our catching up a young Jew, a sort of merchant pedlar, with
his packs slung upon a pony.  After a fitting salutation"You are a Jew, are you not?" said Uncle
Bill.
The other assented.
"We are of the tribe of Ephraim-the Mormons,
you know, of Salt Lake."
This is one of the pieces of gross, almost inconceivable, absurdity to be found in Mormonism; the people
are gathered, you might almost say, from every nation
under heaven, and yet they profess to believe, and
numbers do believe, that in a literal sense they are
children of Ephraim: conversion is a proof of your
having a drop of the true blood in your veins. The
Jew was fairly flabbergasted at this new relationshipdid not know what to make of it, whether to laugh or
to embrace this new-found Israelite. Uncle Bill, with
many polite remarks, added that the rest of the Ten
Tribes were in the North country, and would turn
up presently, and they and the Jews be gathered to
their own country-nay, the Jews were already being
gathered to Jerusalem: some had gone there.  This
was too much for the Jew: it was becoming serious.
He was doing a thriving business, and had no wish to
be "gathered:" he would sooner have been left, unlike the last rose of summer, when all his unlovely
companions were gone, to monopolise the trade. Los




SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.


311


Angelos was his present Jerusalem, whither he was
going to replenish his stock, now rather low by prosperous sales; and to be "gathered!" the very idea
was rank treason. He could not laugh, but rapidly
turned off down a road to the right, and we saw no
more of him. I wished I could have photographed
his face two or three times during the conversation.
Our road lay by a broad sluggish river, on which,
and on the clover-pastures around and beyond, were
millions and millions of wild geese, white and grey,
the latter a good deal the most wary: I saw more
geese there in two hours than in my whole life before
or since; whole acres were covered with them, as thick
as daisies on a lawn three summer days unmown. I
fired my revolver several times ineffectually; never being able, from the level nature of the ground, to get
within fifty or sixty yards, before they rose. In other
parts the grass, for miles together, was strewn with
little heaps of earth thrown out from the burrowings
of the earth-squirrel, who generally sat on the top of
the heap, sunning himself —a reddish-gray object,
very much like the prairie-dogs; but that the latter
are nearly white, and of larger size. It was too late to
reach San Pedro that evening, at least to do anything,
so we camped out once more in a green hollow, beside
an estuary, three miles from the coast. Waking up
thirstily in the small hours, one heard through the
silence, broken by no near sound but the tinkling




312


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


of the mule-bell, that long-wished-for deep monotone
of the Pacific;
"There was no spot
Unhaunted by the murmurous sound of waves."
It is a sound, I think, that we all love; even if it
sets us musing, perhaps, a little sadly now and then.
Moreover I had not heard the sound for so long-for
it is one not heard at sea-not since I had left England. Indeed the sound of these waves, of this ocean,
I had never heard before; so, January 30th, you will
be remembered by me no longer merely as the deathday of an English king, or the wedding-day of a
French despot.
Alas! for expectation and enthusiasm.   I had
wished the morrow's sea view to be one such as
you may look at from the top of the Undercliff at
Bonchurch: even the dreariness of a low sandy beach
would have been something; but there was the unhappiest mediocrity: the green plain of grass and clover was but some fifty feet above the sea level, to
which it dropped with dull sandy cliffs; there was
neither rock nor beach below, and the sea was glassy:
it was a dead calm, but for a slight groundswell; and
a grey mist over the water prevented my seeing a mile.
Nevertheless, I walked down and bathed my hands in
the water, and felt I had crossed the continent. This,
perhaps, looks like sentimentality: if one had crossed
the Isthmus of Panama it might have been so; but
having left the Atlantic sea-board eight months before,




SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.


313


and travelled of the last 2000 miles a great part on
foot, and all laboriously, I had not unnaturally something of the feelings of a pilgrim arrived at the shrine
of his devotion.
And of San Pedro, what? San Pedro is a nom de
-Heaven knows what-a nom de trois maisons. In
truth there are just so many, a warehouse being
included; so, as the San Diego steamer had not yet
passed on its down voyage from San Francisco, one
had little temptation to remain there. Uncle Bill had
soon loaded his waggon with fifty hundred-pound
sacks of flour from the north, and we set off again in
company. As bad luck would have it, the tire of a
hind wheel broke as we trotted down a long slope,
four or five miles from San Pedro; this brought us to
a stand. We unloaded the waggon, and by the time it
was done had the appearance of millers; then dissected the waggon, rather a heavy one for two men to
handle; and finally, Uncle Bill poized the tireless
wheel between the two fore wheels, and, harnessing
his swiftest span of mules, drove off to the blacksmith's, while I remained to guard the cargo and the
other mules. Next morning we rebuilt and reloaded
the waggon, and again with some satisfaction contemplated its, if not our own, miller-like appearance. I
bade good-bye to worthy Uncle Bill, and walked some
eight miles to Los Angeles, which lies out of the direct
route from San Bernardino, or the Monte, to the
coast.
p




314


THIE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


In the old time, before the American conquest, when
California (or rather a small strip along the coast, for
the Indians possessed all the remainder) was under a
Mexican government, Los Angeles was the capital. It
is a little bit of a town, less than half a mile square,
but of some trifling commercial importance, as the
market of a very large, though a thinly-populated
district, including San Bernardino, and, to a small
extent, even Salt Lake City itself. German and Polish
Jews have still the main part of the business in their
hands, though Americans are gradually working their
way into competition; neither race are above keeping restaurants, billiard-rooms, and gambling-houses,
which form a third of the place, and are the delight
and ruin of the Spanish population.  Excepting some
few ugly new brick buildings, Los Angeles consists
entirely of one-story houses with their flat roofs
extending over the side walks, and forming arcades;
the white and green of these has a cheerful and
pleasant appearance, and no doubt they are very
necessary in summer-time: indeed, a Spanish house,
with its thick walls, high ceiling, and long large room,
is by no means an uncomfortable place to live in,
though Americans accustomed to five or six stories
think the waste of ground terrible.
The Spanish population are, I believe, as yet in the
majority; though one way or another ousted from all
civil offices of importance; and, gradually losing all
their wealth and position, they are a prey to their




SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.


315


sharper neighbours.  One of the first things that
catches your eye is a notice on doorposts and in
newspapers, such as the following: "Venta por el
Sheriff. John Smith v. Jose Sepolva. El Sheriff
vendera a la puerta de la casa di Condado al mayor
postor, Todo ese &c. del dicho Jose Sepolva." So
little justice is done between American citizens in
California, that no one, I suppose, even pretends
that a Spaniard, unless he offered a very heavy
bribe, would have any chance of a favourable decision. Spaniards feel this, and also that they have
come into competition with a more energetic race;
consequently alongside with the former notice, you
may read another saying that the Mexican government
has offered lands and protection to all Spaniards who
wish to leave California and settle in the border State
of Sonora, and exhorting as many as can to go there
while they have anything left to go with.
Even from this (though I have come to it from a
great deal more) you may very soon come to a conclusion as to what benefits the existing population of
any portion of Spanish America will gain by the annexation of their country to the United States. The
very poor, who were a good deal tyrannized over
previously, may gain; but no others: political liberty
is nominal; the plebeians may vote for which patrician they prefer as consul for the ensuing year,
but a plebeian cannot be elected.  Americans, of
course, carry their own freedom with them; but
P 2




316


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


American or Anglo-Saxon nature seems in all parts
of the world to have very little sympathy with those
over whom its dominion is extended, if of another
race and languge: at any rate it is so in California; and the term "a white man," as distinctive
from a Spaniard, shows how much more likely it is
that the latter race should remain abject and die out,
than that it should merge in the former. Religious
freedom, I suppose, exists; there seemed to be a sort of
Protestant church, with a bishop self-ordained, and pretending to some direct revelation from heaven: an idea
perhaps borrowed from the Mormons. A letter from
a Catholic had just then appeared in the newspaper,
addressing this individual, saying he had insulted their
bishop, and that daggers awaited him at night; that
the mark on his face (some slight deformity), which he
pretended to have been placed there by God as a mark
of distinction, was in reality the print of Satan's
hand; that he was trying to loosen the foundations
of the Holy Apostolic Church, but would merely pull
down enough to bury himself, and that very shortly
too. Very likely there will be murders on both sides,
and the murderers, if caught, will certainly be executed
with entire impartiality.
Neither Southern California nor Los Angeles was
at all in a prosperous state when I was there. Cattle
are the wealth of the country; and all the winter they
had been starving for want of rain. When rain comes
the feed becomes good, the cattle grow fat, speculators




SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.


317


from the upper country buy them, money pours in, and
some one or other takes the new house that Jack has
built; unluckily, however, Jack has failed in the mean
time.   Rain is very uncertain here: the country
seems to lie between the rainy season of Alta California and that of the tropics, and to get neither; for
Upper California certainly has a rainy season, and
hardly a drop at other times. Some one has yet to
account for the climate; why you can sit without a
fire in San Francisco while it is freezing intensely at
Baltimore. Till this is explained, Lieutenant Maury
seems a little hard in declaring that but for the
gulf-stream (" our gulf-stream" as American newspapers say) England would have a winter as cold
as that of Labrador. Fruit was tolerably abundant,
oranges being generally sold by the bunch; and the
native wine was very fair drinking; the one specialty,
however, were the raisins, which they dry in the
shade; and thus preserve a great deal of the delicious coolness of the grape, without that excess of
sweetness which spoils most raisins. Nothing was
very cheap, as there is no copper coinage, the lowest
coin being the Real of twelve and a half cents.
Out-of-the-way place as Los Angeles is, an old
"Illustrated" had found its way there; it was that
containing the sentence of Messrs. Strahan, Paul, and
Bates. Americans were not a little surprised at such
even-handed severity upon offenders of that position
in life; the more so from a comparison with the great




318


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


San Francisco bankruptcies, from which two or three
of the most guilty and fraudulent concerned escaped
scot free, and, what is more, with 100,000 dollars, or
200,000 dollars, of assets in their pockets.
Sunday.-One had a tolerable view of the women
of Los Angeles on their way to and from High Mass;
with a very few exceptions 'they wore the jnantilla, a
head-dress I am partial to; but it is sadly disappointing when it covers so many ugly faces: I saw
but three pretty women, and not a dozen in all even
moderately good-looking. The steamer reached San
Pedro early in the morning, and the stages full of
passengers drove in by noon. Later in the day
waggons came; they are very heavy and drawn by
six or eight span of mules, the driver riding on the
near wheeler, and keeping those in front going by
his voice: sometimes the end of the pole, and generally all the bars, draggled on the ground. Though
the shops were shut, the business of importation did
not seem at all to slacken on account of the day.
As I strolled along the streets a clear voice hailed
me from the opposite side, "Italiano! Italiano!" and
one of my old acquaintances of the Plains came up
joyfully to shake hands once more. We had a long
and pleasant walk among the gardens and vineyards of
the neighbourhood, during which old times and new,
all we had done together, and all since, and all we
meant to do, were fully discussed. "E il vecchio?
avete visto?" said he. When I told him how the old




SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.


319


Italian had lost his horse near Cedar City, and then
went back and turned Mormon, and probably by this
time had two or three wives whom he would desert in
a few months, my friend, who was a sincere Catholic,
and an honest fellow to boot, exclaimed, with horror,
" 0 birbante di vecchio!" I responded; "0 cattivo
cavallo!"  For himself he was a contented soul at all
times, and with light agricultural employment and pay
in "oro,' none of the odious " lardo " to eat, but his
wonted (and long unwonted) "formaggio," and, to
make all go pleasantly, a pint or two of "vino " as in
the " bel paese "-what more could he want?
Soon afterwards I met another old acquaintance,
the little Frenchman, who from goldsmith and artist
and Algerine soldier had now become cook to a
French restaurant, and at this moment was habited
in small white apron and paper cap. None the less
we shook hands: pride is far too heavy an article
to carry over land to California. Pity, however, I
did feel: not for him certainly, for such little vicissitudes are among the enjoyments of life to those who
can enjoy them; but deep pity for those who had to
eat of his cooking. We talked as long as he could
stay; though somewhat at random, for he would rattle
on so fast, while I, from my previous two hours' Italian
conversation, could not help now and then dropping
in my bad French a word from the other language, to
his utter mystification. Best of all little Frenchmen,
though professing from the first to know Tuscan, to




320


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


the last he never understood a word of Italian; not a
syllable more now than ever: how should he? After
two months in the Italian mess, he asked me if
"mal e detto" did not mean bread and bacon; for
his messmates, when they had finished their rations of
those articles, always glared round hungrily, and cried
"Maledetto! maledetto! maledetto!!?'
Next day turned up my old friend the redoubted
Nemehaw; who, though rather a sloven at all times,
and dreadfully pusillanimous when himself sick, had
been too kind to me during my sickness to be readily
forgotten. He told me a good deal of their journey
through to California, and one fact-though he did
not tell it for that purpose-not a little to his own
credit. Perhaps some one may still recollect the old
Irishman, the same who was discharged from our train
at Big Nemehaw Creek, and who along with the
United States troops, and afterwards with a Mormon
goods-train, had managed to reach Salt Lake City.
He started thence for California with nothing for him
to carry through but a small bundle, and nothing to
carry him through but his own feet and his own
indomitable pluck: but pluck will scarcely keep a
man warm, when asleep upon the bare ground in the
open air upon a winter's night. Nemehaw had a
buffalo robe, and a man may sleep rolled up in one
very comfortably almost anywhere; after a few days,
he and his party caught up the old man, and thenceforth the two slept together under the one buffalo



SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.


321


robe, with sage-brush, or what they could find, as a
mattrass between them and the frozen ground. Any
one who has camped out in cold weather, when at
least half your bedding is wanted below, and knows
the suffering of having none, will appreciate the selfdenial: it was the last verse of " Gaffer Grey "-they
two were content if they travelled through without
getting their limbs actually frozen. I did not commend Nemehaw; for though never impelled to doing
a kind act or relating one by any idea of commendation, he, like many other good-hearted people, had a
small amount of vanity, which, if aroused, would cause
him to drag the circumstance again and again into
conversation, till, instead of its original fragrance, it
would begin to stink in your nostrils.
From Cedar City southward, the various small parties had united into a large body of forty or fifty, and
they reached the Mohave without a morsel of food
amongst them all, except a span of mules, and a
couple of very lean baggage-horses. These were saved
from the teeth of their owners by the appearance of a
lame steer, a derelict of a large Texas herd bound
westward: by midnight there was no derelict of him
for the cayotes but his blood and bones-all else was
eaten or packed up. Among these forty or fifty was
my old messmate, Moran, whom the forbearance of
myself and the Mormon authorities had allowed to depart free, when arrested for the theft of my revolver.
Moran expressed to Nemehaw that he bore me no
P 3




322


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


malice for my part in the affair. No malice! truly
the nature of some men approaches the angelical! no
malice! when I had positively taken from him my
own property! What a true spirit of Christian forgiveness! I wonder whether as a Catholic he had
been to confession; but, as I have before said, Catholics in America, except in great cities, are apt to become rather lax, and even a little unbigoted.
Nemehaw, who was about the best Catholic of the
lot, seemed a little ashamed when admitting to me that
he had not yet been to confession, and tried to palm
off something about the priests at Los Angeles being
Spaniards. Now, he had no more chance; he was off
to the Kern River mines along with an Englishman, a
trader there. I walked out with him a mile or two,
and we shook hands finally as the ox-team of their big
waggon began plashing through the ford of the Los
Angeles River. May your fortunes, Nemehaw, be as
bright as the river of Los Angeles, and as high as
your spirits when you crossed it that evening! for you
deserve them all! Yet, after all, there is something
of sadness in the parting of old friends who are never
likely to meet again; and so Nemehaw, and still more
I, who had no particular cause for exhilaration, both
felt it.
As I stood one morning in the enjoyment of my
cigar and the sunshine and the fresh breeze from the
neighbouring sea, a straw passed by, showing which
way the wind blew. Two or three little Spaniards




SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.


323


began to play marbles close to me; presently an American boy joined them: the nasal twang of his English, and-which had a more ludicrous effect-of his
smattering of Spanish, proclaimed him, unmistakably, a "Down-Easter."  After some few games, in
which the American, even by aid of bullying-for
he was the biggest-could not succeed in winning
much, he changed his tone, and, producing a large
bag of marbles, offered them for sale with all the ostentation of an auctioneer.  He had bought them at
Boston, and brought them by Panama to San Francisco, and then to Los Angeles, and they had cost
Heaven knows how much at first, and were such marbles as had never before been seen in Los Angeles;
nevertheless, he would sell them as a great favour, but
the cost of carriage was high, and, of course, he must
have his profit too. The little Spaniards had money,
and were caught with the big talk, but the big price
staggered them; at last one of them examined the
marbles closely.  "Why," said he, "these are the
marbles Pedro lost the other day to an Americano! "
The latter, after some vain denial, burst out laughing:
few Americans of whatever age lose their countenance
in any fix.  I mused on this incident during the
remainder of my cigar. Was not this a commentary
on the notice headed "John Smith v. Jose Sepolva"?
This boy was not ten years old, and he was as systematically cheating the young Spaniards as his father
could cheat their fathers. I mused further. " I never




324


TIHE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


knew what childhood meant-I had no childhood,"
says Gerald Massey.   Who can read these words
and not sympathize with the poet? Yet here was a
boy born and brought up in New England, that boasts
to be the highest-civilized part of the United States;
and what childhood had this boy known!  I should
be sorry to malign a country, the manly independence
and self-sufficiency of whose people none can admire
more than myself, and in which I have received kindness; yet I am afraid New England has thousands of
such children; from infancy they learn to worship the
Almighty dollar, and, if need be, systematically to lie
and cheat for it: that passes for "'cuteness."
There was some amusement in the stage ride down
to San Pedro; for the seven or eight stages, though all
but one were owned by the same firm, raced along gallantly, and covered the twenty-seven miles in two hours
and a half, including a dilatory change half-way. Some
of the horses were very little broken, and one for ten
minutes refused to start; perhaps it might have won
the day, had not the happy expedient of emptying a
brandy-flask in its ear been at last hit upon.
Embarkation was troublesome, there being no quay
at San Pedro, and the water is so shallow that the
smallest boat could not get within several yards of the
shore. I deliberately walked into the water, while
several, more adventurous or less burdened, by pirouetting from rock to rock saved their feet a wetting;
others, equally adventurous but less skilful, in at



SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.


325


tempting the same went "headers" into the water,
amidst the laughter of the more agile or more prudent.  At last we stepped on board the Sea-bird.
My dress had still a good deal of the roughness of an
overland journey, and, not unnaturally, I was. at
first taken for a steerage passenger; under that idea
some porter, or being of that sort, ordered me out of
the way very rudely. I took no notice, but a cabin
passenger, Wells Fargo and Co.'s express agent,
sharply reproved the fellow for insulting a man merely
because he was poor.
" He ought not to be poor, then! " was the reply.
A strange sentiment in a republican country, but
the common feeling in California; however, " Wells
Fargo" spoke sharply again; although himself evidently supposing me a steerage passenger. The whole
affair simply amused and instructed me.  Perhaps,
according to the Spanish proverb recorded by Dr.
Trench, " It is easy to walk if you are leading your
horse by the bridle: unless the horse is a mule, an
Irishman might say; and, in truth, there is a difference between leading the horse, and being able to
mount him when you like. And so it was in my
case; my stirrup-though, doubtless, one should not
require stirrups unless the horse be a high horsemy stirrup was a letter of credit supposed to be lying
in the San Francisco Post-office, or, the worse luck,
in the dead-letter office: in fact, it had been at San
Francisco four months (for my journey had occupied




326


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


three months beyond my expectation), and, had I
arrived six hours later, would have been re-posted
for England. After all, some one might observe, "If
you do not dress like a gentleman, you cannot expect
to be treated like a gentleman."  True, 0 King of
men! but one must dress as one can, not as one
would like; moreover, if you have but ten dollars in
your pocket, and an uncertainty of obtaining more,
and a certainty, if not, of starting, and of having no
choice but to start, for the diggings at once, it is
pleasanter to land in a dress you may doff in case of
prosperity than one you must doff in case of adversity.
And so much for the outer man.
The voyage up was uneventful; we touched at
Santa Barbara, a clean-looking little Spanish town,
where the Spaniards still sway the municipality, and
where, strange to say, instead of office-seekers, you
have begging offices. At this point the mountains
run down to the sea, and, till one approaches Monterey, the coast is walled by steep mountain ridges;
sometimes sheer from the water's edge, sometimes
with bench-land fifty or a hundred feet above the
water-level intervening: in character and appearance
they are precisely similar to those from Utah downwards; sierras, darkened here and there with patches
of cedar-wood, and seamed with innumerable gullies
and ravines. For upwards of 200 miles one could observe no sign of cultivation, or even habitation; though
all the daytime we stood in very close to escape the




SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.


327


swell and the wind, that, during the spring months,
come from the North-West along the coast, with all
the regularity of trade-winds. We stopped at Monterey for a couple of hours, but it was dusk, and I
saw nothing of the place.
On the morning of February 8th-I recollect the
day well-Point Reys loomed on our North-West;
after breakfast the haze cleared off, and the sun shone
brightly as we approached the entrance of the bay of
San Francisco, ambitiously, but not inelegantly,
styled the Golden Gate. It must have been so often
described, and is so little worth description, that I
shall say nothing about it. As we passed the little
island of Alcatraz, about the size of San Juan d'Ulloa
at Vera Cruz, several Americans on deck pointed out
to each other the progressing fortifications, and boasted
that even now, in case of a war, the guns could sink
any British fleet. I listened silently, and, thinking of
Cronstadt and Sebastopol, could not smile. Others
laughed over the disputed ownership of the island,
that, small and bare as it was, had three claimants:
the United States government, now in possession and
rather likely to keep it; second, the banking-house of
Palmer, Cook, and Co., upon some purchase or grant
from Colonel Fremont; and, finally, one Limantour,
a Frenchman, with old Mexican grants of a most suspicious character.  An elephant was this Limantour;
nothing was too large or too small for his trunk: neither the fee-simple of half San Francisco, nor a few




328


THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS.


island-rocks that sea-birds hardly built upon. As one
of the papers said-" Our bay is his, and the fulness
thereof; he has but to draw a line around a space of
ocean, and the commissioners give it him. O moderate
Limantour! why did you claim but half San Francisco,
when it was so easy to have obtained the whole?"
But now the Expressmen fling their little bags into
their respective boats and watch eagerly the race
between the boats, and then between their horsemen
along the north pier, till they pass out of sight over
the hill beyond; and even then betting continues
brisk. That is the North pier; this green conical
hill is the Telegraph hill, and the atom of beach at its
foot is the North beach. Mark that wretched-looking
hut right out in the water, and connected only by a
few posts with the land; is its lord "fastidious of the
land?"  Perhaps so: it may have been a land of
disappointment to him; nay, perhaps, he could not pay
the rent of a square foot of dry land. In a few days
he will have 10,000 dollars offered him, and his hut
and the North beach become famous, when the ledger
and cash book of the bankrupt Adams and Co. are
washed ashore there, to the dismay of the fraudulent
receiver, the suit against whom is already in its fifth
day. Ah! now we round the corner, and the bay fairly
opens before us; we are in the bay of San Francisco
now, and in port.




CHAPTER XI.


SAN FRANCISCO.
San Francisco, February, 1856.-St. Joseph was the
commencement of my journey, and San Francisco its
conclusion. Earlier and later rambles were of a different character, and an account of them would only
lengthen the volume unnecessarily and destroy the
unity of its subject. Notwithstanding, as my stay at
San Francisco very closely preceded the re-establishment of the Vigilance Committee, I shall attempt
very briefly to sketch the demoralization and the
reaction against it that led to that event.
Scores of books have been written about California,
and scores might yet be written; for, in truth, California is a country that consumes its own memorials
in a fiery progress.  It is like a fire sometimes
smouldering, sometimes burning fiercely, so that the
images among its coals are perpetually changing; old
ones dropping away in dust and new ones forming.
He who looks on it to-day will perhaps scarcely know
it to-morrow, nor even to-day can different eyes trace
out all the same images; but one thing all may see




330


SAN FRANCISCO.


-that the fire is unextinguished and at a single
breath will burst into flames.
In America chief cities are rarely capitals: New
York is not even the capital of its own State. Centrality is as much sought after as centralisation is
avoided. Accordingly, while San Francisco is the metropolis of California, Sacramento City is the capital.
The latter was the seat of the Legislature, the former of
commerce, wealth, venality, bribery, jobbery; of magisterial and judicial corruption; of luxury, vice, shamelessness; of poverty, wretchedness, vice, and crime,
voluntary, or as a substitute for starvation. Not but
that all these could be found elsewhere in California;
but what was elsewhere scattered, was here collected,
intensified, reproductive. So if a reaction took place,
it was sure to be here the most violent.
As a corporation the city was miserably poor. All
the streets were in bad repair; those above the water
(for a considerable portion of San Francisco is built
on piles into the bay) were dangerous: the planks
worn out and broken through, leaving large holes,
popularly known as "man-traps."    On the steamer,
from Panama arriving at midnight, a large number of
passengers left the vessel, fell through the man-traps,
and were drowned: some accounts give the number of
the drowned as thirty-five; none lower than ten or
twelve. The newspapers made a jest of the whole
affair: " hopeful individuals, just as they fancied
themselves out of all danger and fairly landed on




SAN FRANCISCO.


331


the golden shore, went plump to the bottom"-and
so on. That may be taken as a specimen of feeling.
Men fell through every night; a body found in the
bay excited no suspicion of murder, and therefore
murder was rife. Wharf-houses-low inns and lodging-houses above the water were so called-were notoriously places of robbery and disappearance of men;
investigation was never made: it was no one's business. Bodies were found almost daily; if not, the
coroner, as it turned out afterwards, sat on the same
two or three times successively. His fees, and compensation for animals killed or maimed, cost the city
more than to have repaired the streets; yet the mantraps still remained open. Sinecures were numerous:
the Plaza, as though insane, had a keeper, and (I
think) a deputy-keeper also; and, what was worst of
all, the very money that should have been spent in
improving the city was secretly spent in bribery to
keep it unimproved.
Morality was at a very low ebb. Matrimony was a
very temporary, and not a very holy estate. Divorces
were frequent. The newspaper remark was, "The
Mormon fashion is to multiply wives; ours is to
change them: that is all the difference. We, like
them, can take a new wife every week: marriage is
fast becoming merely a legalized cohabitation." Other
newspaper paragraphs describe the depraved state of
society, and say more than I care to do. Gambling,
though forbidden by law, and compelled to feign con



332


SAN FRANCISCO.


cealment, still' flourished in darkness. Not all citizens,
but certainly all classes, gambled; the richest of the
merchants, and the poorest of the Chinamen.
As coins from all European countries and Indian
rupees also mix and pass in California, so you have
not only Europeans and Americans, but Asiatics. The
Chinese, however, prefer Sacramento and the mining
country to San Francisco; up there they made a good
profit out of everything. It seemed they had not left
behind their national differences; they were still
rebels or imperialists.  "The blacksmiths here," wrote
a correspondent of a San Francisco paper "' have been
fully employed the last ten days in making knives for
the Hongkongs and Shanghais; the fight is expected
to come off in a few days." Ultimately it was, I
believe, prevented. The Chinese still practised their
own religion. It was just a moot question whether
the introduction of paganism into a Christian country ought to be allowed; but few people were Christians enough to trouble their heads on such a matter.
The Chinese, however, were much disliked: filth was
the most frequent and most just charge against them;
their thrift and stinginess the real causes of their detestation. As white men only could become citizens,
it was held that the Chinese were not white; the
State Legislature also prohibits their landing without
payment of one hundred dollars each. This, however,
as probably unconstitutional by the federal laws, the
port-officer did not choose to exact; consequently they




SAN FRANCISCO.


333'


crowded in as they chose. The riff-raff of other countries had long settled here, and continued to arrive.
The diggings might no longer be a great attraction
to the honest poor of other countries; but criminals
and outlaws still sought the country as one of lawlessness if not of gold. They preferred San Francisco to any other part; there was (as they thought)
less danger of Lynch-law there than elsewhere: besides they were practitioners in the vices and crimes
and elections of great cities. These men you might
see lounging about wharfs and markets, and the doors
of drinking-saloons and billiard-rooms: the day they
spent in "loafing" and theft, the night in outrage
and robbery.
But along with these men were a large number of
unemployed hands. Skilled labour was not in much
demand; unskilled in none at all; men educated but
unskilled in labour, were under even greater pressure.
Some of the last sort in their despair cried out that
talents, education, and strength itself, were but a
curse to them: they had lived off the sweepings
of the markets; lain down in the streets to sleep;
they had scarcely a covering to their skin, much
less implements of labour or means of travelling in
search of work; they could not even pay the ferry
across the bay: " they demanded" (I quote the exact
words) "the inalienable right of freemen-the right
to labour." Such were the lowest classes of San Francisco: the last was mainly deficient in fortune and




331


SAN FRANCISCO.


courage; but in a country where poverty is left to
fortuitous aid, it was a field on which the more lawless
could readily find materials for their own purposes and
combinations.
Of the upper classes you might say a large number
were apathetic in public affairs, and sought only wealth
and gratifications. But commercial honesty, if not
doubtful, was doubted: the great' bankruptcies of
February, 1855, had shaken all confidence. That of
Adams and Co. was particularly infamous: the
leading partner, J. C. Woods, had absconded with a
large amount, and now wrote from Australia to the
San Francisco papers, impudent, almost self-applauding, letters about his past and present. Cohen, a man
much bound up with Woods, had been appointed receiver. He, under a feigned name, reached the States;
but subsequently-it is uncertain whether in the hope
of more plunder, or merely to bring away his family
-he returned, and was again quitting secretly, when
he was arrested and thrown into prison. The new
receiver believed that large defalcations had been
made; the general ledger, day-book, and balance-book
were also missing: and thus, while it prevented knowledge, increased suspicion. The popular belief was that
Vogus gold dust had been manufactured to deceive
depositors of the bank; as below the main vault of
the premises a secret vault had been found, and (it
was said) acids and apparatus for such a manufacture. This belief was much increased during the trial;




SAN FRANCISCO.


335


entries were found in the books of "J. C. W. dust,"
and " Van dust:" the latter, named after a confidential
clerk of Woods, was not satisfactorily explained by
"Van" himself. The mystery became a parallel to
the  "Diamond   necklace."  These, however, were
mere incidental disclosures at the trial. After it had
progressed several days, the missing books were
washed ashore from the bay, tied up in a canvas
bag; but the last and most important pages, those of
the day of the "run," were cut out of both books.
The books, even thus mutilated, were only secured by
a few minutes in advance; for the news flew quick,
good and bad. Finally a verdict was obtained against
Cohen for 350,000 dollars (~70,000). More had been
claimed, but less expected, even if a verdict was gained,
for the morality of courts of law was on a par with
that of society at large.
The bench was not above suspicion. Judges were
attacked and accused by name; some of corrupt decisions, others of having obtained their election by
corrupt means. And at such times even an honest
decision, if opposed to popular desire, is suspected.
Juries were not better than judges; it was almost
impossible to get together twelve honest and incorruptible men. A verdict, if it could not be bought,
could be bought off; and unanimity was frequently
prevented by one or two hireling jurymen. This was
true alike of civil and criminal trials. General Richardson, the United States marshal for California, was




336


SAN FRANCISCO.


shot by Charles Cora in a public street; none doubted
the fact: the evidence was clear. But, through large
expenditure,* two juries were dismissed without coming
to a verdict.  Men began to question the advantage
of a unanimous verdict, if not in other countries, at
least in California; whether, if the words "trial by
jury" in the United States' constitution permitted it,
a jury of eighteen with a two-thirds majority verdict were not better; and allusions were even made
to the Athenian "dicasts" as a body too large for
corruption. The bar contained honourable men; but,
as a body, it was in lower repute than either judges
or jurymen.    Legal morality is nowhere very strict;
but at San Francisco, advocates were always ready to
utter falsehoods with solemnity, informally take oaths,
and constitute themselves witnesses against the right.
To misstate the law and misquote the legal authorities
* Mainly through the efforts of a woman, generally known
as Belle Cora. It was at least one report that the murder was
in consequence of Richardson having spoken words derogatory
of her: this, however, is doubtful, but her devotion to the
prisoner was undoubted: she parted with everything she possessed to raise money for his defence; and, strong as the public
feeling was against him, it was a little softened by her conduct. Eventually Cora was hanged by the Vigilance Committee: half an hour before his execution Belle Cora was
married to him, at the desire of the Catholic priests attending
him: for he was a Catholic. People say that as she passed out
afterwards, her glances at the committee men were savage and
scornful, as those of Maria de Padilla"Whate'er he was, he was her love, and he lay murdered
there."




SAN FRANCISCO.


337


and reported cases was but a trifle. Better judges, it was
continually said, would restrain and reprove the bar;
as often and as truly, that before a better bar judges
dare not act as they did.
The morality of politicians neither was, nor could
have been expected to be, at all superior to that of
bench and bar, or of society at large; indeed there were
far too many ex-judges and scheming lawyers in the
State Legislature. Political difference neither produced,
nor was produced by, moral difference.  "The spoils
belong to the conquerors" was the prevalent feeling;
all that could be picked up by the way was so much
additional gain. The Legislature at Sacramento always
adjourned from  Saturday till Tuesday, " that those,"
said the people, "who have been selling their votes at
San Francisco on the Sunday may have time to return."   Organizations, nominally for political, existed
really for personal objects.  The whole system   of
elections was corrupt. It was no mere question of
parties.  Men of real worth and independence were
rarely the choice of their own party; and even if so,
were liable to be defeated by the hired ruffians who
crowded round, and, if necessary, " stuffed" the
ballot-box. Bad men who dared not have offered themselves as candidates, were yet elected. And not merely
representatives, but nearly all officials, including
judges, were thus elected.   Some important offices
indeed were filled by Presidential appointments; but
many of these were far from satisfactory. In the
Q




338


SAN FRANCISCO.


place of Richardson, the late Marshal, was chosen a
man whom his friends allowed (and the fact was
notorious) to have been for many years a professional
gambler; his enemies spoke of darker acts, and even
hinted an indirect agency in his predecessor's murder.
Not only private enemies or defeated rivals complained of such appointments and such elections, but
good and thoughtful men everywhere began to denounce the whole system: they said that California was
a disgrace to the American name, and San Francisco
to California; that all immorality was increasing, trade
and commerce declining. Those who cared little about
morality at least felt the last consideration.  Those
who had no interest in the continuance of evil saw
that it was their interest it should cease. Those who,
though opposed to evil, had shrunk from opposing it,
now began to speak, and move, and act. Men of
different political parties, according to the political
combinations of the Atlantic States, felt that in California, and above all in San Francisco, there were, as
regards California and San Francisco, two natural parties, Black and White. To abolish slavery was less
urgent than to abolish the existing state of things; to
defend slavery less than to defend society; to exclude
foreigners from citizenship less than to exclude unprincipled citizens from power and position, judgeships,
senatorships, and the chief influence in city and State.
So gradually the party in favour of reform gained adherents, determination, and, if necessary, desperation.




SAN FRANCISCO.


339


Some local measures dependent only on municipal
action were passed into laws. Gambling was prohibited by new and more stringent penalties; 1,000
dollars on the keeper of the table, and 500 dollars on
every one playing, and for each offence; and houses
once suspected were to be visited continually. A
better police also was established to carry out the new
laws; and the fines were imposed equally upon rich
and poor: and, as it appeared, not without some
effect. Immorality was attempted to be checked, or,
at least, external decency enforced.  Under pain of
imprisonment, women of a certain character were
forbidden to occupy houses gregariously, or to walk
along the streets, or lean out of windows with the
intention of attracting passers-by; and character was
primd facie evidence of intention. When the Act
came into operation, many houses along Sacramento
Street and Kearney Street and other principal streets
were given up: indeed for a time the city was almost
deserted by one class of its inhabitants. Bankers, a class
as reckless as the gamblers, and less unfortunate than the
women, claimed the next attention. It was proposed
that quarterly, or even monthly, statements of accounts, sworn to and published in the newspapers,
should be required from every banking and express
firm. This, however, up to the middle of March had
not been made a law.
Such were the violent efforts at self-reform displayed
in legislation.  Meanwhile the "Evening Bulletin"




340


SAN FRANCISCO.


advocated the same cause with a savage earnestness.
Not merely abuses, but individuals were attacked. The
acts of public men, and the antecedents of men seeking to be such, were laid open daily: nothing, past
or present, was omitted or overlooked. I have read no
such articles elsewhere: there was no raillery, or sarcasm, or frothiness, or "buncombe," or politeness, or
abusiveness; the struggle had too much reality for
any of those: a spade was called a spade, and a liar
a liar; yet you felt it not to be low abuse, but fierce
invective.
An American editor is never a shadowy or conjectural personage.  At San Francisco, James King,
editor of the "Evening Bulletin," was known, and
watched, and glared at, as he walked along the streets.
He received challenges and declined them, saying
he knew "the hounds " * wanted to get rid of him,
but he would not play into their hands; he was
threatened with personal violence, and answered that
he went armed: and any article that produced a
threat was reproduced yet fiercer the next evening.
Thus the contest was eminently personal; and King
declared he would not change his tone until he had
scourged "the hounds" out of the country-or they
had killed him. His assassination at last was astonishing to none of his friends: they had expected it long
before. It may be doubted whether greater moderation
* A favourite expression of his. " I am not responsible for
the 'hounds' having hands."




SAN FRANCISCO.


341


of language might not have been as beneficial; equally
perhaps whether a man who would have written with
moderation would have written at all.  It is also fair
to add that the columns of the " Bulletin " were open
to all correspondents, friends and foes alike-a rare
example in American journalism.
None praised, or even defended wholesale, the
prevalent iniquities; but much could be written
against all efforts at amelioration. Some opposed all
particular measures of reform, some each particular
measure. The former, if you said the judicature was
corrupt, would answer that it was no worse than the
Legislature or executive; if you complained of the
dishonesty or immorality of one profession, or one
class of society, they would balance it by that of
another. And in general (like some rather negative
writers in our own country), whatever cure you
proposed for any acknowledged evil they called "lopping off an arm or a leg, while the corruption was in
the blood;" yet they neither admitted the disease to
be incurable nor themselves suggested a cure. Others,
if the existence of an abuse was indisputable, would
at least whitewash it as far as possible, and dispute the
applicability or wisdom of each reform proposed.
Naturally the scrutiny of individual acts and character produced fierce rejoinders, and those who could
not justify themselves by words, looked for the opportunity of defending or revenging themselves in acts.
Such was the social and moral aspect of San
Q 2




342               SAN FRANCISCO.
Francisco during the early months of 1856.    Two
parties, not the less actual because unrecognised, were
met face to face.   One that had long ruled was
now pressed back, but continued eager to regain its
old supremacy. The other had been slow to move,
and might, possibly, after effecting some more urgent
reforms, have again relapsed into sluggishness. But
any act of violence towards one of its leaders was
sure to produce decided, and perhaps revolutionary
action. Two months from the time of which I am
writing, James King was assassinated in the chief
street of the city.




APPENDIX.
PART I.-CHAPTER        V.
DROUGHT OF THE PLAINS.
THOUGH Colonel Fremont and other travellers have
mentioned the true nature of this tract of country and
its climate, most people speak about them as inaccurately as ever. During the late canvass for the presidency, one of the commonest pieces of " buncombe"
used by the republican speakers was a prophecy of
"free labourers tilling the fruitful soil of Kansas beneath the awful shadow of the Rocky Mountains." Mr.
T. Gladstone's letters upon Kansas conveyed, I think,
a similar idea-though without the "buncombe." On
the true physical characteristics of the plains I add
some observations of Colonel Emory (American
Association for the Advancement of Science, Albany, New York, August, 1856):-" Except on the
borders of the streams which traverse these plains in
their course to the Valley of the Mississippi, scarcely
anything exists deserving the name of vegetation.




344


APPENDIX.


The soil is composed of disintegrated rocks covered by
a loam an inch or two in thickness, which is composed
of the exuvia of animals and decayed vegetable matter. The growth on them is principally a short but
nutritious grass, called buffalo-grass (Lysteria dyclotoides). A narrow strip of alluvial soil, supporting a
coarse grass, and a few cottonwood trees, marks the
line of the watercourses; which of themselves are
sufficiently few and far between. Whatever may be
said to the contrary, these plains west of the 100th
meridian are wholly unsusceptible of maintaining even
a pastoral population, until you reach sufficiently far
south to encounter the rains from the tropics. The
precise limits of these rains I am not prepared to give,
but think the Red River is, perhaps, as far north as
they extend."
Again —" Most people have been misled by estimating the soil alone, which is generally good, without
giving due weight to the unfrequency of rains, or the
absence of the necessary humidity in the atmosphere
to produce a profitable vegetation."




APPENDIX.


345


PART TI.-CHAPTER I.
HIGH PRICES AT SALT LAKE.
SOME idea may be gained from     a list of the prices
(in specie) for articles in common use. The value is
given, for greater convenience, in English denominations:~ s..                     ~ s. d.
Flour, per 100 lbs. 1 5 0  Butter,perlb.,ls. 6d. to  1 8
Potatoes, per bushel0 3 0  Milk, per quart. 0 0 5
Beef, per lb...  0 5    Tea, per lb...  0 9 0
Mutton,,.. 0 0 7       Coffee,,.. 0    1 8
Pork,,.. 0 010      Sugar (moist) per lb. 0 1 8
Bacon,,.. 0 1 3       Dried Apples,, 0 1 8
Cheese,,.. 0 1 3       Raisins,,0 1 8
Of clothes, &c., as all depends upon quality, prices
say little.
Soldiers' coat cloth (double width), cost 16s. 6d. per yard.
"Domestic," i. e. stout calico, Is. per yard.
Coats at all prices, from ~6 downwards.
No boys, and few young men, even of the wealthier
sort, except newly-arrived emigrants, wore coats at all.
Bright woollen over-shirts plentifully bedecked with
braid and buttons were more prevalent, and hardly a
minority in the "Tabernacle" on Sundays.     Female
costume-with the exception of the " Deserct uniform,"
a hideous kind of pelisse, not much worn-was in no
way peculiar.




346


346         ~~~APPENDIX.


CHAPTER II.
MIRACULOUS CURES.
UPON this subject compare Mr. Hamilton's ",,Wandering-s in North Africa,/' page 101.
In making mention of the, "speaking in tongues,"
allusion was made to the Irvingites; it was throug-h an
oversight that this nickname was not altered for the
name assumed by the sect itself.


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London: Printed by SaMITH, ELDER & Co., Little Green Arbou'r Court.






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