Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far WestDrannan, William F.
History
Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West
Drannan, William F.
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- Wars
The second day from Beaver creek we reached a little stream near
the Goshoot village, this being the place where Uncle Kit finished
buying furs to load his pack-train in 1848.
The next morning we reached the village. I had not seen any of
these Indians for five years. Then I was a mere boy and now a
grown man, but every one of the Goshoots knew me and were glad to
meet me. We stopped that day and visited with them, and bought
some venison and frigoles, or beans.
The next morning we resumed our journey to Los Angeles, crossing
the extreme northeast part of Death Valley. From here on the
country was all new to me, and had it not been for the kindness of
the Goshoot Indians, we would have perished for the want of water.
When I told a good Indian in that village where we were going, he
sat down and with his finger marked a diagram in the dust, showing
the lay of the country that we must pass ever, every little blind
spring near the trail, the different mountains and valleys, and
made it so plain that we could scarcely have made a mistake on the
trip.
On arriving at Los Angeles we found only one white man in the
place, and he was the only person in the whole town that could
speak the English language. He had arrived there some years
before, married a Mexican woman and had got to be very wealthy. He
tried to induce us to go farther up the coast, telling us if we
started for San Francisco the country was full of Mexicans, and
that they despised all Americans and would be sure to murder us on
our way; but as we had started for San Francisco, we were
determined to see that city if possible. After laying over one day
with the old American we resumed our journey.
The next place we struck was Monterey, where is now the famous
Hotel del Monte, about two hundred miles from Los Angeles. Here we
did not find a man who could speak a word of English, and we found
the Mexicans still more selfish than in Los Angeles.
We began to think that the old white man had told the truth, for
we would not have been surprised at any time to have been attacked
by a band of Mexicans.
While here I saw two persons that I thought to be curiosities.
They were of Indian parentage, light complexion and had eyes of a
pink color. One was a boy about twenty years old and the other a
girl of sixteen, and were brother and sister. It was claimed that
they could see well after night, but could not see their way on a
bright, sunny day.
These Indians were said to be of the Mojave tribe, that inhabited
a portion of the country some six hundred miles east of Monterey,
near the Mojave desert. I have since learned that such freaks are
called albinos.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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