OCR Text |
Show 496 WESTERN WILDS. cached in the mountains preparatory to a guerrilla war; and every able- bodied male was under arms. Brigham issued a proclamation warning all emigrants out of the Territory, and announced in a ser-mon that if they came, he " would turn the Indians loose on them." " While things were in this state, the doomed train arrived in Salt Lake City. It was, perhaps, the richest train that ever crossed the plains. There were half a dozen or more wealthy old gentlemen from Mis-souri and Arkansas, with their sons, sons- in- law and their several families, including a large number of young ladies; also a few young men from Vermont, a German doctor and man of science, two lads from some Eastern city, and a son of Dr. Aden, of Kentucky. All the Missouri and Arkansas people were related by blood, and when they were killed a whole clan, so to speak, was cut off. The. recovered children, in many instances, could find no relations. There were forty wagons, several hundred horses and cattle, a piano, some elegant car-riages, several riding horses for the young ladies, and an immense amount of jewelry, clothing, and minor articles. The value of the booty taken has been estimated all the way from $ 150,000 to $ 300,000. Seeing that they were in a hostile country they hastened on ; but as they advanced southward from Salt Lake ( they were going to Los Angeles), they found the people steadily more hostile. They were denied passage through some of the towns, and had to make a detour on the desert; they could purchase no provisions, and found that in spite of themselves they were constantly violating municipal ordi-nances, and liable to arrest. At Beaver they were joined by a Mis-sourian who had been in custody among the Mormons; he urged them to hurry on as they valued their lives. Passing through Cedar City it is believed they saw signs of their coming danger and redoubled their exertions to get beyond the Utah limits. At last they reached the glen known as Mountain Meadows, on the " divide" between the waters flowing into the Great Basin and those draining into the Colo-rado, and paused to recruit their stock before entering on the Kiinety- Mile Desert. Meanwhile some secret work, not yet fully explained, had been going on at Salt Lake City. There is some evidence that a plan was once agreed upon to have the emigrants killed as they crossed the Provo " bench," only forty miles from Salt Lake; but it was finally thought best to let them get beyond the settlements. George A. Smith, Brigham's First Councillor, went south ahead of the party, forbidding |