cams_bawatson_b3153_f014_001_02

understood that they were very numerous & Hostile we however went on
& constructed a raft of logs & crossed the river in safty [safety] & spent three days
in examining the country we saw but very few Indians & they were
timid as hares but we saw where numbers of them lived who had just
fled from their habitations at our approach. I discovered a gold
mine which may be [maybe] of value to us but cant [can't] tell till we work it I got
back to camp on Thursday night & found Johnson, Bilson, Hodge,
Broadwell, Coberiss, Rodham & Reaves down sick with the Sacremento [Sacramento]
fever as it is called. A kind of Intermittent fever or chills & fever
which is very debilitating and which they say Every body [Everybody] has to
have, next day I was taken down myself. Next after that some of
the men who had been prospecting over in Clear Creek [Clear Creek, Lassen County] came home &
one of them Whitehurst, was sick. Next after that Weber & Deson
who had been over to the Trinity River on the Pacific side of the
mountains came here & Dison was sick. On the Wednesday
following the men who had been down to the city returned
& two of them [one word covered by stain] & Goterty was sick same day fuller
was taken down. Sean was taken down last Tuesday fourteen
of us sick at a time made things look very dull I assure you
but thank Kind Providence I believe all are getting over it & I
think we will be able to go to work in the course of ten days. Do
not give yourself any uneasiness about me my dearest love I am
much better than I was three or four days since and have no
doubt I shall soon be entirely well, as to the fortunes we were
going to make so fast in this country we are not near so sanguine
as we were and if the prospects does not brighten you may ex-
pect me home in June next. If I shall not come then you may
know I am doing well. So this certainly is good news to you
my love for if I should not do well I will be sooner with you & if I
should do well it will be a consolation to you for my absence.