cams_bawatson_b3153_f019_001_01

5 [center top]

for it seems to me impossible that all should get through
before snow falls in the mountains, great efforts are being
made for their releif [relief] here and in other portions of the coun
try. I have seen and conversed with numbers who
have lived for weeks on putrid flesh out from the car=
cases of the dead animals that lined the road side,
a large proportion of those who have got in have come
in without their stock or property of any kind and
are dependent upon charity for a living, and thousands
have fallen by the way side [wayside] from disease and starvation in
many instances their bodies being left by their panic
stricken friends without the rites of burial, a prey to
the prowling coyota [coyote] or more relentless savage, their
Bones whiten the plains and will serve for years to come
to mark out the path of the Pilgrims of Maurmon [Mormon]?

If there is one reflection more than another connected
with this California movement that is a matter I can
think of with pleasure, it is a conciosesness [consciousness] that I at
least have endeavored to tell the whole truth from the
time I first arrived in the country and I sincerely hope
that I have been the means of keepin [keeping] many from com=
ing here, who might otherwise have come.

Saturday 28: Last night the Theatre was opened for
the benefit of the overland Emigration and the house
was filled by tickets at a high price some twelve hundred
dollars being raised in this way, I attended my self [myself], does
not the end justify the means? I thought so!

The weather for some few days has been delightfill [delightful], we
have had some hard showers during the past two
weeks, a thing unprecedented during the past history of

5 [center top]

for it seems to me impossible that all should get through
before snow falls in the mountains, great efforts are being
made for their releif [relief] here and in other portions of the coun
try. I have seen and conversed with numbers who
have lived for weeks on putrid flesh out from the car=
cases of the dead animals that lined the road side,
a large proportion of those who have got in have come
in without their stock or property of any kind and
are dependent upon charity for a living, and thousands
have fallen by the way side [wayside] from disease and starvation in
many instances their bodies being left by their panic
stricken friends without the rites of burial, a prey to
the prowling coyota [coyote] or more relentless savage, their
Bones whiten the plains and will serve for years to come
to mark out the path of the Pilgrims of Maurmon [Mormon]?

If there is one reflection more than another connected
with this California movement that is a matter I can
think of with pleasure, it is a conciosesness [consciousness] that I at
least have endeavored to tell the whole truth from the
time I first arrived in the country and I sincerely hope
that I have been the means of keepin [keeping] many from com=
ing here, who might otherwise have come.

Saturday 28: Last night the Theatre was opened for
the benefit of the overland Emigration and the house
was filled by tickets at a high price some twelve hundred
dollars being raised in this way, I attended my self [myself], does
not the end justify the means? I thought so!

The weather for some few days has been delightfill [delightful], we
have had some hard showers during the past two
weeks, a thing unprecedented during the past history of