cams_jcornock_b2990_f002_001_01

Nebraska Territory June 12 1850

Dear Sister I take this opportunity
to write to you it is the first and will probably be the last before my arrival
in California in consequence of a misunderstanding I altered my my mind about
going to Santa Fe and I met a man named Taylor who Wished me to go with
him to California and nothing Could have pleased me better as I have
been wishing to go for the last two years so I Joined in and concluded to go.
the reason I have not written before is that in the hurry and confusion
of getting started I had no time to write as we left Independence
on the 11 of may [May]. my health so far has been better than the last six
months if possible I was home if possible and I have really enjoyed myself on the
trip so far. the scenery so far has been sublime and a man gets
paid for his trouble as he passes along we have just crossed the
South fork of the platte river [Platte River]. Which I can assure you was no
easy matter when you consider that the river is about a mile across.
in the way we crossed it the water came nearly to the top of the waggon [wagon]
boxes and the current is very strong nearly as strong as the Hudson in the
time of a freshet. I cannot give you a detailed account of my journey but
if you will get a book named What I Saw in California by Bryant you
can see a full description of our journey for so far his Descriptions are
correct to a letter but the future I cannot vouch for. as I said we left
Independence on the 11th of may [May] before we got five miles we broke our waggon [wagon]
tongue which detained us until the morning of the 13th at 11 o clock [o'clock] our
course was across a beautiful prarie [prairie] late in the afternoon we crossed
the big blue river the next day we crossed the line and came into the
Indian territory the first tribe we came to were the Shawnees. on the 16th
we crossed a large stream called Bulls Creek when we came in the Kansas
tribe of Indians. on 19th we crossed the Kansas river there is a ferry on this
river. We then came to the tribe of the potawatamies [Potawatomi]. on the 20th we came
to a large creek with steep banks so steep the waggons [wagons] down with ropes