This depredation he said
had been committed in the Goose Creek mountain country about one
hundred and twenty miles east of us. Col. Elliott said that he was
going to send out a company of soldiers there, and if I felt able
I might accompany them, which I did.
All being in readiness, I selected two scouts to assist me, and we
pulled out, taking with us a pack-train with one month's
provisions.
We had a rough and tedious trip, as not one of the entire crowd
had been over the country and did not know a single watering
place, so we had to go it blind, hit or miss. I had not gone far
when I found that I had made a sad mistake, as notwithstanding my
leg appeared quite well when I started out, yet, after one or two
days' riding, it got quite sore and pained me severely, and the
longer I rode the worse it got.
Five days' ride and we were at the place where the emigrants were
camped. Another small train had pulled in with them as they were
afraid to cross the desert alone.
That night Capt. Mills called the men of the train together to
ascertain whether or not they wished to look after their stock,
but they did not seem to know themselves what to do. They were
quite sure that the Indians had driven the stock south, as they
had tracked them some distance in that direction. Capt. Mills
asked me what I thought of finding the stock, and I told him that
if it was driven south, of which the emigrants seemed quite sure,
it was more than likely that the Indians and stock were several
hundred miles away, and that it would be next to impossible to get
any trace of them, and in my opinion it would be like trying to
find a needle in a haystack.
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