After considering the matter the emigrants concluded that I was
right.
Those of them who had lost all their stock were a pitiful sight
indeed, women and children were weeping, and particularly those
who had lost their husbands and fathers in the fight with the
Indians.
There were no women and children killed, as the Indians did not
attack the train, being apparently only bent on capturing the
horses and cattle. They had killed the guards and also the men
that ran out to protect the stock.
One who has never witnessed a like affair can scarcely comprehend
the situation of a widow left out there with three or four
children in this desolate region, utterly destitute. It was a
gloomy situation, indeed, and a sight that would cause the
hardest-hearted man to shed tears.
Those who had lost their stock made some kind of arrangements to
ride with those that had come later.
The day before starting the emigrants rolled all their wagons
together that they did not have teams to haul, also the harness,
and in fact everything they could not haul, and burned them, so
that the Indians would not derive any benefit from them.
I merely note a few of these facts to give the reader a faint idea
of the trials, troubles and hardships that the early settlers of
the "wild West" had to pass through, not only in crossing the
plains, but, as will be shown later in this book, in many
instances after settling in different parts of this western
country.
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