Mills came in with another train of emigrants, not having
seen an Indian on the trip, and from this time on there was no
danger of such trains going from that region through Beckwith
Pass, and as the road was now broken by the other train, these
emigrants could cross the Sierra Nevadas without a guide.
About this time four men with pack animals came along who claimed
to be from Salt Lake. They reported that they had seen Indians one
day traveling east of headquarters. I took two men and started out
and was gone about a week, but did not see an Indian, or a track
or sign of one, and when we returned the Colonel concluded that he
had been misled by the packers.
Col. Elliott now ordered me to take fifty men, with two weeks'
provisions, and go as far as we could with that amount of rations,
or until we should meet some emigrants. We were gone about three
weeks, but did not see either Indians or emigrants. The fact is,
that it was getting so late in the fall that the Indians had all
gone south, and the emigrants were not moving on the desert at
that season.
On our return the Colonel had everything ready and we pulled out
for San Francisco. We camped the first night at Steamboat Springs,
a place that has since grown to be a famous health resort. On the
second day we passed over the country where now stands Carson
City, the capital of Nevada.
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