Getting everything in readiness, we made the start just at dark,
going the Emigrant canyon route, striking Echo canyon fifty miles
from Salt Lake City, making the trip that far without stopping to
let our horses feed or even to eat anything ourselves. We did this
because we wished to get beyond the Mormon settlements without
being discovered by them. We reached Fort Bridget the third day
and there took in two more companions, John Scudder and John
Korigo, who had been at work at the Fort all winter hauling wood
for the Government. They had earned a little money and were
returning to their respective homes, one living in Missouri and
the other in Pennsylvania. We were now five in number and
calculated to make Fort Kearney in fifteen days, which, if I
remember rightly, is called six hundred miles from Fort Bridger.
We crossed Green river and took the Bitter creek route, thinking
that would be the safest from hostile Indians; but when we got to
the head of Bitter creek the Pony Express rider informed us that
the Indians were very bad on the North Platte river, having killed
two express riders the week before.
This frightened the boys badly, for not one of them had ever been
engaged in an Indian fight, and all were free to admit that they
were not hankering after experience of that kind.
After we struck North Platte we saw considerable Indian sign every
day, but it was evident that the reds were in little bands.
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