took place the overland emigration of no less than thirty thousand souls, men, women and children—half of them entering California by the old Gila route, associated with the Franciscan fathers of the earlier portion of our narrative; the other half literally forcing their way, step by step, across the rugged passes of the Rocky Mountains.
The Pawnees, the Sioux, and the Arapahoes, amazed and awe-struck at their numbers, fled at their approach, but the less easily cowed enemies of famine and pestilence thinned their ranks. Still undaunted, the survivors, leaving the dead bodies of their comrades a prey to the wild beasts of the wilderness, pressed on, and, the Rocky Mountains left behind, they swarmed into the valley of Humboldt's River, watering the western half of the newly-formed State of Utah. Many were here obliged to halt for want of fodder for their cattle or food for themselves; and it is related that some of the adventurers, in their eager lust to be the first to arrive in the new El Dorado, set fire to the meadows of dry grass to hinder the progress of those behind them.
On the shores of the Humboldt River a separation took place in the ranks of those still able to proceed, some making for the head of the Sacramento Valley, others choosing the better route to the American fork of the Sacramento River. Of the former, nearly all perished before reaching their destination; of the latter, many were rescued by the noble heroism of parties sent out from California to their relief. Enough of the original thirty thousand survived to fill the hitherto desolate valley of the new south-western state with life. Every ensuing spring brought new comers; the little settlement of Yerba Buena became the port of San Francisco, which, from "a scattering town of tent and canvas houses," grew in four short months to a populous city, "displaying," to quote the words of Bayard Taylor, "street after street of well-built edifices, filled with an active and enterprising people, and exhibiting every mark of permanent commercial prosperity;" while on every stream clustered the huts of miners, and from every sheltered nook rose the smoke of the settler's cabin.
