from the head waters of the Sacramento to Kings River only five living Indians were seen. The trappers themselves were attacked by the fever, and some of their servants died. There may be something of exaggeration in this narrative; but there is no reason to question the general accuracy of Warner s statement; especially as Vallejo wrote in May of the same year that a pestilence, which he supposed to be the small pox, was causing fearful ravages on the northern frontiers; and as Edwards in 1837 found on every hand abundant and revolting signs of the pestilence, which was described to him by Ewing Young from personal observation. Young said he saw hundreds lying dead in a single rancheria.[1]
The topic of Indian affairs, as distinguished from mission annals, or relating mainly to the hostile acts of the native gentiles or refugees, assumes no special importance in 1831-5, and may be noticed as appropriately here as anywhere. Local alarms of minor importance and generally unfounded need not be mentioned at all in this connection, nor the constant but petty depredations of prowling thieves on live-stock from one end of the territory to the other. In 1833, from February to June, there was an excitement in the San Diego district consequent upon the reported plan of the neophytes to unite with the gentiles and seize the mission property. There was some evidence that invitations had been sent to the different missions ; and that El Cajon was the rendezvous from which the attack was to be made the 20th of June. It was also rumored that the movement had a political significance, being intended to support Echeandia s views respect-
- ↑ Warner in Los Angeles Star, 1874; Hayes Legal Hist. 8. Diego, i. 34-7; Yuba Co., Hist., 24. Day in Hesperian, ii. 2; May 18th, Vallejo to comandantes, etc., in Vallejo, Doc., MS., iii. 32; Edwards Diary, MS., 27. Vallejo says the contagion came first from the northern English settlements and later from Ross. He recommends vaccination and other precautions. The traveller from whom the account in the Hesperian was taken may have been Warner or another of his party.
