Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/407

RECOLLECTIONS OF AN OLD PIONEER. 397 saying they were enemies coming to kill them ; but Foster comforted and pacified them by declaring that the men coming must be friends. The relief men SOOH came up, and were so much affected by the woeful spectacle that for some time they said not a word, but only gazed and wept. The poor creatures before them, hovering around that small camp fire, had been snowed on and rained on, had been lacerated, starved, and worn down, until they were but breathing skeletons. The clothes they wore were nothing but filthy rags, and their faces had not been washed or their heads combed for a month ; and the in- tellectual expression of the human countenance had al- most vanished. No case of human suffering could have been more terrible. No wonder that brave and hardy men wept like children. Of all the physical evils that waylay and beset the thorny path of human life, none can be more appalling than star- vation. It is not a sudden and violent assault upon the vital powers, that instinctive and intellectual courage may successfully resist; but it is an inexorable undermining and slow wasting away of the physical and mental ener- gies, inch by inch. No courage, no intellect, no martyr- spirit can possibly withstand this deprivation. When there is an entire deprivation of food it is said that the greatest pangs of hunger are felt on the third day. After that, the stomach, being entirely empty, contracts to a very small space, and ceases to beg for food; and the suf- ferer dies from exhaustion, without any violent pain. But, when there is an insufficient supply of food, the severe pangs of hunger must be prolonged, and the aggre- gate amount of suffering before death is most probably increased. The relief party did everything required for the poor sufferers, and next morning carried them to Johnson's house. The lady in charge was careful to give them at