Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/29

THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL 19 supplies. 85 Such conditions called for measures of relief. In 1849 there was no organized effort by the people of California for the relief of the needy. The head of the Pacific Division of the United States Army, Major Gen- eral P. F. Smith, took up the matter and put Brevet Major D. H . Rucker in charge of relief. About the middle of September aid was sent to those on the northern route and on the Truckee route. Few emigrants traveled the latter course in 1849 as the relief parties went to the Carson River route, where the need was much greater. Further aid was sent to the emigrants on this route in October. The chief difficulty was not lack of food but means of transportation. Aid was provided in the form of fresh animals and food where necessary. On the northern route many people suffered from scurvy. Indians drove off their cattle. When they reached the river valleys where the grass was good they were loath to travel fast or to leave any of their wagons or property behind. Most of them were finally herded safely to the region of Lassen's trading post, but a few got caught in snowstorms. 86 In the following years organized relief was furnished by the people of California. At Ragtown, on the Carson, in 1850, emigrants found abundant supply of flour sent by the Benevolent Society of Sacramento City. To those with money the agent sold the flour at twenty-five cents a pound. To those who were destitute he gave twenty pounds of flour each. 87 State authorities furnished it in lesser quantities. 88 That from Sacramento did not last long at the rate it was given away. In 1852 state officers were stationed near the Sink of the Humboldt to give away flour and other supplies to the needy, and others 5S Ibid., p. 236. 86 Senate Executive Documents, 31 Cong., 1 sess., Vol. XIII., Doc. 52, Ser. No. 561, pp. 96 -152. 87 Langworthy, op. cit. , p. 149. 88 Delano, op. cit., p. 239.