HORRIBLE MASSACRE OF EMIGRANTS.
OVER ONE HUNDRED PERSONS SLAUGHTERED BY THE
INDIANS—THE DESTROYING ANGELS SOSPECTED.
We have received the Extra of The Los Angeles Star of Oct. 10, from which we learn that an emi-grant train of about one hundred persons had been brutally murdered at a place called Santa Clara Canon, about three hundred miles on a this side of Lake City. The details, so far as yet known, are there:
A train of emigrants, from Missouri and Arkansas, for this state, were waylaid and cruelly butchered on the route, at a place called Santa Clara canon, near the rim of the Great Basis, about 300 miles from Salt Lake City. The scene of the massacre is differently designated, and the Santa Clara canon, the Mountain Springs, and the Mountain Meadows: Out all agree in locating it near the rim of the Great Basin, and about 50 miles from Cedar City, She most southern of the Mormon settlements. Of a party of about 130 per-sons, only fifteen infant children were saved. The ac-count was given by the Indians themselves to the Mormons at Cedar City, to which place they brought the children, who were purchased from them by the people of that city. Whether the case assigned is suf-ficient to account for the result, or whether a different, cause is at the bottom of the transaction, we will leave the reader to form his own conclusion. We can scarcely believe that a party traveling along a high way would act in the manner described—that is to poison the carcase of an ox, and also the water, thus endangering the lives of those who were coming after them. Yet this is the story told by all who have spoken of the massacre. It is stated, the emigrants had an ox which died, and they placed poison in the body, and also poisoned water standing in pools, for the purpose of killing the Indians; that several of toe tribe bad died from this cause, and that the whole force mustered pursued the train, and coming up with them at the above-named place, which favored their purpose, attacked and murdered the whole party, ex-cept a few infant children. The Indians state that they made but one charge on the party, in which they cut off the greater portion of the men, and then guarded the outlets of the canon, and than shot the women and met down as they came out for water; that one man was making his escape with a few chil-dren, and they followed him, killed him, and took the children, fifteen in number, the eldest under five years of age. The report was brought to San Bernardino by Messrs. Sidney Tanner and W. Mathews.
The following letter from Mr. J. W. Christ lift of Sao Bernardino, to Mr. G. N. Whitman of this city, has been kindly placed at our disposal, and we give it at length, as it is the fullest report of the massacre, and the cause which led to it, that has reached us. The writer seems to intimate that the Mormons will be held responsible for the murder, and in this respect he is fully borne out by present indications, for a general belief pervades the public mind here that the Indians were instigated to this crime by the "Destroying Angels" of the church, and that the blow fell on these emigrants from Arkansas, in retribution of the death of Parley Pratt, which took place in that State. The truth of the matter will not be known until the Government make an investigation of the affair. This should be done, to place the blame in the right quarter, as well as to inflict chastisement on the immediate actors in the fearful tragedy, who are reported to be the Santa Ciara tribe of Indians. The following is the letter:
"SAN BERNARDINO, Oct. 4, 1857.
"I take this opportunity of informing you of the murder of an entire train of emigrants, on their way from Missouri and Arkansas to this State, via Great Salt Lake City, which took place, according to the best information I can possibly acquire (which is, pri-marily, through Indians), at the Mountain Meadows, which are at or near the rim of the Great Basin, and some distance south of the most southern Mormon settle-ments, between the 10th and 12th ult. It is absolutely one of the most horrible massacres I have ever had the painful necessity of relating.
"The company consisted of about 130 or 135 men women and children, and including some forty or forty-five capable of bearing arms. They were in possession of quite an amount of stock, consisting of horses, mules and oxen. The encampment was attacked about day light in the morning, so say the Indiana, by the com-bined forces of all the various tribes immediately in that section of the country. It appears that the ma-jority of them were slain at the first onset made by the Indians. The remaining forces formed themselves into the best position their circumstances would allow; but before they could make the necessary arrangement for protecting themselves from the arrows, there were but few left who were able to bear arms. After hav-ing corralled their wagons, and dug a ditch for their protection, they continued to fire upon the Indians for one or two days, but the Indiana had so secreted them-selves that, according to their own statement, there was not one of them killed and but few of them wound-ed. They (the emigrants) then sent out a flag of truce, borne by a little girl, and gave themselves up to the mercy of the savages, who immediately rushed in and slaughtered all of them, with the exception of fifteen infant children, that have since been purchased, with much difficulty, by the Mormon interpreters
"I presume it would be unnecessary, for all practi-cal purposes, to relate the causes which gave rise to the above-described catastrophe, from the simple fact that it will be attributed to the Mormon people, let the circumstances of the case be what they may. But it seems from a statement which I received from Elders Wm Mathews and Wm. Hyde, who were in Great Salt Lake City at the time this train was there recruit ing their "fit out;" and were on the road to this place at the time when they were murdered, but several days journey in the rear—somewhere about the Bea-ver Mountains, which are between Palawan and Fill-more Cities, that the causes were something like these: The train camped at Corn Creek, near Fillmore City, where there is an Indian village, the inhabitants of which have raised a crop of wheat, a few melons, &c And in trading with the Indians they gave them cash for wheat, and they not knowing the value of coda, were severely cheated. They wanted a blanket for a sack of what, but they gave them fifty cents, and told them that amount would buy a blanket. They also had an ox with them which had died, and they put strychnine in him for the purpose of poisoning the In-dians; and also put poison of some description in the water which is standing in holes. This occasioned several deaths among them, within a few days after the departure of the train. And upon this, it seems the Indians gathered themselves together, and had no doubt chosen the place of attack, and arranged every-thing before the train arrived at the place where they were murdered.
"It was ascertained by some of the interpreters from a few of the Indians who were left at Corn Creek, that most of the Indians in the country had left; but they could not learn for what purpose, and before any steps could be taken to ascertain what was the cause, the story was told that they were all killed.
"Yours, truly, J. WARD CHRISTIAN."
THE EMIGRANT MASSACRE.—Editor of The San Francisco Herald: I have just had a conversation with Mr. B, who has read a letter from Orson Hyde, received here day before yesterday (Oct 7), from San Bernardino, at which place Hyde recently arrived, with an escort of thirty men, from Salt Lake, and where his letter was written to a brother Mormon here, Mr. L He writes that he left Salt Lake just two days after the unfortunate emigrant train passed that place, and overtook them in time to save the children re-maining alive—fifteen infants only; that the bodies of 118 persons, men, women and children, were lying upon the ground, a prey to the buzzards, many of whom were of the "back-out order," who had joined the California emigrant train for security in traveling Hyde writes that he learned from the settlers in the vicinity of the place of massacre that the Indians fired upon the camp about two hours before day, killing a large number, and then retreated. The emigrants then formed a corral with their wagons, and at day-light the Indians returned to the attack. That the fight lasted “two days," when the emigrants seat out a little girl, about twelve years old, with a flag of sur-render; that she was killed, and the entire train destroyed, leaving the bodies upon the ground, which Orson Hyde himself counted (118), he arriving at the spot just in time to gather up the fifteen infants, which he brought in to San Bernardino. Hyde is going di-rectly back to Salt Like, and takes, per Brigham Young’s order, a large number of Mormons with him. The recipient of the letter thinks the fate of the “back-outs” just and merited. My informant don't believe it was the Indians who killed the emigrants.
19th Century Mormon Article Newspaper Index
