According to Thornton's journal, the scarcity of grass, water, and fuel was no greater than it had been from the South Pass to Fort Hall, nor indeed so great; and the travellers by this route were relieved of the clouds of dust which accompanied the caravans on the Snake River route. But of the sufferings of those who travelled that route he could not then be aware, and was intent only on his own supreme wretchedness. Every ox that died upon the way was spoken of as a sacrifice to the misrepresentations of the explorers of the road, though, oxen had died before reaching Fort Bridger; and every caravan that crossed the plains had its course marked out by the whitening bones of cattle that had fallen exhausted by the way.[1]
- ↑ An emigrant who travelled the Dalles route in 1848, and who wields a pen not less trenchant than Thornton's, treats these incidents of early emigra-
be said to be parthis mendacior.' He also says that he all the time held the opinion that Applegate was attempting to deceive him from motives purely selfish, and that he intended to profit by the misfortunes of the emigrants. He excuses himself for following such a man by saying that he was influenced by Gov. Boggs, who confided in the statements of Applegate. In considering Thornton's statements, I have taken into account, first, the unpractical mind of the man as set forth in his autobiography, where we discover that with opportunities seldom enjoyed by American young men for acquiring a profession, and with admitted talents of a certain kind, he achieved less than thousands who studied the law in the office of a country attorney; secondly, that he was at the time in question in bad health; and thirdly, that he was unused to physical labor. Add to those that he possessed an irritable temper and suspicious disposition, and we have the man who could pen such a record as that contained in the first volume of his Or. and Cal. Rabbison, in his Growth of Towns, MS., 3, mentions that Thornton had a quarrel with a man named Good, who furnished him a part of his outfit, and that on the Platte Good undertook to reclaim his property, but the Oregon emigrants decided as Thornton had a family he was not to be entirely dispossessed, but took the wagon out of the California train and cut it in two to make carts, also dividing the oxen— in which manner they proceeded; but Thornton gives a different version, and says that he conquered in the quarrel by an exhibition of spirit and fire-arms. Or. and Cal., i. 123-5. I do not know which account is correct, nor is it of any consequence. At Green River, Thornton began to take care of his own team for the first time, and experiencing much difficulty from not knowing how to yoke or drive oxen, only succeeded by the assistance of the charitable Mr Kirquendall and others, who pitied his infirmities From information obtained from his own journal, it is evident that he loitered by the way; and from comparing his estimates of distances with others v that he has nearly doubled the length of the worst portions of the road. See R. B. Marcy's Hand-book of Overland Expeditions, published in 1859, in which this route is described; or any railroad guide of the present day giving distances in the Humboldt Valley. The whole distance to Oregon City was really 950 miles from Fort Hall, whereas Thornton makes it 1,280. Or. and Cal., i. 175; Frémont's Cal. Guide Book, 124; Bancroft's Guide, 87-8; Hastings' Or. and Cal., 137.
