ffin & Bro., Dodge & Shaw, Tubbs & Co.,
J. Whitney, Jr., C. Adolph Low & Co., Haynes & Lawton, J. D. Farnell,
C. E. Hitchcock, Geo. Howes & Co., Sam Merritt, Jacob Underhill & Co.,
Morgan Stone & Co., J. W. Brittan, T. H. & J. S. Bacon, R. B. Swain &
Co., Fargo & Co., Nathaniel Page, Stevens Baker & Co., A. E. Brewster &
Co., Fay, Brooks & Backus, Wm. Norris, and E. H. Parker.

(Above data taken from Government Secret Correspondence. Ordered printed
by the second session of the 50th Congress in 1889, Senate Document No.
70.)

[21] In the writer's judgment, these charges against Governor Downey
were prejudicial and unjust.

[22] During the War of the Rebellion, California raised 16,231 troops,
more than the whole United States army had been at the commencement of
hostilities. Practically all these soldiers were assigned to routine and
patrol duty in the far West, such as keeping down Indian revolts, and
garrisoning forts, as a defense against any uprising of Indians, or
protection against Confederate invasion. The exceptions were the
California Hundred, and the California Four Hundred, volunteer
detachments who went East of their own accord and won undying honors in
the thick of the struggle.

Chapter VI

Riders and Famous Rides

Bart Riles, the pony rider, died this morning from wounds received at
Cold Springs, May 16.

The men at Dry Creek Station have all been killed and it is thought
those at Robert's Creek have met with the same fate.

Six Pike's Peakers found the body of the station keeper horribly
mutilated, the station burned, and all the stock missing from Simpson's.

Eight horses were stolen from Smith's Creek on last Monday, supposedly
by road agents.

The above are random extracts from frontier newspapers, printed while
the Pony Express was running. The Express could never have existed on
its high plane of efficiency, without an abundance of coolheaded,
hardened men; men who knew not fear and who were expert--though
sometimes in vain--in all the wonderful arts of self-preservation
practiced on the old frontier. That these employees could have performed
even the simplest of their duties, without stirring and almost
incredible adventures, it is needless to assert.

The faithful relation of even a considerable number of the thrilling
experiences to which the "Pony" men were subjected would discount
fiction. Yet few of these adventures have been recorded. Today, after a
lapse of over fifty