II

FROM ST. LOUIS TO ST. JOSEPH

At length it was decided that myself with the outfit should be shiped on
board a steamer & sent to St. Joseph,[14] accordingly I was conveyed on
board the Martha Jewett[15] which was loading with freight for that, &
intermediate points, while the men with the team would proceed by land.
The cabin of this well furnished & beautiful steamer was filled with
passengers two thirds of whom were for California.

[April 22--9th day] Started up the river about 2, o'clock this
afternoon, the company being all strangers to me I felt quite lonesome,
thought much about "those I left behind me."

[April 23--10th day] A man fell overboard this morning, he was a deck
passenger going to California, broke two of his ribs, he is not expected
to live, he has no family as I could learn. there are about 200
passengers on board for California.

[April 24--11th day] The man died last night, carried him on to
Boonville[16] & buried him, I did not learn his name. We got on rather
slowly for the boat is very heavily laden, there is some 100 head of
cattle horses & mules on board, a good many among whom were those
gentlemen with whom we had intended to travel having shipped their teems
& waggons besides their other freight, & the river is quite low.

[April 25--12th day] Sunday quite sad although there were some 40 ladies
on board, I have been reading the various guides of the rout to
California, they have not improved my ideas of the _pleasure_ of the
trip, no very flattering accounts I assure you, but hope we may find it
better, not worse.

[April 26--13th day] The country along the Mississouri [_sic_] most of
the way, is quite broken, & hilly, many of the towns are small &
uninteresting, but there are some, though not large which do a great
deal of business. The scenery is quite monotonous.

[April 27--14th day] Passed the wreck of the steamer Luda,[17] which was
blown up a short time since, it was a sad sight; for nearly 200 hundred
lives were lost by that fatal accident, & the most of them I was told
were for California. Men were at work digging from the hulk (which was
nearly all that was left, so great was the explosion) such articles as
were of value, or to ascertain if there were any dead bodies, to give
them burial. I suppose they had found many for they had a line on which
was hung promiscuously men, women, & children's clothes, it made ones
heart ache to look uppon such a sight, but what mu