CHAPTER III.
INDIANS AND MINERS.
Walla-walla, Washington Territory,
February 4th, 1863.
Dear Brother (Suisun City, Cal.):—
I have found a good country and more business than I can manage alone; come and help me. Better leave your family until you can see for yourself. You may not like it, though I do. Money is plenty, everything new, and prices keyed up to old “forty-nine” times.
Your brother,
H. J. MEACHAM.
Lee’s Encampment, fifty miles south of Walla-Walla,
on top of Blue Mountain, March 6, 1863.
My dear Wife (Suisun, Cal.):—
“Eureka.” Come; I am camping in four feet of snow, and cooking meals in a frying-pan, and charging a dollar; selling “slap jacks” two bits each; oats and barley at twelve cents, and hay at ten cents per pound, and other things at same kind of prices; can’t supply the demand. Go to William Booth, San Francisco, and tell him to ship you and the children with the goods, to Walla-Walla, Washington Territory, via Portland, Oregon, care Wells, Fargo & Co.’s Express.