Four young men in town procured horses, and, loading them with provisions cooked ready for use, started out to feed the starving emigrants. A few miles from town they encountered an ox team which was standing in the road. The driver, a large, powerful man, was seated in the road in the dirt and dust in front of them gnawing, or rather sucking, a small piece of pork rind, and in the covered wagon was found the wife and mother, with two or three children, engaged in a similar on occupation. It was the last of their supplies, and upon which they had subsisted for the previous two days. The young men, therefore, furnished them with the necessary supplies at once.
A few miles further on they saw ahead of them, in the road, a man covered with dust and dirt and hatless, running at full speed towards them. They discovered that he was an emigrant, and that starvation had, doubtless, made him partially insane. He was pursued and caught, and after being fed he recovered sufficiently to be able to give his name. He stated that a few miles back upon the road he had passed a woman, with her husband, who was sick in the wagon, and with three or four young children.
“The woman,” he said, “was frying over the fire a few little cakes, and I asked if she would give me one as I was starving. She said that she would to save my life, but that those four little cakes were the last that she had to divide among six of them. I told her that if that was the case I would not rob her.”
And from that time he stated that he seemed to lose all consciousness.
By the afternoon of the second day out upon their charitable mission the young men had distributed their supplies among the suffering, and camped for the night at a spring near the road. Towards evening, as they were sitting by their camp fire, they observed away across on the opposite side of a steep cañon, an animal of some kind, but owing to the distance could not tell whether it was a horse, cow or bear. They fired several shots with their rifles in that direction, but without effect.
It was about daylight the next morning when they were aroused from a sound sleep by a terrible noise and stampede among their horses. Upon investigation was discovered, at a short distance through the darkness, the form of some animal which had very much the appearance of a huge bear, as they had often seen portrayed in their picture books when boys. They concluded not to investigate any further at present, but vied with each other to see who could climb up a tree the quickest. The grizzly, for such it proved to be, was the strange animal seen upon the flat across the cañon, and which they had been using for a target. Instigated by a similar feeling, presumably, and with an intense desire to see who the, to it, strange animals were upon the hill, it had traveled up around the head of the cañon, a distance of about twelve miles, to satisfy its curiosity and to see what was up, which it soon found, on looking up among the limbs of a big pine tree.
After devouring everything in sight that was eatable, as well, also, as many things which were not so much so, the grizzly cast its eyes up towards the boys, and with a knowing wink hoped they would come that way often to practice target shooting, and departed.
The third night out, and on their way home, they camped at what was then called “Leek Springs,” on the regular emigrant road. They picketed their horses as usual before retiring for the night, but found, to their astonishment in the morning, that the trusty steeds had been stolen. After tracking the animals for a few miles, they saw among the tall grass a large band of horses, well guarded by mounted Mexicans, which had been stolen from the emigrants for the two previous years.