[26] Jacob Hamblin, a Narrative, etc. Faith-promoting Series—Juvenile Instructor Office, Salt Lake City—1881.
[27] In 1864 the danger from the Pai Utes, who had not been well treated, increased till Jacob had to take the matter in hand and made a visit to the place where they were gathering for attack. He was asked how many men he wanted to go with him, and he answered, "One, and no arms; not even a knife in sight."
CHAPTER XII
Reconnoitring and Triangulating—A Pai Ute New Year's Dance—The Major Goes to Salt Lake—Snowy Days on the Kaibab—At Pipe Spring—Gold Hunters to the Colorado—Visits to the Uinkaret Country—Craters and Lava—Finding the Hurricane Ledge—An Interview with a Cougar—Back to Kanab.
New-year's day, 1872, passed with nothing more eventful than the return of John Stewart in advance of the Major with the news that they had succeeded in reaching the Colorado at the foot of Kanab Canyon. They had given up the Kaibab direction because of snow which interfered with their advance. He also said that Riley had found gold at the mouth of the Kanab. The telegraph operator was so deeply impressed with this statement that it was telegraphed as an item of news to Salt Lake. Work on the base line went on daily by our topographical staff, but presently it was turned over to a special gang under Captain Dodds, so that the rest of us might be freed to carry on the triangulation. On Monday the 15th, Prof., Jones, Mac, and I started with some pack animals on a ten days' reconnaissance trip over the Kaibab, first going to Kanab for some supplies and taking dinner with Jacob at the house of his wife Louisa. According to the Mormon custom, though it was not universal, Jacob had several wives, I do not know how many. I met two, and he was besides that "sealed" to one or two Pai Ute women. Sister Louisa was the one I came to know best and she was a good woman. We had an excellent dinner with rich cream for the coffee which was an unusual treat. In all Mormon settlements the domestic animals were incorporated at once and they received special care; butter, milk, and cheese were consequently abundant; but in a "Gentile" frontier town all milk, if procurable at all, was drawn from a sealed tin. The same was true of vegetables. The empty tin was the chief decoration of such advance settlements, and with the entire absence of any attempt at arrangement, at order, or to start fruit or shade trees, or do any other sensible thing, the "Gentile" frontier town was a ghastly hodge-podge of shacks in the midst of a sea of refuse. As pioneers the Mormons were superior to any class I have ever come in contact with, their idea being home-making and not skimming the cream off the country with a six-shooter and a whiskey bottle. Jacob's home was simple but it was comfortable. He was a poor man for he did his work for the people with very slight compensation.