We have lost four or five of our cattle, they having left the herd and strayed away. The mules are now becoming very tame and docile, but many of them have very sore backs.
Some of our mules are packed with more than two hundred pounds, which is much too heavy for so young animals. (Distance today, 20 miles.)
Saturday, June 2.
We delayed starting until 2 o’clock, for the reason that two of the Mount Washington men that are traveling with us were taken with the cholera during last night. We leave them with Dr. A. Haynes with assistants and travel twelve miles and camp on the north bend of a small stream, about fifteen miles from the Kansas River.
One of the cholera patients died at 5 o’clock this evening. The other seems some better and appears to be in a fair way to recover.
Sunday, June 3.
Fair and warm. Thermometer 86 degrees in the shade. The last of the two cholera patients died this morning at 9 o’clock. They both died at the camp where we left them, twelve miles east.
We remain here today where we find plenty of good wood, water and grass. The men of both companies are now in good health.
The two men that died of the cholera were large, heavy, strong men in good health, and were taking their turn at driving cattle on Friday. They were stricken with cholera on Friday night. One of the men died Saturday afternoon, and the other died Sunday morning at 9 o’clock. They were buried on the wild prairie. There are hundreds of the immigrants dying constantly—more or less every day.
Monday, June 4.