“I had selected the fair one who was to share with me life’s joys and sorrows, and obtained her promise to marry the following autumn. The world before me was roseate with beauty and happiness. My feelings were buoyant, unmingled with a single thought of disappointment or failure in the plans I had made. But alas! in a few brief months all this dream was wretchedly dispelled. I learned the lesson taught in those simple words, ‘Man proposes, but God disposes.’ When the products of my fields were teeming with their highest life, and the flowers and shrubs in my garden were blooming in their greatest beauty, and the sun shone brightest, and the birds sang sweetest, an angry cloud appeared, filled with myriads of those winged pests that have so often swept from the soil all the hopes and treasures of the husbandman. The destruction of the fields of Egypt under the curse of locusts was not more complete than that of the field and garden which, a few hours before, had been my greatest pride. They were thoroughly denuded—field, garden, yard, even the stately trees around my dwelling—all were naked, shaven, brown, and barren. A more perfect blight could not be conceived. My heart for the moment sank within me.
“But, being naturally of a hopeful disposition, I remembered that flocks and herds were still left, and I determined to look at the disaster with a strong heart, and try by renewed exertion to regain what had been lost. Alas! troubles never come singly. I was obliged to postpone my marriage indefinitely. The coldest winter and heaviest snows ever known before or since in that country brought starvation to all my cattle, horses, pigs, and chickens, and when spring came I had nothing left but my dwelling. I became despondent, sulky, indifferent. My father, who dwelt in another part of the country, was wealthy. Generously sympathizing in my misfortunes, he offered to give me a fresh start, with three hundred head of cattle and the necessaries of life. I accepted, and determined to plunge deeper into the wilds, away from civilization, and begin life anew, thinking to avenge myself upon the disappointments of the past by a solitary life, with nature and books as a solace.
“I bought a well-selected assortment of educational volumes, ranging from a spelling-book to the Latin and Greek classics, and from Ray’s Arithmetic to the higher branches of mathematics, and, employing three reliable men to drive the herd, picked my way over mountains and rivers to the Rogue River Valley, a region then destitute of settlers, but the principal hunting-ground and home of the fiercest and most warlike tribe of Indians on the Pacific coast. Their hostility to the whites then, and for many years afterwards, was bloodthirsty and unappeasable. But I was accustomed to frontier life, familiar with the country, and did not fear the Indians. The valley was full of game, and they would not kill my stock. My life, which they would destroy on the first opportunity, I determined to look out for as best I might; besides, there was an indescribable charm in the idea of such exposure as required a constant exercise of all the faculties. A man shows for all he is worth in a country filled with hostile Indians. He makes no mistakes there, and learns the value of gun, pistol, and hunting-knife.
“I selected a place thirty-six miles west of the old California trail, under the shadow of the Coast Range of mountains, in one of the most charming of valleys. The only evidence that it had ever been visited by a human being was a small Indian trail near by, which led from the base of Siskiyou Mountain to the ocean, near the mouth of Coquillas River. I turned my cattle upon the fine range of native grass which covered both hill and valley in all directions, and, with the aid of the herdsmen, built a log cabin, stockading a half-acre, enclosing it with poles fifteen feet high. My armory consisted of one rifle, fifteen United States yagers, one double-barrelled shotgun, a pair of Colt’s revolvers, and a large supply of ammunition. Feeling that I was now prepared to defend myself against the Indians, I dismissed the men, who returned to the settlements, and began the life of solitude.
“In the early days of this experience, I confess I sometimes cast longing thoughts back to the relations and friends I had forsaken, and wished I had been less precipitate in my choice of a mode of life. Then the past would come up, with its commencement of promise and happiness, and its close of disappointment and gloom. I called philosophy to my aid, and strove to forget, in my studies, which I engaged in with energy, all my former joys and griefs.
“Familiarity with my condition wore away all regrets, and I soon learned to love my exile, and to regard it as the most instructive and least harmful portion of my life. To avoid too great monotony, I occasionally spent a day in hunting or fishing, or looking after my herd; but the proficiency I made in study was my greatest source of encouragement and happiness.
“Month after month imperceptibly glided away, except as each was marked by some increase in knowledge, and some additions to my cattle. I felt resigned to an isolation which cast me off from all communion with the world and all knowledge of its transactions. Indians would occasionally appear, but they knew my means of defence, and never disturbed me. Their attacks upon armed men, like those made upon the grizzly or mountain lion, are only ventured when safe, and always with strategy. Sometimes, when I saw them passing, I longed for a tussle with them as a change of occupation, but they never gave me the opportunity.
“One day, wearied with a problem in Euclid, I shouldered my rifle, and strolled into the adjacent forest in quest of a deer. A rustle in the undergrowth attracted my attention. Supposing it to be caused by some animal, I peered cautiously in the direction from within the shadow of a pine, and saw, to my surprise, a man half concealed in a thicket, watching me. It was the work of an instant to bring my rifle to an aim.
“‘Who are you?’ I demanded, knowing if he were a white man he would answer.
“He replied in unmistakable English, ‘I am a white man in distress.’