Next morning we continued to travel, finding no grass nor water. The road was up hill for ten or twelve miles, and rough; the day rather cool.
Long before night our hay and water were consumed, and the camp in a suffering condition. Some cattle had given out entirely; and fifteen or twenty miles still intervened between us and water, and without grass sufficient to feed a goat. Six or eight miles of the way was still up hill. This was the most trying time of all.
At dark, about fourteen miles from water, our ten was behind, and my two wagons were the rear of all; and some of my oxen had already failed. We still rolled slowly, resting every few minutes. We soon found the different portions of the camp ahead, halted, and lost in slumber—every man and beast, by common consent, sunk in profound slumber, and probably dreaming of water and feed ahead.
We, viz., our ten, with some exceptions, slipped quietly past them, and resting often and a few minutes at a time continued to roll. The night was cool, and a miraculous strength seemed to inspire the cattle.
At sunrise next morning we arrived at the Bitter Springs; the water of which was about as palatable as a dose of salts.
The other camps followed us in, and by ten o'clock all were in, except three oxen left by the way, and two wagons with their loads, left twenty miles back.
Men and animals were so exhausted that, after digging and improving the water, and a general watering, it was ten hours or more before the cattle were driven to what little feed there was, a mile or two distant.
I rode back ten miles and carried water and feed to two animals, and tried in vain to drive them in.
In this desert we had travelled, without much intermission, two days and two nights; during which we had no feed nor water, excepting that which we carried with us, and the Salt Springs, and the Bitter Springs, and a little dry feed to refresh upon after this toil women and children, young and old, and old men walked on foot day and night.
It was certainly the hardest time I ever saw; but we cried unto God, and in the name of Jesus Christ asked Him to strengthen us and our teams, and He did so in a miraculous manner, and we were saved from the horrors of the desert.