My object in passing west of Shasta was to strike the headwaters of the Sacramento and follow that river to the city of Sacramento. Late in the evening of the fifth day we struck a beautiful region, since known as the Shasta Valley.
While we were looking ahead through our field glasses and laying out our route for the next day, we discovered a great cloud of dust, which seemed to be not more than five or six miles away, and just beyond a low range of hills that we could overlook. We secreted our horses and watched the dust, but we had not watched long before about sixty horses came in sight, driven by five Indians. We could note that there were a number of mules in the band, and that two of the redskins carried rifles.
We were not long in making up our minds that this was stolen property, and that they had done murder and had taken the stock and were getting away as fast as they could. Otherwise they would not have those rifles.
In those days Indians knew very little about using guns, and the mules we knew did not belong to them, for they did not have any mules, only as they could steal them from the emigrants.
We watched them until they came to a nice little stream, where they stopped, staked their saddle-horses out, and as it was almost night, we were confident from their movements that they were going into camp. Being not more than three miles from where we were, we staked out horses on the grass, ate a cold lunch, and it now being dark we started afoot for the Indian camp.
We did not get in sight of the Indians any more until within a quarter of a mile of their camp.
They had a little fire of sagebrush and had not lain down yet, but were watching the horses very closely. They stayed up until about eleven o'clock, and every few minutes some of them would go out to where the horses were feeding and look all around.
The moon being full, it was a very bright night, and we could see well.
Finally the horses all got quiet, and the Indians, after building up a little more fire, all laid down by it for a nap.
After they had lain there some little time, I told the boys now was our time, for as soon as one of them woke up he would go out to the horses again.