They said the physical
condition of the refugees was such, from the very start, that no
persuasion, nor warnings, nor threats could quicken their feeble steps.
All but three of the number were children, with their hands and feet
more or less frozen. Worse still, the caches on which the party had
relied for sustenance had been robbed by wild animals, and the severity
of the storm had forced all into camp, with nothing more than a
breastwork of brush to shelter them. Mrs. Elisabeth Graves died the
first night, leaving to the party the hopeless task of caring for her
emaciated babe in arms, and her three other children between the ages
of nine and five years. Soon, however, the five-year-old followed his
mother, and the number of starving was again lessened on the third
night when Isaac Donner went to sleep beside his sister and did not
waken. The storm had continued so furiously that it was impossible to
bury the dead. Days and nights were spent in steadfast struggling
against the threatening inevitable, before the party gave up; and
Greenwood and Reed, taking the two Reed children and also Solomon Hook,
who walked, started down the mountain, hoping to save their own lives
and perhaps get fresh men to complete the pitiful work which they had
been forced to abandon.
When Messrs. Reed and Greenwood closed their account of the terrible
physical and mental strain their party had undergone, "Mr.
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