Had she not sent me away to save me,
and asked God, our Heavenly Father, to take care of me?
Intense excitement and indignation prevailed at the Fort after Captain
Fallon and other members of his party gave their account of the
conditions found at the mountain camps, and of interviews had with
Keseberg, whom they now called, "cannibal, robber, and murderer." The
wretched man was accused by this party, not only of having needlessly
partaken of human flesh, and of having appropriated coin and other
property which should have come to us orphaned children, but also of
having wantonly taken the life of Mrs. Murphy and of my mother.
Some declared him crazy, others called him a monster. Keseberg denied
these charges and repeatedly accused Fallon and his party of making
false statements. He sadly acknowledged that he had used human flesh to
keep himself from starving, but swore that he was guiltless of taking
human life. He stated that Mrs. Murphy had died of starvation soon
after the departure of the "Third Relief," and that my mother had
watched by father's bedside until he died. After preparing his body for
burial, she had started out on the trail to go to her children. In
attempting to cross the distance from her camp to his, she had strayed
and wandered about far into the night, and finally reached his cabin
wet, shivering, and grief-stricken, yet determined to push onward.
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