Statewide County CA Archives History - Books .....The Great Scourge Of 1832-'33 1891
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Book Title: Memorial And Biographical History Of Northern California

THE GREAT SCOURGE OF 1832-'33.

  Colonel J. J. Warner, now of Los Angeles, a member of the Ewing trapping
expedition, which passed north through these valleys in 1832, and back again in
1833, says:

  "In the fall of 1832, there were a number of Indian villages on King's River,
between its mouth and the mountains; also on the San Joaquin River, from the
base of the mountains down to and some distance below the great slough. On the
Merced River, from the mountains to its junction with the San Joaquin, there
were no Indian villages; but from about this point on the San Joaquin, as well
as on its principal tributaries, the Indian villages were numerous, many of them
containing some fifty to one hundred dwellings, built with poles and thatched
with rushes. With some few exceptions, the Indians were peaceably disposed. On
the Tuolmnne, Stanislaus and Calaveras rivers there were no Indian villages
above the mouths, as also at or near their junction with the San Joaquin. The
most hostile were on the Calaveras River. The banks of the Sacramento River, in
its whole course through the valley, was studded with Indian villages, the
houses of which, in the spring, during the day-time, were red with the salmon
the aborigines were curing.

  "At this time there were not, on the San Joaquin or Sacramento river, or any
of their tributaries, nor within the valleys of the two rivers, any inhabitants
but Indians. On no part of the continent over which 1 had then or have since
traveled was so numerous an Indian population, subsisting on the natural
products of the soil and waters, as in the valleys of the San Joaquin and
Sacramento. There was no cultivation of the soil by them; game, fish, nuts of
the forest and seeds of the field constituted their entire food. They were
experts in catching fish in many ways, and in snaring game in divers modes.

  "On our return, late in the summer of 1833, we found the valleys depopulated.
From the head of the Sacramento to the great bend and slough of the San Joaquin
we did not see more than six or eight live Indians, while large numbers of their
bodies and skulls were to be seen under almost every shade-tree near water,
where the uninhabited and deserted villages had been converted into grave-yards;
and on the San Joaquin River, in the immediate neighborhood of the larger class
of villages, which the preceding year were the abodes of large numbers of these
Indians, we found not only many graves, but the vestiges of a funeral pyre. At
the mouth of King's River we encountered the first and only village of the
stricken race that we had seen after entering the great valley; this village
contained a large number of Indians temporarily stopping at that place.

  "We were encamped near the village one night only, and during that time the
death angel, passing over the camping-ground of the plague-stricken fugitives,
waved his wand, summoning from a little remnant of a once numerous people a
score of victims to muster in the land of the Manitou; and the cries of the
dying, mingling with the wails of the bereaved, made the night hideous in that
veritable valley of death."


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California.

Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast
from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with
Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of
Prominent Citizens of To-day.

"A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendents." – Macauley.

CHICAGO
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1891.


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