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Archiver > OREGON-TRAIL > 2000-08 > 0967765426
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Subject: Aunt charlotte's book ( Lovejoy and the Indians)
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2000 19:43:46 EDT
I am putting this story in because of an email on the Oregon-trails list
about the 1842 train as one can see it all ties in.
____________________________________
It was somewhere near here that we passed through the Sweetwater canyon. We
saw a high cliff that had many names carved on it. away in the wild country,
it seemed strange to us. Someone told us a story about two of the names that
were carved high above all the others that were there. One of the names was
Hastings and the other was Lovejoy.
It may have been Lovejoy, himself, who told it. He had passed that way
the year before with a small horseback party on its way to the west coast.
They were mostly mountain men and trappers, about forty in all. It was the
names of the members of this party that we saw carved on the face of the
cliff.
Lovejoy had come back to meet us, so perhaps he pointed the names out to
us himself and told us the story about them. He and Hastings watched the
others till they had finished then they climbed still higher on the cliff, so
that their names might top the list, while they worked, their friends rode
on to make camp on the bank of the stream.
The young men had climbed to a place quite high on the face of the
mountain, and to reach it, they had taken a round about way, pulling
themselves higher and higher by holding to the clumps of wild shrubs or tiny
ledges that projected far enough to give them finger and toe holds. At last
they reached a wider ledge and started to work their way across to the water
course. They were then at a point where they could look across the canyon
and see where the rest of the party were making camp.
Something caused them to glance down. They took one look and wished that
they were mountain goats or beetles or anything except what they were, two
boys marooned on the face of a cliff with a band of Indians directly below
them.
The Indians had already found the guns. They were handing them about and
examining them with apparently great delight. The boys knew that it would be
but a moment till they were discovered. One of them was wise enough to take
off his red handkerchief and tie it to a bush. He hoped that the party at
camp would see it and take it for what it was, a signal of distress.
Something, a loose pebble, maybe, or as Lovejoy afterwards said, it may
have been the beating of his heart that attracted the attention of the
Indians. In any case they were discovered and the Indians motioned for them
to come down. There was nothing else for them to do.
The hanging out of the handkerchief was a very fortunate thing for them.
It happened exactly as they had hoped. Someone at the camp saw it and
thought of Indians at once, so a dozen or so men went back to the place,
where they had left the boys. They got there barely in time, for the Indians
were just starting away with their prisoners.
In those days, the Indians did not seem to desire blood or scalps. They
held their prisoners for ransom.
Lovejoy may not have told us about it in the first place, but we came to
know him very well and I have often heard him say that as long as he lived
he would never be able to look himself in the face and say that he amounted
to much till he could forget that the Indians had sold him back to his
friends for a twist of tobacco, and the Indians threw in the two guns for
good measure.
Walt Davies
Monmouth, OR
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