He was the
father of eleven children, six of whom, with his wife, are now living."
Each one of the persons who were taken from Starved Camp by this man and
his two companions, reached Sutter's Fort in safety. James F. Breen had
his feet badly frozen, and afterwards burned while at the camp. No one
had any hope that they could be saved, and when the party reached the
fort, a doctor was sought to amputate them. None could be found, and
kind nature effected a cure which a physician would have pronounced
impossible.
In concluding this chapter, it is quite appropriate to quote the
following, written by J. F. Breen: "No one can attach blame to those who
voted to leave part of the emigrants. It was a desperate case. Their
idea was to save as many as possible, and they honestly believed that by
attempting to save all, all would be lost. But this consideration - and
the further one that Stark was an entire stranger to every one in the
camps, not bound to them by any tie of blood or kindred, nor having any
hope of reward, except the grand consciousness of doing a noble act -
makes his conduct shine more lustrously in the eyes of every person who
admires nature's true and only nobility."
Chapter XVIII.
Arrival of the Third Relief
The Living and the Dead
Captain George Donner Dying
Mrs.
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