I feel it my duty to make this statement, however, because I am
convinced of your willingness to do justice to all who were concerned in
that dreadful affair, and heretofore I have been treated with gross
injustice.
"If I believe in God Almighty having anything to do with the affairs of
men, I believe that the misfortune which overtook the Donner Party, and
the terrible part I was compelled to take in the great tragedy, were
predestined. On the Hastings Cut-off we were twenty-eight days in going
twenty-one miles. Difficulty and disaster hovered about us from the time
we entered upon this cut-off."
"One day, while we were traveling on Goose Creek, we saw so many wild
geese that I took my shotgun and went hunting. Ordinarily I am not
superstitious, but on this morning I felt an overwhelming sense of
impending calamity. I mentioned my premonitions to Mrs. Murphy before
starting on the hunt. Becoming excited with the sport, and eagerly
watching the game, I stepped down a steep bank. Some willows had been
burned off, and the short, sharp stubs were sticking up just where I
stepped. I had on buckskin moccasins, and one of these stubs ran into
the ball of my foot, between the bones and the toes. From this time,
until we arrived at Donner Lake, I was unable to walk, or even to put my
foot to the ground.
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