Davis turned to us and said, “What is your price for the trip?”

Jim said to me, “What do you say, Will?”

I replied, “It is worth four dollars a day each.”

Jim told the Captain that we would go for four dollars a day to be paid each of us every Saturday night, and if at the end of the first week we had not given satisfaction, we would quit.  Davis put it to a vote, and it was carried in our favor.

The balance of the evening was spent in making arrangements to commence drilling the men.  In the morning Jim said to me, “Now, Will, I’ll take charge of the wagons and you take charge of the scouts.”

I told the Captain that I wanted him to select seven good men that owned their horses.  I wanted to drill them to act as scouts.  Jim said, “Yes, we want to get to drilling every body tomorrow morning.”

We put in four hard days’ work at this business, and then we were ready for the trail, and we pulled out on our long and tedious journey to the land of gold.

There were four hundred and eighty-six men and ninety women in the train, and they had one hundred and forty-eight wagons.  Every thing moved smoothly until we were near the head of the North Platte river.  We were now in the Sioux country, and I began to see a plenty of Indian sign.  Jim and I had arranged that a certain signal meant for him to corral the wagons at once.  As I was crossing the divide at the head of Sweet Water, I discovered quite a band of Indians coming directly towards the train, but I did not think they had seen it yet.  I rode back as fast as my horse could carry me.  When I saw the train, I signaled to Jim to corral, and I never saw such a number of wagons corralled so quickly before or since, as they were.  Jim told the women and children to leave the wagon and go inside the corral, and he told the men to stand outside with their guns, ready for action, but to hold their fire until he gave the word, and he said, “When you shoot, shoot to kill; and do your duty as brave men should.”

In a moment, the Indians were in sight, coming over the hill at full speed.  When they saw the wagons, they gave the war whoop.  This scared the women, and they began to cry and scream and cling to their children.  Jim jumped up on a wagon tongue and shouted at the top of his voice “For God’s sake, women, keep still, or you will all be killed.”

This had the effect that he desired, and there was not a word or sound out of them.  When the Indians were within a hundred yards from us, their yelling was terrible to hear.

Jim now said, “Now boys, give it to them, and let the red devils have something to yell about,” and I never saw men stand up and fight better than these emigrants.  They were fighting for their mothers’ and wives’ and children’s lives, and they did it bravely.  In a few minutes the fight was over, and what was left of the Indians got away in short order.  We did not lose a man, and only one was slightly wounded.  There were sixty-three dead warriors left on the field, and we captured twenty horses.