After we had unsaddled I visited the cabin to inquire in regard to the country ahead, and there found at first only a soldier of Williamson’s party; later the proprietor of the ranch appeared.  The soldier had been left behind by the surveying party on account of illness, with instructions to make his way back to Fort Reading as best he could when he recovered.  His condition having greatly improved, however, since he had been left, he now begged me in beseeching terms to take him along with my party, which I finally consented to do, provided that if he became unable to keep up with me, and I should be obliged to abandon him, the responsibility would be his, not mine.  This increased my number to five, and was quite a reinforcement should we run across any hostile Indians; but it was also certain to prove an embarrassment should the man again fall ill.

During the night, notwithstanding the continuance of the storm, I had a very sound and refreshing sleep behind the protecting log where we made our camp, and at daylight next morning we resumed our journey, fortified by a breakfast of coffee and hard bread.  I skirted around the base of Lassan’s Butte, thence down Hat Creek, all the time following the trail made by Lieutenant Williamson’s party.  About noon the soldier I had picked up at my first camp gave out, and could go no farther.  As stipulated when I consented to take him along, I had the right to abandon him, but when it came to the test I could not make up my mind to do it.  Finding a good place not far off the trail, one of my men volunteered to remain with him until he died; and we left them there, with a liberal supply of hard bread and coffee, believing that we would never again see the invalid.  My reinforcement was already gone, and another man with it.

With my diminished party I resumed the trail and followed it until about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, when we heard the sound of voices, and the corporal, thinking we were approaching Lieutenant Williamson’s party, was so overjoyed in anticipation of the junction, that he wanted to fire his musket as an expression of his delight.  This I prevented his doing, however, and we continued cautiously and slowly on to develop the source of the sounds in front.  We had not gone far before I discovered that the noise came from a band of Pit River Indians, who had struck the trail of the surveying expedition, and were following it up, doubtless with evil intent.  Dismounting from my horse I counted the moccasin tracks to ascertain the number of Indians, discovered it to be about thirty, and then followed on behind them cautiously, but with little difficulty, as appearances of speed on their part indicated that they wished to overtake Lieutenant Williamson’s party, which made them less on the lookout than usual for any possible pursuers.  After following the trail until nearly sundown, I considered it prudent to stop for the night, and drew off some little distance, where, concealed in a dense growth of timber, we made our camp.