A short distance below could be
seen a lake containing water, and the pass toward which they had been
directing their course seemed to the north of them. They therefore
turned their course in that direction. The road was sandy, and the brush
that grew on it was only a few inches high. On their way they came to an
abandoned Indian camp occupied by one poor old blind red man. He would
hold his mouth open like a young bird begging for something to eat. One
man dropped kernels of parched corn into his mouth, but instead of
eating them he quickly spit them out; it seemed that he had been left to
die and could not or would not. His hair was white as snow. His skin
looked about the color of a smoked ham, and so crippled was he that he
crawled about like a beast, on all fours. It was barely possible that he
had been left to watch, and that his great infirmities were only
pretended, but they seemed genuine enough, and were doubtless true. They
left him in peaceable possession of the spot and traveled on.
They approached the base of the mountain in front of what they had all
along supposed to be a pass, and found, as they had lately begun to
suspect, that there was no pass that their wagons could be taken
through, and they must be abandoned. The camp was poor. What little
water there was had a salty taste, and they could only find here and
there a bunch of the poorest grass. The oxen stood around as if utterly
dispirited, and would sometimes make a faint effort to pick up and eat
some of the dry brush that grew around the desolate camp.
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