"In the evening of the second day we started to cross the great
desert. We succeeded in crossing by midnight and reached the mountains
on the other side. I was so tired I fell asleep beside the trail. The
team passed me as I slept. I did not awaken until 2 in the morning. I
followed the trail and found the team, a distance of four or five
miles ahead of where I took the nap. On reaching camp, father and the
company were anxiously awaiting me. We rested for the night. Next
morning we started through a deep canyon which eventually opened into
a beautiful valley where we saw houses made of adobe. The fields were
covered with cattle. This was the first civilization we saw since
leaving Salt Lake. Starvation had almost overtaken us and we besought
the owner to sell us an ox and we had a feast and appeased our hunger.
We had lost all accounting of time until we came here. We camped for
the night, and next morning we started for Los Angeles. We arrived
there November 18, 1849. The Spaniards had taken a strong liking
toward father and wanted to make him their Alcalde, but he refused the
honor and told them he had come to preach the gospel and had to go
further. On his going they presented him with a fine horse and saddle
as a token of their esteem for him. At that time Los Angeles had only
a few adobe houses and a Catholic mission. Commodore Stockton had dug
trenches around the place as a means of defense. We slowly wended our
way for another month when we met a man who had bought a thousand head
of cattle.
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