business, whom you could distinguish by his brisk walk, important airs, fine dress & appearence, he would merely glance at the signature, put it in his pocket, & hurry back to his shop, but I noticed one old man as he broke open his letter & was reading it, appeared dejected; he would stop, and his mind would seem abstracted, for he heeded nothing which passed arround him, it know [no] doubt contained unwelcome news. I thought it might have been the conduct of some profligate son, or perhaps of some disaster which affected his pecuniary condition. I also noticed a woman reading a letter as she walked along leading a small child, she appeared to be about 40 years of age, rather poorly clad; when she broke the seal she appeared aggitated, but she had not read far before she smiled & tears of joy ran down her cheeks, I could not mistake the mother or wife was there; & I conjectured with some probability that it was favorable news from a husband or son in California. But I will not attempt to discribe all I saw, but I must say that the noise & bustle of those two hours was enough to give one the headache it exceeded that of the levy of New-Orleans.

CHAPTER II

From St. Louis to St. Joseph

At length it was decided that myself with the outfit should be shiped on board a steamer & sent to St. Joseph,[14] accordingly I was conveyed on board the Martha Jewett[15] which was loading with freight for that, & intermediate points, while the men with the team would proceed by land. The cabin of this well furnished & beautiful steamer was filled with passengers two thirds of whom were for California.

[April 22—9th day] Started up the river about 2, o'clock this afternoon, the company being all strangers to me I felt quite lonesome, thought much about "those I left behind me."

[April 23—10th day] A man fell overboard this morning, he was a deck passenger going to California, broke two of his ribs, he is not expected to live, he has no family as I could learn. there are about 200 passengers on board for California.

[April 24—11th day] The man died last night, carried him on to Boonville[16] & buried him, I did not learn his name. We got on rather slowly for the boat is very heavily laden, there is some 100 head of cattle horses & mules on board, a good many among whom were those gentlemen with whom we had intended to travel having shipped their teems & waggons besides their other freight, & the river is quite low.

[April 25—12th day] Sunday quite sad although there were some 40 ladies on board, I have been reading the various guides of the rout to California, they have not improved my ideas of the pleasure of the trip, no very flattering accounts I assure you, but hope we may find it better, not worse.

[April 26—13th day] The country along the Mississouri [sic] most of the way, is quite broken, & hilly, many of the towns are small & uninteresting, but there are some, though not large which do a great deal of business. The scenery is quite monotonous.

[April 27—14th day] Passed the wreck of the steamer Luda,[17] which was blown up a short time since, it was a sad sight; for nearly 200 hundred lives were lost by that fatal accident, & the most of them I was told were for California. Men were at work digging from the hulk (which was nearly all that was left, so great was the explosion) such articles as were of