"Horrible Massacre of Emigrants!!" The Mountain Meadows Massacre in Public Discourse

 

MORE OUTRAGES. 

—From the San Andres Independent, we take the following extract, from the statement of Mr. Richeson Abbott, who took the northern route through Utah, and came into California by the “Big Trees” road. It will be seen that the Indians are committing frightful excesses on that road also:

“This portion of the road most dangerous from attacks of Indians, was from the City Rocks to Gravelly Ford, on the Humboldt, and about eight miles above the Sink—being a distance of near three hundred miles through which the immigrants had to run the gauntlet of Indian attacks and Mormon treachery. On this part of the route, over five hundred persons are known to have been killed by the Indians, and it is also known by the immigrants that the depredators were generally led by white men. In fact, during these attacks, the English language was freely spoken by the assailants, with horrible oaths to give it a stronger effect.

Hundreds of emigrants have been killed and robbed of everything, so that there remains could not be identified; in many instance, six or seven had piled together in one hole, without ceremony or identification. It is an undoubted fact that the Mormons were at the head of most of these outrages, and instigated the Indians to commit all the murders.