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starvation, sixteen of the strongest (11 males and 5 females) agreed to start for the settlement on foot. Scantily clothed and provided with provisions they commenced that horrid journey over the mountains that Napoleon’s fete on the Alps was child’s play compared with.
    â€œAfter wandering about a number of days bewildered in the snow, their provisions gave out, and long hunger made it necessary to resort to that horrid recourse casting lots to see who should give up life, that their bodies might be used for food for the remainder. But at this time the weaker began to die which rendered it unnecessary to take life, and as they died the company went into camp and made meat of the dead bodies of their companions .
    Nine of the men died and seven of them were eaten by their companions—The first person that died was Mr. C. S. Stanton, the young man who so generously returned to the company with Capt. Sutter’s two Indian vaqueros and provisions; his body was left on the snow. The last two that died was Capt. Sutter’s two Indian vaqueros and their bodies were used as food by the seven that came in. The company left behind, numbers sixty odd souls; ten men, the balance women and children. They are in camp about 100 miles from Johnson’s, the first house after leaving the mountains, or 150 from fort Sacramento. They say that Capt. Sutter’s seven mules were stolen by the Indians a few days after they reached the company, which had provisions sufficient to last them until the middle of February.
    The party that came in were at one time 36 hours in a snow storm without fire; they had but three quilts in the company. I could state several most horrid circumstances connected with this affair such as one of the women being obliged to eat part of the body of her father and brother, another saw her husband’s heart cooked & eaten, which would be more suitable for a hangman’s journal than the columns of a family newspaper.
    I have not had the satisfaction of seeing any one of the party that has arrived; but when I do, I will get more of the particulars and send them to you.”
    As soon as we received the information we drew up the appeal of which I enclose you a copy, callinga meeting in the armory of the Fort, explained the object of the meeting and solicited the names of all that would go. We were only able to raise seven here ,—they started this morning for Johnson’s to join the party raised there.
    Capt. J. A. Sutter in his usual generous manner ordered his overseer to give this brave band of men all the provisions they could carry. They took as much beef, bread, and sugar as they thought they could carry and started in good spirits on their long and perilous trip. Capt. Kern the commander of the Sacramento District, will go up as far as Johnson’s to-morrow to assist in starting the party, and may go as far as the Bear River Valley.
    It’s interesting how no place in the story is the name “Donner” mentioned, though this is the first public report of what became known as the “Donner Party.” That was the name bestowed by sensationalistic frontier newspapers to that party of westward-traveling migrants who included the families of brothers George and Jacob Donner. During the winter of 1846–1847 they became trapped in the Sierra Nevada by the early winter.
    Most lived in makeshift cabins; others in canvas huts that did little to keep out the elements. One by one the would-be settlers died, until finally survivors resorted to cannibalism to stay alive. As the above account makes clear, even Sutter’s rescuers were not immune to the weather and that most basic of survival instincts.
    Even as outside help was trying to come to their assistance, the Donner Party did its best to endure in subzero temperatures. Patrick Breen, who was born in Ireland and came to the United States in 1828, was one member of the Donner Party. Eight of the others were his