Chapter 14

August 16, 1847

We rested that night in a pleasant valley next to the Umatilla River, with plentiful grass and good water. When we woke up we felt that all of our problems were behind us. We were soon disabused of the idea that the rest of the journey would be easy. We were warned by the wagon master to fill all water containers and gather grass for the oxen before we left so we spent today preparing for the upcoming journey. Wagon wheels were checked and all minor repairs done as best as possible. The wagon master spent the day checking the wagon that had broken loose and by the afternoon was asking if anyone could handle more weight and take some of the cargo from that wagon. Almost everyone was loaded down but between the entire wagon train we managed to take about a third of the cargo from the wagon. We spent the day cutting grass and hunting. Elizabeth and I went hunting and she shot a fine deer and managed to shoot several plump grouse with my shotgun. I managed to hit several grouse myself but told Elizabeth I was having mine fresh.

I have continued to teach my wives Krav Magen techniques and we continued the Tai Chi exercises. They feel better after the Tai Chi movements and have begun to notice the relationship between it and some of the Tae Kwan Do movements. Some of the men have seen us at Tai Chi and to a man they think I'm crazy. Sometimes I agree with them, especially after a long day. The biggest change I have seen is in Louise. She no longer walks about with a frightened air around the other men and has started joking and laughing when she joins the women's groups around the fire.

Claire has started teaching Louise her letters and numbers after we found she had only the vaguest notion of either. She has begun to be able to read much better and I always find her reading books when she is not involved in cooking or some other domestic task. I'm glad that at least one of my wives is familiar with how to maintain a house, as Elizabeth and Claire are mediocre at best. Even I am better at keeping things neat than my other two wives!

Claire has continued her schooling of the younger children and is full of pride at how well they have progressed. Her biggest problem is the lack of books for the children so she has been having some of the better writers copy the books by hand to share with the other students. I am beginning to think that I should start a practice as a doctor when we finally settle down. I am starting to get more patients every day complaining about aches and pains as well as emergencies that require first aid such as broken limbs and sprains. I am hesitant about claiming to be a doctor, as I have no knowledge of surgery and dread the day I must use what little knowledge I do have. Elizabeth has changed the least so far. She still outshines most of the men in the daily tasks we need to do to continue our journey. Sometimes I think she would be more comfortable at the men's meeting than around the women. I don't know how much longer this will continue to be true as she becomes more involved with her pregnancy.

I have found similar differences in how being pregnant effects their sexual interest. Claire has become much more aggressive, while Louise has become more clinging and desires hugs and kisses more than sex. Elizabeth remains the most adventurous but is slowing down as her pregnancy progresses. We are spending most nights making love by cuddling and talking rather than with the wild sexuality of our earlier relationship.

August 16, 1847

We spent last night making gentle love to each other. We were all rested and felt no need to hurry to finish to get our sleep in before today. We switched partners several times and I ended up making love to all three of my wives but only cuming once. We talked and cuddled more than anything else and I finally went to sleep while my wives were talking.

We began our journey at a good clip until we reached the plain. I have rarely seen such a desolate looking area. The plain is covered with dry bunch grass and shrubs, just big enough to hinder our travel and almost no trees to provide shade. Most of the grass on the trail itself has been eaten so we have to have our cattle move some distance away in order to find enough to graze. This requires a larger number of men to control the animals and keep them going in the right direction. We have seen no sign of water since we began this morning. When we expressed our concern about this to the guide and wagon master, they told us their plan of travel. We are to head toward Sugar Loaf Mountain and after that we climb Spring Mountain where we will find water. Altogether we have made only 10 and a half miles today.

We have seen no game today with the exception of several very large white tailed rabbits. We have enough meat to last for today and the start of tomorrow, and then we need to find more game. One of the men shot a rabbit today and tried to roast it. He told me it was tasty, but it chewed back when he chewed it! It will need long stewing to be eaten, so we will have to let it stew overnight as we have no time during the day to do this.

I have had no further visits from the measles wagons and I think the outbreak is over I remain concerned about the man who was gored. He is showing little improvement and I have not been able to get him to let me examine the wound. He assures me that he is keeping the wound clean, but I have noticed him favoring the leg. I hope he is getting better, because if he has gangrene the only thing I can do is amputate the leg.

After struggling through the brush today all anyone wants to do tonight is sleep.

The companions of the gored man called me out tonight. He lapsed into unconsciousness while around the fire and can't be wakened. I checked him out and found him to be running a high fever. I checked out his leg and found it puffy and pus running out of the wound. There are red skin breaks running up and down from the wound and a smell of rotten flesh. One if his companions drew in their breath in recognition, "That's gangrene!" I agreed and knew I faced a task probably beyond my capabilities. The leg had to be removed below the knee.

I tied off the leg above the wound and began to prepare for the amputation. I woke up the wagon captain and asked him to pray for the patient. I got five men to hold the man still as I knew that he would move wildly when I began cutting. I re-sterilized my scalpels and borrowed a bone saw from my wife and sterilized it. Taking a big breath I began cutting.

He awoke with a scream of pain and began struggling. I told the men to hold him fast and used a sleeper hold to return him to unconsciousness. I returned to the leg and continued cutting. I finally got down to the bones and picking up the bone saw began to cut. The sound of the saw cutting through the bone made several of the men holding him turn green and one looked like he was about to vomit. I told Louise to push him away and take his place. Soon I had cut through the bone and continued to cut off the remaining flesh. A modern doctor would have put a flap of skin over the raw stump but I didn't know how. I had to use a flat pan I heated in the fire until it was red hot to cauterize the wound. With a hissing sound it burned the wound. I released the tourniquet and watched to see if there was any blood leakage. There was some but not enough to require me to cauterize the wound again. I had one of the men who held him take the leg and bury it. I was mentally and physically exhausted and Louise wasn't much better.

I turned to his companions. "There's nothing else I can do right now. You need to keep an eye on him and get me if he changes for the worse. The rest is up to him."

Exhausted, we returned to bed for the remainder of the night.

August 17, 1847

I awoke this morning to find that my patient had died during the night. I never knew his name until then. He was Daniel Morrison and was a single man who was going to start a farm when he got to Oregon. He was buried before we got going and we ran the wagons over his grave to try to keep the wolves and other predators out of it. There was nothing to mark his grave. From what his companions told me he never regained consciousness.

I was depressed from losing a patient, even though many of the men came up to me to thank me for doing as much as I had. One man told me it was an easier death than dying from the gangrene. What I would give for some penicillin!

We couldn't stop for any longer if we didn't want to start losing cattle. Last night the cattle didn't get any water with the exception of the oxen pulling the wagons. They are already starting to suffer and we are beginning to see piles of bones along the trail. One of the desert post offices (skulls) told us of a poison pond ahead so we had to make a detour around it so the thirsty animals couldn't get to it. Due to the burial and the detour, we only made about 9 miles today. The water is getting low at several of the wagons again and we have had several of the women ask to get water from one of our extra barrels. We must find water tomorrow or the cattle will begin dying.

There have been no further signs of the measles in either of the two wagons for the last seven days. I have given the people permission to join the rest of the wagon train. I have remained alone as much as possible today because of my depression. I didn't feel like continuing the unarmed combat training today, but my wives insisted that I join them in Tai Chi. I did feel better afterwards, but was still feeling down. My wives spent the night before we fell asleep just holding me while I talked about how I felt.

August 18, 1847

We reached Spring Mountain and the guide took the cattle herd and the drovers ahead to the spring. We will have to climb up the slope and down the other side a little ways to get to it. Everyone was relieved that we were close to water again as many of the wagons were down to the bottom of the barrels. We have been told to refill the barrels and anything else that would hold water as this was the last reliable water source we would see until we reached the Umatilla River. We reached the watering place and had to hold back the oxen to keep them from drinking too fast. It took us an hour to water all the stock and then we had to refill the barrels. I had to tell several of the boys not to use the main watering hole where the cattle had drunk and to go upstream to get the drinking water. The wagon captain came down on them as well and reminded those who grew up on a farm what happened when cattle got too close to a well.