I am putting this story in because of an email on the Oregon-trails list about the 1842 train as one can see it all ties in. ____________________________________ It was somewhere near here that we passed through the Sweetwater canyon. We saw a high cliff that had many names carved on it. away in the wild country, it seemed strange to us. Someone told us a story about two of the names that were carved high above all the others that were there. One of the names was Hastings and the other was Lovejoy. It may have been Lovejoy, himself, who told it. He had passed that way the year before with a small horseback party on its way to the west coast. They were mostly mountain men and trappers, about forty in all. It was the names of the members of this party that we saw carved on the face of the cliff. Lovejoy had come back to meet us, so perhaps he pointed the names out to us himself and told us the story about them. He and Hastings watched the others till they had finished then they climbed still higher on the cliff, so that their names might top the list, while they worked, their friends rode on to make camp on the bank of the stream. The young men had climbed to a place quite high on the face of the mountain, and to reach it, they had taken a round about way, pulling themselves higher and higher by holding to the clumps of wild shrubs or tiny ledges that projected far enough to give them finger and toe holds. At last they reached a wider ledge and started to work their way across to the water course. They were then at a point where they could look across the canyon and see where the rest of the party were making camp. Something caused them to glance down. They took one look and wished that they were mountain goats or beetles or anything except what they were, two boys marooned on the face of a cliff with a band of Indians directly below them. The Indians had already found the guns. They were handing them about and examining them with apparently great delight. The boys knew that it would be but a moment till they were discovered. One of them was wise enough to take off his red handkerchief and tie it to a bush. He hoped that the party at camp would see it and take it for what it was, a signal of distress. Something, a loose pebble, maybe, or as Lovejoy afterwards said, it may have been the beating of his heart that attracted the attention of the Indians. In any case they were discovered and the Indians motioned for them to come down. There was nothing else for them to do. The hanging out of the handkerchief was a very fortunate thing for them. It happened exactly as they had hoped. Someone at the camp saw it and thought of Indians at once, so a dozen or so men went back to the place, where they had left the boys. They got there barely in time, for the Indians were just starting away with their prisoners. In those days, the Indians did not seem to desire blood or scalps. They held their prisoners for ransom. Lovejoy may not have told us about it in the first place, but we came to know him very well and I have often heard him say that as long as he lived he would never be able to look himself in the face and say that he amounted to much till he could forget that the Indians had sold him back to his friends for a twist of tobacco, and the Indians threw in the two guns for good measure. Walt Davies Monmouth, OR