Show OLD A settlement of the tho salute saints saved sated from slaughter A correspondent of the S F examiner bramin er from san bernardino writes as follows an interesting story connected with the first colonization of this remarkable war kable valley was related to me by elder john gamer garner one of the mormon pioneer part party under bp lyman white which drove trove down through the deserts frogh salt lake thirty years ago to establish a colony here when we came in sight of this beautiful valley said the venerable old man mail our hearts were filled with joy and thankfulness to god for our delivery from threatened death from thirst and privations grivat privations ions our suTe sufferings rings between salt alt lake and san bernardino mardino Bc on account of thirst while crossing the deserts was terrible stock was killed so that our famishing children might drink the blood and by this means only were many lives saved our wagons and d stores were carried in ans pieces through gh some of the passes and it seemed a at t times as though wo we were doomed to die before reaching this valley when we arria arrived i ed here we encamped and made a corral near the present principal street of san bernardino where wo we remained until the completion of the negotiations for the purchase of the san son bernardino rancho then owned by lugo and yeda veda the bargain was agreed upon in our behalf by eldera elders amasa lyman and charles rich who were the 11 mormon formon leaders then and menta were made for the transfer of the landa lands at one AN INDIAN conspiracy in selling their lands to the mormon colonists ts lugo and sepulveda mado made no pro or agreement for the many indians living on the ranch and who had been bom and reared upon its soil when they saw the ori original 91 i owners move away to los angeles and the cormons mormons Mor mons proceed to off tho the surrounding courtry coultry into farms farm they regarded the whole as illegal and unjust to them they became sulky and silent and suddenly packed up and moved away toward the ter Tema aakula oula valley where a grand indian council was held this council it was decided to massacre all the white men in the country south of the los angeles river river and a comprehensive scheme was agreed upon which if successful would prevent the escape of any of the few white settlers then in this southern country about 1500 indians were detained for the massacre at the pueblo of los angeld and every pass and river ford was to be picketed with ambushed indians on the chino rancho between los angeles and temecula Te col bean had a small detachment of twelve or fifteen armed white men who was to be killed and hla his men massacred the mormons cormons Mor mons were to be exterminated mina ted and the san bernardino valley restored to the banished indians TUB OF providence but we were saved by the hand god said the old I mormon formon elder ho he would not permit p e ami it hi his latter day saints to fall a prey to the heathen the gentiles may scout the idea of the manner of our preservation reservation but the saints attribute lute the defeat of the indians to gods interference the day was w as set for the tile concerted massacre and the indians concentrated at teme cula were prepared dostart to start to their designated posts for their bloody blood work when god pent fent into hito thi this valley ar tuch a storm of wind and id sv sand as has never been seen here since or known to the oldest indian in aie country this storm came on in in the month of september 1851 aud and continued for three days and ni nights abts and it blew with such violence as to obliterate landmarks b bury r up trees and make hills wills of sand 81 where alaina bains were before only visible we mormons cormons Mor mons suffered severely and were almost buried in s sand a ild but this storm postponed the indian massacre and frightened many nany of the superstitious abo aborigines ines so that they abandoned walker W a rf and his bloodthirsty gang we were saved by the hand of god but the secret conspiracy cy was revealed through a coagula indian named juan antonio who confessed to col bean at the chino rancho by his assistance the leaders in this conspiracy ads were captured a few days afterwards and shot at the chino rancho the ile failure of this conspiracy so discouraged the indians that they abandoned the idea of resistance si and scattered southward in the mountains of san diego county py THESE MORMON PIONEERS ns have left ft a thrifty industrious class of people behind them who have done much toward the de development of the tile southern portion of califor raw |