Dear Family, April 25, 1866
As you know, I am now on my journey to the West. Right now I am in Oregon and I am going to the West to find a better place to start a new life and discover everything I can to start my new beginnings. I want to find gold and wish to become rich, but one of the things I've been eager to do is to ride a canoe on the Mississippi River. I know my desires and dreams seem unlikely to you all, but I am going to do whatever it takes to pursue them.
So, far on my journey, I've been hearing a lot of tales about the Donner Family. It is very creepy because I am currently on the path that is called the Oregon Trail, that they took and apparently they ended up eating one another. What I also heard about this path is that the Donner family's bodies still lay beneath the mountain grounds, where they died. I came on this same path to the West because I wanted to see if there was anything left beneath the grounds they died on (I'm hoping gold). Not many people decided to come take the same path I am taking, but you know me, I've always been adventurous.Each day more and more people die of either starvation or lack of supplies. Many women are pregnant and give birth, which is a beautiful, but disgusting thing. People were talking about how George Donner's wife gave birth on the way to their journey, too bad they all died.
Don't worry about me dying or having a lack of supplies me and my fellow, John have come prepared. Anyways, my next destination is to go to the Sierra foothills to hopefully find some gold nuggets. I've heard a lot of people became rich over there. It's sad that you all have decided to stay back in the East and have decided not to come on this journey with me, but I hope once I get rich off of gold I'll write back to you all and maybe convince you guys to come over to the West. I hope everything is okay back at home, I miss you all dearly and hope to hear back from you soon. Wish me luck on my journey to the West!
Truly Yours,
James
