Gerald Higgins was the guide of the party

 Page 4.

Gerald Higgins was the guide of the party and once while making fun of Potts he spoke  loud enough for anyone within ear shot to hear, “ looks like an old pig farmer lost one of his marked hogs”. Miller overheard the remark and some of the folks standing close by laughed out loud right in front of him. Miller quickly pulled his hat down over his ears and looked directly at Higgins who suddenly stopped grinning and started to turn a brighter shade of red even in the freezing cold. Miller didn’t say a word as a chilling wind rushed by both men, but you could hear Miller’s rotting teeth start to grind and crack. His leathery skin became to buckle but his eye’s where  two black empty pools of stillness like the darkness of early dawn. Since Miller didn’t talk much the party was real surprised when he spoke up voicing his opinion so as onlookers began to move on so he quickly  said to Higgins still red faced, “ We’ll see who’s ears are notched, pig farmer”! Millers hissing voice carried a deep tone that seem to echo and bounce throughout those still nearby and it filled their heart’s with a anxious fear.

This being said Potts sure was vocal enough about the decision of starting the journey west from the very beginning. He convinced the group not to listen to the local Indians about getting trapped in the winter snows that late in the fall and assured everyone he knew a safe and easy way through the mountains. Even when the wagons began the move west at the beginning of their journey the local Indians laughed at the departing pioneers calling out you will die in those cold mountains. Millers bragged he knew the way and was not about to stop just because of a little snow and a couple of mountains that lay ahead of them. “Paradise lies just over those mountains”, he called out to the party. “I’ve been there and I know what’s waiting for us”? That evening the snow stopped briefly giving the party just enough time at pull together and start a large cooking fire. Supplies were beginning to dwindle and folks were starting to worry. You were beginning to hear couples arguing between themselves and mothers tended to cold and crying children and it seemed the crying never stopped. Folks started fighting over droppings left by their animals and  there as even talk that some mixed manure to fresh feed to make it last longer.

The distant howling of timber wolfs throughout the trip was nonstop  but now their soul stirring cries seemed closeer and closer as the days went on. This continuous cold and freezing wind burned away any desire of making it through the mountains even from the strongest members. It became apparent to everyone there wasn’t a choice but only to continue on or freeze to death. So far all the members of the party where accounted for  and uninjured with the exception of Lorenzo Jose Delingo. Lorenzo a Spaniard told everyone who would listen he was a famous matador in his country. Lorenzo was tall and slender and his dark brown hair was shoulder length with he kept  tied in a pony tail most of the time. He sported a thin mustache and wore a large gold earring in one ear. Sometimes when he drank he would put the earring in his nose pretending to be a bull. He also wore a silver medallion around his neck shape like a Toro he said his Madre from Spain gave him as a child and he cherished it.