All that is needed to create a general race-war is a determined
leader.
As months roll on, the record of violence becomes alarming. Small
stations are attacked, many desperate fights occur. Dead men are
weltering in their blood, on all the trails. A scheming intelligence
seems now to direct the bandits. Pity was never in the Mexican
heart. But now unarmed men are butchered while praying for mercy.
Their bodies are wantonly gashed. Droves of poor, plodding, unarmed
Chinese miners are found lying dead like sheep in rows. Every
trail and road is unsafe. Different bodies of robbers, from five
to twenty, operate at the same time. There is no telegraph here
as yet, to warn the helpless settlers. The following of treasure
trains shows that spies are aiding the bandits.
The leading men of the new State find this scourge unbearable.
Lands are untenanted, cattle and herds are a prey to the robbers.
Private and public reward has failed to check this evil. Sheriff's
posses and occasional lynching parties shoot and hang. Still the
evil grows. It is an insult to American courage. As 1852 is ushered
in, there are nearly two hundred and fifty thousand dwellers in the
new State. Still the reign of terror continues.
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