Those who started late will fare still worse; as the season becomes warmer, feed less, and provisions shorter. I saw one man with two small boys 120 miles beyond the Sink, who had left his wagon and lost all his animals but one, and all the provisions he had was three or four pounds of rice; another, with his wife and children, I overtook seventy miles beyond the Sink, with four horses that were just able to move with the empty wagon, the wife walking ahead in the burning sand and scorching sun, to relieve the poor laden animals that were destined never to see the Sink." J. M. Sheppards, who arrived about August 1st, reported that only about one wagon out of five would get through. His company started with twelve wagons of which two would get in; many that start with three or four horses get in with one; many emigrants on arriving in Carson Valley sell their finest horses for ten or fifteen pounds of flour. After arriving at the Truckee river or the Carson Valley, the emigrants still had the difficult passage of the Sierra Nevada to make and most of them were destitute of animals or food and many of both.

Tales of distress were brought by each arrival. The cholera had again broken out and its ravages were appalling. Nine-tenths of those in the desert were on foot and starving. "Mothers may be seen wading through deep dust or heavy sand of the desert, or climbing mountain steeps, leading the poor children by the hand; or the once strong man, pale, emaciated by hunger and fatigue, carrying upon his back his feeble infant, crying for water and nourishment, and appeasing a ravenous appetite from the carcass of a dead horse or mule; and when they sunk exhausted on the ground at night overcome with weariness and want of food, it was with the certainty that the morning sun would only be the prelude to another day of suffering and torture.”

The miners contributed liberally to succor the unfortunate emigrants. From lack of organization and direction much of the effort was wasted and supplies were slow in reaching the desert. Captain William Waldo left Johnson's ranch August 27th with a drove of beef cattle, after waiting three days for the trains promised from Marysville and Yuba City. Seventeen hundred pounds of flour were deposited on the western side of the sierra, the committee being unable to get it across for lack of mules. At the Truckee lower crossing beef was deposited with the relief committee and Waldo left with them ten good horses and mules to help the sick and destitute to cross the desert. He entered the desert September 7th and pushed on as far as the Great meadows of the Humboldt, about the locality of the present town of Palisade. About midway of the desert he came upon two men who had laid themselves down to die. They had been living on the putrefied flesh of the dead animals on the road which had made them sick and for three days had eaten nothing. He relieved their needs and they reached the station. Two other men had died of starvation. From Boiling springs to the Great meadows he met few who had any provisions at all. One-fourth of the entire number on the road were reduced to the necessity of subsisting on the putrefied flesh of dead animals. This had produced the most fatal consequences and disease and death were mowing them down by hundreds. "The cholera has carried off eight in one small train in three hours, and seven others are attacked and, it is thought, will die ere three hours more have elapsed." From the sink westward the havoc was fearful. "Sir," he writes, "by the time this reaches you I presume that you will need no evidence from me to satisfy you of the alarming and wretched condition of these people. It appears that the judgment of God has pursued them from the time they set out up to the present. First cholera -- then starvation -- next war, starvation, and cholera. The day has now passed when anyone will have the hardihood to say that there is no suffering amongst the Overland Emigrants; at least no one who is within 200 miles of this place will make such a declaration.  When I tell them (the emigrants) that they are 400 miles from Sacramento, they are astonished and horrified; many disbelieve me. They were induced to believe when at Salt Lake, that they were then within 450 miles of Sacramento City." Indians have stolen a great  number of the emigrants' stock, he says, and scarcely a day passes when there is not a skirmish with them. Many women are on the road with families of children, who have lost their husbands by cholera, and who will never cross the mountains without aid. There are yet twenty thousand back of the desert, and fifteen thousand of this number are now destitute of all kinds of provisions, yet the period of the greatest suffering has not arrived. It will be impossible for ten thousand of this number to reach the mountains before the commencement of winter.

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