Armstrong Diary Entry

Dear,Journal.

I am Thomas “ broken hand “ Fitzpatrick. I can’t wait to go to Oregon , all the free land for all of us and most importantly a new life there. How am I going to tell this to James? Speaking of James he Is very excited about going to Oregon he’s been talking about for months. If I need help on the trail James is going to help me because if I hadn’t had two of broke my hand in a firearm accident, but still James is going to have to help me out on the trail. James has been very silent lately I’m wondering if he is keeping something from me and not telling me, I don’t know. Anyways, we’re going to Oregon because I’m tired of being in the east and want a new life, a better hunting spot because all I see are deer tracks, I see bunnies
As I was heading up the river before I got here, there were steamboats and there were people in wagon trains camping outside of independence. Also I had to travel three miles from the Missouri to independence. The road here is like paved just like the ones in Georgia. The reason why I am here is to get extra supplies like extra bullets, flour, salt, bacon. People here packed their stuff, sold their houses, their churches everything was getting packed. Some people are herding their animals.Wait before I tell you other stuff something bad happened to James his leg got ran over and he has a broken leg this is
I am writing this in the Willamette valley in Oregon we made it, I'll get to that later anyway a lot has happened to our wagon train i'll explain now first when we were waiting for the river to drop down, we had to lose a days worth of food then as we crossed our wagon tipped and we lost 20 pounds of food but we still crossed safely. Then we came across some friendly Indians we traded with them, we traded them some bacon salt and flour and bullets for moccasins, it was worth it, then we a nice meal and boy I can't describe how good it was the first actual meal I had in a long time. Then we fought a prairie fire and 3 kids and a girl ate something poison and died the next day at that moment I did not know what is poisonous or not. Then there has been a storm that I was so scared so I thought to myself that surprisingly gave me confidence three kids and a girl died already and that is not happening again then a wagon blocked our way so I helped them. After that I got diarrhea by drinking bad water that’s gone now with the comfrey leaves I bought. Then we were in the Rocky mountains and there was a sick dude just standing there that looked very, very ill he had cholera so we went on and some people died from that. Then we were crossing the Rocky Mountains our oxen did tremendous if it weren’t for them I wouldn’t be writing right now. Then we met up with Shoshone Indians, they were nice and just as I expected, they looked hostile at first, but I