I told Rogers they were after us, and believed them to be a murderous set who might make trouble for us.

I hastily buried our little store of money in the sand, telling him that if they got us, they would not get our money.
Putting our guns across our laps in an easy position we had them cocked and ready for business, and our knives where we could get them handy, and awaited their arrival.
They came on with a rush until within a short distance and halted for consultation just across the creek, after which one of them advanced toward us and as he came near us we could see he was a white man, who wished us good evening in our own language.

We answered him rather cooly, still sitting in the sand and he no doubt saw that we were a little suspicious of the crowd.

He asked us where we were from, and we told him our circumstances and condition and that we would like to secure some means of relief for the people we had left in the desert, but our means were very limited and we wanted to do the best we could.
He said we were about 500 miles from San Francisco, not far from 100 miles from the coast and thirty miles from Los Angeles.

We were much afraid we would not be able to get anything here, but he told us to go across the valley to a large live oak tree which he pointed out, and said we would find an American there, and we should wait there till morning.