then they arrived at fort bridger in wyoming and they heard there was a group ahead of them called the donner party and i should mention that the smith party was the last party to leave that spring. they were quite late. they had crossed the missouri weeks later than was advised. and the donner party just ahead of them was only slightly less late than they were. they heard that the donner party was ahead of them and that the donner party had run into a sort of -- somewhat sleazy character who had carried with him a letter from lanceford warren hastings. lanceford hastings had written a book called "the immigrants guide to oregon and washington," which was a sort of promotional piece trying to lure american settlers to california. it spoke about the glories of both oregon and california. and since he had written it in the meantime, he and john sutter, who owned a good deal of the sacramento valley at the time, had gone into sort of partnership and had planned a town around where current day sacramento is to be called suttersville and they had divided the property into lots. and they nee