CHAPTER XVIII.
Carson Visits his Old Home in Missouri--He Goes to St. Louis--Voyage up the Missouri--Makes the Acquaintance of Lieutenant John C. Fremont--Is engaged as a Guide for Fremont's First Expedition--The Start Westward--Various Mishaps--The Emigrants--The False Alarm.
Kit Carson had left his home in Missouri when only a boy and he was nowin the prime of a vigorous young manhood. The years since he turned hisback upon his old home had been busy and eventful ones and now, asis often the case with those placed as was he, he longed to visit thescenes of his childhood, and to meet and shake the hands of those of hisold friends who were still among the living.
In the spring of 1842, Carson went eastward with a train of wagons,carrying goods to the States. When the borders of Missouri were reached,he bade his companions goodbye and made his way back to his old home.His experience was touching. His parents were dead, the old buildingwhich would ever linger in his memory, had tumbled down and nearly everyone whom he met was a stranger. The cheeks of the hardy mountaineer werewet with tears, and with a sigh, he turned his face away forever.
Carson had never seen a large city, and he made his way to St. Louis,where he spent more than a week in sight seeing. Before the end of thattime, the old yearning for the mountains, prairies and streams ofthe West came back to him, and he engaged passage on a steamer up theMissouri.
On the same boat John C. Fremont was a passenger. He was two yearsyounger than Carson and had been commissioned Second Lieutenant in theCorps of Topographical Engineers, in 1838. Four years later he projecteda geographical survey of the entire territory of the United States fromthe Missouri River to the Pacific.
Carson was attracted by the fine, manly and intellectual appearance ofFremont, and, learning he was in search of a skilful mountaineer, heintroduced himself, referring in a modest fashion to his experience inthe west and expressing the belief that he could be of service to theexplorer.
Fremont was an excellent judge of character and was favorably impressedwith Carson from the first. The answers to the inquiries which he madeconcerning the famous guide and mountaineer, were satisfactory in thehighest degree. He engaged Carson as his guide, agreeing to pay him asalary of one hundred dollars a month.
The party of explorers were mainly gathered in St. Louis. It wascomposed mostly of Creole and Canadian voyageurs, Charles Preuss, alearned German, a young son of Colonel Benton (which statesman was thefather in law of Fremont), several other friends, including a notedmountaineer named Maxwell, who was employed as the hunter of the party.Including the commander, the entire company numbered twenty-eight.
With this party of explorers Fremont ascended the Missouri until themouth of the Kansas was reached, when they disembarked and made theirpreparations for the long and dangerous journey before them. The marchwestward began June 10, 1842.
The course lay along the banks of the Kansas. All the party were wellarmed and well mounted, excepting eight men, each of whom drove acart, drawn by two mules. These carts contained the stores, baggageand instruments of the expedition. A number of spare horses were takenalong, so as to provide against loss in that respect. In addition, theyhad four oxen intended to serve as a reserve in the event of provisionsrunning short.
It was the custom to arouse the camp at daybreak and turn out theanimals to graze; breakfast followed and the march was begun. The noonhalt lasted from one to two hours and the afternoon's march ended ashort time before sunset. The tents were then pitched, horses hobbledand turned out to graze, and the evening meal prepared. When it becamedark, all the animals were brought in and picketed, the carts arrangedso as to serve as barricades and guard mounted.
An Indian guide conducted the expedition for the first forty miles alongthe Kansas, when he departed and the responsibility was turned over toCarson. The pilot had guided the steamer out of the harbor and upon thegreat ocean, and henceforth the hand of Carson was to be at the helm.
The soil over which they journeyed for many miles was of the mostfertile character. Numbers of Indian farms were seen, and one couldnot but reflect on the possibilities of the future for the red man,who should abandon war and give his energies to the cultivation of theground.
Such an expedition could not go far without a taste of the trials thatawaited them. On the second night, the four spare horses seemed tobecome disgusted with the whole enterprise, and turning their headseastward started on a rapid gallop for the States. Their loss was tooserious to be borne, and a number of men were dispatched in pursuit.The chase was a long one and the animals were not recovered for severalhours. One of the men lost his way and was forced to spend the night onthe open prairie. At midnight it began to rain, and then the exceedinglyunpleasant discovery was made that the tents on which the explorersrelied for protection and shelter were so thin that they were drenchedas if the water came through a sieve.
The morning, however, brought clear weather and bright sunlight, andall were in high spirits. The scenery for a time was of a pleasing andpicturesque character, and they pushed contentedly forward, until theyarrived at the ford of the Kansas, one hundred miles from the pointwhere it emptied into the Missouri.
The stream was found so swollen from recent rains that it could not beforded. Accordingly several of the mounted men forced their animals intothe stream and swam them across to serve as guides for the rest. Theysucceeded quite well, excepting the oxen, which, after flounderingawhile, landed on the same side from which they started. The followingmorning they succeeded in crossing.
Among the useful articles with which Fremont had provided himself, wasan India rubber boat, twenty feet long and five feet wide. This was verybuoyant and the carts and baggage were carried over piecemeal in it,with the exception of the last two carts. Laden with these the boatleft the shore but had not gone far when the man at the helm, who wasexceedingly nervous, managed to capsize the craft, with all its preciouscargo. The hunters were so dismayed over the prospect of losing theirstores that nearly all plunged into the stream and made frantic effortsto save what they could. Several did not stop to remember that theycould not swim, so that the principal efforts of some of the others weredirected to saving them.
Most of the goods were recovered, but nearly all the sugar dissolvedand every grain of coffee was lost. It would be hard to imagine anydeprivation greater than that to which this misfortune condemned theexplorers. Carson and one of the others made such strenuous efforts inthe water that they were ill the next day, and Fremont remained in campfor twenty-four hours with a view of giving them time to recruit.
The journey westward progressed without any special incident. A largeparty of emigrants on their way to Oregon were several weeks in advanceof the explorers. Bad fortune seemed to have followed them from thestart, and numerous freshly made graves were seen. One of the emigrantswho had been peculiarly unfortunate, came into camp with a hunter on hisway home. He took charge of the letters which the explorers desired tosend to their families.
The party soon reached the Pawnee country where they were forced tounusual vigilance, for those Indians have long been noted as mostpersistent horse thieves. Game was abundant. Large flocks of wildturkeys were found roosting in the trees along the streams; elk,antelope and deer were plentiful, and as for bisons, they were beyondall computation.
One day a member of the company happened to be riding at the reargalloped up in hot haste, shouting, "Indians!" He declared that he hadseen them distinctly and counted twenty-seven. An immediate halt wascalled, and Carson, leaping on one of the fleetest horses, crossed theriver and galloped over the prairie.
"Mounted on a fine horse without a saddle," says Fremont, "and scouring,bareheaded, over the prairies, Kit was one of the finest pictures ofa horseman I have ever seen. He soon returned quite leisurely, andinformed them that the party of twenty-seven Indians had resolved itselfinto a herd of six elk who, having discovered us, had scampered off atfull speed."