Once more Colonel Fremont started with his small party in advance of his main body. He marched about eight days' journey ahead, Fitzpatrick following up his trail with the larger division. At this time the expedition was journeying in the direction of the mouth of the Columbia River. In due time they arrived safely at the river Dalles. Here they made another brief halt. Colonel Fremont left Kit Carson in command of this camp, while he, with a small party, proceeded to Vancouver's Island and purchased some provisions. On his return he found that the whole party had become consolidated. The command now journeyed to Tlamath Lake in Oregon Territory. The descriptions of all these journeys have already been given to the public in several forms, all however based upon Colonel Fremont's reports made to the U.S. Government. It would be superfluous, therefore, for us to fill up the pages of the life of Kit Carson with matter already published beyond the occurrences appertaining to him. Having finished the observations upon Tlamath Lake, the expedition started for California. The route led through a barren and desolate country, rendering game scarce. As the command drew near to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, they were found to be entirely covered with deep snow throughout the entire range of vision. At this time the provisions had commenced giving out. Game was so scarce that it could not be depended on. The propositions which presented themselves at this crisis were to cross the mountains or take the fearful chance of starving to death. Crossing the mountains, terrible though the alternative, was the choice of all. It was better than inactivity and certain death. On arriving at the mountains the snow was found to be about six feet deep on a level. The first task was to manufacture snow-shoes for the entire party. By the aid of these foot appendages, an advance party was sent on to explore the route and to determine how far a path would have to be broken for the animals. This party reached a spot from whence they could see their way clear and found that the path for the animals would be three leagues in length. The advance party also saw, in the distance, the green valley of the Sacramento and the coast range of mountains. Kit Carson was the first man to recognize these, to the snow-bound travelers, desirable localities, although it was now seventeen years since he had last gazed upon them. The advance party then returned to their friends in the rear and reported their proceedings. All were delighted on learning that they had one man among them who knew where they were. The business of making the road was very laborious. The snow had to be beaten compact with mallets. It was fifteen days before the party succeeded in reaching, with a few of their animals, a place where the heavy work of the route was ended. During this time, many of their mules had starved to death, and the few remaining were driven to such an extreme by want of food, that they devoured one another's tails, the leather on the pack saddles; and, in fact, they would try to eat everything they could get into their mouths. The sufferings of the men had been as severe as had ever fallen to the lot of any mountaineer present. Their provisions were all used and they were driven to subsist upon the mules as they died from hunger. But, commander and all bore these terrible trials in an exemplary manner.
An incident is related by Colonel Fremont, in which Kit Carson enjoyed a cold-bath, which occurred during this terrible march. "February Twenty-third.—This was our most difficult day; we were forced off the ridges by the quantity of snow among the timber, and obliged to take to the mountain-sides, where, occasionally, rocks and a southern exposure afforded us a chance to scramble along. But these were steep and slippery with snow and ice; and the tough evergreens of the mountain impeded our way, tore our skins, and exhausted our patience. Some of us had the misfortune to wear moccasins with parflêche soles, so slippery that we could not keep our feet, and generally crawled across the snow beds. Axes and mauls were necessary to-day, to make a road through the snow. Going ahead with Carson to reconnoitre the road, we reached in the afternoon the river which made the outlet of the lake. Carson sprang over, clear across a place where the stream was compressed among the rocks, but the parflêche sole of my moccasin glanced from the icy rock, and precipitated me into the river. It was some few seconds before I could recover myself in the current, and Carson thinking me hurt jumped in after me, and we both had an icy bath. We tried to search awhile for my gun, which had been lost in the fall, but the cold drove us out; and, making a large fire on the bank, after we had partially dried ourselves, we went back to meet the camp. We afterwards found that the gun had been slung under the ice which lined the banks of the creek."
It was while undergoing such experience as we have endeavored to narrate that the characters of men show forth in their true light and can be fully analyzed. John C. Fremont never was found wanting in times such as tried men's hearts. He was worthy of the trust reposed in him. His was no ordinary command. The men he had to deal with, in their line, had no superiors on the American Continent; yet, he proved a match for any one of them and gained from them the name of being a good mountaineer, an encomium they are not prone to bestow lightly.
The party now commenced descending the mountains. On reaching the valley beneath, Fremont, taking Kit Carson and six of the men, pushed on in advance, in order to reach Sutter's Fort, where he would be able to purchase provisions. Fitzpatrick was left in charge of the main party, with orders to make easy marches. The second day after this division was made, Mr. Preuss, Fremont's assistant, accidentally got lost. His friends began making search for him. This failing, they traveled on slowly, fired guns and used every means in their power to let their whereabouts be known to him. After wandering about for four days, to the surprise and joy of his companions, he came into camp. During his absence he had subsisted on acorns and roots, and, as a matter of course, was nearly exhausted both in body and mind. Three days after Mr. Preuss was restored to them, Fremont, with the advance party, reached Sutter's Fort. He and his party were very hospitably received. They were entertained with the best the post could furnish, by its kind-hearted proprietor. Never did men more deserve such treatment. The condition of all was about as miserable as it could well be imagined, for men who retained their hold on life.
It was at Sutter's Fort, as most of our readers will remember, that the great gold mines of California first received their kindling spark, the discovery of that precious metal having been made there. While some men were digging a mill-race the alluring deposit first appeared. This event has made the Fort world-renowned.
At the time we describe Fremont on his second expedition, nothing whatever was known of the immense fields of treasure over which he and his men daily walked, although, for many years previous to the discovery being made, the mountaineers had trapped all the rivers in that vicinity, and on their banks had herded their animals for months together. They had drank thousands of times from the pure water as it flowed in the river's channel, and, no doubt, frequently their eyes had penetrated through it until they saw the sand beneath in which, perchance, the sparkling specs may have occasionally allured them sufficiently to recall the proverb that "all is not gold that glitters."
The writer once made inquiry of one of these mountaineers who had spent two summers in the manner narrated above near and at Sutter's Fort some twenty years since. He was asked whether he ever saw there anything in the shape of gold which in any way aroused his suspicions? His reply was: "Never. And had I, it would have been only for a brief space of time, as finally I should have been certain that I was deluded and mistaken, without there had been the Eagle of our country stamped upon it."
Provisions were immediately obtained at the Fort and carried to Fitzpatrick and his party. Great difficulty had now to be encountered to prevent the men from losing their lives by the sudden change from want to comparative luxury. Notwithstanding the utmost care was taken, some of the party lost their reason. The hardships of the journey had proved too much for them. Fitzpatrick and the main body arrived at the Fort in a few days, where they were likewise welcomed by its hospitable and generous proprietor, Captain Sutter. His name in California has ever been but another term for kindness and sympathy for the unfortunate. This expedition, in one respect only, can be called unfortunate. When the terrible sufferings of the commander and his men have been named, the catalogue of misfortune is ended. Its results, grand and glorious, have immortalized the name of every man who assisted, in any way, to accomplish it. "I belonged to the several Exploring Expeditions of John C. Fremont" is the key note to the respect and homage of the American nation; the truth would be equally real, if we add, to the whole civilized world. Every heart which beats with admiration for the heroic, or which is capable of appreciating the rich contributions to the sciences, direct resultants from their terrible sufferings, has thrilled with delight when possessed of the history which records the brilliant achievements of these Exploring Parties.
The band started from the little town of Kansas on the twenty-ninth day of May, 1843. It returned to the United States in August, 1844. After traveling seventeen hundred miles, it reached, September sixth, Salt Lake. On the fourth day of November it reached Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia River. On the sixth day of March, 1844, it reached Sutter's Fort in the destitute condition already explained. The distance from Fort Hall by the route taken is about two thousand miles. The party remained at Sutter's Fort until the twenty-fourth day of March, or as Kit Carson expresses the time from his memory, the expedition remained at this place about one month. At the expiration of this time, the party was sufficiently recruited to be ready for their return journey, which they commenced in April, 1844. Just previous to their taking leave of Mr. Sutter, two of the company became deranged, owing to the privations and fasting to which they had been obliged to submit before being ushered into a land of plenty. They had indulged appetite too freely, and brought on one of those strange revolutions in the brain's action which never fails to excite the pity of friend and foe. The first warning which the party had that one of the men was laboring under a disordered intellect occurred in the following manner. Early in the morning the man suddenly started from his sleep and began to ask his companions where his riding animal was gone. During this time it was by him, but he did not know it. Unknown to the rest of the party he started off soon after in search of his imaginary animal. As soon as his absence became known to Fremont, he surmised the truth and sent persons in all directions to hunt for him. They searched the neighboring country for many miles and made inquiries of all the friendly Indians they chanced upon, but failed to discover him. Several days of delay was caused by this most unhappy circumstance. Finally, it becoming necessary for the party to depart without him, word was left with Mr. Sutter to continue the hunt. He did so most faithfully; and, by his exertions, some time after the party had set out on the return trip, the maniac was found and kept at the Fort until he had entirely recovered. He was then, on the first opportunity, provided with a passage to the United States. Before we follow the party on their homeward-bound tramp, it is proper that the reader should be favored with the estimate and views which the American historian, statesman and scholar, Colonel Benton, has recorded concerning the perils undergone and results accomplished by this expedition. His pen is so graphic and life-like that the reader will doubtless thank us for the extract. Besides presenting a view of the expedition, it will unfold a fact which shows where the origin of the expedition had its conception. We give all he says concerning the expedition.[17]