The two principals, Lieutenant (later Captain, Colonel and General) Frémont, and Scout (later Colonel and General) Christopher Carson, thought highly each of the other; and this is warrant that they were manly men. Manly men respect manly men. Lieutenant Frémont said: “With me, Carson and truth are the same thing;” and he refers to their “enduring friendship.” Kit Carson left all—new ranch, home, wife, dear associates—which, save honor, he valued most, to accompany the lieutenant upon a Third Expedition, and in every crisis of march, camp, battle and politics he stuck stanchly to him. “I owe more to Colonel Frémont than to any other man alive,” he declared. Thus friend should stand by friend.
This Third Expedition, of 1845–1846, again into the Great Basin and across the Sierra Nevada Range to the Valley of the Sacramento, was timed to the conquest of California by American arms; but it is another long story. Following the Third Expedition, having resigned from the Army Colonel Frémont, in 1848–1849, voluntarily conducted a Fourth Expedition, upon which many lives were lost to cold and hunger amidst the winter mountains of south central Colorado; and in 1853–1854, a Fifth Expedition, once more across the Great Basin to California. In these two expeditions Kit Carson did not take part. He had the duties of home, and family, which also are man’s duties; and the duties of agent over the Ute and Apache Indians.
After that, came Civil War service for both friends, in fields separate.
Edwin L. Sabin.
San Diego, California.
May 15, 1912.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
|---|---|---|
| I. | [Kit Carson to the Rescue] | 17 |
| II. | [Under the Wagon] | 30 |
| III. | [Oliver Wins His Spurs] | 43 |
| IV. | [Word from Old Fort Laramie] | 56 |
| V. | [Frémont Says “Onward!”] | 68 |
| VI. | [Into the Wilder West] | 87 |
| VII. | [Over the Famed South Pass] | 96 |
| VIII. | [Planting the Highest Flag] | 111 |
| IX. | [The Voyaging of the Platte] | 124 |
| X. | [Frémont Calls Again] | 135 |
| XI. | [In Hostile Territory] | 147 |
| XII. | [The Emigrant Trail] | 155 |
| XIII. | [To the Great Salty Lake] | 167 |
| XIV. | [Sailing the Inland Sea] | 178 |
| XV. | [On to the Columbia] | 192 |
| XVI. | [Southward for the Unknown] | 203 |
| XVII. | [Scant Christmas Comfort] | 216 |
| XVIII. | [Forcing the Snowy Sierras] | 225 |
| XIX. | [At the Last Gasp] | 235 |
| XX. | [Down Through California] | 248 |
| XXI. | [The Vengeance of Kit Carson] | 259 |
| XXII. | [Poor Tabeau Pays the Price] | 276 |
| XXIII. | [The Home Stretch] | 288 |