The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1849-05-01
From the National Intelligencer Of the 18th,
COL. FREMONT AND HIS PATY--AU.
THENTIC PARTICULARS.

Letters have been received from Col. Ere.
ment, covering the two months (from the last
of November to the Cd of February that he
was not heard of, and giving terrible events of
that time. They are written from Taos and
Santa Fe, New Mexico, and addressed to Mrs.
Fremont, at Washington; and, in her absence,
(for it was deemed probable that she might
have off to California by sea before they ar
rivedO to Senator Benton, and in his absence,
to William Carey Jones, Esq. The letters
came from St. Louis last night, having been
brought to that place by Mr.. St. Vrain. Mrs.
Fremont, fortunately, was gone; Senator Ben.
ton had delayed his departure for Missouri,
confident that letters were on the way; and in
his hands we have seen the originals. and we
propose to give extracts in the order OF their
dates. The first is dated
"TAos, New MEXICO, Jan. ~, 1849.
II write to you from the house of our good
friend Carson. This morning cup of choco-
late was brought to me while in bed. To an
overworn, overworkel, fatigued, and starving
traveller, these little luxuries of the world Of
fer an interest which, in your comfortable
home, it is not possible for you to conceive.
II have now the unpleasant task of telling
you how came here. had much rather
speak Of the future, with plans for which am
already occupied for the mind turns from the
scenes l have witnessed and the suferngs we
have endured; but as clear information is due
to you, and to your father still more, will
give you the story now, instead of waiting to
tell it to you in California; but write in the
great hope that you will not receive this letter.
When it reaches Washington you may be on
your way to California.
''For mer letters will have made you acquain-
ted with our progress as far as Bent's Fort,
and, from report, you will have heard the cir.
cumstance of our departure from the Upper
Puebla, near the head of the Arkansas. We
1ock a. IL Al XII .,.xl.
upward of one hundred good mules and one
hundred and thirty bushels of shelled corn, in
tended to support our animals in the deep
SHOWS Of the high mountains and down to the
lower parts of the Grand rivers tributaries,
where usually the snow forms no obstacle to
winter travelling. At Puebla I had engaged
asa guide an old trapper. we'll known as Bill
Williams" and who had spent some twenty
five years of his life in trapping in various parts
of the Rocky Mountains.
1.-The error of our expedition was committed
in engaging this man. He proved never to
have known, or entirely to have forgotten, the
whole country which we were to pass. We
occupied (after passing the meuntain) more
than half month in making the progress of
few days, blsnderng along torturous course,
through deep snow, which already began to
choke up the passes, and wasting our time in
searching the way. The 18th Of December,
we found ourselves at the mouth of the Rio
del Norte canon, where that river issues from
the Sierra San Juan--one Of the highes most
rugged, and impracticable of all the Rocky
Mountain ranges, inaccessible to trappers and
hunters, even IN summer. Across The point of
this elevated range our guide conducted US;
and. having still great confidence in this mans
knowledge, we pressed EDWARDS with fatal re-
solutien.--Even along the river bottoms the
snow was already breast deep for the mules,
and falling frequently in the valley and almost
constantly on the mountains. The cold was
extraordinary.-At the warmest hours of the
day [between one and two the thermometer
Fahrenheit stood, in the shade of tree trunk
at zero; and that was favorable day, the sun
shining and a moderate breeze. Judge Of the
nights and the storms!
awe pressed up towards tbs summit, the
snow deepening rose, and in four or five
days of this struggling and climbing, all on
foot, we reached the naked ridges which lie a.
6ove the line Of the timbered reg ion, and which
form the dividing heights between the waters
of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans Along
these naked heights it storms all winter, and
the raging winds sweep across them with re-.
morseless fury. On our first attempt to cross
we encountered pouderie--[dry snow driven
through the air by violent wind, and in which
objects are visible only at short distance1--
and were driven back, having some ten or
twelve men variously frozen--face, hands, or
feet. The guide came near being frozen to
death here, and dead mules were already ly-
ing about the camp fires. Meantime it snow
ed steadily. The next day december Il we
renewed the attempt to scale the summit, and
were more fortunate, it then seemed. Ma
king mauls, and beating down road or trench,
through the deep snow, we forced the ascent
in defiance of the driving pouderie, crossed the
crest, descended little, and encamped imme-
diately below the edge of the timbered region
The trail showed if defeated party had
passed by-packs, pack saddles, scattered at.
ticles of clothing, and dead mules strewed a.
long. We were encamped about twelve thou.
sand feet above the level of the sea, West.
ward the country was buried in snow. The
storm continued. All movement was paraly-
zed. TO advance with the expedition was i'm.
possible: to get back, impossible. Our fate
stood revealed We were overtaken bv sud.
den and BILE ruin. The animals were to
60 first. The only places where grass could
be had were the extreme SUBMITS of the Sier-
"a, where the sweeping winds kept the rocky
ground bare, and where the men could not live.
Below, in the timbered region, the poor ami
mails could not get about, the snow being deep
enough to bury them alive. 1t was instantly
apparent that we should lose every one. took
my resolution Immediately, and determined to
re.cross the mountain back to the valley of the
Rio del Norte, dragging or packing the baggage
by men, With great labor the baggage was
transported across the crest to the head springs
OF q little stream leading to the main river A
few days were sufficient to destroy the fine
band Of mules which you saw me purchase last
fall on the frontier of Missouri. They gener-
ally Kept huddled toge ther, and, as they froze,
one would be seen to tumble down and disap.
pear under the driving snow. Sometimes they
would break off, and rush down towards the
timber till stopped by the deep snow. where
they were soon hidden by pouderie. The cour-
age OF some of the men began to fail.
"ln this situation determined to send in a
party to the Spanish settlements of New Mexi.
CO for provisions, and for mules to transport
our baggage. With economy, and after we
should leave the mules, we had not two weeks
provisions in. the camp; and these consisted of