The tribune. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1876-06-28
ENDURANCE OF MUSTANGS.
John e.. Fremonps Great Ride of Eight
Hundred Miles in Eight Days.

John G. Fremont's Great Ride of Eight
Hundred Miles In Eight Days.
The mustang race in New York, in
which rider proposed to ride 305 miles
in fifteen hours, and failed from ex-
haustion, recalls the great ride of FIRE.
mont in 1S47. The story of this ride is
retold as follows:
1t was ut daybreak on the morning of
the twenty second of March, 1547, that
the party set out for La Ciudad de Los
Angeles (the City of the Angeis), in the
southern part of Upper California, to
proceed in the shortest time to Monterey,
on the Pacific coast, distant full 400
miles. The way is over a mountainous
county, much of it uninhablted, with
no other road than track and many de-
files to pass, particularly the maritime
defile of Ell Rincon or Punto Ga1do,
fifteen miles in extent, made by the fall
ing of PERCEPTIONS mountain into the
sea, and which can only be passed when
the tide is out and the sea calm, and
then in many places through the waves.
The towns of Santa Barbara and San
Luis Obispo, and occasional ranches, are
the principal inhabited places on the
route. Each of the party had three
horses-nine in ALTO take their turns
under the saddle. The six loose horses
ran ahead, without bride or halter, and
required some attention to keep them to
the track. When wanted for change,
say at the distance of twenty miles, they
were caught by lasso, thrown either by
Don Jesus or the servant Jacob. None
of the horses were shod, that being un-
known to the Californians. The usual
gait was a sweeping gallop. The first
day they ran 125 miles, passing the San
Fernando mountain, the defile of the
Rincon and several other mountains, and
slept at the hospitable rancho of Don
Thomas Robbers, beyond the town of
Santa Barbara. The only fatigue COM
planned of in this days ride was in
Jacobs right arm, made tired by throw
ing the lasso, and using it as whip to
keep the loose horses to the track. The
next day they made another 125 miles,
passing the formidable mountain of
Santa Barbara, and counting upon it the
skeletons of some fifty horses, part of
near double that number which persisted
in the crossing of that terrible mountain
by the California battalion, on Christmas
day, 1916, amid raging tempest, and
deluge of rain and cold, more killing
of severest suffering, says Fremont and
his men, that they have ever passed.
At sunset the party stopped to sup with
the friendly Captain Dana, and at nine
at night San Luis Obispo was reached.
Here the mustangs from Los Angeles
were left, and eight others taken in their
place, and Spanish boy added to the
party to assist in managing the loose
horses.
Proceeding at the usual gait till eight
o'clock at night, and having made some
seventy miles, Don Jesus became ia
tigued and proposed halt for few
hours. 1t was in the valley of the Sa-
inas and tho haunt of marauding In
dians. For safety during their reposes
the party turned off the track, issued
through q canyon into the thick wood
and laid down, the horses being put to
grass at short distance, with the
Spanish boy in the saddle to watch.
Sleep, when commenced, was too sweet
to be easily given up, and it was half.
way between midnight and day when
the sleepers We're aroused by an estam-
pedo among the horses and the calls of
the boy. The cause of the alarm was
soon found-not Indians, but white
bears, this valley being their great re-
sort and the place where Colonel Fre-
mont and thirty-five of his men en-
countered some hundreds of them the
summer before, killing thirty upon the
ground.
The character of these bears is we'll
known and the bravest hunters do not
like ID meet them without the advan-
tage of numbers. On discovering the
enemy, Colonel Fremont felt for his
pistols, but Don Jesus desired him to
be still, saying that "People could
scare BEARS" and Immediately hallooed
at them i'll Spanish, and they went off.
Sleep went off also, and the recovery of
the horses frightened by the bears,
building n rousing fire, making break
fast from the hospital supplies of San
Luis Obispo occupied the party till day
break, when the journey was resumed,
eighty miles, and the afternoon brought
the party to Monterey.
The next day, IL Tho afternoon, the
party set out on their return, and the
two horses rode by Colonel Fremont
from San Luis Obispo being present to
him from Don Jesus, he (Don Jesus)
desired to make an experiment of what
one of them could do. They were
brothers, one year younger than the
other. The elder was to be taken for
the trial, and the journey commenced
upon him at leaving Monterey-the
afternoon well advanced. Thirty miles
under the saddle done that evening and
the party stopped for the night. In the
morning the elder canalo was again
under the saddle for Colonel Fremont,
and for ninety miles he carried him
without change and without apparent
fatigue. 1t was still thirty miles to San
Luis Obispo. where the night was to be
passed, and Don Jesu, insisted that
cannln cnnld do IL and go said the horsa