The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-11-09


in training for the life Of an explorer He
was an assistant TO the government engi-
neers who reconnoitered the Cherokee
country Of Tennessee and the Carolinas in
anticipation Of war, and became at home In
wild countries among border men and saw
ages He saw the untutored Indian in
bloody trays endure slashing aud stabbing
from keen knife blades with the stoloism
of schoolboys in SNOWFALL battles. What
was wasted valor for them would be glori
osis courage when displayed by white men
for noble purpose. His outdoor life and
exercise Injured his body TO exposure, while
his application 10 technical, problems fitted
him 70 be leader.
At 25 years Of age he had ridden In q
charge on a buffalo herd and fought
mounted with enraged bulls in the crush
offrantic, trampling horned beasts. At that
age, In his earliest expeditions he would Sc
lect three or four mon of his company and
travel ahead among savages, taking the
hardest route on tho theory that possible
disaster should be shared by the fewest
number. When at Fort Laramie In his first
expedition, in 1912, friendly Indians warned
him not TO set out across the hostile lands
between the Platte and the Rockies.
Their predictions, though well meant and
apparently well founded, were ignored and
the expedition numbering but % men went
ahead, meeting no hostiles but nearly per.
ishing from starvation. The grasshoppers
had stripped the country of forage and the
buffalo had fed TO other pastures. When
the party reached Wind River mountains
both men and animals were exhausted by
hardships and want of food But Fremont
was unwilling TO rest satisfied with hasty
IL. III Il. 4
the four great rivers Of the west-the Col
orado, Columbia, Missouri and Platte.
The men subsisted wholly upon dried
buffalo meat cooked In tallow. Hostile
Blackfeet roamed the hills and guarded
the passes. A pa1isade and breastwork
was built in a dense grove, and the men
most in need of rest were left there, while
the leader and fourteen of the hardest, In
cluding Carson, the doughty guide toiled
up the mountain sleeps The lofty peaks
were deceptive, aud the bold travellers
found the way barred by lakes which com.
PEELED them to make wide detours; huge
powders barricaded the mountain slopes,
and deep and impossible ohasms yawned
before them.
One by one the men and mules gave ont
and were left to rest and make their way
back to camp Five men only assembled the
peak, clambering over frozen snow-al-
though it was August-shod in moccasins
so thin that the toes could be used In MAX
ing firm foothold. On the 10Th OF the
month Fremont and four companions
hoisted the stars and stripes on the highest
peak of Wind River mountains. 3,575 feet
above their main camp. 2,rS0 feet above the
lakes at the base Of the range and 1880
feet above the sea.
Numerous adventures followed and the
party returned by the way Of Fort Laramie
to ST. Louis, and Fremont was ordered to
cross the Rockies and explore as far an the
Pacific With 80 men, he started in May,
1S43. followed the emigrant trail across the
Kansas, keeping south Of Fort Laramie to
the Platte and Sweetwater through the
South pass. The northern end of the Great
Salt Lake was explored from the Bear
river, and the party was reduced TO 2S
picked men who set out for the Columbia
They were well equipped and carried along
a mountain howitzer which kept in awe
the warlike Arapahoes, Cheyennes and
Shoshones. The different tribes demanded
tribute and massacres were averted only
by shrewdness or bold tactics.
AT one Of the crossings OF the Columbia
the scouts reported the ford covered by
village Of Indians encamped on the bank.