The Life of Kit Carson: Hunter, Trapper, Guide, Indian Agent and Colonel U.S.A.

by Edward Sylvester Ellis

  CHAPTER XXIII.

  The Return--Suffering for Food--A Royal Feast--On the Lewis Fork--Fort Hall--Division of the Party--Arrival at Dalles--The Sierra Nevada--Preparations for the Passage Through the Mountains--Fremont's Account.

  The explorers remained in camp the next day and boiled down some of thewater from the lake, thereby obtaining considerable salt. The followingmorning was clear and beautiful and they returned by the same route,ascending the valley of Bear River toward the north.

  The expected Fitzpatrick and the provisions did not show themselves andthe party began to suffer for food. When their situation became serious,Fremont permitted a horse to be killed and then all enjoyed one of theirold fashioned feasts.

  But this supply could not last long, and still they failed to meet theirexpected friends. After a time they encountered an Indian who had killedan antelope, which they quickly purchased and another feast made everyheart glad. By way of dessert, a messenger galloped into camp withthe news that Fitzpatrick was close at hand with an abundant supply ofprovisions.

  The next morning the two parties united and continued the journeytogether. After leaving the Bear River Valley they crossed over toLewis's Fork of the Columbia. At night the camp fires of the Indiantwinkled like so many stars along the mountain side; but they were allfriendly and the tired explorers slept peacefully.

  Pushing onward they reached the upper waters of Lewis's Fork, wheresnow began to fall. However, they were quite near Fort Hall and theytherefore went into camp, while Fremont rode to the fort and procuredseveral horses and oxen.

  The weather continued severe, but Fremont determined to push on, despitethe hardships which he knew awaited them all. As a matter of prudence,however, he sent back eleven of his men, leaving about twenty with whichhe pursued his journey down the river valley in the direction of theColumbia. The Dalles was reached in safety where Kit Carson was left incommand of the party, while Fremont with a few companions pushed on toVancouver Island, where he procured some provisions. On his return, thewhole party united and made their way to Klamath Lake, in what was thenOregon Territory. When their observations were completed, they took uptheir march in the direction of California.

  After a long and wearisome journey, attended by much suffering for thelack of food, they came in sight of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, whichwere seen to be covered with snow. The men were in a sorry plight. Theprovisions were nearly gone; they could not turn back, and there seemedbut two alternatives before them: to push on through the mountains orremain where they were and starve to death. Such men were not the onesto fold their hands and lie down in helpless despair. Accordingly, theymade their preparations for the terrible venture.

  The snow was so deep that it was impossible to get forward withoutthe aid of snowshoes. Devoting themselves to the manufacture of theseindispensable articles, a few were sent ahead to learn how far it wasnecessary to break a path for the animals. After a laborious passage,it was found that nine miles would have to be prepared in that fashion.Carson was with this advance and when they halted, he saw in thedistance the green Sacramento Valley. Although nearly twenty years hadpassed since he visited that section, he recognized it at once. Awaybeyond towered the white peaks of the Coast Range. Carson was the onlyman in the party who really knew where they were.

  This passage of Fremont and his men through the Sierra Nevada Mountainsis one of the most extraordinary achievements in American history.Carson himself took such a prominent part in it, that it seems only justthat Fremont's thrilling account should be quoted.

  "The people were unusually silent; for every man knew that ourenterprise was hazardous, and the issue doubtful.

  "The snow deepened rapidly, and it soon became necessary to breaka road. For this service, a party of ten was formed, mounted on thestrongest horses; each man in succession opening the road on foot, or onhorseback, until himself and his horse became fatigued, when he steppedaside; and, the remaining number passing ahead, he took his station inthe rear.

  "The camp had been all the day occupied in endeavoring to ascend thehill, but only the best horses had succeeded; the animals, generally,not having sufficient strength to bring themselves up without the packs;and all the line of road between this and the springs was strewed withcamp stores and equipage, and horses floundering in snow. I thereforeimmediately encamped on the ground with my own mess, which was inadvance, and directed Mr. Fitzpatrick to encamp at the springs, and sendall the animals, in charge of Tabeau, with a strong guard, back to theplace where they had been pastured the night before. Here was a smallspot of level ground, protected on one side by the mountain, and onthe other sheltered by a little ridge of rock. It was an open grove ofpines, which assimilated in size to the grandeur of the mountain, beingfrequently six feet in diameter.

  "Tonight we had no shelter, but we made a large fire around the trunk ofone of the huge pines; and covering the snow with small boughs, on whichwe spread our blankets, soon made ourselves comfortable. The night wasvery bright and clear, though the thermometer was only at 10 degrees. Astrong wind which sprang up at sundown, made it intensely cold; and thiswas one of the bitterest nights during the journey.

  "Two Indians joined our party here; and one of them, an old man,immediately began to harangue us, saying that ourselves and animalswould perish in the snow; and that, if we would go back, he would showus another and a better way across the mountain. He spoke in a very loudvoice, and there was a singular repetition of phrases and arrangement ofwords, which rendered his speech striking, and not unmusical.

  "We had now begun to understand some words, and, with the aid of signs,easily comprehended the old man's simple ideas. 'Rock upon rock--rockupon rock--snow upon snow--snow upon snow,' said he; 'even if you getover the snow, you will not be able to get down from the mountains.' Hemade us the sign of precipices, and showed us how the feet of the horseswould slip, and throw them off from the narrow trails led along theirsides. Our Chinook, who comprehended even more readily than ourselves,and believed our situation hopeless, covered his head with his blanket,and began to weep and lament. 'I wanted to see the whites,' said he; 'Icame away from my own people to see the whites, and I wouldn't care todie among them; but here'--and he looked around into the cold night andgloomy forest, and, drawing his blanket over his head, began again tolament.

  "Seated around the tree, the fire illuminating the rocks and the tallboils of the pines round about, and the old Indian haranguing, wepresented a group of very serious faces.

  "February 5.--The night had been too cold to sleep, and we were up veryearly. Our guide was standing by the fire with all his finery on;and seeing him shiver in the cold, I threw on his shoulders one of myblankets. We missed him a few minutes afterwards, and never saw himagain. He had deserted. His bad faith and treachery were in perfectkeeping with the estimate of Indian character, which a long intercoursewith this people had gradually forced upon my mind.

  "While a portion of the camp were occupied in bringing up the baggage tothis point, the remainder were busied in making sledges and snowshoes. Ihad determined to explore the mountain ahead, and the sledges were to beused in transporting the baggage.

  "Crossing the open basin, in a march of about ten miles we reached thetop of one of the peaks, to the left of the pass indicated by our guide.Far below us, dimmed by the distance, was a large, snowless valley,bounded on the western side, at the distance of about a hundred miles,by a low range of mountains, which Carson recognized with delight asthe mountains bordering the coast. 'There,' said he, 'is the littlemountain--it is fifteen years ago since I saw it; but I am just as sureas if I had seen it yesterday.' Between us, then, and this low coastrange, was the valley of the Sacramento; and no one who had notaccompanied us through the incidents of our life for the last fewmonths, could realize the delight with which at last we looked downupon it. At the distance of apparently thirty miles beyond us weredistinguished spots of prairie; and a dark line, which could be tracedwith the glass, was imagined to be the course of
the river; but we wereevidently at a great height above the valley, and between us and theplains extended miles of snowy fields and broken ridges of pine coveredmountains.

  "It was late in the day when we turned towards the camp; and it grewrapidly cold as it drew towards night. One of the men became fatiguedand his feet began to freeze, and building a fire in the trunk of a dryold cedar, Mr. Fitzpatrick remained with him until his clothes couldbe dried, and he was in a condition to come on. After a day's march oftwenty miles, we straggled into camp, one after another, at nightfall;the greater number excessively fatigued, only two of the party havingever travelled on snowshoes before.

  "All our energies were now directed to getting our animals across thesnow; and it was supposed that, after all the baggage had been drawnwith the sleighs over the trail we had made, it would be sufficientlyhard to bear our animals.

  "At several places, between this point and the ridge, we had discoveredsome grassy spots, where the wind and sun had dispersed the snow fromthe sides of the hills, and these were to form resting place to supportthe animals for a night in their passage across. On our way across, wehad set on fire several broken stumps and dried trees, to melt holes inthe snow for the camp. Its general depth was five feet; but we passedover places where it was twenty feet deep, as shown by the trees.

  "With one party drawing sleighs loaded with baggage, I advanced todayabout four miles along the trail, and encamped at the first grassy spot,where we expected to bring our horses. Mr. Fitzpatrick, with anotherparty, remained behind, to form an intermediate station between us andthe animals.

  "Putting on our snowshoes, we spent the afternoon in exploring a roadahead. The glare of the snow, combined with great fatigue, had renderedmany of the people nearly blind; but we were fortunate in having someblack silk handkerchiefs, which, worn as veils, very much relieved theeye.

  "In the evening I received a message from Mr. Fitzpatrick, acquaintingme with the utter failure of his attempt to get our mules and horsesover the snow--the half hidden trail had proved entirely too slight tosupport them, and they had broken through, and were plunging about orlying half buried in snow. He was occupied in endeavoring to getthem back to his camp; and in the mean time sent to me for furtherinstructions. I wrote to him to send the animals immediately back totheir old pastures; and, after having made mauls and shovels, turn inall the strength of his party to open and beat a road through the snow,strengthening it with branches and boughs of the pines.

  "February 12.--We made mauls, and worked hard at our end of the road allthe day. The wind was high, but the sun bright, and the snow thawing. Weworked down the face of the hill, to meet the people at the other end.Towards sundown it began to grow cold, and we shouldered our mauls, andtrudged back to camp.

  "February 13.--We continued to labor on the road; and in the course ofthe day had the satisfaction to see the people working down the face ofthe opposite hill, about three miles distant. During the morning we hadthe pleasure of a visit from Mr. Fitzpatrick, with the information thatall was going on well. A party of Indians had passed on snowshoes, whosaid they were going to the western side of the mountain after fish.This was an indication that the salmon were coming up the streams;and we could hardly restrain our impatience as we thought of them, andworked with increased vigor.

  "I was now perfectly satisfied that we had struck the stream on whichMr. Sutter lived, and turning about, made a hard push, and reachedthe camp at dark. Here we had the pleasure to find all the remaininganimals, fifty-seven in number, safely arrived at the grassy hill nearthe camp; and here, also, we were agreeably surprised with the sight ofan abundance of salt. Some of the horse guard had gone to a neighboringhut for pine nuts, and discovered unexpectedly a large cake of verywhite fine grained salt, which the Indians told them they had broughtfrom the other side of the mountain; they used it to eat with their pinenuts, and readily sold it for goods.

  "On the 19th, the people were occupied in making a road and bringing upthe baggage; and, on the afternoon of the next day, February 20, 1844,we encamped with all the materiel of the camp, on the summit of the passin the dividing ridge, 1,000 miles by our travelled road from the Dallesof the Columbia.

  "February 21.--We now considered ourselves victorious over the mountain;having only the descent before us, and the valley under our eyes, wefelt strong hope that we should force our way down. But this was a casein which the descent was not facile. Still, deep fields of snow laybetween, and there was a large intervening space of rough lookingmountains, through which we had yet to wind our way. Carson roused methis morning with an early fire, and we were all up long before day,in order to pass the snow fields before the sun should render the crustsoft. We enjoyed this morning a scene at sunrise, which, even here,was unusually glorious and beautiful. Immediately above the easternmountains was repeated a cloud formed mass of purple ranges, borderedwith bright yellow gold; the peaks shot up into a narrow line of crimsoncloud, above which the air was filled with a greenish orange; and overall was the singular beauty of the blue sky. Passing along a ridge whichcommanded the lake on our right, of which we began to discover an outletthrough a chasm on the west, we passed over alternating open ground andhard crusted snow fields which supported the animals, and encamped onthe ridge after a journey of six miles. The grass was better than wehad yet seen, and we were encamped in a clump of trees, twenty or thirtyfeet high, resembling white pine."