JOHN C. FREMONT. 211 



enjoyment of this luxury, then, I pleased myself in 

 imagining how gratified you would be in picturing 

 me here in Kit's care, whom you will fancy con- 

 stantly occupied and constantly uneasy in endeavor- 

 ing to make me comfortable. How little could you 

 have dreamed of this while he was enjoying the 

 pleasant hospitality of your father's house ! The 

 furthest thing then from your mind was that he 

 would ever repay it to me here. 



"But I have now the unpleasant task of telling 

 you how I came here. I had much rather write you 

 some rambling letters in unison with the repose in 

 which I feel inclined to indulge, and talk to you 

 about the future, with which I am already busily oc- 

 cupied, about my arrangements for getting speedily 

 down into the more pleasant climate of the Lower 

 Del Norte and rapidly through into California, and 

 my plans when I get there. I have an almost in- 

 vincible repugnance to going back among scenes 

 where I have endured much suffering, and for all 

 the incidents and circumstances of which I feel a 

 strong aversion. But as clear information is abso- 

 lutely necessary to you, and to your father more par- 

 ticularly still, I will give you the story now, instead 

 of waiting to tell it to you in California. But I 

 write in the great hope that you will not receive this 



