JOHN C. FREMONT. 187 



order from General Castro, the Mexican governor 

 of the territory, which had not yet become annexed 

 to the American Confederacy, denouncing him and 

 his associates as robbers and highwaymen, and com- 

 manding them to advance no farther into California. 

 Fremont's party then amounted to sixty men, who 

 were furnished with two hundred horses and an 

 abundance of ammunition. Castro immediately 

 assembled a body of troops to attack Fremont, in a 

 stronghold to which he had retired in a mountain 

 overlooking Monterey. Here he fortified himself 

 so effectually, and presented so formidable a front, 

 that Castro changed his purpose and withdrew his 

 forces. But Fremont had now conceived the idea 

 of exploring the territory of the Wah-lah-math 

 Indians and the Tla-math lakes, in the interior of 

 Oregon, which seemed to offer inviting inducements 

 to lead to their further examination. 



On the 8th of May, Fremont commenced his jour- 

 ney through this romantic region filled with lofty 

 mountains, with placid lakes, with flowing rivers, 

 and with fertile plains. One of the incidents con- 

 nected with this portion of his adventures deserves 

 to be more minutely detailed. As Fremont and his 

 party rode along the base of an unfrequented moun- 

 tain, suddenly two horsemen appeared, approaching 

 in the path before them. They were portion of a 



