188 JOHN C. FREMONT. 



guard of six American soldiers who were conduct- 

 ing the bearer of Government despatches to the 

 United States consul at Monterey; who had also 

 been intrusted with some letters and papers for 

 Fremont. These two men informed the latter that 

 the five persons whom they had left behind were in 

 very great peril of attack from the hostile Indians; 

 and that they themselves had hastened forward for 

 assistance. Fremont immediately determined to 

 advance to their rescue. With ten picked men he 

 rode sixty miles in a day, and at evening he for- 

 tunately met Lieutenant Gillespie, the object of his 

 search, still slowly advancing, and still unharmed. 

 The letters which he conveyed to Fremont ordered 

 him to return to California and there labor to 

 counteract the schemes which the British Govern- 

 ment was then making to obtain the annexation 

 of that golden territory to the British crown. These 

 letters were accompanied with others from his wife 

 and mother, which were still more welcome to him. 

 That night which brought to the bold adventurer, 

 amid the distant and unknown solitudes of those 

 primeval mountains, such cherished missives of re- 

 membrance and affection from those whom he loved 

 so well, was fraught with an adventure of rare and 

 solemn interest, and one which wellnigh proved to 

 be his last. The camp was pitched upon the shore 



