JOHN C. FREMONT. 217 



in the trail and lay there till he froze to death. 

 After sixteen days had elapsed from King's depar- 

 ture, I became so uneasy at the delay that I decided 

 to wait no longer. I was aware that our troops had 

 "been engaged in hostilities with the Spanish Utaha 

 and Apaches, who range in the North River Valley, 

 and became fearful that they (King's party) had 

 been cut off by these Indians : I could imagine no 

 other accident. Leaving the camp employed with 

 the baggage in charge of Mr. Yincenthaler, I started 

 down the river with a small party, consisting of 

 Godey, (with his young nephew,) Mr. Preuss, and 

 Saunders. "We carried our arms and provisions for 

 two or three days. In the camp the messes had 

 provisions for two or three meals, more or less, and 

 about five pounds of sugar to each man. Failing 

 to meet King, my intention was to make the Red 

 River settlement, about twenty-five miles north of 

 Taos, and send back the speediest relief possible. 

 My instructions to the camp were, that if they did 

 not hear from me within a stated time they were to 

 follow down the Del Norte. 



" On the second day after leaving camp, we came 

 upon a fresh trail of Indians, two lodges, with a 

 considerable number of animals. This did not 

 lessen our uneasiness for our people. As their trail 

 when we met it turned and went down the river, 



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