Biographical Memoir 31 



of never leaving home again, an intention he was 

 unable to carry out. 



In 1849 he joined a California company, being 

 urged thereto by the Messrs. Kingsland, who were 

 warm personal friends and who were then backing 

 Col. Henry L. Webb who had been in Mexico and 

 advocated that route for the company he was 

 collecting. My father's idea was that such a jour- 

 ney offered splendid opportunities to secure spec- 

 imens of birds and mammals. It was proposed 

 that he should give the company his knowledge of 

 a backwoodsman's life, which was extensive, and 

 be second in command to Colonel Webb, a respon- 

 sibility which he rather hesitated to accept, as he 

 wished the freedom of leaving the party anywhere 

 he chose after reaching California. Finally, 

 however, he signed papers with Messrs. Daniel C. 

 and Ambrose Kingsland, and Cornelius Sutton, 

 (Colonel Webb signing also), to stay with the 

 company for one year, when they expected to reach 

 their destination and be on the high road to wealth. 



In Colonel Webb's company the contracts were 

 individual. The company supplied everything 

 but the personal belongings of each man and his 

 horse, and he in return was supposed to repay with 

 legal interest his share of expenses when he reached 

 the El Dorado, and to this end his work and his 

 earnings were the company's for a year from the 

 time of signing. If when the contracts expired 



