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os ae ‘Te was on the r7th day of May, 1843, that ashi Se again ‘i 
 thena lieutenant in the corps of topographical engineers of the bs 
E i United States army, took his departure from near the site of the i 
present Kansas City, on his second journey of exploration of the 
wilds of the west. On his first expedition, in the previous year, 
he had reached the Rocky mountains, but now a more distant 
destination was in view; the whole continent was to be crossed, 
and the mouth of the Columbia river to be reached. | 
It is difficult to realize that but sixty-five years ago all the 
vast territory which he was to cross was a savage wilderness; 
that it is in the term of a not very long life that it has been sub- 
dued, divided into populous states, crossed in every direction by 
railways, and filled with busy cities and towns. Then an old 
trail Jed from the Missouri river to Santa Fe, and a new one had 
been struck out by the emigration which was beginning to move 
to Oregon. Scattered along the eastern flanks of the Rocky 
mountains were a few fortified trading-posts. Everywhere was 
danger, and the adventurous trappers and fur traders took their 
lives in their hands when they left the frontier. They alone 
possessed what little was known of the topography of the in- 
terior; and from these men, hardy, brave and resourceful, was 
Fremont’s little company of 4o persons recruited. The one ex- 
ception was Charles Preuss, the draughtsman of the party, whose 
name is commemorated in some western plants. 
The head of Snake river was the first objective point, and 
following down that stream to the Columbia, Fremont reached 
the mouth of this latter on the gth of November, almost six 
months after leaving the Missouri. 
Qn the 25th of November the return journey was begun 
from the Dalles of the Columbia. Fremont’s plan was to travel 
along the eastern base of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada moun- 
tains, and when sufficient southing had been attained to cross 
ef ia 
70 
