ELDORADO 237 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



REMARKABLE ADVENTURES AND HEROISM 

 OF CALIFORNIA PIONEERS, A QUAR- 

 TER OF A CENTURY BEFORE 

 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 



J. S. Smith was one of the most celebrated of 

 American trappers, and was the first American who, 

 by the overland route, ever set foot within the borders 

 of California. Smith was a large-seized, fine looking 

 man, with black hair and blue eyes, and was a native 

 of Virginia or Kentucky. He was a man of the most 

 unbounded courage, and added to his bravery a cool 

 judgment and a ready wit. He was a man for emer- 

 gencies, and his adventures, like those of another of 

 the Smith family. Captain John Smith, of Virginia, 

 trench closely upon the marvelous. 



Living in almost hourly peril, he was one of the few 

 trappers who perished at the hands of the Indians. 

 Leaving his camp on the plains, he started for the 

 Cimmaron river, to search for water for his comrades, 

 and this hero of twice a hundred battles was waylaid 

 bv the savages and murdered. Trapping along the 

 headwaters of the Missouri river. Smith crossed over 



*"From the AUeghanies to the Pacific. The Era of Colonization." 



