ElyDORADO 243 



true, failed to convince Echandia of the innocence of 

 their intentions, and they were thrown nito prison, 

 from which they were released only after the inter- 

 vention of the officers commanding the American 

 merchantmen and whalers then lying on the coast. In 

 the letter, signed by the officers of the ships, "Courier," 

 "Waverly" and "Olive Branch, the motives and neces- 

 sities of Smith and his comrades were fully set forth, 

 and it was shown that they had been forced to enter 

 the territory subject to Echandia, to escape starvation 

 upon the barren and desolute stretches of plain and 

 mountain, lying between longitudes forty-two and for- 

 ty-two and forty-three west. They stated that the sole 

 purpose of the three men upon the Pacific slope was 

 to trap beaver, and trade with the Indians of that sec- 

 tion, that there was not the slightest political signifi- 

 cance in their visit. That their passports from the 

 Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the United 

 United States, had been vised and found correct, and, 

 in conclusion, they asked that the trappers might be 

 permitted to make their way to the Columbia river, 

 in Oregon, through California, believing that if they 

 were forced to return by the route they had come, thev 

 must inevitably perish at the hands of hostile Indians 

 or of hunger and thirst, in that inhospitable region 

 from which they had so narrowly escaped. 



The men were discharged, and permitted to travel 

 through California to their destination. Of this per- 

 mission. Smith at once availed himself, but Turner 

 and Oalbraith — who had had enough hunting and 

 trapping — determined to remain in California. Smith 

 proceeded to his camp on the American river, and with 



