CHAPTER VI 
Fremont, the Pathfinder—Ownership of the Colorado—The Road of the Gold 
Seekers—First United States Military Post, i849~-Steam Navigation— 
Captain Johnson Goes to the Head of Black Canyon. 
HE great Western wilderness was now no longer “un- 
1 known” to white men. By the year 1840 the American 
had traversed it throughout, excepting the canyons of the 
Colorado, which yet remained, at least below the mouth of 
Grand River, almost as much of a problem as before the fur 
trade was born. Like some antediluvian monster the wild 
torrent stretched a foaming barrier miles on miles from the 
mountains of the north to the seas of the south, fortified in a 
rock-bound lair, roaring defiance at conquistadore, padre, and 
trapper alike. 
Till now the trappers and fur companies had been the chief 
travellers through this strange, weird land, but as the fourth 
decade of the century fairly opens, a new kind of pioneer ap¬ 
pears suddenly on the field; a pioneer with motives totally 
different from those of the preceding explorers. Proselyting 
or profit had been heretofore the main spurs to ambition, but 
the commanding figure which we now observe scanning, from 
the majestic heights of the Wind River range, the labyrinthian 
maze of unlocated, unrecorded mountains, valleys, rivers, and 
canyons, rolling far and away to the surf of the Pacific, is im¬ 
bued with a broader purpose. His mission is to know. The 
immediately previous elements drifted across the scene like 
rifle-smoke on the morning breeze, making no more impression 
133 
