however, I have given the subject some more examination. The Spanish navigator, Malaspina, to the merits of whom Humboldt bears such honorable testimony, and whose subsequent misfortunes and political persecution gave a peculiar interest to such portion of his labors as they did not destroy, made a survey of this coast in 1791. His longitudes, as far as I have been able to examine them, were nearly correct. Vancouver followed immediately after, and his surveys, disagreed with Malaspina's, threw the coast from a third to a half degree too far east; subsequent surveys, as far as they have made any change, are but little more than restoring the positions of Malaspina.

"As for Capt. Wilkes's renewed objection to having his 'small map,' taken for a test, I have to remark, that corresponding errors with those in his small map,' appear in his larger map of Oregon, and in the text of his narrative, and I am not acquainted with any other publications he has made. If he objects to having it said that he has suppressed or withheld his corrections, surely he ought to point where and when he has made them public.

"I wish again to make the remark that this controversy is not of my seeking. When I discovered the great erroneousness of the positions Capt. Wilkes had given me, I contented myself by quietly making the corrections on my map; I had received them in good faith as the result of his observations, and supposed them to be given the same way, and should have studiously avoided, therefore any mention of the descrepancy. Had I known, however, what he now informs us of, that he had shortly afterwards found those positions to be incorrect, and yet left me in ignorance of the rectification, to make an erroneous publication, I should not have been so silent.

"I stated in my first letter that I did not see why Captain Wilkes had thought himself called on to provoke this controversy, since whatever his merits in the publication of corrections on the coast of California, he could not claim any share in the making them. I am now still more at a loss to know why he

felt concerned in the matter, for it has become still more plain that he could not have supposed himself in any way wronged. His surveys not only do not make any corrections on the coast of California, but I feel warranted in saying that his entire surveys in Oregon and California, as far as they follow his own observations, are erroneously laid down in his published works. "J. C. FREMONT.

"WASHINGTON, June 20th, 1848."

CHAPTER XIII.

FOURTH EXPEDITION-ENCAMPED IN KANSAS-TERRIBLE JOURNEY THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS-FRIGHTFUL SNOW STORMONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY MULES FROZEN TO DEATH IN ONE NIGHT-STARVATION OF HIS COMRADES-MEETS AN UNEXPECTED FRIEND REACHES THE RANCHE OF KIT CARSON THRILLING LETTER TO HIS WIFE-ADVENTURE WITH

NAVAHOES INDIANS.

IN October, 1848, Fremont sat out upon his fourth expedition. But he went now at his own expense and not at the expense of the government; as an emigrant in quest of a home in the new State which he had emancipated, and not as an officer under orders. He went to prepare for the reception of his family, who were to join him in the spring, and he chose the winter for the journey as the season best adapted to make him acquainted with several of the most serious difficulties to be encountered in the construction of a highway to the Pacific, an enterprise of which he never lost sight in any of his plans for the future. He sat out on the 19th of October, and determined to make the line of his route along the head of the Rio Grande; first, because that route had never yet been explored, and secondly, because he had been informed by the mountaineers that there was a very practicable

pass through the Mountains at the head of that river. This route took him through the country of the Utahs, Apaches, Navahoes, Camanches, Kioways, and other savage tribes of Indians, then all at war with the United States. To contend with the enemies and physical dangers of the inhospitable region through which he was to pass, he had selected thirty-three of his old companions, all provided with good rifles, and one hundred and twenty of the best mules he could find. These, with an experience in the kind of life to which they were to be exposed, without a parallel, and with a courage never surpassed, constituted his outfit and his security. Their preparations for this expedition were mostly made at a small government post just over the borders of Missouri in Kansas. Mrs. Fremont attended him as far as this point, and remained with him for the five or six weeks that he was occupied with his preparations; spending her days at his camp and her nights at the more comfortable quarters hospitably assigned to her and her husband by Major Cummins, a venerable Indian agent who had lived upon the frontier for twenty or thirty years. Here, in the depths of this vast wilderness, far beyond even the shadows of advancing civilization, Col. Fremont and his little party made their first acquaintance with a country which only seven years afterwards became the theatre of events destined to change the whole plan of his life;-to call him, like Washington, from his surveying, to become the national champion of freedom and civilization.

Of the progress and results of this expedition, fortunate as well as disastrous, Col. Fremont has as yet published no complete report. A sufficiently minute account of it, however, for our present purpose may be

gathered from his private correspondence during the journey, and from the sketch just published by Colonel Benton.

The following letter dated from Bent's Fort shows what he had accomplished up to that point.

LETTER FROM COL. FREMONT TO COL. BENTON.

"CAMP AT BENT'S FORT, Nov. 17, 1848.

"MY DEAR SIR: We have met with very reasonable success and some good results this first long step upon our journey. In order to avoid the chance of snow-storms upon the more exposed Arkansas road, I followed up the line of the Southern Kansas (the true Kansas River) and so far added something to geography. For a distance of 400 miles our route led through a country affording abundant timber, game, and excellent grass. We find that the Valley of the Kansas affords by far the most eligible approach to the Mountains. The whole valley soil is of very superior quality, well timbered, abundant grasses, and the route very direct. This line would afford continuous and good settlements certainly for 400 miles, and is therefore worthy of consideration in any plan of approach to the Mountains. We found our friend, Major Fitzpatrick, in the full exercise of hist functions at a point about thirty miles below this, in what is called the Big Timber,' and surrounded by about 600 lodges. of different nations, Apaches, Camanches, Kioways, and Arapahoes. He is a most admirable agent, entirely educated for such a post, and possessing the ability and courage necessary to make his education available. He has succeeded in drawing out from among the Camanches the whole Kioway nation, with the exception of six lodges, and brought over among them a considerable number of lodges of the Apaches and Camanches. When we arrived he was holding a talk with them, making a feast and giving them a few presents. We found them all on their good behavior, and were treated in the most friendly manner; were