JOHN CHARLES FREMONT.

ONE of the most remarkable men of modern times is John Charles Fremont, Thomas Benton's son-in-law. He has resolution, no obstacle can sway; bravery, no danger can intimidate; enterprise, no undertaking can over-match.

Having a strong wish to hang his portrait on the walls of my little volume, I take the following sketch from the "Gallery of Illustrious Americans."

"The feet of three men have pressed the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, whose names are associated for ever with those vast ranges; Humboldt, the Nestor of scientific travellers; Audubon, the Interpreter of Nature, and Fremont, the Pathfinder of Empire. Each has done much to illustrate the Natural History of North America, and to develope its illimitable resources. The youngest of all is likely to become as illustrious as either, for fortune has linked his name with a scene in the history of the Republic, as startling to the world as the first announcement of its existence. To his hands was committed the magnificent task of opening the gates of our Pacific Empire. His father was an emigrant gentleman from France, and his mother a lady of Virginia. Although his father's death left him an orphan in his fourth year, he was thoroughly educated; and when, at the age of seventeen,

he graduated at Charleston College, he contributed to the support of his mother and her younger children. From teaching mathematics he turned his attention to civil engineering, in which he displayed so much talent, he was recommended by Mr. Poinsett, Secretary of War, to Nicollet, as his assistant in the survey of the basin of the upper Mississippi. Two years he was with that learned man in his field of labors, and he won his applause and friendship. On his return to Washington, he continued his services to the geographer for two years longer, in drawing up from his field-book, the great map which unfolded to science the vast tract they had explored. Thirsting for adventure, he now planned the first of those distant and perilous expeditions which have given lustre to his name. Having received a lieutenant's commission in the corps of Topographical Engineers, he proposed to the Secretary of War to penetrate the Rocky Mountains. His plan was approved, and in 1842, with a handful of men, gathered on the Missouri frontier, he reached and explored the South Pass. He achieved more than his instructions required. He not only fixed the locality and character of that great Pass, through which myriads are now pressing to California-he defined the astronomy, geography, botany, geology and meteorology of the country, and designated the route since followed, and the points from which the flag of the Union is now flying from a chain of wilderness fortresses.

"His report was printed by the Senate, translated into foreign languages, and the scientific world looked on Fremont as one of its benefactors. Impatient, however, for broader and

more hazardous fields, he planned a new expedition to the distant territory of Oregon. His first had carried him to the summits of the Rocky Mountains. Wilkes had surveyed the tide-water regions of the Columbia river; between the two explorers lay a tract of a thousand miles, which was a blank in geography.

"In May, 1843, he left the frontier of Missouri, and in November he stood on Fort Vancouver, with the calm waters of the Pacific at his feet. He had approached the mountains by a new line, scaled their summits south of the South Pass, deflected to the Great Salt Lake, and pushed examinations right and left along his entire course. He joined his survey to Wilkes' Exploring Expedition, and his orders were fulfilled. But he had opened one route to the Columbia, and he wished to find another. There was a vast region south of his line, invested with a fabulous interest, and he longed to apply to it the test of science. It was the beginning of winter. Without resources, adequate supplies, or even a guide, and with only twenty-five companions, he turned his face once more towards the Rocky Mountains. Then began that wonderful Expedition, filled with romance, achievement, daring, and suffering, in which he was lost from the world nine months, traversing 3,500 miles in sight of eternal snows; in which he explored and revealed the grand features of Alta California, its great basin, the Sierra Nevada, the valleys of San Joaquin and Sacramento, explored the fabulous Buenaventura, revealed the real El Dorado, and established the geography of the Western

part of our continent. In August, 1844, he was again in Washington, after an absence of sixteen months. His Report put the seal to the fame of the young explorer.

"He was planning a third Expedition while writing a history of the second; and before its publication, in 1845, he was again on his way to the Pacific, collecting his mountain comrades, to examine in detail the Asiatic slope of the North American Continent, which resulted in giving a new volume of science to the world, and California to the United States. We cannot trace his achievements during the war with Mexico, nor will future times inquire how many and how great battles he fought. After the conquest of California, Fremont was made the victim of a quarrel between two American commanders. Like Columbus, he was brought home a prisoner over the vast territory he had explored; stripped by a court-martial of his commission, as Lieut.-Colonel of Mounted Riflemen, and re-instated by the President. mont needed justice, not mercy, and he returned his commission. His defence was worthy of a man of honor, genius, and learning. During the ninety days of his trial, his nights were given to science.

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"Thus ended his services to the Government, but not to mankind. He was now a private citizen, and a poor man. Charleston offered him a lucrative office, which he refused. He had been brought a criminal from California, where he had been Explorer, Conqueror, Peacemaker, and Governor. He determined to retrieve his honor on the field where he

had been robbed of it. One line more would complete his surveys the route for a great road from the Mississippi to San Francisco.

“Again he appeared on the far West. His old mountaineers flocked around him, and with 33 men and 130 mules, perfectly equipped, he started for the Pacific. On the Sierra San Juan, all his mules and a third of his men perished in a more than Russian cold; and Fremont arrived on foot at Santa Fé, stripped of everything but life. It was a moment for the last pang of despair which breaks the heart, or the moral heroism which conquers Fate itself. The men of the. wilderness knew Fremont; they refitted his expedition; he started again, pierced the country of the fierce and remorseless Apaches; met, awed or defeåted savage tribes; and in a hundred days from Santa Fé, he stood on the glittering banks of the Sacramento. The men of California reversed the judgment of the court-martial; and Fremont was made the first Senator of the Golden State. It was a noble tribute to science and heroism.

"His name is identified for ever with some of the proudest and most grateful passages in American History. His twenty thousand miles of wilderness explorations, in the midst of the inclemencies of nature, and the ferocities of jealous and merciless tribes; his powers of endurance in a slender form; his intrepid coolness in the most appalling dangers; his magnetic sway over enlightened and savage men; his vast contributions to science; his controlling energy in the extension of our empire; his lofty and unsullied ambition; his