CHAPTER VII

Engages in the Cattle Business in California.-Gold Discovery. Visit to England and France.-Imprisonment in London.-Fifth Expedition.—Pacific Railroad.—Mariposa Title Finally Confirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States.

IN returning to California by the isthmus, after the close of the session of Congress, in the fall of 1850, Fremont suffered from Panama fever, which left him for a long time quite paralyzed by a neuralgic affection of the left side. He was utterly unable, from this cause, to return to Washington to serve out the residue of his term. He was a candidate for reëlection to the United States Senate, and was supported by the Free State party. Governor Charles Robinson was a member of the California legislature, at the time, and their joint struggles to save that State from slavery were, as they both have declared, the foundation of the friendship that exists between them, and have given additional force to the ardent sympathy which Colonel Fremont has expressed, from the first, in such decisive language and on all occasions, in the devotion of Robinson, and his heroic fellow-sufferers, to the same sacred cause in Kansas. There were more than 140 ballots. Every native Californian voted for him from the beginning

to the end. There was no election; and the whole subject was postponed to the next legislature.

When his health was sufficiently restored, he went into the cattle-raising business; after which he paid a brief visit to Europe.

In England, as afterwards on the continent, he received attentions which showed the extent to which his geographical discoveries and scientific reports had given him a European reputation. His brilliant and chivalrous proceedings in California had, no doubt, also attracted much observation. Learned and scientific societies invited him to attend their meetings. Many distinguished persons, of eminent attainments and high position, sought his acquaint

ance.

Not long after this, Colonel Fremont went to Paris, where he took a house, in which he continued about a year. In June, 1853, he returned to his own country.

In August, 1853, he started upon his fifth and last expedition, being determined to solve the problem of the practicability of a trans-continental communication, by common road, and by railroad. This expedition was at the joint expense of Colonel Fremont and Colonel Benton.

The particular point to which attention was to be directed, was, to ascertain the winter condition of the country, in reference to the practicability of a railroad, to determine how far snow would be an obstruction, and whether the circumstances incident to that season could be encountered and surmounted. So great a length of time elapsed before hearing

That

from him, that the most serious apprehensions began to prevail; and as weeks and months wore away and no intelligence came from any quarter, a painful conviction deepened in the public mind that he had met, at last, the fate he had so often braved. It was not until the early part of April, 1854, that his safety was ascertained. Colonel Babbitt, the Secretary of Utah Territory, was on his way to Washington, with the United States mail. He had left the Great Salt Lake on the 4th of February, and was going by what is called the coast route, that is, taking passage on the Pacific side, and crossing by Panama. On the 8th of February, an Indian came to his camp and told him that, the day before, he had met a company of Americans, and "that they were hungry." night Babbitt overtook Fremont at a small Mormon settlement. He sent a man to his camp to communicate with him, but Fremont excused himself from talking as he was too much worn out; but the next morning early, he called upon Babbitt and informed him of the route and condition of his party. Colonel Babbitt published an account of the meeting in the California papers, and they brought the first intelligence received from the expedition. About the same time the Philadelphia Bulletin contained an extract from a letter of Mr. S. N. Carvallo, Colonel Fremont's daguerreotypist, dated February 8, and brought in, undoubtedly, by Colonel Babbitt, in which he says that the party had "lived fifty days on horse-flesh, and for the last forty-eight hours had been without food of any kind."

The St. Louis Democrat of April 8, 1854, speak

ing of this last expedition, after mentioning that it was undertaken, as well as the previous one, at his own expense, says that when he set out upon it, "his health was in a precarious condition, and he was even compelled to take with him a physician, who accompanied him to the Rocky Mountains. His private business in California called loudly for his presence there, having suffered by his absence in Europe, protracted by imprisonment for debts incurred in the conquest of California, and which was adding millions every year to the wealth of our people, whilst our government neglected and refused to pay the debt incurred by Fremont in its acquisition. It was under such difficulties and embarrassments, in the face of so much personal sacrifice and danger, that this expedition was undertaken by the heroic and intrepid adventurer."

On Colonel Fremont's return to the Atlantic States, the St. Louis Intelligencer welcomed him in the following language:—

"The maxim that fortune favors the brave, has been signally illustrated by the fact that the winter which Colonel Fremont chose for exploring a howling wilderness of thousands of miles, where he was cut off for weeks from the succor and sympathy of civilized man, except his own party, has been the hardest winter ever known in those regions. To carry his men safely through the fearful hardships and perils of this unexampled winter, is itself a solution of the problem which he went to determine, besides showing fortitude, mental resources, and unconquerable energy of will, which stamp the hardy

explorer as one of the great men of action who make their mark upon their country and their age. It is the fit crowning achievement of a series of adventurous explorations, not surpassed, if equalled, in respect to the qualities displayed and the magnitude of the results, by any similar career in the history of mankind. The career of Fremont has been characteristically western and American, at a time when the great work of western America is to subdue the wilderness. He is a mightier Daniel Boone, on a far more magnificent theatre, and adds to the sturdy qualities of the pioneer of civilization, those graces and attainments of science and literature, which only the highest civilization can confer."

In the National Intelligencer, of June 13, 1854, Colonel Fremont published a letter condensing the general results of his last exploration, which the House of Representatives ordered to be reprinted among its miscellaneous documents. When his full report is published, it will contain a rigid and thorough discussion of all the obstacles and difficulties in the way of the construction of a railroad connecting the Atlantic States, centrally, with the Pacific coast. It is well known that he is fully convinced that it can be done. When the people say that it shall be done, it will be done. The resources of this great country are adequate to the work. Its commerce, its union, and its power, require it. All that is needed is a government pledged to accomplish it, and honest, firm, and energetic enough to redeem its pledge.