er sixth,
Salt Lake. On the fourth day of November it reached Fort Vancouver,
on the Columbia River. On the sixth day of March, 1844, it reached
Sutter's Fort in the destitute condition already explained. The
distance from Fort Hall by the route taken is about two thousand
miles. The party remained at Sutter's Fort until the twenty-fourth
day of March, or as Kit Carson expresses the time from his memory, the
expedition remained at this place about one month. At the expiration
of this time, the party was sufficiently recruited to be ready for
their return journey, which they commenced in April, 1844. Just
previous to their taking leave of Mr. Sutter, two of the company
became deranged, owing to the privations and fasting to which they
had been obliged to submit before being ushered into a land of plenty.
They had indulged appetite too freely, and brought on one of those
strange revolutions in the brain's action which never fails to excite
the pity of friend and foe. The first warning which the party had that
one of the men was laboring under a disordered intellect occurred in
the following manner. Early in the morning the man suddenly started
from his sleep and began to ask his companions where his riding animal
was gone. During this time it was by him, but he did not know it.
Unknown to the rest of the party he started off soon after in search
of his imaginary animal. As soon as his absence became known to
Fremont, he surmised the truth and sent persons in all directions to
hunt for him. They searched the neighboring country for many miles
and made inquiries of all the friendly Indians they chanced upon, but
failed to discover him. Several days of delay was caused by this most
unhappy circumstance. Finally, it becoming necessary for the party
to depart without him, word was left with Mr. Sutter to continue the
hunt. He did so most faithfully; and, by his exertions, some time
after the party had set out on the return trip, the maniac was found
and kept at the Fort until he had entirely recovered. He was then, on
the first opportunity, provided with a passage to the United States.
Before we follow the party on their homeward-bound tramp, it is proper
that the reader should be favored with the estimate and views which
the American historian, statesman and scholar, Colonel Benton, has
recorded concerning the perils undergone and results accomplished by
this expedition. His pen is so graphic and life-like that the reader
wil