s of age, son of Colonel J.B. Brant, of
St. Louis, and Randolph Benton, a lively boy of twelve years, son of the
distinguished U.S. Senator from Missouri. These young men accompanied the
expedition for that development of mind and body which their parents hoped
the tour would give them.

With this party, Lieutenant Fremont was ascending the river four hundred
miles, to the mouth of the Kansas, from which point he was to take his
departure through the unexplored wilderness. We say unexplored, though
many portions of it had been visited by wandering bands of unlettered
trappers and hunters. Lieutenant Fremont had been disappointed in
obtaining the guide he had expected. Upon learning this fact, Mr. Carson
retired to a secluded part of the boat, sat down, and for some time seemed
lost in reverie. Then rising and approaching Lieutenant Fremont he
modestly said to him,

"Sir, I have been for some time in the mountains, and think I can guide
you to any point there you may wish to reach."

The office of a guide, through thousands of miles of untroden wilderness,
was a very responsible position. Mr. Carson was an entire stranger to
Lieutenant Fremont. But there was something in his bearing which inspired
confidence. After making a few inquiries of others, Mr. Carson was engaged
to act as guide with a salary of one hundred dollars a month.

The expedition commenced its march from near the mouth of the Kansas on
the 10th of June 1842. It followed along the banks of that stream, in a
westerly direction. The whole party consisted of twenty-eight souls. They
were well armed and were well mounted with the exception of eight men, who
drove as many carts. These carts were each drawn by two mules and were
packed with the stores of the party, their baggage and their instruments.
There were a number of loose horses in the train to supply the place of
any, which might be disabled by the way. There were also four oxen, which
were added as a contribution to their stock of provisions, one may well
imagine that so numerous a cavalcade, winding its way over the undulating
and treeless prairie, would present a very imposing aspect.

An Indian guide conducted them for the first forty miles, along the river
banks, with which Mr. Carson was not familiar. He then left them and they
entered upon that vast ocean of prairie which extended, with scarcely any
interruption, to the base of the Rocky mountains.

The borders of nearly all these western