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FRONTIERSMEN, PIONEERS, AND SCOUTS.

opportune was his going that we may well believe a superior intelligence directed his movements.

Lieut. John C. Fremont, of the United States army, was in St. Louis organizing a company to explore the then unknown great West. He was awaiting the arrival of a famous hunter named Capt. Drips, who was expected soon in St. Louis. Fremont had heard of Carson. Indeed, Carson's life was perfectly familiar to him. It is not hard to imagine how delighted Fremont was when Carson offered him his services as guide. Arrangement was ;it once made to have Carson accompany the expedition. It was not necessary to wait longer for Capt. Drips.

On the 22d of May, 1842, the expedition took boat at St. Louis, and went up the Missouri to the mouth of the Kansas River, where it landed, and proceeded to the Choteau trading post, where a halt was made, to complete arrangements for further prosecution of their work.

Carson now was just entering upon his career. His previous experiences were but as a training-school to prepare him for his great mission. Providence could not have thrown together two more congenial spirits than Fremont and Carson. One was the complement of the other, so far as the work before them was concerned. They harmonized perfectly. Their friendship increased day by day, and nothing ever occurred to mar its serenity or break its strength. The company consisted of twenty-one men. Fremont was leader; Charles Preuss, surveyor; L. Maxwell, hunter, and Christopher Carson, guide. The remainder of the company consisted of Canadians and Creoles, who had seen service on the prairies. The company reached a ford on the Kansas River On the 14th of June, and preparations were at once made for crossing. The river was much swollen by recent rains, and the current was swift and turbid. By nightfall all were across, except part of the carts.   These were in a boat, to be ferried over.   The boat cap-