Bent's fort; and on the last day of the same month they encamped again at Kansas, on the Missouri.

The Third Expedition of Captain Fremont was commenced in the autumn of 1845 (see page 315). The expedition which Colonel Fremont headed in December, 1848, across the Rocky mountains, was attended with disastrous consequences. The party left the Upper Pueblo, near the head of the Arkansas, on the 25th of November, and had with them one hundred good mules and one hundred and thirty bushels of shelled corn, intended to support their animals over the deep snows of the mountains, to a fork of the Colorado of the gulf of California. They had for their guide an old trapper known as "Bill Williams," who had spent some twentyfive years in various parts of the Rocky mountains. The fatal error of this expedition was the employment of this man, who appears either to have never known or to have entirely forgotten the whole country through which they had to pass.

On the 11th of December, the party found themselves at the mouth of the Rio del Norte cañon, where that river issues from the Sierra San Juan, one of the highest and most rugged of all the Rocky-mountain ranges. Having confidence in their guide, the company pressed forward with fatal resolution. "We pressed up toward the summit," says Colonel Fremont, "the snow deepening as we rose, and in four or five days of this struggling and climbing, all on foot, we reached the naked ridges which lie above the line of the timbered region, and which form the dividing heights between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Along these naked heights it storms all winter, and the raging winds sweep across them with remorseless fury. On our first attempt to cross, we encountered a pouderie (dry snow driven thick through the air by violent wind, and in which objects are visible only at a short distance), and were driven back, having some ten or twelve men variously frozen-faces, hands, or feet. The guide came near being frozen to death here, and dead mules were lying about the camp-fires. Meantime,

it snowed steadily. The next day we renewed the attempt to scale the summit, and were more fortunate, it then seemed. Making mauls, and beating down a road or trench through the deep snow, we forced the ascent in spite of the driving pouderie, crossed the crest, descended a little, and encamped immediately below in the edge of the timbered region. The trail showed as if a defeated party passed by--packs, pack-saddles, scattered articles of clothing, and dead mules, were strewed along. We were encamped about twelve thousand feet above the level of the sea. Westward the country was buried in snow. The storm continued. All movements were paralyzed. To advance with the expedition was impossible to get back, impossible. Our fate stood revealed. We were overtaken by sudden and inevitable ruin! The poor animals were to go first. The only place where grass could be had were the extreme summits of the sierra, where the sweeping winds kept the rocky ground bare, and where the men could not live."

Colonel Fremont now determined to recross the mountain back to the valley of the Rio del Norte. With great labour the baggage was transported across the crest to the head-springs of a little stream leading to the river. Here he determined to send in a party to the Spanish settlements in New Mexico for relief. Five of the many who volunteered for this service were selected, and Mr. King, one of the number, was appointed their leader. This was on the 26th of December. Sixteen days having passed away without any tidings from the reliefparty, Colonel Fremont became alarmed, and set off from the camp in search of relief, as their stock of provisions was reduced to a few meals only. On the sixth day after their departure from the camp they found three of the first relief-party-the most miserable objects they ever beheld. Mr. King had perished a few days before, having starved to death. On the tenth day after leaving the camp, Colonel Fremont reached the Spanish settlements. Supplies were soon obtained, and relief was sent to his suffering companions. The party, when they began their return from the summit of the mountains, was

thirty in number; but, by the extremity of their sufferings, one third of this number perished.

155. Reception of Father Mathew.

The visit of THEOBALD MATHEW (the great Apostle of Temperance in Ireland) to the United States in 1849 is undoubtedly an event of vast importance to the happiness and well-being of many families and individuals. This philanthropist was born in the county of Tipperary, Ireland, October 10, 1790. He lost his parents when a child, and was taken under the care and patronage of General Mathew, brother to the earl of Landaff. He was educated for the ministry, and in 1814 was ordained in Dublin as a catholic clergyman. After he devoted his attention to the temperance reformation, the most astonishing results followed; and it is stated that, in about eighteen months, more than five millions of the Irish population gave the pledge of total abstinence, and entirely renounced the manufacture, sale, and use, of all intoxicating drinks.

After a detention of some years from his contemplated visit to America, Father Mathew arrived at New York in the packet-ship Ashburton, June 29, 1849, and was received with enthusiasm by the people. On Monday, July 2d, the general feeling was manifested during the morning by the flags floating from the public buildings and the shipping. At two o'clock, the steamer Sylph left Castle Garden with the common council, the committee of reception, committees of the temperance associations, &c., for the Quarantine, where the honoured guest was presented by Dr. Stewart, of the hospital, and cordially greeted in a brief speech by Alderman Haws, in behalf of the committee, surrounded by crowds. The response was modest and becoming. "He felt," he said, "wholly unworthy of such public honours, and could only accept them for the sake of the cause with which his humble name was identified." Being then introduced

by the committee to the members of the common council on the boat, he was addressed by Alderman Kelly, president of the board of alderinen, and responded with a hearty expression of his sense of the honour done to the cause of temperance through his person. His whole aspect indicated simplicity and humility, his dress being a black frock-coat and breeches, with shoes and silk stockings, in the old-fashioned style.

Mr. William E. Dodge was then introduced, and welcomed Father Mathew in behalf of the friends of temperance in America. In the course of his address, he said: "You come among us, dear sir, not as a stranger; we all have long been familiar with your name and labours. There is not a town in the republic where your name is not familiar as a household word. Your triumphant career through your own afflicted countryyour apostolic visits from city to city, from village to village, surrounded by thousands and tens of thousands, eagerly pressing to receive at your hands the potent pledge-animated us in the same noble cause here. We welcome you, not as a victorious general returning from a field of blood: you come a conqueror, not with the spoils of the battle-field, but crowned with the laurels of mightier victories-conquests of virtue over vice. You have conquered inveterate customs and habits, overthrown intemperance, and stayed the course of selfdestruction. Proudly, then, do we welcome you, the benefactor of our race!"

After an excursion up the bay and East river, the steamer returned to Castle Garden, where Father Mathew was welcomed by the mayor, Mr. Woodhull, who in a speech reminded him that his victories were not made up of the dead and dying left behind in his path, but of living thousands whom he had rescued from a fate more remorseless than the conqueror's march: his trophies. were seen in the smiling faces and happy homes of the countless multitudes whom he had won from the deepest abyss of wretchedness and despair. A procession was then formed from the Battery--the guest riding in an open carriage with the mayor, Rev. Dr. Pise, and Alder

man Haws-and proceeded through Broadway, which wore the aspect of a gala-day, to the city-hall, where many ladies and citizens were introduced, and Father Mathew bowed his acknowledgments from the balcony to the multitude in the Park. Leaving the hall, the authorities escorted their guest to the Irving house. "Probably no private individual, unless La Fayette be so considered, was ever received with such public expres sions of welcome and hospitality"