Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/407

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BONNEVILLE'S TRAPPERS.

389

connection that John Forster came up from Guaymas to Los Angeles by land in 1833, guided by a native.^[1]

Still one more detachment from the army of trappers in the great basin came into California before 1835, and this time by a northern route over the Sierra. The general operations of this army in the broad interior, and the summer rendezvous of 1832-3 in the Green River Valley, have been described by Irving in his narrative of Bonneville's adventures. The same author records the formation of a company sent by Captain Bonneville under Joseph Walker to make explorations west of Great Salt Lake, and devotes a chapter to the adventures of that company.^[2] The aim, as given by this authority, was to explore the region surrounding the lake, the extent of which body of water was greatly exaggerated by Bonneville. The company consisted of about forty men, some fifteen of whom were free trappers.^[3] The start from Green River was in July 1833, and after hunting a few days on Bear River, they went on to the region just north of the lake. Whatever may have been Walker's original intentions or instructions, his men could not live in the desert, and they went westward in search of water, which was found in the head streams of the Mary or Ogden river, since called the Humboldt. I suppose their destination from the first had been California, though Bonneville may perhaps have had different views; at any rate Walker's men

↑ Forster's Pioneer Data, MS., 10.
↑ Irving's Adventures of Bonneville, 184-8, 324-42; also given in substance in Warren's Memoir, in Pac. R. R. Repts., xi. pt i. p. 31-4. The first published narrative of this expedition was in the Jonesborough, Tenn., Sentinel, of March 8, 1837, a brief account from the statement of Stephen Meek, who had returned to Tennessee, and reprinted in Niles' Register, of March 25th, vol. lii. p. 59.
↑ Geo. Nidever, Life and Adven., MS., was one of these. The original company of about 40 under Robert Bean had left Ft Smith in May 1839. It included Graham, Naile, Williams, Price, Leese, and Dye. It was divided in N. Mex. in the spring of 1831. Both Nidever and Dye give many details down to this division, and N. later. He says nothing of any instruction to explore the lake, but states that Walker when joined by the writer was bound for Cal.

[1] Forster's Pioneer Data, MS., 10.

[2] Irving's Adventures of Bonneville, 184-8, 324-42; also given in substance in Warren's Memoir, in Pac. R. R. Repts., xi. pt i. p. 31-4. The first published narrative of this expedition was in the Jonesborough, Tenn., Sentinel, of March 8, 1837, a brief account from the statement of Stephen Meek, who had returned to Tennessee, and reprinted in Niles' Register, of March 25th, vol. lii. p. 59.

[3] Geo. Nidever, Life and Adven., MS., was one of these. The original company of about 40 under Robert Bean had left Ft Smith in May 1839. It included Graham, Naile, Williams, Price, Leese, and Dye. It was divided in N. Mex. in the spring of 1831. Both Nidever and Dye give many details down to this division, and N. later. He says nothing of any instruction to explore the lake, but states that Walker when joined by the writer was bound for Cal.

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