CAPTAIN JOSEPH R. WALKER 353
nativity, and in the still wilder Missouri new territory, had enabled him to cultivate the chief requirements for that kind of life.
In his twenty-third year he joined a hunting and trapping expedition to the plains, with the intention of extending the perilous journey all the way to the Pacific coast, as the ac- counts of the explorations of Lewis and Clark each of whom had settled in Missouri after their famous trip across the continent to the Columbia River and the Pacific shore of Oregon, and subsequently became Governor of the Territory by presidential appointment had excited many to engage in similar expeditions.
The route proposed by the party led through New Mexico, at that time a province of Mexico, secured to the new republic by the treaty of Aquala, by which Spain had relinquished her dominions in that part of the New World to her former sub- jects ; and the Governor of the province was ill disposed toward Americans, either as adventurers or emigrants.
He consequently forbade the expedition from encroaching on his domain, and as his orders were supplemented by an ample military force, the unwilling expeditionists had no other alter- native than to submit, and the return to Missouri was con- sequently agreed upon, after a brief imprisonment of the whole party.
At that early period, however, the sagacity and enterprise of some who were engaged in trade in Missouri led them to attempt the opening of a route that should enable them to possess the rich traffic of the Mexican border ; and as Santa Fe had already become the chief trading post for that extensive region, that was made the objective point toward the accom- plishment of the scheme.
The aid of Congress was petitioned and in 1824 an appro- priation was voted by that body to survey a route from the Missouri border to that chief Mexican trading rendezvous, the route to be marked by the throwing up of small earth-mounds at suitable distances.
