Kit Carson entered into conversation with this man.  Immediately an attachment sprang up between them, which grew increasingly strong through many subsequent years.  The new friend whom Carson had thus found was Lieutenant John C. Fremont, of the United States corps of Topographical Engineers.  He had been commissioned by the Government to explore and report upon the country between the frontiers of Missouri and the South Pass in the Rocky mountains, on the line of the Kansas and Great Platte rivers.

Lieutenant Fremont had left Washington, and arrived at St. Louis on the twenty-second of May 1842.  Here he engaged a party of twenty-one men, principally Creole and Canadian boatmen, who were familiar with Indian life, having been long engaged in the service of the various fur companies.  In addition to these boatmen, Lieutenant Fremont had under his charge, Henry Brandt, nineteen years 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.