Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/192

174 expedition is that of Ewing Young, the Tennesseean, or Joaquin Jóven as he was often called, who entered the territory later in the same year from New Mexico with a company of beaver-hunters of various nationalities. Warner says this party came by Jedediah Smith's old trail, and found Ogden's Hudson Bay trappers on the Sacramento. After trapping for a short time in the Tulares, Young moved north and met the Indian alcalde of San José mission out on a hunt for runaway neophytes by order of the padre. The fugitives allied with the gentiles showed fight, but eleven of the trappers aided the alcalde to defeat the foe. Taking advantage of this service rendered, Young, with three of his men, came to the mission July 11th, showed his passports, explained his need of horses, and departed after promising to return in a week with furs to sell or to exchange for supplies.

There is no record that the hunters returned to San José, though they may have done so; but at the end of July three Frenchmen came to Monterey, announcing their intention to return to New Mexico, having left the company. In October the hunters were in the vicinity of Los Angeles, where the leader had great difficulty in controlling them, and where one man was killed. It had been the intention to return from the Colorado in December to sell furs and buy