Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/36

 24 Joseph J. Hill they purchased an old mare which was killed for food, and from whom the trappers also obtained a small quant- ity of beans and corn. Crossing the Colorado, possibly in the vicinity of the present El Dorado ferry, they took a southwest course, following which, in three days they came upon the dry bed of the Mojave River, up which they proceeded two days before coming to any visible water. Ascending the Mojave, their natural route led through the Cajon Pass, four days to the westward of which brought them to the San Gabriel mission. Staying at San Gabriel but a single day, Young and his men proceeded north to the mission of San Fernando and thence to the waters of the San Joaquin River, where they trapped until July, 1830. How long a time this was is a matter of speculation, as the date of their arrival in California is not known. In reading the account of the expedition as recorded by Peters, one gets the impression that the trappers had come straight through from New Mexico, having spent very little time on the way. To make matters worse, Peters antedates the departure of the company from Taos several months, giving the date of the setting out as April, 1829, instead of August of that year as stated by Carson, himself. This had the effect of making the events which actually happened in the summer of 1830 appear to have happened in the summer of 1829. The trappers probably remained on Salt River and its branches until sometime in the winter of 1829-30 and thus arrived in California early in the year of 1830. While on the San Joaquin they fell in with a company of Hudson's Bay trappers from the Columbia River under the command of Peter Skene Ogden. The two companies trapped together for some time when Ogden finally set out for the Columbia, leaving Young in possession of the field. In the first part of July, 1830, an incident happened