Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/200



188 F. G. YOUNG

of expeditions undertaken to him, hemmed in as he was in his native region of east Tennessee. An inevitable attack of wanderlust in the years of early manhood must snatch him away into these new and alluring fields of enterprise. Into which regional wilderness would he be swayed? Into that of the northwest or of the southwest?

In all of his later and known career he never showed any disposition to seek parleyings with the red man. He cannot lie charged with any exploitation of him or any unprovoked ruthlessness toward him. The Indian nature was too slow. He wanted contact with those worthy of his mettle. Nor did he hanker for the unique satisfactions of wilderness solitudes as such. He was not an explorer. His persistent bent was for leadership in carrying out projects, directly of use, at the head of companies of men of his own race, and then too he con- stitutionally had the strongest aversion to dominating mon- opolies such as the American Fur Company in evidence on the Oregon trail In view of these traits exhibited when he was within the range of recording agencies we should search for traces of him on the route of the Santa Fe trail as he is making his way westward to California and Oregon where he was to emerge into the clear light of history. And sure enough ! Mexi- can documents of the nature of reports by the Governor of New Mexico and others, to those higher in authority, on a (rapping expedition to the Gila in 1826 under Ceran St. Vrain contain the name of a "Joaquin Joon" as the leader of one of the four divisions of the party. 23 The basis for identifying this name as the one Ewing Young went by in that region w have in an affidavit made by Kit Carson and two other resi- dents of Taos in 1852. This affidavit says Ewing Young "was railed by Mexican residents of this territory Joachin John. . . ." In the parish record of the baptism of his son it is "Joaquin John." In the California documents Bancroft says he was often called "Joaquin Joven." 25

23 Thomas Maitland Marshall, "St. Vrain's Expedition to the Gila in 1826" m The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, v. XIX, p. 255.

24 Documentary Record, appendix, I, p. 200

25 Bancroft, History of California, v. Ill, p.

p. 174.