to fur trade
1822 with Andrew Henry; elected to Congress 1831; twice re-elected;
continued in office till March 4, 1837.--Chittenden.

** Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, edited by T. D.
Bonner. Beckwourth was always called "Beckwith" in the mountains, but
this was probably only a perversion of the original, though Chittenden
seems to think he only assumed the former spelling on publishing his
book.

Provo had plenty of horses, and Ashley and his men joined him going out
to Salt Lake, where Provo had come from.

The year following Ashley's attempt to trap Green River was a most
eventful one in the history of the Colorado. Time appeared to be ripe
for great journeys. The Mexicans outside of California were more amiably
inclined, and granted privileges to trappers in New Mexico. Two men who
were among the first to push their way into New Mexico were James O.
Pattie and his father, and the narrative of their experiences as told by
the younger Pattie is one of the most thrilling and interesting books
of Western adventure ever published.* They had trapped on the Gila, or
"Helay," as they called it in 1825, and the next year they went
back there with a party, trapping the Gila and its tributaries with
gratifying success.** Working their way down the Gila, they eventually
reached its junction with what they called Red River, the Great
Colorado. Following up the Colorado, probably the first white men
to travel here since the time of Garces, they rode through a camp of
Coco-Maricopas, who ran frightened away, and the Pattie party, passing
them by as if they were mere chaff, camped four miles farther on, where
they were visited by about one hundred, "all painted red in token of
amity." Farther up they entered the Mohave country. When they met some
of the inhabitants they "marched directly through their village, the
women and children screaming and hiding themselves in their huts." Three
miles above, the Patties camped, and a number of the Mohaves soon came
to see them. They did not like the looks of the chief, who made signs
that he wanted a horse as payment for the privilege of trapping in his
domain. As the trappers recognised no rights on the part of the natives,
they peremptorily refused, whereat the chief drew himself erect with
a stern and fierce air and sent an arrow into a tree, at the same time
"raising his hand to his mouth and making their peculiar yell." The
captain of the Pattie band replied by