have first discovered what
was made plain in Fremont's after-life--the makings of a poet, and
the foresight of a prophet. Translating the story of the battle of
Marathon in the Greek class, young Fremont catches the spirit with
which it was told by Herodotus, and writes verses in protest of
tyranny which are published in one of the Charleston papers. "In one
year," wrote his tutor, "he had read four books of Caesar; Cornelius
Nepos; Sallust; six books of Virgil; nearly all of Horace, and two
books of Livy. In Greek--all of Graeca Minora, about half of the
first volume of Graeca Majora, and four books of the Iliad." At
fifteen he enters the junior class of Charleston College. At sixteen
he is confirmed in the Episcopal Church, entertaining at that time
thoughts of entering the ministry. His steady progress is
interrupted by his first love affair; his absorbing passion so gets
the better of his common sense, that he neglects his books and
classes and is expelled from college. We next find him teaching
higher mathematics, acting as private tutor, and devoting his
evenings to the charge of the _Apprentice's Library_, a school in
Charleston. At twenty years of age he received the appointment of
teacher of mathematics, and his long connection with the United
States Army had its beginning; his post the sloop of war Natchez. He
was to go on a cruise of two years and more along the coast of South
America. Here was a chance for him to unfit himself for further
advancement, but he improved his time upon the cruise to the utmost,
and his diligent scholarship won for him the double degree of
bachelor and master of arts from the college from which he had been
expelled. His application for a mathematical professorship in the
Navy resulted in his passing the severe examination, and in an
appointment to the frigate Independence. He declined the office,
however, having decided to become an engineer, to join Captain
Williams's survey of the mountain passes between South Carolina and
Tennessee. There was talk of a railroad between Charleston and
Cincinnati in those days.

That was Fremont's first experience in exploring expeditions. The
corps lived chiefly in camp. The survey was in wild mountainous
regions of the unexplored South, among Indians sullen against the
Government. Fremont liked this kind of a life. He enlisted under
Captain Williams the second time in 1837, as assistant engineer,
going with him upon a military reconnoissance