As Sub-Leaders Or Lieutenants In His
Expedition, Captain Bonneville Had Made Choice Of Mr. J. R.
Walker And Mr. M. S. Cerre.
The former was a native of Tennessee,
about six feet high, strong built, dark complexioned, brave in
spirit, though mild in manners.
He had resided for many years in
Missouri, on the frontier; had been among the earliest
adventurers to Santa Fe, where he went to trap beaver, and was
taken by the Spaniards. Being liberated, he engaged with the
Spaniards and Sioux Indians in a war against the Pawnees; then
returned to Missouri, and had acted by turns as sheriff, trader,
trapper, until he was enlisted as a leader by Captain Bonneville.
Cerre, his other leader, had likewise been in expeditions to
Santa Fe, in which he had endured much hardship. He was of the
middle size, light complexioned, and though but about twenty-five
years of age, was considered an experienced Indian trader. It was
a great object with Captain Bonneville to get to the mountains
before the summer heats and summer flies should render the
travelling across the prairies distressing; and before the annual
assemblages of people connected with the fur trade should have
broken up, and dispersed to the hunting grounds.
The two rival associations already mentioned, the American Fur
Company and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, had their several
places of rendezvous for the present year at no great distance
apart, in Pierre's Hole, a deep valley in the heart of the
mountains, and thither Captain Bonneville intended to shape his
course.
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