32 Joseph Schafer [No. 7.] Encampment Lac a la Pluie, 30 May, 1845. Peter Skeen Ogden, Esqr., Chief Factor, Hudson's Bay Company. Confidential. Dear Sir : Having submitted for your private information a confidential letter I have under this date addressed to Messrs. Warre and Vavasour, two British officers now accom- panying us from Canada on their way to the shores of the Pacific at the outlet of the Columbia River, which fully ex- plains the object of their journey, I have now to request the favor of your conducting those gentlemen from Red River to their destination by the Saskatchewan, crossing the Rocky Mountains at the Bow River Pass and touching en route at Forts Ellice, Pelly, Carlton, Pitt, Edmonton and Colville, and the other establishments of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Columbia River. Your party will consist of six servants of the Company besides Messrs. Warre and Vavasour, and yourself and Mr. Lane, one of the Company's clerks, who you will consider as specially attached to your party, and who is to be employed as I shall hereafter point out. Messrs. Warre and Vavasour are to be provided at Red River with two saddle horses each, and a horse each for the conveyance of their personal luggage, which are to be relieved by fresh horses at each post you may visit, and the necessary number of horses for the remainder of the party will in like manner be provided from station to station. It is desirable that you should take your departure from Red River not later than the 12 prox., so as to reach the Pa- cific as early as possible, with a view of anticipating Lieut. Fremont, of the United States Army, who was to have left St. Louis on the 25th April for the same destination,* and by
- Fremont did not in fact try to reach Oregon on his third expedition until the
spring of 1846, when he essayed to open the southern route into the Willamette Valley, but returned from Klamath Lake to the Sacramento Valley on meeting
Gillespie.----
