Note 71 — COMMENCEMENT OF THE EXPEDITION (continued 3)

Pattie is not sufficiently definite for us to determine whether or not he crossed the divide by the now famous South Pass, which was already known to Rocky Mountain trappers. According to Coues (Henry-Thompson Journals, ii, p. 884), Stuart, Crooks, and four other Astorians discovered it on an overland journey from Astoria in 1812. The fur-trader Andrew Henry passed through it in 1823, but it was first made known to the world at large by John C. Frémont (1842), and is in consequence most often associated with his name.—Ed.