Beckwourth, James, hunter, trapper and scout, was a mulatto of great physical strength who came west with Gen. Ashley in 1825 and won considerable reputation as a trader and Indian fighter, finally becoming chief of the Crow tribe. Parkman says he was "bloody and treacherous, without honor or honesty," but the Bent brothers and Kit Carson, who knew him better than Parkman, say he was one of the most honest of Indian traders. In the days of the argonauts he lived in California, where he wrote his autobiography, which was published about 1855. During the Mexican war he carried messages for Gen. Kearney, riding alone through the hostile Indian country from Bent's fort on the Arkansas to Fort Leavenworth. For awhile he was associated with the celebrated Jim Bridger in piloting trains across the plains. He trapped and traded along the Arkansas river, and in no small degree contributed toward bringing the present State of Kansas under the dominion of the white race.