Name one advantage and one disadvantage Charles Bent and Ceran St. Vrain may have had by joining New Mexican families while also living and doing business in New Mexico. Objective Analyze potential benefits and drawbacks of intercultural unions for a merchant during the fur trade era. Background At about fourteen years of age, Lewis H. Garrard, read John C. Fremont’s Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains , an account published in U.S. newspapers in 1843. Fremont’s descriptive account enticed Lewis to venture West by himself only three years later. Garrard wrote his own book Duration: 60 Minutes.