coppice. The bush was instantly surrounded by the horsemen, when the
more bold and daring entered it on foot, armed with gun, knife, and
tomahawk. Among the bushrangers on the present occasion was the chief,
Short Legs, who, while scrambling over some fallen timber, happened to
stumble near to where the wounded and enraged bear was concealed, but
too close to be able to defend himself before the vicious animal got
hold of him. At that moment I was not more than five or six paces from
the chief, but could not get a chance of shooting, so I immediately
called out for help, when several mustered round the spot. Availing
ourselves of the doubtful alternative of killing her--even at the risk
of killing the chief--we fired, and as good luck would have it, shot
the animal and saved the man; then carrying the bear and wounded chief
out of the bush, we laid both on the open ground. The sight of the
chief was appalling: the scalp was torn from the crown of his head,
down over the eyebrows! he was insensible, and for some time we all
thought him dead; but after a short interval his pulse began to beat,
and he gradually showed signs of returning animation.
“It was a curious and somewhat interesting scene to see the party
approach the spot where the accident happened. Not being able to get a
chance of shooting, they threw their guns from them, and could scarcely
be restrained from rushing on the fierce animal with their knives only.
The bear all the time kept looking first at one, then at another, and
casting her fierce and flaming eyes around the whole of us, as if ready
to make a spring at each; yet she never let go her hold of the chief;
but stood over him. Seeing herself surrounded by so many enemies, she
moved her head from one position to another, and these movements gave
us ultimately an opportunity of killing her.
“The misfortune produced a loud and clamorous scene of mourning among
the chief’s relations; we hastened home, carrying our dead bears along
with us, and arrived at the camp early in the morning of the fourth
day. The chief remained for three days speechless. In cutting off the
scalp and dressing the wound, we found the skull, according to our
imperfect knowledge of anatomy, fractured in two or three places; and
at the end of eight days, I extracted a bone measuring two inches long,
of an oblong form, and another of about an inch square, with several
smaller pieces, all from the crown of the head! The wound, however,
gradually closed up and healed, except a small spot about the size of
an English shilling. In fifteen days, by the aid of Indian medicine, he
was able to walk about, and at the end of six weeks from the time he
got wounded, he was on horseback again at the chace.”
More or less wolf-hunting was done through the winter, and Ross
describes certain methods of catching and killing these animals.
The killing of wolves, foxes, and other wild animals by the whites
was really only a recreation, and the traders preferred shooting them
to any other mode of destruction. The wolves were usually afoot and
searching for food at all hours of the day and night. They liked to
get up on nearby hills or knolls, to sit and look about. It was the
practice of the traders to scatter food about the places frequented by
the wolves, and--when there were no wolves there--to practise shooting
at a mark, watching where the balls hit and learning the elevation of
the gun required to reach the spot, until finally many of them became
very expert at this long-distance shooting.
“A band of Indians happening to come to the fort one day, and observing
a wolf on one of the favourite places of resort, several of them
prepared to take a circuitous turn to have a shot at the animal.
Seeing them prepare--‘Try,’ said I, ‘and kill it from where you are,’
The Indians smiled at my ignorance. ‘Can the whites,’ said the chief,
‘kill it at that distance?’ ‘The whites,’ said I, ‘do not live by
hunting or shooting as do the Indians, or they might.’ ‘There is no
gun,’ continued the chief, ‘that could kill at that distance,’ By this
time the wolf had laid hold of a bone, or piece of flesh, and was
scampering off with it, at full speed, to the opposite woods. Taking
hold of my gun--‘If we cannot kill it,’ said I, ‘we shall make it
let go its prey.’ ‘My horse against your shot,’ called out the chief,
‘that you do not hit the wolf.’ ‘Done,’ said I; but I certainly thought
within myself that the chief ran no great risk of losing his horse,
nor the wolf of losing his life. Taking an elevation of some fifteen
or sixteen feet over it, by chance I shot the animal in his flight, to
the astonishment of the chief, as well as all present, who, clapping
their hands to their mouths in amazement, measured the distance by five
arrow-shots: nothing but their wonder could exceed their admiration of
this effect of fire-arms.
“When the ball struck the wolf, it was in the act of leaping; and we
may judge of its speed at the time, from the fact that the distance
from whence it took the last leap to where it was lying stretched,
measured twenty-four feet! The ball struck the wolf in the left thigh,
and passing through the body, neck and head, it lodged in the lower
jaw; I cut it out with my pen-knife. The chief, on delivering up his
horse, which he did cheerfully, asked me for the ball, and that ball
was the favourite ornament of his neck for years afterwards. The horse
I returned to its owner. The Indians then asked me for the skin of the
dead wolf; and to each of the guns belonging to the party was appended
a piece: the Indians fancying that the skin would enable them, in
future, to kill animals at a great distance.”
The following summer, McKenzie with Ross and ninety-five men went
up the river and encamped at the site determined on for the new
establishment of Fort Nez Percés, about one-half mile from the mouth of
the Walla Walla. This country was occupied by Indians of the Shahaptian
stock--fierce, good warriors, and impulsive--easily moved in one
direction or the other. They seemed by no means favorable to the coming
whites; did not shake hands with them, and in fact appeared disposed to
boycott the new arrivals.
The situation was a difficult one, because the construction of a fort
required a dividing of the party into many small bands, and also
because more Indians were constantly coming in, and their actions
caused much uneasiness. They insisted on receiving pay for the timber
to be used in building the fort; they forbade hunting and fishing; they
set the price on all articles of trade, and it was difficult to know
what the outcome of this might be.
The difficulties threatening the traders caused an almost complete
suspension of work. They stood on their guard, ready for an attack at
any time, while for five days there was no intercourse between whites
and Indians; food was short, and one night the party went to bed
supperless. The Indians continued to gather, and the traders thought
that they were plotting and planning--no one knew what.
A slight enclosure had been put up, behind which the traders awaited
whatever might happen. After a time, the chiefs opened negotiations
with the whites and insisted that liberal presents should be made to
all the Indians roundabout, in order to gain their favor. This was
obviously impracticable, since all the property of the traders would
not have sufficed to make a present to each Indian, and the demand was
refused, with the result that the firmness of the white men caused the
Indians to reduce their requests and finally to submit to the proposals
of the whites, and as soon as this was agreed on a brisk trade went on.
The position chosen for the fort was noteworthy among the natives
because it was the ground on which, some years before, Lewis and Clark
had ratified a general peace between themselves and the tribes of the
surrounding country. The situation was commanding. To the west was a
spacious view of the great river, to the north and east were the wide
expanses of the yellow plains, while to the south lay wild, rough hills
on either side of the river, overlooked by two singular towering rocks
on the east side of the stream, called by the natives “The Twins.” In
the distance lay the Blue Mountains.
Presently a large war-party returned to the camp with scalps and
captives--a great triumph. Now came a demand from the Indians that the
white traders should not give guns or balls to the enemies of these
Indians, but after much negotiation and many speeches, the Indians
agreed that peace should be made between themselves and the Snakes.
It was not long after this that a considerable party was sent off to
penetrate the country inhabited by the Snakes and other tribes to the
south. The traders had secured two hundred and eighty horses, enough
for riding and packing, and the most of these were to go off with the
Snake expedition, which consisted of fifty-five men, nearly two hundred
horses, three hundred beaver-traps, and a considerable stock of trade
goods. Mr. McKenzie led the expedition, which left Fort Nez Percés at
the end of September. Ross, with the remaining party, stayed at the
Fort.
The neighboring Indians, of whom Ross speaks in most cordial terms,
treated the traders well and were respectful and good-natured, but
presently came rumors of difficulties between the trading party to the
Snakes and that tribe, and one of these rumors was confirmed by the
arrival of a member of that expedition, an Iroquois, who had evidently
had a hard time. According to his account, the Iroquois after a time
separated from McKenzie to trap a small river which was well stocked
with beaver. The Iroquois, according to the story, began to exchange
their horses, guns, and traps with a small party of Snakes, and
presently had little or nothing left. The returned Iroquois man got
lost, and finally, with great difficulty, without food, blanket, or
arms, got back to Fort Nez Percés. Other Iroquois returned and told
various stories, and finally, going back to Fort George, persuaded Mr.
Keith to send out a party to punish the Indians, who they said had
injured them. Such a party was sent out to the Cowlitz River, and
the Iroquois getting away from Mr. Ogden killed twelve men, women,
and children, and scalped three of them. This seemed fatal to further
friendly relations; nevertheless, at last peace was concluded between
the traders and the Cowlitz Indians, and was sealed by the marriage of
the chief’s daughter to one of the fur traders.
There was more sporadic fighting and killing of Indians and the murder
of five people belonging to Fort George, so that things got into a very
bad condition, which it took a long time to smooth over.
Late in the season Mr. McKenzie with six men on snow-shoes returned
from the interior and gave an interesting account of the new country
through which he had passed--a country to him not wholly new, because
he had been through it in 1811. He reported that the Iroquois, instead
of trapping and hunting, had separated and were scattered all over the
country by twos and threes, living with the Indians, without horses,
without traps, without furs, and without clothing. He left them as he
found them.
Of the region traversed, Mr McKenzie reported:
“On our outward journey, the surface was mountainous and rugged,
and still more so on our way back. Woods and valleys, rocks and
plains, rivers and ravines, alternately met us; but altogether it
is a delightful country. There animals of every class rove about
undisturbed; wherever there was a little plain, the red deer were
seen grazing in herds about the rivers; round every other point were
clusters of poplar and elder, and where there was a sapling, the
ingenious and industrious beaver was at work. Otters sported in the
eddies; the wolf and the fox were seen sauntering in quest of prey;
now and then a few cypresses or stunted pines were met with on the
rocky parts, and in their spreading tops the raccoon sat secure. In the
woods, the martin and black fox were numerous; the badger sat quietly
looking from his mound; and in the numberless ravines, among bushes
laden with fruits, the black, the brown, and the grisly bear were seen.
The mountain sheep, and goat white as snow, browsed on the rocks, and
ridges; and the big horn species ran among the lofty cliffs. Eagles and
vultures, of uncommon size, flew about the rivers. When we approached,
most of these animals stood motionless; they would then move off a
little distance, but soon came anew to satisfy a curiosity that often
proved fatal to them.
“The report of a gun did not alarm them: they would give a frisk at
each shot, and stand again; but when the flag was unfurled, being
of a reddish hue, it was with apparent reluctance they would retire
beyond the pleasing sight. Hordes of wild horses were likewise seen on
this occasion; and of all the animals seen on our journey they were
the wildest, for none of them could be approached; their scent is
exceedingly keen, their hearing also; and in their curiosity they were
never known to come at any time within gun-shot. One band of these
contained more than two hundred. Some of them were browsing on the face
of the hills; others were running like deer up and down the steeps; and
some were galloping backwards and forwards on the brows of the sloping
mountains, with their flowing manes and bushy tails streaming in the
wind.”
Mr. McKenzie’s successful trip commanded the admiration of all of the
council of the head men at Fort George. Those who had formerly been
opposed to him were now loud in his praises, and the establishment of
Fort Nez Percés and the gaining of a foothold in the Snake country
were warmly approved. He remained at Fort Nez Percés only seven days
and then started back again. His report of the prospects in the Snake
country was gratifying, but his people were giving great trouble.
III
INDIANS AND THEIR BATTLES
Fort Nez Percés was stockaded with an enclosure of pickets of sawn
timber some twelve or fifteen feet high with four towers or bastions.
The pickets were two and one-half feet broad by six inches thick. Near
the top of the stockade was a balustrade four feet high, and a gallery
five feet broad extended all around it, while the walls were loopholed.
At each angle of the fort was a large reservoir holding two hundred
gallons of water, and within the stockade were all the buildings,
warehouses, stores, and dwelling-houses. These buildings were all
loopholed and had sliding doors, and the trading-room was arranged with
a small door in the wall, eighteen inches square, through which the
Indians passed their furs, receiving from the traders on the inside the
goods to which they were entitled. The outer gate was arranged to open
and shut by a pulley, and besides this there were two double doors.
Except on special occasions, the Indians were never invited into the
fort. Nevertheless, at the gate there was a house for the accommodation
of the Indians, with fire, tobacco, and a man to look after them
at all times. The Indians, however, did not like this arrangement,
because it seemed to show suspicion on the part of the white men;
they themselves were suspicious of some plots. They asked whether the
traders were afraid of them or afraid that they would steal, and while
the traders denied that they were afraid of anything, they persisted
in their plan, and at length the Indians accepted the situation. The
traders were supplied with cannons, swivels, muskets, and bayonets,
boarding-pikes and hand-grenades, while above the gate stood a small
mortar. The position was a strong one, and Ross calls it the “Gibraltar
of Columbia” and speaks of it as “a triumph of British energy and
enterprise, of civilization over barbarism.”
McKenzie, on his return to the interior, had promised to be at the
river Skam-naugh about the 5th of June and had asked that an outfit
with supplies for his party be sent to meet him there. For this
reason Ross returned from his annual trip to Fort George nearly a
month earlier than usual--by the 15th of May. A party of fifteen men
under a clerk named Kittson was sent out to take McKenzie his supplies
and reinforce him. Kittson was a new man in the service, and was full
of confidence that he could handle and defeat all the Indians on the
continent. He had good luck until the party got into the debatable land
in the Snake territory, and here, first, a dozen of his horses were
stolen, and then, a little later, all of them.
Meantime McKenzie had had the usual difficulties with his Iroquois
trappers, who could not be trusted with goods to trade with the Snakes.
When the people whom he expected to meet at the river were not there,
he sent out ten men to look for them. Two days after starting, as they
were passing through a canyon, they met, face to face, the Indians who
had just taken all of Kittson’s horses, and, recognizing the animals,
charged the three horse-thieves. One was killed, another wounded and
escaped, and a third was taken captive, and the traders turned the herd
about and drove the horses back to Kittson’s camp.
Kittson now had thirty-six men and joined McKenzie, on the way
capturing two more Indian horse-thieves, caught at night while cutting
loose the horses. Kittson handed over his supplies, received McKenzie’s
furs, and set out again for Fort Nez Percés.
When McKenzie and Kittson separated, the former had only three men
left with him, for his Iroquois did not arrive, as expected. While
waiting for them, a threatening party of mountain Snakes appeared at
his camp, who were very importunate, so much so that at last McKenzie
took from his pile of goods a keg of gunpowder and, lighting a match,
threatened, if the Indians continued to advance, to blow up the whole
party. Taken by surprise, they hesitated, and then suddenly, without
a word, took to flight, not from fear of the threats of McKenzie, but
because of the sudden appearance of a large war-party of Shahaptians on
the other side of the river. Fortunately, these people could not cross
the high and rushing stream, but a little later they made an attack on
Kittson’s party and killed two of his men. As soon as the war-party had
gone McKenzie and his men, with their property, crossed the channel of
the river to an island, where they remained twenty-two days, until the
return of Kittson. McKenzie and Kittson were now in a situation not
at all agreeable. On one side were the Nez Percés, on the other the
Blackfeet, and all about were the Snakes. All these tribes were hostile
to one another, and all of them more or less ill-disposed toward the
whites, so the summer was an anxious one, but McKenzie purposed to
winter in the upper country as well as he might. Here Ross interjects
an interesting sketch of trappers’ methods.
“A safe and secure spot, near wood and water, is first selected for
the camp. Here the chief of the party resides with the property. It
is often exposed to danger, or sudden attack, in the absence of the
trappers, and requires a vigilant eye to guard against the lurking
savages. The camp is called head quarters. From hence all the trappers,
some on foot, some on horseback, according to the distance they have to
go, start every morning, in small parties, in all directions, ranging
the distance of some twenty miles around. Six traps is the allowance
for each hunter; but to guard against wear and tear, the complement
is more frequently ten. These he sets every night, and visits again
in the morning; sometimes oftener, according to distance, or other
circumstances. The beaver taken in the traps are always conveyed to the
camp, skinned, stretched, dried, folded up with the hair in the inside,
laid by, and the flesh used for food. No sooner, therefore, has a
hunter visited his traps, set them again, and looked out for some other
place, than he returns to the camp, to feast, and enjoy the pleasures
of an idle day.
“There is, however, much anxiety and danger in going through the
ordinary routine of a trapper’s duty. For as the enemy is generally
lurking about among the rocks and hiding-places, watching an
opportunity, the hunter has to keep a constant lookout; and the
gun is often in one hand, while the trap is in the other. But when
several are together, which is often the case in suspicious places,
one-half set the traps, and the other half keep guard over them. Yet
notwithstanding all their precautions, some of them fall victims to
Indian treachery.
“The camp remains stationary while two-thirds of the trappers find
beaver in the vicinity; but whenever the beaver becomes scarce, the
camp is removed to some more favourable spot. In this manner, the
party keeps moving from place to place, during the whole season of
hunting. Whenever serious danger is apprehended, all the trappers make
for the camp. Were we, however, to calculate according to numbers,
the prospects from such an expedition would be truly dazzling: say,
seventy-five men, with each six traps, to be successfully employed
during five months; that is, two in the spring, and three in the
fall, equal to 131 working days, the result would be 58,950 beaver!
Practically, however, the case is very different. The apprehension of
danger, at all times, is so great, that three-fourths of their time is
lost in the necessary steps taken for their own safety. There is also
another serious drawback unavoidably accompanying every large party.
The beaver is a timid animal; the least noise, therefore, made about
its haunt will keep it from coming out for nights together; and noise
is unavoidable when the party is large. But when the party is small,
the hunter has a chance of being more or less successful. Indeed, were
the nature of the ground such as to admit of the trappers moving about
in safety, at all times, and alone, six men, with six traps each,
would, in the same space of time, and at the same rate, kill as many
beavers--say 4,716--as the whole seventy-five could be expected to do!
And yet the evil is without a remedy; for no small party can exist in
these parts. Hence the reason why beavers are so numerous.”
Ross points out also some of the troubles that the traders must meet
with, which troubles were largely due, of course, to the absolute
inability of the Indians to comprehend the conditions of this new life.
The Indians asked for everything that they saw and berated the traders
because their requests were not complied with. They were constantly
playing jokes--or what they considered jokes--on the white men, which
were irritating enough; and looked with contempt on the whites who were
engaged in ordinary labor, which they, of course, did not in the least
understand. The Indians, with all their freedom, were far from happy,
because they were in a state of constant anxiety and alarm. People who
felt themselves injured were likely to make war excursions and kill
some one belonging to another tribe, which, of course, extended the
field of the trouble.
When fighting took place, and people supposedly friendly to the whites
were injured, the traders were blamed, because they sold guns, powder,
and balls to any one who might wish to trade with them. The life of the
trader was thus one of anxiety, and to handle the Indians successfully
called for extraordinary self-control.
Not long before this time some Shahaptians had killed two of Kittson’s
men and several Snakes. The Snakes followed them, but before
overtaking them came upon some Indians belonging to the Walla Walla,
camped not three miles from Fort Nez Percés, where they killed a man,
four women, and two children, and captured two young women and a
man. The next day the whole Walla Walla camp moved down to the fort,
carrying the bodies of the dead. Ross saw the disorderly procession
coming on with shrieks and lamentations, and at first did not know what
to make of the advance, but presently the Indians reached the gate of
the fort, placed their dead upon the ground there, and began to gash
themselves with knives in the old-time way of mourning. They called
to Ross to come out to them, and he, while very reluctant, had no
choice--if he was to retain his influence with them--but to obey.