after me, and keep a sharp look out. The moment I appeared outside the
gate, so horrible was the uproar, that it baffles all description.
Intoxicated with wrath and savage rage, they resembled furies more
than human beings; and their ghastly, wild, and forbidding looks were
all directed towards me, as if I had been the cause of their calamity.
Tam-a-tap-um the chief then coming up to me, and pointing to one of the
dead bodies, said, ‘You see my sister there,’ then uncovering the body
to show the wounds, added, ‘That is a ball hole.’ ‘The whites’, said
he again, ‘have murdered our wives and our children. They have given
guns and balls to our enemies. Those very guns and balls have killed
our relations.’ These words were no sooner uttered than they were
repeated over and over again by the whole frantic crowd; who, hearing
the chief, believed them to be true. Excitement was now at its height.
Their gestures, their passionate exclamations, showed what was working
within, and I expected every moment to receive a ball or an arrow. One
word of interruption spoken by me at the critical moment, in favour of
the whites, might have proved fatal to myself. I therefore remained
silent, watching a favourable opportunity, and also examining closely
the holes in the garments of the dead bodies. The holes I was convinced
were made by arrows, and not by balls as the chief had asserted; but it
remained for me to convince others when an opportunity offered.
“Every violent fit of mourning was succeeded, as is generally the case
among savages, by a momentary calm. As soon, therefore, as I perceived
the rage of the crowd beginning to subside, and nature itself beginning
to flag, I availed myself of the interval to speak in turn; for silence
then would have been a tacit acknowledgment of our guilt. I therefore
advanced, and taking the chief by the hand, said in a low tone of
voice, as if overcome by grief, ‘My friend, what is all this? Give me
an explanation. You do not love the whites; you have told me nothing
yet.’ Tam-a-tap-um then turning to his people, beckoned to them with
the hand to be silent; entire silence was not to be expected. He then
went over the whole affair from beginning to end. When the chief ended,
and the people were in a listening mood, I sympathized with their
misfortunes, and observed that the whites had been undeservedly blamed.
‘They are innocent,’ said I, ‘and that I can prove. Look at that,’ said
I, pointing to an arrow wound, which no one could mistake, ‘the wounds
are those of arrows, not balls. Nor were the Snakes themselves so much
to blame; as we shall be able to show.’
“At these assertions the chief looked angry, and there was a buzz
of disapprobation, among the crowd; but I told the chief to listen
patiently until I had done. The chief then composed himself, and
I proceeded. ‘After your solemn acquiescence in a peace between
yourselves and the Snakes, through the influence of the whites, the
Shaw-ha-ap-tens violated the second pledge by going again to war,
across the Blue Mountains; and not content with having killed their
enemies, they killed their friends also. They killed two of the whites.
The Snakes in the act of retaliation have therefore made you all to
mourn this day; they have made the whites to mourn also. But your loss
is less than ours; your relations have been killed; but still you have
their bodies: that consolation is denied us. Our friends have been
killed, but we know not where their bodies lie.’ These facts neither
the chief nor the crowd could gainsay. The chief, with a loud voice,
explained what I had said to the listening multitude; when they with
one voice exclaimed, ‘It is true, it is true!’ Leaving the chief, I
then entered the fort, and taking some red cloth, laid six inches of it
on each body, as a token of sympathy; then I told them to go and bury
their dead. A loud fit of lamentation closed the scene. The bodies were
then taken up, and the crowd moved off, in a quiet and orderly manner.
“But the satisfaction we enjoyed at the departure of the savages was
of short duration, for they were scarcely out of sight, and I scarcely
inside the door, when another band, related to those who had been
killed, arrived at the fort gate, and the loud and clamorous scene of
mourning was again renewed.
“Among this second crowd of visitors was a fellow dignified by the
name of Prince, and brother to one of the young women who had been
carried off by the Snakes. Prince encamped within fifty yards of the
fort, and his tent was no sooner pitched than he began to chant the
song of death. When an Indian resorts to this mode of mourning, it is
a sure sign that, ‘he has thrown his body away,’ as the Indians term
it, and meditates self-destruction. Being told of Prince’s resolution,
I went to his tent to see him, and found him standing, with his breast
leaning upon the muzzle of his gun; his hair was dishevelled, and he
was singing with great vehemence: he never raised his head to see who
I was. I knew all was not right, and spoke to him; but receiving no
answer, I went away, on my return to the fort. I had scarcely advanced
twenty yards from his tent, before I heard the report of a gun behind
me, and turning back again, I found the unfortunate fellow lying on the
ground weltering in his blood, his gun partly under him. He was still
breathing. The ball had entered his left breast, below the nipple,
and came out near the backbone. The wound was bleeding freely, and
he disgorged great quantities of blood. I went to the fort for some
assistance, but on our return I expected that every moment would have
been his last; however we dressed his wound, and did what we could to
allay his suffering.
“The Indians now assembled in great numbers, and were noisy and
violent. In the first instance, they threw all the blame of the
unfortunate affair on the whites; but in their rage and violence, they
quarrelled among themselves, and this new direction in their excitement
removed the odium in some degree from the whites, and diverted the
tide of popular fury into another channel. During the affair, one of
those unfortunate wretches called medicine-men happened to be sitting
at the fort gate, when a brother of the man who had just shot himself
went up to him, saying, ‘You dog! you have thrown your bad medicine
on my brother, and he is dead; but you shall not live,’ and in saying
so, he shot him dead on the spot. The ball, after passing through the
man’s body, went more than three inches into one of the fort palisades.
I was standing on the gallery at the moment he was shot, and had it
been on any other occasion but in the midst of a quarrel between the
Indians, we certainly should have avenged his death on the spot; for
the murdered man was an excellent Indian, and a sincere friend of the
whites.
“The scene now assumed a threatening aspect. Guns, bows, arrows, and
every missile that could be laid hold of, came into requisition; and
robes, feathers, bells, belts, and trinkets of every description, were
rattling about in true savage style. The fellow who had just shot the
medicine-man was shot in his turn, and before the chiefs arrived, or
could get a hearing, three others were shot. The place appeared more
like a field of battle than anything else; for besides the five bodies
that lay lifeless on the ground, twice that number were desperately
wounded.
“As soon as the deadly quarrel began, not knowing the intent of the
Indians, nor how it might end, I shut the gates, and kept as clear of
the quarrel as possible. In the midst of the confusion, the Indians
poured in from all quarters, adding fuel to the flame; and some of them
in approaching the place, thinking it was a quarrel between the whites
and themselves, fired a shot or two at the fort before they were aware
of the mistake. This made us take to our bastions: our matches were
lighted, guns pointed, and we ourselves watched the manœuvres of the
savages around us. One unguarded shot would have involved us in the
quarrel, which it was our interest to avoid; as it would have put an
end to all our prospects in the Snake as well as the Nez Percés quarter.
“As soon as the chiefs could get a hearing, peace was generally
restored; and the five dead bodies were removed to the Indian camp,
at a distance from the fort. Such a scene I should never wish to
witness again. This affray, happening at our very door, gave us much
uneasiness; as to keep the balance of good will at all times in our
favour was a task of more than ordinary difficulty.”
The next day more Indians came in, and soon several tribes were
represented. The whites were indirectly taxed with all the troubles,
and there was a vast deal of speech-making and many threats. At last,
however, after a week of counselling, the matter quieted down, the
different tribes all smoked together, and peace was made--to last for a
time.
Ross has much to say about the different tribes of Shoshoni stock and
their relations to each other. He was long with them and studied them
carefully.
The Ban-at-tees, which we call Bannocks, seem to have been held by
the Snake tribes to the south and west as chargeable with most of the
disturbances between the whites and the Snakes, and after a time it
developed that the Indians that murdered Mr. Reid and his party in the
autumn of 1813 were Bannocks.
During the winter a hunter named Hodgens became separated from his
party during a violent snow-storm and lost his way. A little later,
in the same way, he lost his horse; his gun became broken so that
he could not make a fire, and during two days and two nights he was
obliged to lie out without fire.
“On the fourteenth day, however, while scarcely able to crawl, he had
the good luck to fall on the main camp of the War-are-ree-kas; where
recognizing the chief’s tent, from the manner in which it was painted,
he advanced towards it, looking more like a ghost than a living being.
On his entering, Ama-ketsa, surprised at his unexpected arrival, and
still more surprised at his emaciated appearance, stared him in the
face for some time, and could scarcely believe that it was a white man;
but as soon as he was convinced of the reality, and made acquainted
with the wanderer’s forlorn state, he ordered one of his wives to put
a new pair of shoes on his feet, gave him something to eat, and was
extremely kind to him. Here Hodgens remained for eleven days in the
chiefs tent, nursed with all the care and attention of a child of the
family, until his strength was recovered; and as soon as he was on his
legs again, Ama-ketsa furnished him with a horse, some provisions, and
sent one of his own sons to conduct him to the whites. Although Hodgens
could give the Indians no clue as to where the hunters were encamped,
yet on the eighth day they arrived safe and sound at their friends’,
and as straight as if they had been led by a line to them; which
convinced our people that the Indians knew well the place of their
retreat....
“A party of our people had been out a whole week in search of Hodgens,
and found his dead horse, but despairing of finding him they returned
to their camp; and all hope of ever finding Hodgens alive vanished:
when he did come, their astonishment was equal to their delight. The
friendly conduct of Ama-ketsa towards him was a strong proof of that
chiefs good-will towards our people. During our friends’ stay in this
place they had several surprises from the Indians, but they managed
matters so well that no more of their horses were stolen.”
There is distinct reference in this volume to the Yellowstone National
Park, which may very well have been visited by Ross or some of his
trappers. He speaks of “Pilot Knobs”--the Three Tetons--salt and
sulphur springs and of boiling fountains, some of them so hot as
to boil meat. These allusions do not, of course, necessarily refer
to Yellowstone Park, for there are many other places in the Rocky
Mountains where such things are found, but the references to the Three
Tetons and to the source of the Lewis River are suggestive enough.
Ross speaks also of various foods of the country; of the use of horse
flesh and dog flesh and also of the Snake tobacco, which, for a time
at least, the Indians preferred to that imported by the whites. He
credits the Snake Indians with extraordinary skill in woodcraft, shown
especially by the methods they employ to avoid possible enemies.
IV
WITH THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY
The time was now at hand when the Northwest Company should be merged
into the Hudson Bay Company. This consolidation naturally cast a
gloom over the retainers of the Northwest Company wherever they were
situated. The people who had been employed by the Northwest Company
were uncertain where they stood. Those who had been promoted prior
to the “deed-poll”--March 26, 1821--were provided for by the Hudson
Bay Company, whereas all others were excluded from these benefits.
Some of them, however, received pecuniary compensation for their
disappointment, and of these Ross was one, or he was told by an officer
of the company that five hundred pounds sterling had been placed to his
credit, but of this he never received a penny.
Ross now entered the service of the Hudson Bay Company. He had been for
a short time with the Pacific Fur Company; had spent seven years with
the Northwest Company and, except for his experience, was about where
he had been when he started.
The servants of the Northwest Company had been in the habit of
depositing their savings with the firm which was its head, and a few
years after the consolidation of the two companies this concern failed
and all these savings disappeared.
Toward the end of his first volume, after much information about
Indians, half-breeds, trading, trappers, and travel, Ross draws
an interesting picture of the manner in which the bourgeois--or
proprietary partner--journeys through the fur country, and the absolute
loyalty to him and to the company felt by the voyageurs, who were,
indeed, the backbone of the northern fur trade. He says:
“The bourgeois is carried on board his canoe upon the back of some
sturdy fellow generally appointed for this purpose. He seats himself on
a convenient mattress, somewhat low in the centre of his canoe; his gun
by his side, his little cherubs fondling around him, and his faithful
spaniel lying at his feet. No sooner is he at his ease, than his pipe
is presented by his attendant, and he then begins smoking, while his
silken banner undulates over the stern of his painted vessel. Then the
bending paddles are plied, and the fragile craft speeds through the
currents with a degree of fleetness not to be surpassed;--yell upon
yell from the hearty crew proclaiming their prowess and skill.
“A hundred miles performed, night arrives; the hands jump out quickly
into the water, and their nabob and his companions are supported to
terra firma. A roaring fire is kindled and supper is served; his honour
then retires to enjoy his repose. At dawn of day they set out again;
the men now and then relax their arms, and light their pipes; but no
sooner does the headway of the canoe die away, than they renew their
labours and their chorus: a particular voice being ever selected to
lead the song. The guide conducts the march.
“At the hour of breakfast they put ashore on some green plot. The
tea-kettle is boiling; a variegated mat is spread, and a cold collation
set out. Twenty minutes--and they start anew. The dinner-hour
arrives, they put aground again. The liquor-can accompanies the
provision-basket; the contents are quickly set forth in simple style;
and, after a refreshment of twenty minutes more, off they set again,
until the twilight checks their progress.
“When it is practicable to make way in the dark, four hours is the
voyageurs’ allowance of rest; and at times, on boisterous lakes and
bold shores, they keep for days and nights together on the water,
without intermission, and without repose. They sing to keep time to
their paddles; they sing to keep off drowsiness, caused by their
fatigue; and they sing because the bourgeois likes it.
“Through hardships and dangers, wherever he leads, they are sure to
follow with alacrity and cheerfulness--over mountains and hills, along
valleys and dales, through woods and creeks, across lakes and rivers.
They look not to the right, nor to the left; they make no halt in foul
or fair weather. Such is their skill, that they venture to sail in the
midst of waters like oceans, and, with amazing aptitude, they shoot
down the most frightful rapids; and they generally come off safely.
“When about to arrive at the place of their destination, they dress
with neatness, put on their plumes, and a chosen song is raised. They
push up against the beach, as if they meant to dash the canoe into
splinters; but most adroitly back their paddles at the right moment;
whilst the foreman springs on shore, and, seizing the prow, arrests the
vessel in its course. On this joyful occasion, every person advances
to the waterside, and great guns are fired to announce the bourgeois’
arrival. A general shaking of hands takes place, as it often happens
that people have not met for years: even the bourgeois goes through
this mode of salutation with the meanest. There is, perhaps, no country
where the ties of affection are more binding than here. Each addresses
his comrades as his brothers; and all address themselves to the
bourgeois with reverence, as if he were their father.”
About this time, Mr. McKenzie retired from the fur trade and went to
live in northern New York. This left without occupation a number of
hunters and trappers in the country, where Ross was stationed, and Ross
made up his mind to leave the country and abandon the business which
he had so long followed. He was still merely a clerk in the service
of the great company. Finan McDonald, a Northwest veteran, now in the
service of the Hudson Bay Company, was to be in charge of the people in
the Snake country, and a little later John Warren Dease, a chief trader
in the new company, reached Fort Nez Percés and told Ross that he had
been named to take charge of the fort and the country immediately about
it, while Ross was to succeed McKenzie in charge of the Snake country.
Nevertheless, Ross was determined to go back to the East and had
started with his family, but on his way--when he reached the Rocky
Mountains--he received a letter from Governor Simpson, offering him the
management of the Snake country for three years at a liberal salary.
Ross hesitated to accept, but finally did so, and went to Spokane House
to make up his party. McDonald had recently come in there and with much
grumbling; for he had had trouble with the Piegan Blackfeet, in which
one of his men had been shot by treachery, and in a pitched battle
afterward had with the same party he lost seven more of his men.
The account of this battle may properly be inserted here:
“One day, when they had travelled until dark in search of water, they
found some at the bottom of a deep and rocky ravine, down which they
went and encamped. They had seen no traces of enemies during the day,
and being tired, they all went to sleep, without keeping watch. In the
morning, however, just at the dawn of day, they were saluted from the
top of the ravine before they got up, with a volley of balls about
their ears; without, however, any being killed or wounded: one of them
had the stock of his gun pierced through with a ball, and another of
them his powder-horn shivered to pieces; but this was all the injury
they sustained from the enemy’s discharge. The alarm was instantly
given, all hands in confusion sprang up and went out to see what was
the matter; some with one shoe on and the other off, others naked,
with a gun in one hand and their clothes in the other. When they
perceived the Indians on the top of the rocks, yelling and flourishing
their arms, the whites gave a loud huzza, and all hands were collected
together in an instant; but the Indians instead of taking advantage of
their position, wheeled about and marched off without firing another
shot.
“McDonald, at the head of thirty men, set out to pursue them;
but finding the ravine too steep and rocky to ascend, they were
apprehensive that the sudden disappearance of the Indians was a
stratagem to entrap them, when they might have been popped off by the
enemy from behind stones and trees, without having an opportunity of
defending themselves. Acting on this opinion, they returned, and taking
a supply of powder and ball with them, they mounted their horses, to
the number of forty-five, and then pursued the enemy, leaving twenty
men behind to guard the camp. When our people got to the head of the
ravine, the Indians were about a mile off, and all on foot, having no
horses, with the exception of five for carrying their luggage; and
our people, before they could get up with them, had to pass another
ravine still deeper and broader than the one they were encamped in, so
that before they got down on one side of it the enemy had got up on
the other side. And here again the Indians did not avail themselves
of their advantage, but allowed our people to follow without firing a
shot at them, as if encouraging them on; and so bold and confident were
they, that many of them bent themselves down in a posture of contempt,
by way of bidding them defiance.
“As soon as our people had got over the second ravine, they took
a sweep, wheeled about, and met the Indians in the teeth; then
dismounting, the battle began, without a word being spoken on either
side. As soon as the firing commenced, the Indians began their frantic
gestures, and whooped and yelled with the view of intimidating; they
fought like demons, one fellow all the time waving a scalp on the end
of a pole: nor did they yield an inch of ground till more than twenty
of them lay dead; at last, they threw down their guns, and held up
their hands as a signal of peace. By this time our people had lost
three men, and not thinking they had yet taken ample vengeance for
their death, they made a rush on the Indians, killed the fellow who
held the pole, and carried off the scalp and the five horses. The
Indians then made a simultaneous dash on one side, and got into a small
coppice of wood, leaving their dead on the spot where they fell. Our
people supposed that they had first laid down their arms and next taken
to the bush because they were short of ammunition, as many of the shots
latterly were but mere puffs. Unfortunately for the Indians, the scalp
taken proved to be none other than poor Anderson’s, and this double
proof of their guilt so enraged our people, that to the bush they
followed them.
“McDonald sent to the camp for buck-shot, and then poured volleys
into the bush among them, from the distance of some twenty or thirty
yards, till they had expended fifty-six pounds weight; the Indians all
this time only firing a single shot now and then when the folly and
imprudence of our people led them too near; but they seldom missed
their mark, and here three more of the whites fell. At this part of the
conflict, two of our own people, an Iroquois and a Canadian, got into a
high dispute which was the bravest man; when the former challenged the
latter to go with him into the bush and scalp a Piegan. The Canadian
accepted the challenge; taking each other by one hand, with a scalping
knife in the other, savage like, they entered the bush, and advanced
until they were within four or five feet of a Piegan, when the Iroquois
said, ‘I will scalp this one, you go and scalp another;’ but just as
the Iroquois was in the act of stretching out his hand to lay hold of
his victim the Piegan shot him through the head, and so bespattered the
Canadian with his brains that he was almost blind; the latter, however,
got back again to his comrades, but deferred taking the scalp.
“M’Donald and his men being fatigued with firing, thought of another
and more effectual plan of destroying the Piegans. It blew a strong
gale of wind at the time, so they set fire to the bush of dry and
decayed wood; it burnt with the rapidity of straw, and the devouring
element laid the whole bush in ashes in a very short time. When it
was first proposed, the question arose who should go and fire the
bush, at the muzzle of the Piegans’ guns. ‘The oldest man in the
camp,’ said M’Donald; ‘and I’ll guard him.’ The lot fell upon Bastony,
a superannuated hunter on the wrong side of seventy; the poor and
wrinkled old man took the torch in his hand and advanced, trembling
every step with the fear of instant death before him; while M’Donald
and some others walked at his heels with their guns cocked. The bush
was fired, the party returned, and volleys of buck-shot were again
poured into the bush to aid the fire in the work of destruction.