Departure of Mr. R. Stuart for the Interior.--Occupations at
Astoria.--Arrival of Messrs. Donald M'Kenzie and Robert
M'Lellan.--Account of their Journey.--Arrival of Mr. Wilson P.
Hunt.
The natives having given us to understand that beaver was very abundant
in the country watered by the Willamet, Mr. R. Stuart procured a guide,
and set out, on the 5th of December, accompanied by Messrs. Pillet and
M'Gillis and a few of the men, to ascend that river and ascertain
whether or no it would be advisable to establish a trading-post on its
banks. Mr. R. Bruguier accompanied them to follow his pursuits as a
trapper.
The season at which we expected the return of the Tonquin was now past,
and we began to regard as too probable the report of the Indians of
Gray's Harbor. We still flattered ourselves, notwithstanding, with the
hope that perhaps that vessel had sailed for the East Indies, without
touching at Astoria; but this was at most a conjecture.
The 25th, Christmas-day, passed very agreeably: we treated the men, on
that day, with the best the establishment afforded. Although that was no
great affair, they seemed well satisfied; for they had been restricted,
during the last few months, to a very meagre diet, living, as one may
say, on sun-dried fish. On the 27th, the schooner having returned from
her second voyage up the river, we dismantled her, and laid her up for
the winter at the entrance of a small creek.
The weather, which had been raining, almost without interruption, from
the beginning of October, cleared up on the evening of the 31st; and the
1st January, 1812, brought us a clear and serene sky. We proclaimed the
new year with a discharge of artillery. A small allowance of spirits was
served to the men, and the day passed in gayety, every one amusing
himself as well as he could.
The festival over, our people resumed their ordinary occupations: while
some cut timber for building, and others made charcoal for the
blacksmith, the carpenter constructed a barge, and the cooper made
barrels for the use of the posts we proposed to establish in the
interior. On the 18th, in the evening, two canoes full of white men
arrived at the establishment. Mr. M'Dougal, the resident agent, being
confined to his room by sickness, the duty of receiving the strangers
devolved on me. My astonishment was not slight, when one of the party
called me by name, as he extended his hand, and I recognised Mr. Donald
M'Kenzie, the same who had quitted Montreal, with Mr. W.P. Hunt, in the
month of July, 1810. He was accompanied by a Mr. Robert M'Lellan, a
partner, Mr. John Reed, a clerk, and eight _voyageurs_, or boatmen.
After having reposed themselves a little from their fatigues, these
gentlemen recounted to us the history of their journey, of which the
following is the substance.
Messrs. Hunt and M'Kenzie, quitting Canada, proceeded by way of
Mackinac and St. Louis, and ascended the Missouri, in the autumn of
1810, to a place on that river called _Nadoway_, where they wintered.
Here they were joined by Mr. R. M'Lellan, by a Mr. Crooks, and a Mr.
Müller, traders with the Indians of the South, and all having business
relations with Mr. Astor.
In the spring of 1811, having procured two large keel-boats, they
ascended the Missouri to the country of the _Arikaras_, or Rice Indians,
where they disposed of their boats and a great part of their luggage, to
a Spanish trader, by name _Manuel Lisa_. Having purchased of him, and
among the Indians, 130 horses, they resumed their route, in the
beginning of August, to the number of some sixty-five persons, to
proceed across the mountains to the river Columbia. Wishing to avoid the
_Blackfeet_ Indians, a warlike and ferocious tribe, who put to death all
the strangers that fall into their hands, they directed their course
southwardly, until they arrived at the 40th degree of latitude. Thence
they turned to the northwest, and arrived, by-and-by, at an old fort,
or trading post, on the banks of a little river flowing west. This post,
which was then deserted, had been established, as they afterward
learned, by a trader named Henry. Our people, not doubting that this
stream would conduct them to the Columbia, and finding it navigable,
constructed some canoes to descend it. Having left some hunters (or
trappers) near the old fort, with Mr. Miller, who, dissatisfied with the
expedition, was resolved to return to the United States, the party
embarked; but very soon finding the river obstructed with rapids and
waterfalls, after having upset some of the canoes, lost one man by
drowning, and also a part of their baggage, perceiving that the stream
was impracticable, they resolved to abandon their canoes and proceed on
foot. The enterprise was one of great difficulty, considering the small
stock of provisions they had left. Nevertheless, as there was no time to
lose in deliberation, after depositing in a _cache_ the superfluous part
of their baggage, they divided themselves into four companies, under
the command of Messrs. M'Kenzie, Hunt, M'Lellan and Crooks, and
proceeded to follow the course of the stream, which they named _Mad
river_, on account of the insurmountable difficulties it presented.
Messrs. M'Kenzie and M'Lellan took the right bank, and Messrs. Hunt and
Crook the left. They counted on arriving very quickly at the Columbia;
but they followed this Mad river for twenty days, finding nothing at all
to eat, and suffering horribly from thirst. The rocks between which the
river flows being so steep and abrupt as to prevent their descending to
quench their thirst (so that even their dogs died of it), they suffered
the torments of Tantalus, with this difference, that he had the water
which he could not reach above his head, while our travellers had it
beneath their feet. Several, not to die of this raging thirst, drank
their own urine: all, to appease the cravings of hunger, ate beaver
skins roasted in the evening at the camp-fire. They even were at last
constrained to eat their moccasins. Those on the or southeast bank,
suffered, however, less than the others, because they occasionally fell
in with Indians, utterly wild indeed, and who fled at their approach,
carrying off their horses. According to all appearances these savages
had never seen white men. Our travellers, when they arrived in sight of
the camp of one of these wandering hordes, approached it with as much
precaution, and with the same stratagem that they would have used with a
troop of wild beasts. Having thus surprised them, they would fire upon
the horses, some of which would fall; but they took care to leave some
trinkets on the spot, to indemnify the owners for what they had taken
from them by violence. This resource prevented the party from perishing
of hunger.
Mr. M'Kenzie having overtaken Mr. M'Lellan, their two companies pursued
the journey together. Very soon after this junction, they had an
opportunity of approaching sufficiently near to Mr. Hunt, who, as I have
remarked, was on the other bank, to speak to him, and inform him of
their distressed state. Mr. Hunt caused a canoe to be made of a
horse-hide; it was not, as one may suppose, very large; but they
succeeded, nevertheless, by that means, in conveying a little
horse-flesh to the people on the north bank. It was attempted, even, to
pass them across, one by one (for the skiff would not hold any more);
several had actually crossed to the south side, when, unhappily, owing
to the impetuosity of the current, the canoe capsized, a man was
drowned, and the two parties lost all hope of being able to unite. They
continued their route, therefore, each on their own side of the river.
In a short time those upon the north bank came to a more considerable
stream, which they followed down. They also met, very opportunely, some
Indians, who sold them a number of horses. They also encountered, in
these parts, a young American, who was deranged, but who sometimes
recovered his reason. This young man told them, in one of his lucid
intervals, that he was from Connecticut, and was named Archibald Pelton;
that he had come up the Missouri with Mr. Henry; that all the people at
the post established by that trader were massacred by the Blackfeet;
that he alone had escaped, and had been wandering, for three years
since, with the _Snake_ Indians.[L] Our people took this young man with
them. Arriving at the confluence with the Columbia, of the river whose
banks they were following, they perceived that it was the same which had
been called _Lewis river_, by the American captain of that name, in
1805. Here, then, they exchanged their remaining horses for canoes, and
so arrived at the establishment, safe and sound, it is true, but in a
pitiable condition to see; their clothes being nothing but fluttering
rags.
[Footnote L: A thoroughly savage and lazy tribe, inhabiting the plains
of the Columbia, between the 43d and 44th degrees of latitude.]
The narrative of these gentlemen interested us very much. They added,
that since their separation from Messrs. Hunt and Crooks, they had
neither seen nor heard aught of them, and believed it impossible that
they should arrive at the establishment before spring. They were
mistaken, however, for Mr. Hunt arrived on the 15th February, with
thirty men, one woman, and two children, having left Mr. Crooks, with
five men, among the _Snakes_. They might have reached Astoria almost as
soon as Mr. M'Kenzie, but they had passed from eight to ten days in the
midst of a plain, among some friendly Indians, as well to recruit their
strength, as to make search for two of the party, who had been lost in
the woods. Not finding them, they had resumed their journey, and struck
the banks of the Columbia a little lower down than the mouth of Lewis
river, where Mr. M'Kenzie had come out.
The arrival of so great a number of persons would have embarrassed us,
had it taken place a month sooner. Happily, at this time, the natives
were bringing in fresh fish in abundance. Until the 30th of March, we
were occupied in preparing triplicates of letters and other necessary
papers, in order to send Mr. Astor the news of our arrival, and of the
reunion of the two expeditions. The letters were intrusted to Mr. John
Reed, who quitted Astoria for St. Louis, in company with Mr.
M'Lellan--another discontented partner, who wished to disconnect himself
with the association,--and Mr. R. Stuart, who was conveying two
canoe-loads of goods for his uncle's post on the _Okenakan_. Messrs.
Farnham and M'Gillis set out at the same time, with a guide, and were
instructed to proceed to the _cache_,[M] where the overland travellers
had hidden their goods, near old Fort Henry, on the Mad river. I
profited by this opportunity to write to my family in Canada. Two days
after, Messrs. M'Kenzie and Matthews set out, with five or six men, as
hunters, to make an excursion up the Willamet river.
[Footnote M: These _caches_ are famous in all the narratives of overland
travel, whether for trade or discovery. The manner of making them is
described by Captains Lewis and Clarke, as follows: they choose a dry
situation, then describing a circle of some twenty inches diameter,
remove the sod as gently and carefully as possible. The hole is then
sunk a foot deep or more, perpendicularly; it is then worked gradually
wider as it descends, till it becomes six or seven feet deep, and shaped
like a kettle, or the lower part of a large still. As the earth is dug
out, it is handed up in a vessel, and carefully laid upon a skin or
cloth, in which it is carried away, and usually thrown into the river,
if there be one, or concealed so as to leave no trace of it. A floor of
three or four inches thick is then made of dry sticks, on which is
thrown hay or a hide perfectly dry. The goods, after being well aired
and dried, are laid down, and preserved from contact with the wall by a
layer of other dried sticks, till all is stowed away. When the hole is
nearly full, a hide is laid on top, and the earth is thrown upon this,
and beaten down, until, with the addition of the sod first removed, the
whole is on a level with the ground, and there remains not the slightest
appearance of an excavation. The first shower effaces every sign of what
has been done, and such a cache is safe for years.--ED.]