Meeting with the Widow of a Hunter.--Her Narrative.--Reflections of
the Author.--Priest's Rapid.--River Okenakan.--Kettle Falls.--Pine
Moss.--Scarcity of Food.--Rivers, Lakes, &c.--Accident.--A
Rencontre.--First View of the Rocky Mountains.
On the 17th, the fatigue I had experienced the day before, on horseback,
obliged me to re-embark in my canoe. About eight o'clock, we passed a
little river flowing from the N.W. We perceived, soon after, three
canoes, the persons in which were struggling with their paddles to
overtake us. As we were still pursuing our way, we heard a child's voice
cry out in French--"_arrêtez donc, arrêtez donc_"--(stop! stop!). We put
ashore, and the canoes having joined us, we perceived in one of them the
wife and children of a man named _Pierre Dorion_, a hunter, who had been
sent on with a party of eight, under the command of Mr. J. Reed, among
the _Snakes_, to join there the hunters left by Messrs. Hunt and Crooks,
near Fort Henry, and to secure horses and provisions for our journey.
This woman informed us, to our no small dismay, of the tragical fate of
all those who composed that party. She told us that in the month of
January, the hunters being dispersed here and there, setting their traps
for the beaver, Jacob Regner, Gilles Leclerc, and Pierre Dorion, her
husband, had been attacked by the natives. Leclerc, having been mortally
wounded, reached her tent or hut, where he expired in a few minutes,
after having announced to her that her husband had been killed. She
immediately took two horses that were near the lodge, mounted her two
boys upon them, and fled in all haste to the wintering house of Mr.
Reed, which was about five days' march from the spot where her husband
fell. Her horror and disappointment were extreme, when she found the
house--a log cabin--deserted, and on drawing nearer, was soon convinced,
by the traces of blood, that Mr. Reed also had been murdered. No time
was to be lost in lamentations, and she had immediately fled toward the
mountains south of the _Wallawalla_, where, being impeded by the depth
of the snow, she was forced to winter, having killed both the horses to
subsist herself and her children. But at last, finding herself out of
provisions, and the snow beginning to melt, she had crossed the
mountains with her boys, hoping to find some more humane Indians, who
would let her live among them till the boats from the fort below should
be ascending the river in the spring, and so reached the banks of the
Columbia, by the Wallawalla. Here, indeed, the natives had received her
with much hospitality, and it was the Indians of Wallawalla who brought
her to us. We made them some presents to repay their care and pains, and
they returned well satisfied.
The persons who lost their lives in this unfortunate wintering party,
were Mr. John Reed, (clerk), Jacob Regner, John Hubbough, Pierre Dorion
(hunters), Gilles Leclerc, François Landry, J.B. Turcotte, André la
Chapelle and Pierre De Launay, (_voyageurs_).[AB] We had no doubt that
this massacre was an act of vengeance, on the part of the natives, in
retaliation for the death of one of their people, whom Mr. John Clark
had hanged for theft the spring before. This fact, the massacre on the
Tonquin, the unhappy end of Captain Cook, and many other similar
examples, prove how carefully the Europeans, who have relations with a
barbarous people, should abstain from acting in regard to them on the
footing of too marked an inequality, and especially from punishing their
offences according to usages and codes, in which there is too often an
enormous disproportion between the crime and the punishment. If these
pretended exemplary punishments seem to have a good effect at first
sight, they almost always produce terrible consequences in the sequel.
[Footnote AB: Turcotte died of _King's Evil_. De Launay was a
half-breed, of violent temper, who had taken an Indian woman to live
with him; he left Mr. Reed in the autumn, and was never heard of again.]
On the 18th, we passed _Priest's Rapid_, so named by Mr. Stuart and his
people, who saw at this spot, in 1811, as they were ascending the
river, a number of savages, one of whom was performing on the rest
certain aspersions and other ceremonies, which had the air of being
coarse imitations of the Catholic worship. For our part, we met here
some Indians of whom we bought two horses. The banks of the river at
this place are tolerably high, but the country back of them is flat and
uninteresting.
On the 20th, we arrived at a place where the bed of the river is
extremely contracted, and where we were obliged to make a portage.
Messrs. J. Stuart and Clarke left us here, to proceed on horseback to
the Spokan trading house, to procure there the provisions which would be
necessary for us, in order to push on to the mountains.
On the 21st, we lightened of their cargoes, three canoes, in which those
who were to cross the continent embarked, to get on with greater speed.
We passed several rapids, and began to see mountains covered with snow.
On the 22d, we began to see some pines on the ridge of the neighboring
hills; and at evening we encamped under _trees_, a thing which had not
happened to us since the 12th.
On the 23d, toward 9, A.M., we reached the trading post established by
D. Stuart, at the mouth of the river _Okenakan_. The spot appeared to us
charming, in comparison with the country through which we had journeyed
for twelve days past: the two rivers here meeting, and the immense
prairies covered with a fine verdure, strike agreeably the eye of the
observer; but there is not a tree or a shrub to diversify the scene, and
render it a little less naked and less monotonous. We found here Messrs.
J. M'Gillivray and Ross, and Mr. O. de Montigny, who had taken service
with the N.W. Company, and who charged me with a letter for his brother.
Toward midday we re-embarked, to continue our journey. After having
passed several dangerous rapids without accident, always through a
country broken by shelving rocks, diversified with hills and verdant
prairies, we arrived, on the 29th, at the portage of the _Chaudieres_
or Kettle falls. This is a fall where the water precipitates itself
over an immense rock of white marble, veined with red and green, that
traverses the bed of the river from N.W. to S.E. We effected the portage
immediately, and encamped on the edge of a charming prairie.
We found at this place some Indians who had been fasting, they assured
us, for several days. They appeared, in fact, reduced to the most
pitiable state, having nothing left but skin and bones, and scarcely
able to drag themselves along, so that not without difficulty could they
even reach the margin of the river, to get a little water to wet their
parched lips. It is a thing that often happens to these poor people,
when their chase has not been productive; their principal nourishment
consisting, in that case, of the pine moss, which they boil till it is
reduced to a sort of glue or black paste, of a sufficient consistence to
take the form of biscuit. I had the curiosity to taste this bread, and I
thought I had got in my mouth a bit of soap. Yet some of our people, who
had been reduced to eat this glue, assured me that when fresh made it
had a very good taste, seasoned with meat.[AC] We partly relieved these
wretched natives from our scanty store.
[Footnote AC: The process of boiling employed by the Indians in this
case, extracts from the moss its gelatine, which serves to supply the
waste of those tissues into which that principle enters; but as the moss
contains little or none of the proximates which constitute the bulk of
the living solids and fluids, it will not, of course, by itself, support
life or strength.--ED.]
On the 30th, while we were yet encamped at Kettle falls, Messrs. J.
Stuart and Clarke arrived from the post at Spokan. The last was mounted
on the finest-proportioned gray charger, full seventeen hands high, that
I had seen in these parts: Mr. Stuart had got a fall from his, in trying
to urge him, and had hurt himself severely. These gentlemen not having
brought us the provisions we expected, because the hunters who had been
sent for that purpose among the _Flatheads_, had not been able to
procure any, it was resolved to divide our party, and that Messrs.
M'Donald, J. Stuart, and M'Kenzie should go forward to the post situated
east of the mountains, in order to send us thence horses and supplies.
These gentlemen quitted us on the 1st of May. After their departure we
killed two horses and dried the meat; which occupied us the rest of that
day and all the next. In the evening of the 2d, Mr. A. Stuart arrived at
our camp. He had recovered from his wounds (received in the conflict
with the natives, before related), and was on his way to his old
wintering place on _Slave lake_, to fetch his family to the Columbia.
We resumed our route on the morning of the 3d of May, and went to encamp
that evening at the upper-end of a rapid, where we began to descry
mountains covered with forests, and where the banks of the river
themselves were low and thinly timbered.
On the 4th, after having passed several considerable rapids, we reached
the confluence of _Flathead_ river. This stream comes from the S.E., and
falls into the Columbia in the form of a cascade: it may be one hundred
and fifty yards wide at its junction.
On the morning of the 5th, we arrived at the confluence of the
_Coutonais_ river. This stream also flows from the south, and has nearly
the same width as the _Flathead_. Shortly after passing it, we entered
a lake or enlargement of the river, which we crossed to encamp at its
upper extremity. This lake may be thirty or forty miles, and about four
wide at its broadest part: it is surrounded by lofty hills, which for
the most part have their base at the water's edge, and rise by gradual
and finely-wooded terraces, offering a sufficiently pretty view.
On the 6th, after we had run through a narrow strait or channel some
fifteen miles long, we entered another lake, of less extent than the
former but equally picturesque. When we were nearly in the middle of it,
an accident occurred which, if not very disastrous, was sufficiently
singular. One of the men, who had been on the sick-list for several
days, requested to be landed for an instant. Not being more than a mile
from the shore, we acceded to his request, and made accordingly for a
projecting head-land; but when we were about three hundred or four
hundred yards from the point, the canoe struck with force against the
trunk of a tree which was planted in the bottom of the lake, and the
extremity of which barely reached the surface of the water.[AD] It
needed no more to break a hole in so frail a vessel; the canoe was
pierced through the bottom and filled in a trice; and despite all our
efforts we could not get off the tree, which had penetrated two or three
feet within her; perhaps that was our good fortune, for the opening was
at least a yard long. One of the men, who was an expert swimmer,
stripped, and was about to go ashore with an axe lashed to his back, to
make a raft for us, when the other canoe, which had been proceeding up
the lake, and was a mile ahead, perceived our signals of distress, and
came to our succor. They carried us to land, where it was necessary to
encamp forthwith, as well to dry ourselves as to mend the canoe.
[Footnote AD: A _snag_ of course, of the nature of which the young
Canadian seems to have been ignorant.]
On the 7th, Mr. A. Stuart, whom we had left behind at Kettle falls, came
up with us, and we pursued our route in company. Toward evening we met
natives, camped on the bank of the river: they gave us a letter from
which we learned that Mr. M'Donald and his party had passed there on the
4th. The women at this camp were busy spinning the coarse wool of the
mountain sheep: they had blankets or mantles, woven or platted of the
same material, with a heavy fringe all round: I would gladly have
purchased one of these, but as we were to carry all our baggage on our
backs across the mountains, was forced to relinquish the idea. Having
bought of these savages some pieces of dried venison, we pursued our
journey. The country began to be ascending; the stream was very rapid;
and we made that day little progress.
On the 8th we began to see snow on the shoals or sand-banks of the
river: the atmosphere grew very cold. The banks on either side presented
only high hills covered to the top with impenetrable forests. While the
canoes were working up a considerable rapid, I climbed the hills with
Mr. M'Gillis, and we walked on, following the course of the river, some
five or six miles. The snow was very deep in the ravines or narrow
gorges which are found between the bases of the hills. The most common
trees are the Norway pine and the cedar: the last is here, as on the
borders of the sea, of a prodigious size.
On the 9th and 10th, as we advanced but slowly, the country presented
the same aspect as on the 8th. Toward evening of the 10th, we perceived
a-head of us a chain of high mountains entirely covered with snow. The
bed of the river was hardly more than sixty yards wide, and was filled
with dry banks composed of coarse gravel and small pebble.