CHAPTER I.

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[Illustration: ENGLISH TOURISTS' CAMP--DOUBTFUL FRIENDS.]

ELEVEN YEARS IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS

AND LIFE ON THE FRONTIER.

by

FRANCES F. VICTOR.

Also

A History of the Sioux War, and a Life of Gen. George A. Custer

with Full Account of His Last Battle.

Illustrated by Engravings and Maps.

Published by Subscription Only.

Columbian Book Company,

Hartford, Conn.

1877.

Copyright by

Columbian Book Company.

1877.

PART I.

MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES AND FRONTIER LIFE.

INTRODUCTION.

When the author of this book has been absorbed in the elegant narratives

of Washington Irving, reading and musing over _Astoria_ and

_Bonneville_, in the cozy quiet of a New York study, no prescient motion

of the mind ever gave prophetic indication of that personal acquaintance

which has since been formed with the scenes, and even with some of the

characters which figure in the works just referred to. Yet so have

events shaped themselves that to me Astoria is familiar ground; Forts

Vancouver and Walla-Walla pictured forever in my memory; while such

journeys as I have been enabled to make into the country east of the

last named fort, have given me a fair insight into the characteristic

features of its mountains and its plains.

To-day, a railroad traverses the level stretch between the Missouri

River and the Rocky Mountains, along which, thirty years ago, the

fur-traders had worn a trail by their annual excursions with men,

pack-horses, and sometimes wagons, destined to the Rocky Mountains.

Then, they had to guard against the attacks of the Savages; and in this

respect civilization is behind the railroad, for now, as then, it is not

safe to travel without a sufficient escort. To-day, also, we have new

Territories called by several names cut out of the identical

hunting-grounds of the fur-traders of thirty years ago; and steamboats

plying the rivers where the mountain-men came to set their traps for

beaver; or cities growing up like mushrooms from a soil made quick by

gold, where the hardy mountain-hunter pursued the buffalo herds in

search of his winter's supply of food.

The wonderful romance which once gave enchantment to stories of hardship

and of daring deeds, suffered and done in these then distant wilds, is

fast being dissipated by the rapid settlement of the new Territories,

and by the familiarity of the public mind with tales of stirring

adventure encountered in the search for glittering ores. It was, then,

not without an emotion of pleased surprise that I first encountered in

the fertile plains of Western Oregon the subject of this biography, a

man fifty-eight years of age, of fine appearance and buoyant temper,

full of anecdote, and with a memory well stored with personal

recollections of all the men of note who have formerly visited the old

Oregon Territory, when it comprised the whole country west of the Rocky

Mountains lying north of California and south of the forty-ninth

parallel. This man is _Joseph L. Meek_, to whose stories of

mountain-life I have listened for days together; and who, after having

figured conspicuously, and not without considerable fame, in the early

history of Oregon, still prides himself most of all on having been a

"mountain-man."

It has frequently been suggested to Mr. Meek, who has now come to be

known by the familiar title of "Uncle Joe" to all Oregon, that a history

of his varied adventures would make a readable book, and some of his

neighbors have even undertaken to become his historian, yet with so

little well-directed efforts that the task after all has fallen to a

comparative stranger. I confess to having taken hold of it with some

doubts as to my claims to the office; and the best recommendation I can

give my work is the interest I myself felt in the subject of it; and the

only apology I can offer for anything incredible in the narrative which

it may contain, is that I "tell the tale as 'twas told to me," and that

I have no occasion to doubt the truth of it.

Seeing that the incidents I had to record embraced a period of a score

and a half of years, and that they extended over those years most

interesting in Oregon history, as well as of the history of the Fur

Trade in the West, I have concluded to preface Mr. Meek's adventures

with a sketch of the latter, believing that the information thus

conveyed to the reader will give an additional degree of interest to

their narration. The impression made upon my own mind as I gained a

knowledge of the facts which I shall record in this book relating to the

early occupation of Oregon, was that they were not only profoundly

romantic, but decidedly unique.

Mr. Meek was born in Washington Co., Virginia, in 1810, one year before

the settlement of _Astoria_, and at a period when Congress was much

interested in the question of our Western possessions and their

boundary. "Manifest destiny" seemed to have raised him up, together with

many others, bold, hardy, and fearless men, to become sentinels on the

outposts of civilization, securing to the United States with comparative

ease a vast extent of territory, for which, without them, a long

struggle with England would have taken place, delaying the settlement of

the Pacific Coast for many years, if not losing it to us altogether. It

is not without a feeling of genuine self-congratulation, that I am able

to bear testimony to the services, hitherto hardly recognized, of the

"mountain-men" who have settled in Oregon. Whenever there shall arise a

studious and faithful historian, their names shall not be excluded from

honorable mention, nor least illustrious will appear that of Joseph L.

Meek, the Rocky Mountain Hunter and Trapper.

CONTENTS.

PREFATORY CHAPTER.

Astoria--Fort Vancouver--Its isolated Position--Precautions against

Indians--The Hudson's Bay Company--Its Policy and Intercourse with

the Indians--The Arrival of the "Brigade"--Other Yearly

Arrivals--Punishment of Indian Offenders--Indian Strategy--A

Hero--The American Fur Companies--Their Dealings with the

Indians--Ashley's Expeditions to Green River--Attack on Smith's

Party--Wyeth's Expeditions--Fort Hall--Decline of the Fur

Trade--Causes of the Indians' Hostility--Dangers attending the

Trapper's Life, 23

CHAPTER I.

Early Life of Meek--He leaves Home--Enlists in a Fur Company--On

the March--A Warning Voice--Frontier Sports--Last Vestige of

Civilization--On the Plains--A first Adventure--A firm Front--A

Parley--The Summer Rendezvous--An enchanting Picture--The Free

Trapper's Indian Wife--Wild Carousals--Routine of Camp Life--Smoked

Moccasins versus Green Ones--A "Trifling Fellow," 41

CHAPTER II.

The Camp in Motion--A Trapping Expedition--Opposition to the

Hudson's Bay Company--Beautiful Scenery--The Lost Leader

Found--Rejoicings in Camp--The "Luck" of the Trappers--Conference

of Leaders--The "Devil's Own"--Blackfoot Character--Account of the

Tribes, 57

CHAPTER III.

How Beaver are Taken--Beaver Dams--Formation of Meadows--Beaver

Lodges--"Bachelors"--Trapping in Winter--"Up to Trap"--Blackfeet on

the Trail--On Guard--The Trapper's Ruse--A disappointed Bear--A

Fight with Blackfeet--"Out of Luck"--Alone in the

Mountains--Splendid Views--A Miserable Night--The last Luxury of

Life--The Awfulness of Solitude--A Singular Discovery--A Hell on

Earth--A Joyful Recognition--Hard Times in Camp--The Negro's

Porcupine--Craig's Rabbit--Deep Snows--What the Scout saw--Bighorn

River--"Colter's Hell"--An Alarm--Arrival at Wind River--Christmas,

64

CHAPTER IV.

Removal to Powder River--A Trapper's Paradise--The Transformation

in the Wilderness--The Encampment by Night--Meek takes to

Study--On the Move--Loss of Horses and Traps--Robbed and Insulted

by a Bear--Crossing the Yellowstone--A Novel Ferriage--Annoyance

from Blackfeet--A Cache Opened--A Comrade Killed--Rude Burial

Service--Return to Rendezvous--Gay Times--The old Partners take

Leave, 82

CHAPTER V.

Grizzly Bears--An Adventure with a Grizzly--The Three "Bares"--The

Mountain-Man's Manners--Joking the Leaders--The Irishman and the

Booshway--How Sublette climbed a Tree and escaped a Bear--Rival

Trappers--Whisky as a Strong Card--Ogden's Indian Wife--Her Courage

and Escape--Winter Quarters--Crow Horse-Thieves--An Expedition on

Foot--Night Attack on the Indian Fort--Fitzpatrick

Missing--Destitution in Camp--A "Medicine-Man" consulted--"Making

Medicine"--A Vision Obtained--Fitzpatrick Found--Death of Smith--An

Expedition on Snow-Shoes, 90

CHAPTER VI

Annoying Competition--The Chief's Daughter--Sublette Wounded--Forty

Days of Isolation--Sublette and Meek captured by Snake Indians--A

Solemn Council--Sentence of Death--Hope Deferred--A Rescue--The

"Mountain Lamb"--An Obstinate Rival--Blackfeet

Marauders--Fitzpatrick's Adventures in the Mountains--"When the Pie

was opened the Birds began to Sing"--Rough Sports--A Man on

Fire--Brigades ready for the Start--Blackfeet Caravan--Peaceful

Overtures--The Half-Breed's Revenge--A

Battle--Reinforcements--Death of Sinclair--Sublette

Wounded--Greenhorns--A false Alarm--Indian Adroitness--A Deserted

Fort--Incident of the Blackfoot Woman--Murder of a Party by

Blackfeet, 103

CHAPTER VII.

The March to the Humboldt--Scarcity of Game--Terrible

Sufferings--The Horrors of Thirst and Famine--Eating Ants, Crickets

and Mules--Return to Snake River--A lucky Discovery--A Trout

Supper--The Country of the Diggers--Some Account of Them--Anecdote

of Wyeth and Meek--Comparison of Indian Tribes--The Blackfeet--The

Crows--The Coast Tribes and the Mountain Tribes--The Columbia River

Indians--Their Habits, Customs, and Dress--Indian Commerce--The

Indians of the Plains--Their Dress, Manners, and Wealth--The Horses

of the Plains--Language--The Indian's Moral Nature--Hungry and

Hospitable Savages--A Trap set for a Rival--An Ambush--Death of

Vanderburg--Skirmish with Blackfeet--The Woman Interpreter taken

Prisoner--Bravery of her Husband--Happy Finale--Meek Rescues the

"Mountain Lamb"--Intense Cold--Threatened by Famine--The Den of

Grizzlys--Second Daniels, 119

CHAPTER VIII.

A Visit from Blackfeet--The Green River Rendezvous--A "Powerful

Drunk"--Mad Wolf--A Friendly Warning--A Trip to the Salt Lake

Country--Meek Joins Jo. Walker's California Expedition--Instinct of

the Mule--On the Humboldt River--Massacre of Diggers at Mary's

River--Vain Explorations--Crossing the Sierra Nevadas--Hardships

and Sufferings--The Sacramento Valley--Delight of the

Trappers--Meeting with Spanish Soldiers--A Parley--Escorted to

Monterey--A Hospitable Reception--The Native Californians--Visit to

the Mohave Village--Meeting with Trapp and Jervais--Infamous

Conduct at the Moquis Village--The Return March, 141

CHAPTER IX.

In the Camanche Country--A Surprise and a Rapid Movement--The Mule

Fort--A Camanche Charge--Sure Aim--Another Charge--More Dead

Indians--Woman's Weapon, the Tongue--Fearful Heat and Sufferings

from Thirst--The Escape by Night--The South Park--Death of

Guthrie--Meeting with Bonneville--Indignant Reproaches, 154

CHAPTER X.

Gossip at Rendezvous--Adventures in the Crow Country--Fitzpatrick

Picked by the Crows and Flies from Them--Honor among

Thieves--Unfair Treatment of Wyeth--Bonneville Snubbed at

Walla-Walla--He Rejects good Counsel--Wyeth's Threat, and its

Fulfillment--Division of Territory, 160

CHAPTER XI.

In the Blackfoot Country--A Visit to Wyeth's Trappers--Sorry

Experiences--Condolence and its Effect--The Visitors become

Defenders--A Battle with Fire and Sword--Fighting for Life--The

Trappers' Victory--A Trapping Excursion--Meek Plays a Trick and has

one Played on Him--A Run to Camp--Taking up Traps--A Blackfoot

Ambush--A Running Fire--A lucky Escape--Winter Camp on the

Yellowstone--Interpretation of a Dream--A Buffalo Hunt and a

Blackfoot Surprise--Meek's Mule Story, 166

CHAPTER XII.

Setting up as a Family Man--First Love--Cut out by the

Booshway--Reward of Constancy--Beauty of Umentucken--Her Dress, Her

Horse and Equipments--Anecdotes of the Mountain Lamb--Her Quarrel

with The Trapper--Capture by Crows--Her Rescue--Meek Avenges an

Insult--A Row in Camp--The Female Element--Death of Umentucken,

175

CHAPTER XIII.

Visitors at Rendezvous--Advent of Missionaries--What Brought

Them--Bonneville's account of the Nez Perces and Flatheads--An

Enthusiastic View of Their Characters--Origin of some of Their

Religious Observances--An Indian's Idea of a God--Material Good

Desired--Mistake of the Missionaries--First Sermon in the Rocky

Mountains--Interrupted by Buffaloes--Precept and Example--Dr.

Whitman's Character--The Missionaries Separate--Dr. Whitman Returns

to the States, 181

CHAPTER XIV.

Meek Falls into the Hands of Crows--The Story as He tells It--He

Packs Moccasins, and Bears the Jeers of the Fair Sex--Bridger's

Camp Discovered and the Lie Found out--A Desperate

Situation--Signaling the Horse-Guard--A Parley with

Bridger--Successful Strategy--Capture of Little-Gun--Meek Set at

Liberty with a New Name--A Fort Besieged by Bears--A Lazy

Trapper--The Decoy of the Delawares--Winter Amusements--The

Ishmaelite of the Wilderness--March through the Crow

Country--Return to Green River--Punishment of the

Bannacks--Consolidation--An Excursion--Intercepted by Crows--A

Scattered Camp--The Escape, 189

CHAPTER XV.

An Express from Fitzpatrick--The Approach of Missionaries

Announced--The Caravan Welcomed by a Party of Trappers--Noisy

Demonstrations--Curiosity of the Indians--The Missionary

Ladies--Preparations in the Indian Villages--Reception of the

Missionaries by the Nez Perces and Flatheads--Kind Treatment from

the Hudson's Bay Company--The Missionaries' Land of Promise--Visit

to Fort Vancouver--Selection of Missionary Stations, 201

CHAPTER XVI.

The Den of Rattlesnakes--The Old Frenchman--How to Keep Snakes out

of Bed--The Prairie Dog's Tenants at Will--Fight with

Blackfeet--Policy of War--A Duel Averted--A Run-away Bear--Meek's

Best Bear Fight--Winter Quarters on Powder River--Robbing

Bonneville's Men, 214

CHAPTER XVII.

A Dissipated Camp--A Crow Carousal--Picked Crows--A Fight with

Blackfeet--Manhead Killed--Night Visit to the Blackfoot

Village--"Cooning a River"--Stanley the Indian Painter--Desperate

Fight with Blackfeet--"The Trapper's Last Shot"--War and Peace--In

the Wrong Camp--To Rendezvous on Wind River--Mr. Gray, and His

Adventures--Massacre of Indian Allies--Capt. Stuart Robbed by

Crows--Newell's Address to the Chiefs, 225

CHAPTER XVIII.

Decline of the Fur Trade--Wild Scenes at Rendezvous--A Missionary

Party--Entertained by a War Dance--Meek in Armor--Deserted by his

Indian Spouse--The Pursuit--Meek abuses a Missionary and Kidnaps

his Wife--Meek's Black Eyed Daughter--Singing for a

Biscuit--Trapping Again--A hot March, and Fearful Suffering from

Thirst--The Old Flathead Woman--Water at Last, 237

CHAPTER XIX.

A Chat about Buffalo Hunting--Buffalo Horses--The Start--The

Pursuit--The Charge--Tumbles--Horsemanship--The Glory of Mountain

Life--How a Nez Perce Village Hunts Buffalo--Kit Carson and the

Frenchman on a Run--Mountain Manners, 246

CHAPTER XX.

The Solitary Trapper--A Jest--Among the Nez Perces--Their Eagerness

to be Taught--Meek is Called upon to Preach--He modestly

Complies--Asks for a Wife--Polygamy Defended--Meek Gets a Wife--The

Preacher's Salary--Surprised by Blackfeet--Death of Allen--The Last

Rendezvous--Anecdote of Shawnee Jim--The new Wife Missing--Meeting

with Farnham--Cold and Famine--Succor and Food--Parties at Fort

Crockett--Setting up in Trade--How Al. Saved His Bacon--Bad

Times--War upon Horse Thieves--In Search of Adventures--Green River

Canyon--Running Antelope--Gambling--Vain Hunt for

Rendezvous--Reflections and Half-Resolves--The last Trapping

Expedition, 251

CHAPTER XXI.

A new Start in Life--Mountain-Men for Pioneers--Discovery of the

Columbia River--What Capt. Gray Did--What Vancouver Did--The United

States' Claim to Oregon--First Missionaries to the Wallamet--John

McLaughlin--Hospitalities of Fort Vancouver--The Mission

Reinforced--Other Settlers in the Wallamet Valley--How they

Regarded the Mission--The California Cattle Company--Distribution

of Settlers, 264

CHAPTER XXII.

Westward Ho!--Opening Wagon Roads--Republicanism--Fat Pork for

Preachers--Mission Work at Waiilatpu--Helen Mar--Off for the

Wallamet--Wagons Left at Walla-Walla--The Dalles Mission--Indian

Prayers--The Missionaries and the Mountain-Men--The Impious

Canadian--Doing Penance--Down the Columbia--Trouble with

Indians--Arrival at the Wallamet--Hunger, and Dependence on Fort

Vancouver--Meeting Old Comrades--Settling on the Tualatin Plains--A

disagreeable Winter--Taking Claims--Who furnished the Seed Wheat,

271

CHAPTER XXIII.

Scarcity of Employment--Wilkes' Exploring Expedition--Meek Employed

as Pilot--Interchange of Courtesies at Vancouver--"The

Peacock"--Unpleasant Reminder--Exploring the Cowelitz--Wilkes'

Chronometer--Land Expedition to California--Meek

Discharged--Gleaning Wheat--Fifty Miles for an Axe--Visit to the

New Mission--Praying for a Cow--Marriage Ceremony, 280

CHAPTER XXIV.

The Brooding of Events--Arrival of the Chenamus--Meek Celebrates

the Fourth of July--Dr. Whitman Goes to Washington--An Alarming

Feature--Mission Stations of the Upper Country--Discontent of the

Indians--The Missionaries Insulted and Threatened--Mrs. Whitman

Frightened Away from Waiilatpu, 285

CHAPTER XXV.

The Plot Thickens--The Wolf Association--Suspicions of the

Canadians--"Who's for a Divide?"--The Die Cast--A Shout for

Freedom--Meek Appointed Sheriff--The Provisional Government, 291

CHAPTER XXVI.

Arrival of the Immigration at the Dalles--Wagons

Abandoned--Pitiable Condition of the Women and Children--Aid from

the Hudson's Bay Company--Perils of the Columbia--Wreck of the

Boat--Wonderful Escape--Trials of the New Colonists--The Generous

Savage--The Barefoot Lawyer--Meek's Pumpkin--Privation of the

Settlers--Shopping under Difficulties--Attempt to Manufacture

Ardent Spirits--Dilemma of the People--An Appeal--The Sheriff

Destroys the Distillery--Anecdote of Dr. White and Madam

Cooper--Meek Levies on Her Whisky--First Official Act of the

Sheriff, 294

CHAPTER XXVII.

Excitement about Indians--Dr. White's Flogging Law--Indian

Revenge--Raid of the Klamaths--Massacre of Indians--Affray at the

Falls--Death of Cockstock--Death of LeBreton and Rogers--"You'd

Better Run"--Meek's Policy with the Indians--Meek and the

Agent--The Borrowed Horse--Solemn Audacity--Wonderful

Transformation--Temperance--Courts--Anecdote of Judge

Nesmith--Early Days of Portland--An Indian Carousal--Meek "Settles

the Indians"--The Immigration of 1845--The Cascade Mountain

Road-Hunters--Hunger and Peril--A Last Request--Succor at the Last

Moment--A Reason for Patriotism, 306

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Difficulty of Collecting Taxes--A Ponderous Currency--Dr.

McLaughlin's Ox--An Exciting Year--The Boundary

Question--"Fifty-four-forty or Fight"--War Vessels in the

Columbia--Loss of the Shark--Meek Receives a Salute--Schenck

Arrested--The Color-Stand of the Shark--"Sunset at the Mouth of the

Columbia," 320

CHAPTER XXIX.

"The Adventures of a Columbia River Salmon"--History of the

Immigration of 1846--Opening of Southern Route to the

Wallamet--Tragic Fate of the California Immigrants--Sufferings of

the Oregon Immigrants--Tardy Relief--Celebrating the Fourth of

July--Visit to the Ship Brutus--An Insult to the Mountain-Men--The

Indignity Resented with a Twelve-Pounder--Dr. McLaughlin

Interferes--Re-election of Meek--Large Immigration--Failure of the

Territorial Bill--Affray between Immigrants and Indians at the

Dalles--Meeting of the Legislature--Falling of the Thunderbolt,

325

CHAPTER XXX.

Trouble with the Up-Country Indians--Causes of their

Disquiet--Their Opinion of the Americans--"Humbugged and

Cheated"--Fear of Greater Frauds in the Future--Resolve not to

Submit--Their Feelings Toward Dr. Whitman--Acts of

Violence--Influence of the Catholic Missionaries--A Season of

Severe Sickness--What Provoked the Massacre--Joe Lewis the

Half-Breed--The Fatal Test--Sickness Among the Immigrants--Dr.

Whitman's Family--Persons at the Mission and Mill--Helen

Mar--Arrival of Mr. Whitman and his Daughter--A Night Visit to the

Umatilla--In the Lodge of Stickas, the Walla-Walla Chief--The

Warning of Stickas and His Family--The Death Song--"Beware of the

Cayuses at the Mission!"--Mr. Spaulding meets Brouillet, the

Catholic Bishop--News of the Massacre--Escape to the Woods--Night

Journeys to Lapwai, 334

CHAPTER XXXI.

The Tragedy at Waiilatpu--Dr. Whitman's Arrival at Home--Monday

Morning at the Mission--Commencement of the Massacre--The First

Victim--"Oh, the Indians!"--Horrors of the Attack--Shooting of Mrs.

Whitman--Treachery of Jo Lewis--Sufferings of the Children--Indian

Orgies--The Victims Tortured--The Two Compassionate Indians--A

Night of Horror--Remarkable Escape of Mr. Osborne and

Family--Escape and Fate of Mr. Hall--Cruel Treatment of

Fugitives--Kindness of Mr. Stanley--Inhospitable Reception at Fort

Walla-Walla--Touching Kindness of Stickas, 344

CHAPTER XXXII.

Horrors of the Waiilatpu Massacre--Exemption of the

Catholics--Charges of the Protestants--Natural Suspicions--Further

Particulars of the Massacre--Cruelty to the Children--Fate of the

Young Women--Miss Bulee and the Priests--Lapwai Mission--Arrival of

Mr. Camfield--An Indian Trait--Heroism of Mrs. Spalding--Appeal to

the Chiefs--Arrival of the News--Lapwai Plundered--Treachery of

Joseph--Arrival of Mr. Spalding--Detained as Hostages--Ransomed by

the H.B. Company--The "Blood of the Martyrs"--Country Abandoned to

the Indians--Subsequent Return of Mr. Spalding to the Nez Perces,

353

CHAPTER XXXIII.

The Call to Arms--Meetings and Speeches--Ways and Means of

Defence--The first Regiment of Oregon Riflemen--Messenger to the

Governor of California--Meek Chosen Messenger to the President of

the United States--He Proceeds to the Dalles--The Army Marches to

Waiilatpu--A Skirmish with the Des Chutes--Burial of the

Victims--Meek Escorted to the Blue Mountains, 362

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Meek's Party--Precautions against Indians--Meeting with

Bannacks--White Lies--Fort Hall--Deep Snows--Horses Abandoned--The

Mountain Spirit Returning--Meeting with Peg-Leg Smith--A Mountain

Revel--Meeting with An Old Leader--Reception at Fort

Laramie--Passing the Sioux Village--Courtesy of a French

Trader--Reflections on Nearing the Settlements--Resolve to Remain

Joe Meek--Reception at St. Joseph--"The Quickest Trip Yet"--Arrival

at St. Louis--Meek as Steamboat Runner--Interview with the Stage

Agent at Wheeling--Astonishing the Natives--The Puzzled

Conductor--Arrival at Washington, 368

CHAPTER XXXV.

Meek Dines at Coleman's--A Sensation--An Amusing Scene--Recognized

by Senator Underwood--Visit to the President--Cordial Reception by

the Family of Polk--Some Doubts of Himself--Rapid Recovery of

Self-Possession--Action of the Friends of Oregon--The Two Oregon

Representatives--The Oregon Bill in the Senate--Mr.

Thornton--Meek's Successful Debut in Society--Curiosity of

Ladies--Kit Carson and the "Contingent Fund"--Meek's Remarkable

Popularity--Invited to Baltimore by the City Council--Escorts the

President--Visit to Lowell--The Factory Girls--Some Natural

Regrets--Kindness of Mrs. Polk and Mrs. Walker--Commodore

Wilkes--Oregon Lies--Getting Franked--Champagne Suppers, 381

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Meek Appointed U.S. Marshal for Oregon--"Home Sweet Home"--Pay of

the Delegates--The Lion's Share--Meek's Interview with Gov.

Lane--Buying out a Peddler--The Escort of Riflemen--The Start from

St. Louis, and the Route--Meeting Price's Army--An Adventure and a

Pleasant Surprise--Leaving the Wagons--Desertion of

Soldiers--Drought--The Trick of the Yumas--Demoralization of the

Train--Rumors of Gold--Gen. Lane's Coffee--The Writer's

Reflection--The Party on Foot--Extreme Sufferings--Arrival at

William's Ranch--Speculation in Silks and Jack-Knives--Miners at

Los Angelos--Oregonians at San Francisco--Nat Lane and Meek Take

the Gold Fever--Meek's Investment--The Governor and Marshal

Quarrel--Pranks with a Jew--A Salute--Arrival in Oregon City,

394

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Lane's Course with the Cayuse Indians--Magnanimity of the

Savages--Rebuke to Their Captors--Their Statements to Meek--The

Puzzle of Indian Ethics--Incidents of the Trial and

Execution--State of the Upper Country for A Term of Years--How Meek

Was Received in Oregon--His Incurable Waggishness--Scene in a

Court-Room--Contempt of Court--Judge Nelson and the Carpenters--Two

Hundred Lies--An Excursion by the Oregon Court--Indians Tried for

Murder--Proceedings of a Jury--Sentence and Execution of the

Indians--The Chief's Wife--Cost of Proceedings--Lane's Career in

Oregon--Gov. Davis, 408

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Meek as U.S. Marshal--The Captain of the Melvin--The British

Smuggler--Returning a Compliment--"Barly Enough for the Officers of

the Court"--Misused Confidence--Indian Disturbances--The Indian War

of 1855-6--Gen. Wool and Gov. Curry--Officers of the War--How the

Volunteers Fared--Meek as a Volunteer--Feasting and Fun--"Marking

Time"--End of Meek's Public Career, 417

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE.

ENGLISH TOURISTS' CAMP--DOUBTFUL FRIENDS.--_Frontispiece._

WINTER COURIERS OF THE NORTH-WEST FUR COMPANY, 23

A STATION OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY, 30

WATCHING FOR INDIAN HORSE-THIEVES, 38

MAP OF THE FUR COUNTRY, 40

THE ENLISTMENT, 42

THE SUMMER RENDEZVOUS, 48

BEAVERS AT WORK, 66

HUNTERS' WINTER CAMP, 81

THE THREE "BARES," 92

THE WRONG END OF THE TREE, 94

SCOUTS IN THE BLACKFOOT COUNTRY--"ELK OR INDIANS?", 132

BRANDING CATTLE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, 150

A FIGHT WITH CAMANCHES--THE MULE FORT, 155

VIEW ON THE COLUMBIA, 165

THE FREE TRAPPER'S INDIAN WIFE, 177

"INDIANS, BY JOVE!" 200

DESCENDING THE BLUE MOUNTAINS, 211

THE BEAR IN CAMP, 219

SATISFIED WITH BEAR FIGHTING, 221

CACHE, 227

THE TRAPPER'S LAST SHOT, 230

THE SQUAW'S ESCAPE, 231

HORSE-TAIL FALLS, 245

A BUFFALO HUNT, 246

CASTLE ROCK, COLUMBIA RIVER, 263

WRECKED IN THE RAPIDS, 294

A WILD INDIAN IN TOWN, 307

THE CASCADE MOUNTAIN ROAD-HUNTERS, 317

MOUNT HOOD FROM THE DALLES, 343

MASSACRE OF THE WHITMAN FAMILY, 344

MEEK AS A STEAMBOAT RUNNER, 375

"TAKE CARE KNOX," 385

A MOUNTAIN-MAN IN CLOVER, 392

GOV. LANE AND MEEK ON THE COLORADO DESERT, 401

MEEK AS U.S. MARSHAL--SCENE IN A COURT-ROOM, 413

[Illustration: WINTER COURIERS OF THE NORTH-WEST FUR COMPANY.]

PREFATORY CHAPTER.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S INTERCOURSE WITH THE

INDIANS OF THE NORTH-WEST COAST; WITH A SKETCH OF THE DIFFERENT

AMERICAN FUR COMPANIES, AND THEIR DEALINGS WITH THE TRIBES OF THE

ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

In the year 1818, Mr. Prevost, acting for the United States, received

Astoria back from the British, who had taken possession, as narrated by

Mr. Irving, four years previous. The restoration took place in

conformity with the treaty of Ghent, by which those places captured

during the war were restored to their original possessors. Mr. Astor

stood ready at that time to renew his enterprise on the Columbia River,

had Congress been disposed to grant him the necessary protection which

the undertaking required. Failing to secure this, when the United States

sloop of war Ontario sailed away from Astoria, after having taken formal

possession of that place for our Government, the country was left to the

occupancy, (scarcely a joint-occupancy, since there were then no

Americans here,) of the British traders. After the war, and while

negotiations were going on between Great Britain and the United States,

the fort at Astoria had remained in possession of the North-West

Company, as their principal establishment west of the mountains. It had

been considerably enlarged since it had come into their possession, and

was furnished with artillery enough to have frightened into friendship a

much more warlike people than the subjects of old king Comcomly; who, it

will be remembered, was not at first very well disposed towards the

"King George men," having learned to look upon the "Boston men" as his

friends in his earliest intercourse with the whites. At this time

Astoria, or _Fort George_, as the British traders called it, contained

sixty-five inmates, twenty-three of whom were whites, and the remainder

Canadian half-breeds and Sandwich Islanders. Besides this number of men,

there were a few women, the native wives of the men, and their

half-breed offspring. The situation of Astoria, however, was not

favorable, being near the sea coast, and not surrounded with good

farming lands such as were required for the furnishing of provisions to

the fort. Therefore, when in 1821 it was destroyed by fire, it was only

in part rebuilt, but a better and more convenient location for the

headquarters of the North-West Company was sought for in the interior.

About this time a quarrel of long standing between the Hudson's Bay and

North-West Companies culminated in a battle between their men in the

Red River country, resulting in a considerable loss of life and

property. This affair drew the attention of the Government at home; the

rights of the rival companies were examined into, the mediation of the

Ministry secured, and a compromise effected, by which the North-West

Company, which had succeeded in dispossessing the Pacific Fur Company

under Mr. Astor, was merged into the Hudson's Bay Company, whose name

and fame are so familiar to all the early settlers of Oregon.

At the same time, Parliament passed an act by which the hands of the

consolidated company were much strengthened, and the peace and security

of all persons greatly insured; but which became subsequently, in the

joint occupancy of the country, a cause of offence to the American

citizens, as we shall see hereafter. This act allowed the commissioning

of Justices of the Peace in all the territories not belonging to the

United States, nor already subject to grants. These justices were to

execute and enforce the laws and decisions of the courts of Upper

Canada; to take evidence, and commit and send to Canada for trial the

guilty; and even in some cases, to hold courts themselves for the trial

of criminal offences and misdemeanors not punishable with death, or of

civil causes in which the amount at issue should not exceed two hundred

pounds.

Thus in 1824, the North-West Company, whose perfidy had occasioned such

loss and mortification to the enterprising New York merchant, became

itself a thing of the past, and a new rule began in the region west of

the Rocky Mountains. The old fort at Astoria having been only so far

rebuilt as to answer the needs of the hour, after due consideration, a

site for head-quarters was selected about one hundred miles from the

sea, near the mouth of the Wallamet River, though opposite to it. Three

considerations went to make up the eligibility of the point selected.

First, it was desirable, even necessary, to settle upon good

agricultural lands, where the Company's provisions could be raised by

the Company's servants. Second, it was important that the spot chosen

should be upon waters navigable for the Company's vessels, or upon

tide-water. Lastly, and not leastly, the Company had an eye to the

boundary question between Great Britain and the United States; and

believing that the end of the controversy would probably be to make the

Columbia River the northern limit of the United States territory, a spot

on the northern bank of that river was considered a good point for their

fort, and possible future city.

The site chosen by the North-West Company in 1821, for their new fort,

combined all these advantages, and the further one of having been

already commenced and named. Fort Vancouver became at once on the

accession of the Hudson's Bay Company, the metropolis of the northwest

coast, the center of the fur trade, and the seat of government for that

immense territory, over which roamed the hunters and trappers in the

employ of that powerful corporation. This post was situated on the edge

of a beautiful sloping plain on the northern bank of the Columbia, about

six miles above the upper mouth of the Wallamet. At this point the

Columbia spreads to a great width, and is divided on the south side into

bayous by long sandy islands, covered with oak, ash, and cotton-wood

trees, making the noble river more attractive still by adding the charm

of curiosity concerning its actual breadth to its natural and ordinary

magnificence. Back of the fort the land rose gently, covered with

forests of fir; and away to the east swelled the foot-hills of the

Cascade range, then the mountains themselves, draped in filmy azure, and

over-topped five thousand feet by the snowy cone of Mt. Hood.

In this lonely situation grew up, with the dispatch which characterized

the acts of the Company, a fort in most respects similar to the original

one at Astoria. It was not, however, thought necessary to make so great

a display of artillery as had served to keep in order the subjects of

Comcomly. A stockade enclosed a space about eight hundred feet long by

five hundred broad, having a bastion at one corner, where were mounted

three guns, while two eighteen pounders and two swivels were planted in

front of the residence of the Governor and chief factors. These

commanded the main entrance to the fort, besides which there were two

other gates in front, and another in the rear. Military precision was

observed in the precautions taken against surprises, as well as in all

the rules of the place. The gates were opened and closed at certain

hours, and were always guarded. No large number of Indians were

permitted within the enclosure at the same time, and every employee at

the fort knew and performed his duty with punctuality.

The buildings within the stockade were the Governor's and chief factors'

residences, stores, offices, work-shops, magazines, warehouses, &c.

Year by year, up to 1835 or '40, improvements continued to go on in and

about the fort, the chief of which was the cultivation of the large farm

and garden outside the enclosure, and the erection of a hospital

building, large barns, servants' houses, and a boat-house, all outside

of the fort; so that at the period when the Columbia River was a romance

and a mystery to the people of the United States, quite a flourishing

and beautiful village adorned its northern shore, and that too erected

and sustained by the enemies of American enterprise on soil commonly

believed to belong to the United States: fair foes the author firmly

believes them to have been in those days, yet foes nevertheless.

The system on which the Hudson's Bay Company conducted its business was

the result of long experience, and was admirable for its method and its

justice also. When a young man entered its service as a clerk, his wages

were small for several years, increasing only as his ability and good

conduct entitled him to advancement. When his salary had reached one

hundred pounds sterling he became eligible to a chief-tradership as a

partner in the concern, from which position he was promoted to the rank

of a chief factor. No important business was ever intrusted to an

inexperienced person, a policy which almost certainly prevented any

serious errors. A regular tariff was established on the Company's goods,

comprising all the articles used in their trade with the Indians; nor

was the quality of their goods ever allowed to deteriorate. A price was

also fixed upon furs according to their market value, and an Indian

knowing this, knew exactly what he could purchase. No bartering was

allowed. When skins were offered for sale at the fort they were handed

to the clerk through a window like a post-office delivery-window, and

their value in the article desired, returned through the same aperture.

All these regulations were of the highest importance to the good order,

safety, and profit of the Company. The confidence of the Indians was

sure to be gained by the constancy and good faith always observed toward

them, and the Company obtained thereby numerous and powerful allies in

nearly all the tribes.

As soon as it was possible to make the change, the Indians were denied

the use of intoxicating drinks, the appetite for which had early been

introduced among them by coasting vessels, and even continued by the

Pacific Fur Company at Astoria. It would have been dangerous to have

suddenly deprived them of the coveted stimulus; therefore the practice

must be discontinued by many wise arts and devices. A public notice was

given that the sale of it would be stopped, and the reasons for this

prohibition explained to the Indians. Still, not to come into direct

conflict with their appetites, a little was sold to the chiefs, now and

then, by the clerks, who affected to be running the greatest risks in

violating the order of the company. The strictest secrecy was enjoined

on the lucky chief who, by the friendship of some under-clerk, was

enabled to smuggle off a bottle under his blanket. But the cunning clerk

had generally managed to get his "good friend" into a state so cleverly

between drunk and sober, before he entrusted him with the precious

bottle, that he was sure to betray himself. Leaving the shop with a mien

even more erect than usual, with a gait affected in its majesty, and his

blanket tightened around him to conceal his secret treasure, the

chuckling chief would start to cross the grounds within the fort. If he

was a new customer, he was once or twice permitted to play his little

game with the obliging clerk whose particular friend he was, and to

escape detection.

But by-and-by, when the officers had seen the offence repeated more than

once from their purposely contrived posts of observation, one of them

would skillfully chance to intercept the guilty chief at whose comical

endeavors to appear sober he was inwardly laughing, and charge him with

being intoxicated. Wresting away the tightened blanket, the bottle

appeared as evidence that could not be controverted, of the duplicity of

the Indian and the unfaithfulness of the clerk, whose name was instantly

demanded, that he might be properly punished. When the chief again

visited the fort, his particular friend met him with a sorrowful

countenance, reproaching him for having been the cause of his disgrace

and loss. This reproach was the surest means of preventing another

demand for rum, the Indian being too magnanimous, probably, to wish to

get his friend into trouble; while the clerk affected to fear the

consequences too much to be induced to take the risk another time. Thus

by kind and careful means the traffic in liquors was at length broken

up, which otherwise would have ruined both Indian and trader.

To the company's servants liquor was sold or allowed at certain times:

to those on the sea-board, one half-pint two or three times a year, to

be used as medicine,--not that it was always needed or used for this

purpose, but too strict inquiry into its use was wisely avoided,--and

for this the company demanded pay. To their servants in the interior no

liquor was sold, but they were furnished as a gratuity with one pint on

leaving rendezvous, and another on arriving at winter quarters. By this

management, it became impossible for them to dispose of drink to the

Indians; their small allowance being always immediately consumed in a

meeting or parting carouse.

The arrival of men from the interior at Fort Vancouver usually took

place in the month of June, when the Columbia was high, and a stirring

scene it was. The chief traders generally contrived their march through

the upper country, their camps, and their rendezvous, so as to meet the

Express which annually came to Vancouver from Canada and the Red River

settlements. They then descended the Columbia together, and arrived in

force at the Fort. This annual fleet went by the name of Brigade--a name

which suggested a military spirit in the crews that their appearance

failed to vindicate. Yet, though there was nothing warlike in the scene,

there was much that was exciting, picturesque, and even brilliant; for

these _couriers de bois_, or wood-rangers, and the _voyageurs_, or

boatmen, were the most foppish of mortals when they came to rendezvous.

Then, too, there was an exaltation of spirits on their safe arrival at

head-quarters, after their year's toil and danger in wildernesses, among

Indians and wild beasts, exposed to famine and accident, that almost

deprived them of what is called "common sense," and compelled them to

the most fantastic excesses.

Their well-understood peculiarities did not make them the less welcome

at Vancouver. When the cry was given--"the Brigade! the Brigade!"--there

was a general rush to the river's bank to witness the spectacle. In

advance came the chief-trader's barge, with the company's flag at the

bow, and the cross of St. George at the stern: the fleet as many abreast

as the turnings of the river allowed. With strong and skillful strokes

the boatmen governed their richly laden boats, keeping them in line, and

at the same time singing in chorus a loud and not unmusical hunting or

boating song. The gay ribbons and feathers with which the singers were

bedecked took nothing from the picturesqueness of their appearance. The

broad, full river, sparkling in the sunlight, gemmed with emerald

islands, and bordered with a rich growth of flowering shrubbery; the

smiling plain surrounding the Fort; the distant mountains, where

glittered the sentinel Mt. Hood, all came gracefully into the picture,

and seemed to furnish a fitting back-ground and middle distance for the

bright bit of coloring given by the moving life in the scene. As with a

skillful sweep the brigade touched the bank, and the traders and men

sprang on shore, the first cheer which had welcomed their appearance was

heartily repeated, while a gay clamor of questions and answers followed.

After the business immediately incident to their arrival had been

dispatched, then took place the regale of pork, flour, and spirits,

which was sure to end in a carouse, during which blackened eyes and

broken noses were not at all uncommon; but though blood was made to

flow, life was never put seriously in peril, and the belligerent parties

were the best of friends when the fracas was ended.

The business of exchange being completed in three or four weeks--the

rich stores of peltries consigned to their places in the warehouse, and

the boats reladen with goods for the next year's trade with the Indians

in the upper country, a parting carouse took place, and with another

parade of feathers, ribbons, and other finery, the brigade departed

with songs and cheers as it had come, but with probably heavier hearts.

It would be a stern morality indeed which could look upon the excesses

of this peculiar class as it would upon the same excesses committed by

men in the enjoyment of all the comforts and pleasures of civilized

life. For them, during most of the year, was only an out-door life of

toil, watchfulness, peril, and isolation. When they arrived at the

rendezvous, for the brief period of their stay they were allowed perfect

license because nothing else would content them. Although at

head-quarters they were still in the wilderness, thousands of miles from

civilization, with no chance of such recreations as men in the continual

enjoyment of life's sweetest pleasures would naturally seek. For them

there was only one method of seeking and finding temporary oblivion of

the accustomed hardship; and whatever may be the strict rendering of

man's duty as an immortal being, we cannot help being somewhat lenient

at times to his errors as a mortal.

After the departure of the boats, there was another arrival at the Fort,

of trappers from the Snake River country. Previous to 1832, such were

the dangers of the fur trade in this region, that only the most

experienced traders were suffered to conduct a party through it; and

even they were frequently attacked, and sometimes sustained serious

losses of men and animals. Subsequently, however, the Hudson's Bay

Company obtained such an influence over even these hostile tribes as to

make it safe for a party of no more than two of their men to travel

through this much dreaded region.

There was another important arrival at Fort Vancouver, usually in

midsummer. This was the Company's supply ship from London. In the

possible event of a vessel being lost, one cargo was always kept on

store at Vancouver; but for which wise regulation much trouble and

disaster might have resulted, especially in the early days of the

establishment. Occasionally a vessel foundered at sea or was lost on the

bar of the Columbia; but these losses did not interrupt the regular

transaction of business. The arrival of a ship from London was the

occasion of great bustle and excitement also. She brought not only goods

for the posts throughout the district of the Columbia, but letters,

papers, private parcels, and all that seemed of so much value to the

little isolated world at the Fort.

A company conducting its business with such method and regularity as has

been described, was certain of success. Yet some credit also must attach

to certain individuals in its service, whose faithfulness, zeal, and

ability in carrying out its designs, contributed largely to its welfare.

Such a man was at the head of the Hudson's Bay Company's affairs in the

large and important district west of the Rocky Mountains. The Company

never had in its service a more efficient man than Gov. John McLaughlin,

more commonly called Dr. McLaughlin.

To the discipline, at once severe and just, which Dr. McLaughlin

maintained in his district, was due the safety and prosperity of the

company he served, and the servants of that company generally; as well

as, at a later period, of the emigration which followed the hunter and

trapper into the wilds of Oregon. Careful as were all the officers of

the Hudson's Bay Company, they could not always avoid conflicts with the

Indians; nor was their kindness and justice always sufficiently

appreciated to prevent the outbreak of savage instincts. Fort Vancouver

had been threatened in an early day; a vessel or two had been lost in

which the Indians were suspected to have been implicated; at long

intervals a trader was murdered in the interior; or more frequently,

Indian insolence put to the test both the wisdom and courage of the

officers to prevent an outbreak.

When murders and robberies were committed, it was the custom at Fort

Vancouver to send a strong party to demand the offenders from their

tribe; Such was the well known power and influence of the Company, and

such the wholesome fear of the "King George men," that this demand was

never resisted, and if the murderer could be found he was given up to be

hung according to "King George" laws. They were almost equally impelled

to good conduct by the state of dependence on the company into which

they had been brought. Once they had subsisted and clothed themselves

from the spoils of the rivers and forest; since they had tasted of the

tree of knowledge of good and evil, they could no more return to skins

for raiment, nor to game alone for food. Blankets and flour, beads,

guns, and ammunition had become dear to their hearts: for all these

things they must love and obey the Hudson's Bay Company. Another fine

stroke of policy in the Company was to destroy the chieftain-ships in

the various tribes; thus weakening them by dividing them and preventing

dangerous coalitions of the leading spirits: for in savage as well as

civilized life, the many are governed by the few.

It may not be uninteresting in this place to give a few anecdotes of the

manner in which conflicts with the Indians were prevented, or offences

punished by the Hudson's Bay Company. In the year 1828 the ship _William

and Ann_ was cast away just inside the bar of the Columbia, under

circumstances which seemed to direct suspicion to the Indians in that

vicinity. Whether or not they had attacked the ship, not a soul was

saved from the wreck to tell how she was lost. On hearing that the ship

had gone to pieces, and that the Indians had appropriated a portion of

her cargo, Dr. McLaughlin sent a message to the chiefs, demanding

restitution of the stolen goods. Nothing was returned by the messenger

except one or two worthless articles. Immediately an armed force was

sent to the scene of the robbery with a fresh demand for the goods,

which the chiefs, in view of their spoils, thought proper to resist by

firing upon the reclaiming party. But they were not unprepared; and a

swivel was discharged to let the savages know what they might expect in

the way of firearms. The argument was conclusive, the Indians fleeing

into the woods. While making search for the goods, a portion of which

were found, a chief was observed skulking near, and cocking his gun; on

which motion one of the men fired, and he fell. This prompt action, the

justice of which the Indians well understood, and the intimidating power

of the swivel, put an end to the incipient war. Care was then taken to

impress upon their minds that they must not expect to profit by the

disasters of vessels, nor be tempted to murder white men for the sake of

plunder. The _William and Ann_ was supposed to have got aground, when

the savages seeing her situation, boarded her and murdered the crew for

the cargo which they knew her to contain. Yet as there were no positive

proofs, only such measures were taken as would deter them from a similar

attempt in future. That the lesson was not lost, was proven two years

later, when the _Isabella_, from London, struck on the bar, her crew

deserting her. In this instance no attempt was made to meddle with the

vessel's cargo; and as the crew made their way to Vancouver, the goods

were nearly all saved.

In a former voyage of the _William and Ann_ to the Columbia River, she

had been sent on an exploring expedition to the Gulf of Georgia to

discover the mouth of Frazier's River, having on board a crew of forty

men. Whenever the ship came to anchor, two sentries were kept constantly

on deck to guard against any surprise or misconduct on the part of the

Indians; so adroit, however, were they in the light-fingered art, that

every one of the eight cannon with which the ship was armed was robbed

of its ammunition, as was discovered on leaving the river! Such

incidents as these served to impress the minds of the Company's officers

and servants with the necessity of vigilance in their dealings with the

savages.

Not all their vigilance could at all times avail to prevent mischief.

When Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, was on a

visit to Vancouver in 1829, he was made aware of this truism. The

Governor was on his return to Canada by way of the Red River Settlement,

and had reached the Dalles of the Columbia with his party. In making the

portage at this place, all the party except Dr. Tod gave their guns into

the charge of two men to prevent their being stolen by the Indians, who

crowded about, and whose well-known bad character made great care

needful. All went well, no attempt to seize either guns or other

property being made until at the end of the portage the boats had been

reloaded. As the party were about to re-embark, a simultaneous rush was

made by the Indians who had dogged their steps, to get possession of the

boats. Dr. Tod raised his gun immediately, aiming at the head chief,

who, not liking the prospect of so speedy dissolution, ordered his

followers to desist, and the party were suffered to escape. It was soon

after discovered that every gun belonging to the party in the boat had

been wet, excepting the one carried by Dr. Tod; and to the fact that the

Doctor did carry his gun, all the others owed their lives.

The great desire of the Indians for guns and ammunition led to many

stratagems which were dangerous to the possessors of the coveted

articles. Much more dangerous would it have been to have allowed them a

free supply of these things; nor could an Indian purchase from the

Company more than a stated supply, which was to be used, not for the

purposes of war, but to keep himself in game.

[Illustration: A STATION OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY.]

Dr. McLaughlin was himself once quite near falling into a trap of the

Indians, so cunningly laid as to puzzle even him. This was a report

brought to him by a deputation of Columbia River Indians, stating the

startling fact that the fort at Nesqually had been attacked, and every

inmate slaughtered. To this horrible story, told with every appearance

of truth, the Doctor listened with incredulity mingled with apprehension.

The Indians were closely questioned and cross-questioned, but did not

conflict in their testimony. The matter assumed a very painful aspect.

Not to be deceived, the Doctor had the unwelcome messengers committed to

custody while he could bring other witnesses from their tribe. But they

were prepared for this, and the whole tribe were as positive as those

who brought the tale. Confounded by this cloud of witnesses, Dr.

McLaughlin had almost determined upon sending an armed force to

Nesqually to inquire into the matter, and if necessary, punish the

Indians, when a detachment of men arrived from that post, and the plot

was exposed! The design of the Indians had been simply to cause a

division of the force at Vancouver, after which they believed they might

succeed in capturing and plundering the fort. Had they truly been

successful in this undertaking, every other trading-post in the country

would have been destroyed. But so long as the head-quarters of the

Company remained secure and powerful, the other stations were

comparatively safe.

An incident which has been several times related, occurred at fort

Walla-Walla, and shows how narrow escapes the interior traders sometimes

made. The hero of this anecdote was Mr. McKinlay, one of the most

estimable of the Hudson's Bay Company's officers, in charge of the fort

just named. An Indian was one day lounging about the fort, and seeing

some timbers lying in a heap that had been squared for pack saddles,

helped himself to one and commenced cutting it down into a whip handle

for his own use. To this procedure Mr. McKinlay's clerk demurred, first

telling the Indian its use, and then ordering him to resign the piece of

timber. The Indian insolently replied that the timber was his, and he

should take it. At this the clerk, with more temper than prudence,

struck the offender, knocking him over, soon after which the savage left

the fort with sullen looks boding vengeance. The next day Mr. McKinlay,

not being informed of what had taken place, was in a room of the fort

with his clerk when a considerable party of Indians began dropping

quietly in until there were fifteen or twenty of them inside the

building. The first intimation of anything wrong McKinlay received was

when he observed the clerk pointed out in a particular manner by one of

the party. He instantly comprehended the purpose of his visitors, and

with that quickness of thought which is habitual to the student of

savage nature, he rushed into the store room and returned with a powder

keg, flint and steel. By this time the unlucky clerk was struggling for

his life with his vindictive foes. Putting down the powder in their

midst and knocking out the head of the keg with a blow, McKinlay stood

over it ready to strike fire with his flint and steel. The savages

paused aghast. They knew the nature of the "perilous stuff," and also

understood the trader's purpose. "Come," said he with a clear,

determined voice, "you are twenty braves against us two: now touch him

if you dare, and see who dies first." In a moment the fort was cleared,

and McKinlay was left to inquire the cause of what had so nearly been a

tragedy. It is hardly a subject of doubt whether or not his clerk got a

scolding. Soon after, such was the powerful influence exerted by these

gentlemen, the chief of the tribe flogged the pilfering Indian for the

offence, and McKinlay became a great brave, a "big heart" for his

courage.

It was indeed necessary to have courage, patience, and prudence in

dealing with the Indians. These the Hudson's Bay officers generally

possessed. Perhaps the most irascible of them all in the Columbia

District, was their chief, Dr. McLaughlin; but such was his goodness and

justice that even the savages recognized it, and he was _hyas tyee_, or

great chief, in all respects to them. Being on one occasion very much

annoyed by the pertinacity of an Indian who was continually demanding

pay for some stones with which the Doctor was having a vessel ballasted,

he seized one of some size, and thrusting it in the Indian's mouth,

cried out in a furious manner, "pay, pay! if the stones are yours, take

them and eat them, you rascal! Pay, pay! the devil! the devil!" upon

which explosion of wrath, the native owner of the soil thought it

prudent to withdraw his immediate claims.

There was more, however, in the Doctor's action than mere indulgence of

wrath. He understood perfectly that the savage values only what he can

eat and wear, and that as he could not put the stones to either of these

uses, his demand for pay was an impudent one.

Enough has been said to give the reader an insight into Indian

character, to prepare his mind for events which are to follow, to convey

an idea of the influence of the Hudson's Bay Company, and to show on

what it was founded. The American Fur Companies will now be sketched,

and their mode of dealing with the Indians contrasted with that of the

British Company. The comparison will not be favorable; but should any

unfairness be suspected, a reference to Mr. Irving's _Bonneville_, will

show that the worthy Captain was forced to witness against his own

countrymen in his narrative of his hunting and trading adventures in the

Rocky Mountains.

* * * * *

The dissolution of the Pacific Fur Company, the refusal of the United

States Government to protect Mr. Astor in a second attempt to carry on a

commerce with the Indians west of the Rocky Mountains, and the

occupation of that country by British traders, had the effect to deter

individual enterprise from again attempting to establish commerce on the

Pacific coast. The people waited for the Government to take some steps

toward the encouragement of a trans-continental trade; the Government

beholding the lion (British) in the way, waited for the expiration of

the convention of 1818, in the Micawber-like hope that something would

"turn up" to settle the question of territorial sovereignty. The war of

1812 had been begun on the part of Great Britain, to secure the great

western territories to herself for the profits of the fur trade, almost

solely. Failing in this, she had been compelled, by the treaty of Ghent,

to restore to the United States all the places and forts captured during

that war. Yet the forts and trading posts in the west remained

practically in the possession of Great Britain; for her traders and fur

companies still roamed the country, excluding American trade, and

inciting (so the frontiers-men believed), the Indians to acts of blood

and horror.

Congress being importuned by the people of the West, finally, in 1815,

passed an act expelling British traders from American territory east of

the Rocky Mountains. Following the passage of this act the hunters and

trappers of the old North American Company, at the head of which Mr.

Astor still remained, began to range the country about the head waters

of the Mississippi and the upper Missouri. Also a few American traders

had ventured into the northern provinces of Mexico, previous to the

overthrow of the Spanish Government; and after that event, a thriving

trade grew up between St. Louis and Santa Fe.

At length, in 1823, Mr. W.H. Ashley, of St. Louis, a merchant for a long

time engaged in the fur trade on the Missouri and its tributaries,

determined to push a trading party up to or beyond the Rocky Mountains.

Following up the Platte River, Mr. Ashley proceeded at the head of a

large party with horses and merchandise, as far as the northern branch

of the Platte, called the Sweetwater. This he explored to its source,

situated in that remarkable depression in the Rocky Mountains, known as

the South Pass--the same which Fremont _discovered_ twenty years later,

during which twenty years it was annually traveled by trading parties,

and just prior to Fremont's discovery, by missionaries and emigrants

destined to Oregon. To Mr. Ashley also belongs the credit of having

first explored the head-waters of the Colorado, called the Green River,

afterwards a favorite rendezvous of the American Fur Companies. The

country about the South Pass proved to be an entirely new hunting

ground, and very rich in furs, as here many rivers take their rise,

whose head-waters furnished abundant beaver. Here Mr. Ashley spent the

summer, returning to St. Louis in the fall with a valuable collection of

skins.

In 1824, Mr. Ashley repeated the expedition, extending it this time

beyond Green River as far as Great Salt Lake, near which to the south he

discovered another smaller lake, which he named Lake Ashley, after

himself. On the shores of this lake he built a fort for trading with the

Indians, and leaving in it about one hundred men, returned to St. Louis

the second time with a large amount of furs. During the time the fort

was occupied by Mr. Ashley's men, a period of three years, more than one

hundred and eighty thousand dollars worth of furs were collected and

sent to St. Louis. In 1827, the fort, and all Mr. Ashley's interest in

the business, was sold to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, at the head of

which were Jedediah Smith, William Sublette, and David Jackson, Sublette

being the leading spirit in the Company.

The custom of these enterprising traders, who had been in the mountains

since 1824, was to divide their force, each taking his command to a good

hunting ground, and returning at stated times to rendezvous, generally

appointed on the head-waters of Green River. Frequently the other fur

companies, (for there were other companies formed on the heels of

Ashley's enterprise,) learning of the place appointed for the yearly

rendezvous, brought their goods to the same resort, when an intense

rivalry was exhibited by the several traders as to which company should

soonest dispose of its goods, getting, of course, the largest amount of

furs from the trappers and Indians. So great was the competition in the

years between 1826 and 1829, when there were about six hundred American

trappers in and about the Rocky Mountains, besides those of the Hudson's

Bay Company, that it was death for a man of one company to dispose of

his furs to a rival association. Even a "free trapper"--that is, one not

indentured, but hunting upon certain terms of agreement concerning the

price of his furs and the cost of his outfit, only, dared not sell to

any other company than the one he had agreed with.

Jedediah Smith, of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, during their first

year in the mountains, took a party of five trappers into Oregon, being

the first American, trader or other, to cross into that country since

the breaking up of Mr. Astor's establishment. He trapped on the

head-waters of the Snake River until autumn, when he fell in with a

party of Hudson's Bay trappers, and going with them to their post in the

Flathead country, wintered there.

Again, in 1826, Smith, Sublette, and Jackson, brought out a large number

of men to trap in the Snake River country, and entered into direct

competition with the Hudson's Bay Company, whom they opposed with hardly

a degree more of zeal than they competed with rival American traders:

this one extra degree being inspired by a "spirit of '76" toward

anything British.

After the Rocky Mountain Fur Company had extended its business by the

purchase of Mr. Ashley's interest, the partners determined to push their

enterprise to the Pacific coast, regardless of the opposition they were

likely to encounter from the Hudson's Bay traders. Accordingly, in the

spring of 1827, the Company was divided up into three parts, to be led

separately, by different routes, into the Indian Territory, nearer the

ocean.

Smith's route was from the Platte River, southwards to Santa Fe, thence

to the bay of San Francisco, and thence along the coast to the Columbia

River. His party were successful, and had arrived in the autumn of the

following year at the Umpqua River, about two hundred miles south of the

Columbia, in safety. Here one of those sudden reverses to which the

"mountain-man" is liable at any moment, overtook him. His party at this

time consisted of thirteen men, with their horses, and a collection of

furs valued at twenty thousand dollars. Arrived at the Umpqua, they

encamped for the night on its southern bank, unaware that the natives in

this vicinity (the Shastas) were more fierce and treacherous than the

indolent tribes of California, for whom, probably, they had a great

contempt. All went well until the following morning, the Indians hanging

about the camp, but apparently friendly. Smith had just breakfasted, and

was occupied in looking for a fording-place for the animals, being on a

raft, and having with him a little Englishman and one Indian. When they

were in the middle of the river the Indian snatched Smith's gun and

jumped into the water. At the same instant a yell from the camp, which

was in sight, proclaimed that it was attacked. Quick as thought Smith

snatched the Englishman's gun, and shot dead the Indian in the river.

To return to the camp was certain death. Already several of his men had

fallen; overpowered by numbers he could not hope that any would escape,

and nothing was left him but flight. He succeeded in getting to the

opposite shore with his raft before he could be intercepted, and fled

with his companion, on foot and with only one gun, and no provisions, to

the mountains that border the river. With great good fortune they were

enabled to pass through the remaining two hundred miles of their journey

without accident, though not without suffering, and reach Fort Vancouver

in a destitute condition, where they were kindly cared for.

Of the men left in camp, only two escaped. One man named Black defended

himself until he saw an opportunity for flight, when he escaped to the

cover of the woods, and finally to a friendly tribe farther north, near

the coast, who piloted him to Vancouver. The remaining man was one

Turner, of a very powerful frame, who was doing camp duty as cook on

this eventful morning. When the Indians rushed upon him he defended

himself with a huge firebrand, or half-burnt poplar stick, with which he

laid about him like Sampson, killing four red-skins before he saw a

chance of escape. Singularly, for one in his extremity, he did escape,

and also arrived at Vancouver that winter.

Dr. McLaughlin received the unlucky trader and his three surviving men

with every mark and expression of kindness, and entertained them through

the winter. Not only this, but he dispatched a strong, armed party to

the scene of the disaster to punish the Indians and recover the stolen

goods; all of which was done at his own expense, both as an act of

friendship toward his American rivals, and as necessary to the

discipline which they everywhere maintained among the Indians. Should

this offence go unpunished, the next attack might be upon one of his own

parties going annually down into California. Sir George Simpson, the

Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, chanced to be spending the winter

at Vancouver. He offered to send Smith to London the following summer,

in the Company's vessel, where he might dispose of his furs to

advantage; but Smith declined this offer, and finally sold his furs to

Dr. McLaughlin, and returned in the spring to the Rocky Mountains.

On Sublette's return from St. Louis, in the summer of 1829, with men and

merchandise for the year's trade, he became uneasy on account of Smith's

protracted absence. According to a previous plan, he took a large party

into the Snake River country to hunt. Among the recruits from St. Louis

was Joseph L. Meek, the subject of the narrative following this chapter.

Sublette not meeting with Smith's party on its way from the Columbia, as

he still hoped, at length detailed a party to look for him on the

head-waters of the Snake. Meek was one of the men sent to look for the

missing partner, whom he discovered at length in Pierre's Hole, a deep

valley in the mountains, from which issues the Snake River in many

living streams. Smith returned with the men to camp, where the tale of

his disasters was received after the manner of mountain-men, simply

declaring with a momentarily sobered countenance, that their comrade has

not been "in luck;" with which brief and equivocal expression of

sympathy the subject is dismissed. To dwell on the dangers incident to

their calling would be to half disarm themselves of their necessary

courage; and it is only when they are gathered about the fire in their

winter camp, that they indulge in tales of wild adventure and

"hair-breadth 'scapes," or make sorrowful reference to a comrade lost.

Influenced by the hospitable treatment which Smith had received at the

hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, the partners now determined to

withdraw from competition with them in the Snake country, and to trap

upon the waters of the Colorado, in the neighborhood of their fort. But

"luck," the mountain-man's Providence, seemed to have deserted Smith. In

crossing the Colorado River with a considerable collection of skins, he

was again attacked by Indians, and only escaped by losing all his

property. He then went to St. Louis for a supply of merchandise, and

fitted out a trading party for Santa Fe; but on his way to that place

was killed in an encounter with the savages.

Turner, the man who so valiantly wielded the firebrand on the Umpqua

River, several years later met with a similar adventure on the Rogue

River, in Southern Oregon, and was the means of saving the lives of his

party by his courage, strength, and alertness. He finally, when trapping

had become unprofitable, retired upon a farm in the Wallamet Valley, as

did many other mountain-men who survived the dangers of their perilous

trade.

After the death of Smith, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company continued its

operations under the command of Bridger, Fitzpatrick, and Milton

Sublette, brother of William. In the spring of 1830 they received about

two hundred recruits, and with little variation kept up their number of

three or four hundred men for a period of eight or ten years longer, or

until the beaver were hunted out of every nook and corner of the Rocky

Mountains.

Previous to 1835, there were in and about the Rocky Mountains, beside

the "American" and "Rocky Mountain" companies, the St. Louis Company,

and eight or ten "lone traders." Among these latter were William

Sublette, Robert Campbell, J.O. Pattie, Mr. Pilcher, Col. Charles Bent,

St. Vrain, William Bent, Mr. Gant, and Mr. Blackwell. All these

companies and traders more or less frequently penetrated into the

countries of New Mexico, Old Mexico, Sonora, and California; returning

sometimes through the mountain regions of the latter State, by the

Humboldt River to the head-waters of the Colorado. Seldom, in all their

journeys, did they intrude on that portion of the Indian Territory lying

within three hundred miles of Fort Vancouver, or which forms the area of

the present State of Oregon.

Up to 1832, the fur trade in the West had been chiefly conducted by

merchants from the frontier cities, especially by those of St. Louis.

The old "North American" was the only exception. But in the spring of

this year, Captain Bonneville, an United States officer on furlough, led

a company of a hundred men, with a train of wagons, horses and mules,

with merchandise, into the trapping grounds of the Rocky Mountains. His

wagons were the first that had ever crossed the summit of these

mountains, though William Sublette had, two or three years previous,

brought wagons as far as the valley of the Wind River, on the east side

of the range. Captain Bonneville remained nearly three years in the

hunting and trapping grounds, taking parties of men into the Colorado,

Humboldt, and Sacramento valleys; but he realized no profits from his

expedition, being opposed and competed with by both British and American

traders of larger experience.

But Captain Bonneville's venture was a fortunate one compared with that

of Mr. Nathaniel Wyeth of Massachusetts, who also crossed the continent

in 1832, with the view of establishing a trade on the Columbia River.

Mr. Wyeth brought with him a small party of men, all inexperienced in

frontier or mountain life, and destined for a salmon fishery on the

Columbia. He had reached Independence, Missouri, the last station before

plunging into the wilderness, and found himself somewhat at a loss how

to proceed, until, at this juncture, he was overtaken by the party of

William Sublette, from St. Louis to the Rocky Mountains, with whom he

travelled in company to the rendezvous at Pierre's Hole.

When Wyeth arrived at the Columbia River, after tarrying until he had

acquired some mountain experiences, he found that his vessel, which was

loaded with merchandise for the Columbia River trade, had not arrived.

He remained at Vancouver through the winter, the guest of the Hudson's

Bay Company, and either having learned or surmised that his vessel was

wrecked, returned to the United States in the following year. Not

discouraged, however, he made another venture in 1834, despatching the

ship _May Dacre_, Captain Lambert, for the Columbia River, with another

cargo of Indian goods, traveling himself overland with a party of two

hundred men, and a considerable quantity of merchandise which he

expected to sell to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. In this expectation

he was defeated by William Sublette, who had also brought out a large

assortment of goods for the Indian trade, and had sold out, supplying

the market, before Mr. Wyeth arrived.

Wyeth then built a post, named Fort Hall, on Snake River, at the

junction of the Portneuf, where he stored his goods, and having detached

most of his men in trapping parties, proceeded to the Columbia River to

meet the _May Dacre_. He reached the Columbia about the same time with

his vessel, and proceeded at once to erect a salmon fishery. To forward

this purpose he built a post, called Fort William, on the lower end of

Wappatoo (now known as Sauvie's) Island, near where the Lower Wallamet

falls into the Columbia. But for various reasons he found the business

on which he had entered unprofitable. He had much trouble with the

Indians, his men were killed or drowned, so that by the time he had half

a cargo of fish, he was ready to abandon the effort to establish a

commerce with the Oregon Indians, and was satisfied that no enterprise

less stupendous and powerful than that of the Hudson's Bay Company could

be long sustained in that country.

Much complaint was subsequently made by Americans, chiefly Missionaries,

of the conduct of that company in not allowing Mr. Wyeth to purchase

beaver skins of the Indians, but Mr. Wyeth himself made no such

complaint. Personally, he was treated with unvarying kindness, courtesy,

and hospitality. As a trader, they would not permit him to undersell

them. In truth, they no doubt wished him away; because competition would

soon ruin the business of either, and they liked not to have the Indians

taught to expect more than their furs were worth, nor to have the

Indians' confidence in themselves destroyed or tampered with.

The Hudson's Bay Company were hardly so unfriendly to him as the

American companies; since to the former he was enabled to sell his goods

and fort on the Snake River, before he returned to the United States,

which he did in 1835.

The sale of Fort Hall to the Hudson's Bay Company was a finishing blow

at the American fur trade in the Rocky Mountains, which after two or

three years of constantly declining profits, was entirely abandoned.

Something of the dangers incident to the life of the hunter and trapper

may be gathered from the following statements, made by various parties

who have been engaged in it. In 1808, a Missouri Company engaged in fur

hunting on the three forks of the river Missouri, were attacked by

Blackfeet, losing twenty-seven men, and being compelled to abandon the

country. In 1823, Mr. Ashley was attacked on the same river by the

Arickaras, and had twenty-six men killed. About the same time the

Missouri company lost seven men, and fifteen thousand dollars' worth of

merchandise on the Yellowstone River. A few years previous, Major Henry

lost, on the Missouri River, six men and fifty horses. In the sketch

given of Smith's trading adventures is shown how uncertain were life and

property at a later period. Of the two hundred men whom Wyeth led into

the Indian country, only about forty were alive at the end of three

years. There was, indeed, a constant state of warfare between the

Indians and the whites, wherever the American Companies hunted, in which

great numbers of both lost their lives. Add to this cause of decimation

the perils from wild beasts, famine, cold, and all manner of accidents,

and the trapper's chance of life was about one in three.

Of the causes which have produced the enmity of the Indians, there are

about as many. It was found to be the case almost universally, that on

the first visit of the whites the natives were friendly, after their

natural fears had been allayed. But by degrees their cupidity was

excited to possess themselves of the much coveted dress, arms, and goods

of their visitors. As they had little or nothing to offer in exchange,

which the white man considered an equivalent, they took the only method

remaining of gratifying their desire of possession, and _stole_ the

coveted articles which they could not purchase. When they learned that

the white men punished theft, they murdered to prevent the punishment.

Often, also, they had wrongs of their own to avenge. White men did not

always regard their property-rights. They were guilty of infamous

conduct toward Indian women. What one party of whites told them was

true, another plainly contradicted, leaving the lie between them. They

were overbearing toward the Indians on their own soil, exciting to

irrepressible hostility the natural jealousy of the inferior toward the

superior race, where both are free, which characterizes all people. In

short, the Indians were not without their grievances; and from barbarous

ignorance and wrong on one side, and intelligent wrong-doing on the

other, together with the misunderstandings likely to arise between two

entirely distinct races, grew constantly a thousand abuses, which

resulted in a deadly enmity between the two.

For several reasons this evil existed to a greater degree among the

American traders and trappers than among the British. The American

trapper was not, like the Hudson's Bay employees, bred to the business.

Oftener than any other way he was some wild youth who, after an

_escapade_ in the society of his native place, sought safety from

reproach or punishment in the wilderness. Or he was some disappointed

man who, with feelings embittered towards his fellows, preferred the

seclusion of the forest and mountain. Many were of a class disreputable

everywhere, who gladly embraced a life not subject to social laws. A few

were brave, independent, and hardy spirits, who delighted in the

hardships and wild adventures their calling made necessary. All these

men, the best with the worst, were subject to no will but their own; and

all experience goes to prove that a life of perfect liberty is apt to

degenerate into a life of license. Even their own lives, and those of

their companions, when it depended upon their own prudence, were but

lightly considered. The constant presence of danger made them reckless.

It is easy to conceive how, under these circumstances, the natives and

the foreigners grew to hate each other, in the Indian country;

especially after the Americans came to the determination to "shoot an

Indian at sight," unless he belonged to some tribe with whom they had

intermarried, after the manner of the trappers.

[Illustration: WATCHING FOR INDIAN HORSE-THIEVES.]

On the other hand, the employees of the Hudson's Bay Company were many

of them half-breeds or full-blooded Indians of the Iroquois nation,

towards whom nearly all the tribes were kindly disposed. Even the

Frenchmen who trapped for this company were well liked by the Indians on

account of their suavity of manner, and the ease with which they adapted

themselves to savage life. Besides most of them had native wives and

half-breed children, and were regarded as relatives. They were trained

to the life of a trapper, were subject to the will of the Company, and

were generally just and equitable in their dealings with the Indians,

according to that company's will, and the dictates of prudence. Here was

a wide difference.

Notwithstanding this, there were many dangers to be encountered. The

hostility of some of the tribes could never be overcome; nor has it ever

abated. Such were the Crows, the Blackfeet, the Cheyennes, the Apaches,

the Camanches. Only a superior force could compel the friendly offices

of these tribes for any white man, and then their treachery was as

dangerous as their open hostility.

It happened, therefore, that although the Hudson's Bay Company lost

comparatively few men by the hands of the Indians, they sometimes found

them implacable foes in common with the American trappers; and

frequently one party was very glad of the others' assistance.

Altogether, as has before been stated, the loss of life was immense in

proportion to the number employed.

Very few of those who had spent years in the Rocky Mountains ever

returned to the United States. With their Indian wives and half-breed

children, they scattered themselves throughout Oregon, until when, a

number of years after the abandonment of the fur trade, Congress donated

large tracts of land to actual settlers, they laid claim, each to his

selected portion, and became active citizens of their adopted state.

[Illustration: MAP OF THE FUR COUNTRY.]

A TRAPPER AND PIONEER'S LIFE.

CHAPTER I.

As has been stated in the Introduction, Joseph L. Meek was a native of

Washington Co., Va. Born in the early part of the present century, and

brought up on a plantation where the utmost liberty was accorded to the

"young massa;" preferring out-door sports with the youthful bondsmen of

his father, to study with the bald-headed schoolmaster who furnished him

the alphabet on a paddle; possessing an exhaustless fund of waggish

humor, united to a spirit of adventure and remarkable personal strength,

he unwittingly furnished in himself the very material of which the

heroes of the wilderness were made. Virginia, "the mother of

Presidents," has furnished many such men, who, in the early days of the

now populous Western States, became the hardy frontiers-men, or the

fearless Indian fighters who were the bone and sinew of the land.

When young Joe was about eighteen years of age, he wearied of the

monotony of plantation life, and jumping into the wagon of a neighbor

who was going to Louisville, Ky., started out in life for himself. He

"reckoned they did not grieve for him at home;" at which conclusion

others besides Joe naturally arrive on hearing of his heedless

disposition, and utter contempt for the ordinary and useful employments

to which other men apply themselves.

Joe probably believed that should his father grieve for him, his

step-mother would be able to console him; this step-mother, though a

pious and good woman, not being one of the lad's favorites, as might

easily be conjectured. It was such thoughts as these that kept up his

resolution to seek the far west. In the autumn of 1828 he arrived in St.

Louis, and the following spring he fell in with Mr. Wm. Sublette, of the

Rocky Mountain Fur Company, who was making his annual visit to that

frontier town to purchase merchandise for the Indian country, and pick

up recruits for the fur-hunting service. To this experienced leader he

offered himself.

[Illustration: THE ENLISTMENT.]

"How old are you?" asked Sublette.

"A little past eighteen."

"And you want to go to the Rocky Mountains?"

"Yes."

"You don't know what you are talking about, boy. You'll be killed before

you get half way there."

"If I do, I reckon I can die!" said Joe, with a flash of his fall dark

eyes, and throwing back his shoulders to show their breadth.

"Come," exclaimed the trader, eyeing the youthful candidate with

admiration, and perhaps a touch of pity also; "that is the game spirit.

I think you'll do, after all. Only be prudent, and keep your wits about

you."

"Where else should they be?" laughed Joe, as he marched off, feeling an

inch or two taller than before.

Then commenced the business of preparing for the journey--making

acquaintance with the other recruits--enjoying the novelty of owning an

outfit, being initiated into the mysteries of camp duty by the few old

hunters who were to accompany the expedition, and learning something of

their swagger and disregard of civilized observances.

On the 17th of March, 1829, the company, numbering about sixty men, left

St. Louis, and proceeded on horses and mules, with pack-horses for the

goods, up through the state of Missouri. Camp-life commenced at the

start; and this being the season of the year when the weather is most

disagreeable, its romance rapidly melted away with the snow and sleet

which varied the sharp spring wind and the frequent cold rains. The

recruits went through all the little mishaps incident to the business

and to their inexperience, such as involuntary somersaults over the

heads of their mules, bloody noses, bruises, dusty faces, bad colds,

accidents in fording streams,--yet withal no very serious hurts or

hindrances. Rough weather and severe exercise gave them wolfish

appetites, which sweetened the coarse camp-fare and amateur cooking.

Getting up at four o'clock of a March morning to kindle fires and

attend to the animals was not the most delectable duty that our

labor-despising young recruit could have chosen; but if he repented of

the venture he had made nobody was the wiser. Sleeping of stormy nights

in corn-cribs or under sheds, could not be by any stretch of imagination

converted into a highly romantic or heroic mode of lodging one's self.

The squalid manner of living of the few inhabitants of Missouri at this

period, gave a forlorn aspect to the country which is lacking in the

wilderness itself;--a thought which sometimes occurred to Joe like a

hope for the future. Mountain-fare he began to think must be better than

the boiled corn and pork of the Missourians. Antelope and buffalo meat

were more suitable viands for a hunter than coon and opossum. Thus those

very duties which seemed undignified, and those hardships without danger

or glory, which marked the beginning of his career made him ambitious of

a more free and hazardous life on the plains and in the mountains.

Among the recruits was a young man not far from Joe's own age, named

Robert Newell, from Ohio. One morning, when the company was encamped

near Boonville, the two young men were out looking for their mules, when

they encountered an elderly woman returning from the milking yard with a

gourd of milk. Newell made some remark on the style of vessel she

carried, when she broke out in a sharp voice,--

"Young chap, I'll bet you run off from your mother! Who'll mend them

holes in the elbow of your coat? You're a purty looking chap to go to

the mountains, among them Injuns! They'll _kill_ you. You'd better go

back home!"

Considering that these frontier people knew what Indian fighting was,

this was no doubt sound and disinterested advice, notwithstanding it

was given somewhat sharply. And so the young men felt it to be; but it

was not in the nature of either of them to turn back from a course

because there was danger in it. The thought of home, and somebody to

mend their coats, was, however, for the time strongly presented. But the

company moved on, with undiminished numbers, stared at by the few

inhabitants, and having their own little adventures, until they came to

Independence, the last station before committing themselves to the

wilderness.

At this place, which contained a dwelling-house, cotton-gin, and

grocery, the camp tarried for a few days to adjust the packs, and

prepare for a final start across the plains. On Sunday the settlers got

together for a shooting-match, in which some of the travelers joined,

without winning many laurels. Coon-skins, deer-skins, and bees-wax

changed hands freely among the settlers, whose skill with the rifle was

greater than their hoard of silver dollars. This was the last vestige of

civilization which the company could hope to behold for years; and rude

as it was, yet won from them many a parting look as they finally took

their way across the plains toward the Arkansas River.

Often on this part of the march a dead silence fell upon the party,

which remained unbroken for miles of the way. Many no doubt were

regretting homes by them abandoned, or wondering dreamily how many and

whom of that company would ever see the Missouri country again. Many

indeed went the way the woman of the gourd had prophesied; but not the

hero of this story, nor his comrade Newell.

The route of Captain Sublette led across the country from near the mouth

of the Kansas River to the River Arkansas; thence to the South Fork of

the Platte; thence on to the North Fork of that River, to where Ft.

Laramie now stands; thence up the North Fork to the Sweetwater, and

thence across in a still northwesterly direction to the head of Wind

River.

The manner of camp-travel is now so well known through the writings of

Irving, and still more from the great numbers which have crossed the

plains since _Astoria_ and _Bonneville_ were written, that it would be

superfluous here to enter upon a particular description of a train on

that journey. A strict half-military discipline had to be maintained,

regular duties assigned to each person, precautions taken against the

loss of animals either by straying or Indian stampeding, etc. Some of

the men were appointed as camp-keepers, who had all these things to look

after, besides standing guard. A few were selected as hunters, and these

were free to come and go, as their calling required. None but the most

experienced were chosen for hunters, on a march; therefore our recruit

could not aspire to that dignity yet.

The first adventure the company met with worthy of mention after leaving

Independence, was in crossing the country between the Arkansas and the

Platte. Here the camp was surprised one morning by a band of Indians a

thousand strong, that came sweeping down upon them in such warlike style

that even Captain Sublette was fain to believe it his last battle. Upon

the open prairie there is no such thing as flight, nor any cover under

which to conceal a party even for a few moments. It is always fight or

die, if the assailants are in the humor for war.

Happily on this occasion the band proved to be more peaceably disposed

than their appearance indicated, being the warriors of several

tribes--the Sioux, Arapahoes, Kiowas, and Cheyennes, who had been

holding a council to consider probably what mischief they could do to

some other tribes. The spectacle they presented as they came at full

speed on horseback, armed, painted, brandishing their weapons, and

yelling in first-rate Indian style, was one which might well strike with

a palsy the stoutest heart and arm. What were a band of sixty men

against a thousand armed warriors in full fighting trim, with spears,

shields, bows, battle-axes, and not a few guns?

But it is the rule of the mountain-men to _fight_--and that there is a

chance for life until the breath is out of the body; therefore Captain

Sublette had his little force drawn up in line of battle. On came the

savages, whooping and swinging their weapons above their heads. Sublette

turned to his men. "When you hear my shot, then fire." Still they came

on, until within about fifty paces of the line of waiting men. Sublette

turned his head, and saw his command with their guns all up to their

faces ready to fire, then raised his own gun. Just at this moment the

principal chief sprang off his horse and laid his weapon on the ground,

making signs of peace. Then followed a talk, and after the giving of a

considerable present, Sublette was allowed to depart. This he did with

all dispatch, the company putting as much distance as possible between

themselves and their visitors before making their next camp. Considering

the warlike character of these tribes and their superior numbers, it was

as narrow an escape on the part of the company as it was an exceptional

freak of generosity on the part of the savages to allow it. But Indians

have all a great respect for a man who shows no fear; and it was most

probably the warlike movement of Captain Sublette and his party which

inspired a willingness on the part of the chief to accept a present,

when he had the power to have taken the whole train. Besides, according

to Indian logic, the present cost him nothing, and it might cost him

many warriors to capture the train. Had there been the least wavering

on Sublette's part, or fear in the countenances of his men, the end of

the affair would have been different. This adventure was a grand

initiation of the raw recruits, giving them both an insight into savage

modes of attack, and an opportunity to test their own nerve.

The company proceeded without accident, and arrived, about the first of

July, at the rendezvous, which was appointed for this year on the Popo

Agie, one of the streams which form the head-waters of Bighorn River.

Now, indeed, young Joe had an opportunity of seeing something of the

life upon which he had entered. As customary, when the traveling partner

arrived at rendezvous with the year's merchandise, there was a meeting

of all the partners, if they were within reach of the appointed place.

On this occasion Smith was absent on his tour through California and

Western Oregon, as has been related in the prefatory chapter. Jackson,

the resident partner, and commander for the previous year, was not yet

in; and Sublette had just arrived with the goods from St. Louis.

All the different hunting and trapping parties and Indian allies were

gathered together, so that the camp contained several hundred men, with

their riding and pack-horses. Nor were Indian women and children wanting

to give variety and an appearance of domesticity to the scene.

[Illustration: _THE SUMMER RENDEZVOUS._]

The Summer rendezvous was always chosen in some valley where there was

grass for the animals, and game for the camp. The plains along the Popo

Agie, besides furnishing these necessary bounties, were bordered by

picturesque mountain ranges, whose naked bluffs of red sandstone glowed

in the morning and evening sun with a mellowness of coloring charming to

the eye of the Virginia recruit. The waving grass of the plain,

variegated with wild flowers; the clear summer heavens flecked with

white clouds that threw soft shadows in passing; the grazing animals

scattered about the meadows; the lodges of the _Booshways_,[A] around

which clustered the camp in motley garb and brilliant coloring; gay

laughter, and the murmur of soft Indian voices, all made up a most

spirited and enchanting picture, in which the eye of an artist could not

fail to delight.

[A] Leaders or chiefs--corrupted from the French of Bourgeois, and

borrowed from the Canadians.

But as the goods were opened the scene grew livelier. All were eager to

purchase, most of the trappers to the full amount of their year's wages;

and some of them, generally free trappers, went in debt to the company

to a very considerable amount, after spending the value of a year's

labor, privation, and danger, at the rate of several hundred dollars in

a single day.

The difference between a hired and a free trapper was greatly in favor

of the latter. The hired trapper was regularly indentured, and bound not

only to hunt and trap for his employers, but also to perform any duty

required of him in camp. The Booshway, or the trader, or the partisan,

(leader of the detachment,) had him under his command, to make him take

charge of, load and unload the horses, stand guard, cook, hunt fuel, or,

in short, do any and every duty. In return for this toilsome service he

received an outfit of traps, arms and ammunition, horses, and whatever

his service required. Besides his outfit, he received no more than three

or four hundred dollars a year as wages.

There was also a class of free trappers, who were furnished with their

outfit by the company they trapped for, and who were obliged to agree to

a certain stipulated price for their furs before the hunt commenced.

But the genuine free trapper regarded himself as greatly the superior of

either of the foregoing classes. He had his own horses and

accoutrements, arms and ammunition. He took what route he thought fit,

hunted and trapped when and where he chose; traded with the Indians;

sold his furs to whoever offered highest for them; dressed flauntingly,

and generally had an Indian wife and half-breed children. They prided

themselves on their hardihood and courage; even on their recklessness

and profligacy. Each claimed to own the best horse; to have had the

wildest adventures; to have made the most narrow escapes; to have killed

the greatest number of bears and Indians; to be the greatest favorite

with the Indian belles, the greatest consumer of alcohol, and to have

the most money to spend, _i. e._ the largest credit on the books of the

company. If his hearers did not believe him, he was ready to run a race

with him, to beat him at "old sledge," or to fight, if fighting was

preferred,--ready to prove what he affirmed in any manner the company

pleased.

If the free trapper had a wife, she moved with the camp to which he

attached himself, being furnished with a fine horse, caparisoned in the

gayest and costliest manner. Her dress was of the finest goods the

market afforded, and was suitably ornamented with beads, ribbons,

fringes, and feathers. Her rank, too, as a free trapper's wife, gave her

consequence not only in her own eyes, but in those of her tribe, and

protected her from that slavish drudgery to which as the wife of an

Indian hunter or warrior she would have been subject. The only authority

which the free trapper acknowledged was that of his Indian spouse, who

generally ruled in the lodge, however her lord blustered outside.

One of the free trapper's special delights was to take in hand the raw

recruits, to gorge their wonder with his boastful tales, and to amuse

himself with shocking his pupil's civilized notions of propriety. Joe

Meek did not escape this sort of "breaking in;" and if it should appear

in the course of this narrative that he proved an apt scholar, it will

but illustrate a truth--that high spirits and fine talents tempt the

tempter to win them over to his ranks. But Joe was not won over all at

once. He beheld the beautiful spectacle of the encampment as it has been

described, giving life and enchantment to the summer landscape, changed

into a scene of the wildest carousal, going from bad to worse, until

from harmless noise and bluster it came to fighting and loss of life. At

this first rendezvous he was shocked to behold the revolting exhibition

of four trappers playing at a game of cards with the dead body of a

comrade for a card-table! Such was the indifference to all the natural

and ordinary emotions which these veterans of the wilderness cultivated

in themselves, and inculcated in those who came under their influence.

Scenes like this at first had the effect to bring feelings of

home-sickness, while it inspired by contrast a sort of penitential and

religious feeling also. According to Meek's account of those early days

in the mountains, he said some secret prayers, and shed some secret

tears. But this did not last long. The force of example, and especially

the force of ridicule, is very potent with the young; nor are we quite

free from their influence later in life.

If the gambling, swearing, drinking, and fighting at first astonished

and alarmed the unsophisticated Joe, he found at the same time something

to admire, and that he felt to be congenial with his own disposition, in

the fearlessness, the contempt of sordid gain, the hearty merriment and

frolicsome abandon of the better portion of the men about him. A spirit

of emulation arose in him to become as brave as the bravest, as hardy as

the hardiest, and as gay as the gayest, even while his feelings still

revolted at many things which his heroic models were openly guilty of.

If at any time in the future course of this narrative, Joe is discovered

to have taken leave of his early scruples, the reader will considerately

remember the associations by which he was surrounded for years, until

the memory of the pious teachings of his childhood was nearly, if not

quite, obliterated. To "nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in

malice," should be the frame of mind in which both the writer and reader

of Joe's adventures should strive to maintain himself.

Before our hero is ushered upon the active scenes of a trapper's life,

it may be well to present to the reader a sort of _guide to camp life_,

in order that he may be able to understand some of its technicalities,

as they may be casually mentioned hereafter.

When the large camp is on the march, it has a leader, generally one of

the Booshways, who rides in advance, or at the head of the column.

Near him is a led mule, chosen for its qualities of speed and

trustworthiness, on which are packed two small trunks that balance each

other like panniers, and which contain the company's books, papers, and

articles of agreement with the men. Then follow the pack animals, each

one bearing three packs--one on each side, and one on top--so nicely

adjusted as not to slip in traveling. These are in charge of certain men

called camp-keepers, who have each three of these to look after. The

trappers and hunters have two horses, or mules, one to ride, and one to

pack their traps. If there are women and children in the train, all are

mounted. Where the country is safe, the caravan moves in single file,

often stretching out for half or three-quarters of a mile. At the end

of the column rides the second man, or "little Booshway," as the men

call him; usually a hired officer, whose business it is to look after

the order and condition of the whole camp.

[Illustration: MULE PACKING.]

On arriving at a suitable spot to make the night camp, the leader stops,

dismounts in the particular space which is to be devoted to himself in

its midst. The others, as they come up, form a circle; the "second man"

bringing up the rear, to be sure all are there. He then proceeds to

appoint every man a place in the circle, and to examine the horses'

backs to see if any are sore. The horses are then turned out, under a

guard, to graze; but before darkness comes on are placed inside the

ring, and picketed by a stake driven in the earth, or with two feet so

tied together as to prevent easy or free locomotion. The men are divided

into messes: so many trappers and so many camp-keepers to a mess. The

business of eating is not a very elaborate one, where the sole article

of diet is meat, either dried or roasted. By a certain hour all is quiet

in camp, and only the guard is awake. At times during the night, the

leader, or the officer of the guard, gives the guard a challenge--"all's

well!" which is answered by "all's well!"

In the morning at daylight, or sometimes not till sunrise, according to

the safe or dangerous locality, the second man comes forth from his

lodge and cries in French, "_leve, leve, leve, leve, leve!_" fifteen or

twenty times, which is the command to rise. In about five minutes more

he cries out again, in French, "_leche lego, leche lego!_" or turn out,

turn out; at which command all come out from the lodges, and the horses

are turned loose to feed; but not before a horseman has galloped all

round the camp at some distance, and discovered every thing to be safe

in the neighborhood. Again, when the horses have been sufficiently fed,

under the eye of a guard, they are driven up, the packs replaced, the

train mounted, and once more it moves off, in the order before

mentioned.

In a settled camp, as in winter, there are other regulations. The leader

and the second man occupy the same relative positions; but other minor

regulations are observed. The duty of a trapper, for instance, in the

trapping season, is only to trap, and take care of his own horses. When

he comes in at night, he takes his beaver to the clerk, and the number

is counted off, and placed to his credit. Not he, but the camp-keepers,

take off the skins and dry them. In the winter camp there are six

persons to a lodge: four trappers and two camp-keepers; therefore the

trappers are well waited upon, their only duty being to hunt, in turns,

for the camp. When a piece of game is brought in,--a deer, an antelope,

or buffalo meat,--it is thrown down on the heap which accumulates in

front of the Booshway's lodge; and the second man stands by and cuts it

up, or has it cut up for him. The first man who chances to come along,

is ordered to stand still and turn his back to the pile of game, while

the "little Booshway" lays hold of a piece that has been cut off, and

asks in a loud voice--"who will have this?"--and the man answering for

him, says, "the Booshway," or perhaps "number six," or "number

twenty"--meaning certain messes; and the number is called to come and

take their meat. In this blind way the meat is portioned off; strongly

reminding one of the game of "button, button, who has the button?" In

this chance game of the meat, the Booshway fares no better than his men;

unless, in rare instances, the little Booshway should indicate to the

man who calls off, that a certain choice piece is designed for the mess

of the leader or the second man.

A gun is never allowed to be fired in camp under any provocation, short

of an Indian raid; but the guns are frequently inspected, to see if they

are in order; and woe to the careless camp-keeper who neglects this or

any other duty. When the second man comes around, and finds a piece of

work imperfectly done, whether it be cleaning the firearms, making a

hair rope, or a skin lodge, or washing a horse's back, he does not

threaten the offender with personal chastisement, but calls up another

man and asks him, "Can _you_ do this properly?"

"Yes, sir."

"I will give you ten dollars to do it;" and the ten dollars is set down

to the account of the inefficient camp-keeper. But he does not risk

forfeiting another ten dollars in the same manner.

In the spring, when the camp breaks up, the skins which have been used

all winter for lodges are cut up to make moccasins: because from their

having been thoroughly smoked by the lodge fires they do not shrink in

wetting, like raw skins. This is an important quality in a moccasin, as

a trapper is almost constantly in the water, and should not his

moccasins be smoked they will close upon his feet, in drying, like a

vice. Sometimes after trapping all day, the tired and soaked trapper

lies down in his blankets at night, still wet. But by-and-by he is

wakened by the pinching of his moccasins, and is obliged to rise and

seek the water again to relieve himself of the pain. For the same

reason, when spring comes, the trapper is forced to cut off the lower

half of his buckskin breeches, and piece them down with blanket leggins,

which he wears all through the trapping season.

Such were a few of the peculiarities, and the hardships also, of a life

in the Rocky Mountains. If the camp discipline, and the dangers and

hardships to which a raw recruit was exposed, failed to harden him to

the service in one year, he was rejected as a "trifling fellow," and

sent back to the settlement the next year. It was not probable,

therefore, that the mountain-man often was detected in complaining at

his lot. If he was miserable, he was laughed at; and he soon learned to

laugh at his own miseries, as well as to laugh back at his comrades.