Walla Walla County, Washington - Biographical sketches (1 of 2 so headed), 1901 (part 1 of 2)

Introduction

The opening of a new century is a fitting time to cast a backward glance in our local history, reconstruct to the eye of the present the interesting and heroic events of the past, and by comparison between past and present forecast something of the future.

Old Oregon Territory, of which this county and this state were once parts, with its isolation, its pathos, its hospitality, has passed away. It had a strange history. It was the ignis fatiiiis of successive generations of explorers, luring them on with that indescribal)le fascination which seems always to have drawn men tc the ever-receding circle of the "Westmost West," and yet for years and years veiling itself in the mists of uncertainty and misapprehension.

We do not usually realize how soon after the time of Columbus there began to be attempts to reach the western ocean and to solve the nn'stery of the various passages, northwest, southwest, and west, which were supposed to lead through the Americas to Asia. The old navigators had little conception of the breadth of this continent. They thought it to lie but a few leagues across, and took for granted that some of the many arms of the

In 1500, only eight years after Columbus, Gasper Cortereal, the Portuguese, conceived the idea of entering what afterwards became known as Hudson's Bay and proceeding thence westward through what he called the Strait of Anian. That mythical Strait of Anian seems to have had a strange charm for the old navigators. One of them, Maldonado, a good many years later, gave a very connected and apparently veracious account of his journey through that strait, averring that through it he reached another ocean in latitude 75. But by means of Magellan's Straits and the douljling of stormy Cape Horn, a connection between the two oceans was actually discovered in 15 19.

In 1543 Ferrelo, a Spaniard, coasted along the shores of California, and was doubtless the first white man to gaze on the coast of Oregon, probably somewhere in the \icinity of the mouth of the Umpqua river.

In 1577 that boldest and most picturesque of all English sailors and freebooters, Francis Drake, started on the marvellous voyage l:)y which he ])lundered the treasures of the Span-

3sh Main, cut the golden girdle of Manila, -queen of the treasuries of the Spanish orient, skirted the coast of California, Oregon and Washington, and at last circumnavigated the ^lobe.

But in 1592, just one hundred years after Columbus, comes the most picturesque of all those misty stories which enwrap the early history of Oregon. This is the story of Juan de Fuca, whose name is now preserved in our northwest boundary strait. According to this romantic tale of the seas. Juan de Fuca was a Greek of Cephalonia, whose real name was Apostolos Valerianos, and under commission of the king of Spain, he sailed to find that Strait of Anian, whose entrance the Spaniards wanted to fortify and guard so as to prevent ingress or egress by the English freebooters Avho were preying on their commerce. According to the account given by Michael Lock, "he followed his course in that voyage, west .and northwest in the South Sea, all along the -coast of Nova Spania, and California and the Indies, now called North America (all which voyage he signified to me in a great map, and a sea-card of my own, which I laid before him), until he came to the latitude of 47 degrees; and that, there finding that the land trended north and northwest, with a broad inlet of sea, between 47 and 48 degrees of latitude, he entered thereinto, sailing more than twenty days, and found that land still trending northwest, and northeast, and north, and also east and southeastward, and \ery much broader sea than was at the saitl entrance, and that he passed by divers ishuuls in that sailing: and that, at the entrance of the said strait, there is, on the northwest coast thereof, a great headland or island, with an exceedingly high pinnacle or spired mck. like a ])illar, thereupon. Also he said that he went on land in divers places, and that he saw some people on the land clad in beasts' skins : and that the land was very fruitful and rich of gold, silver and pearls, and other things, like Nova Spania. Also he said that he being entered thus far into the said strait, and being come into the North Sea already, and finding the sea wide enough e\-erywhere, and to be about thirty or forty leagues witle in the mouth of the straits where he enteretl, he thought he had now well discharged his office ; and that, not being armed to resist the force of savage people that might happen, he therefore set sail and turned homeward again toward Nova Spania, where he arrived at Acapulco, Anno 1593, hoping to be rewarded by the Viceroy for this service done in the said voyage."

This curious bit of past record has been interpreted bv some as pure m_\'th, and by others as \-eritable history. It is at any rate a generally accurate outline description of the Straits of Fuca, the Gulf of Georgia and the shores of \'ancouver Island and the mainland adjoining. And whether or not the old Greek pilot did actually exist and first look on our "Mediterranean of the Pacific," it is pleasant ti) imagine that he did, and that his name fittingly preserves the memory of the grand old myth of Anian and the northwest passage.

There is one other more obviously mythical tale concerning our northwest coast. It is said that in the year 1640 Admiral Pedro de Fonte, of the Spanish marine, made the jciurne_\- from the .\tlantic to the Pacific and return, through a system of rivers and straits, entering the coast at ab. ut latitude 53. Coming from Callao in April, 1640. and after having sailed for a long distance through an archipelago, he entered the mouth of a vast river, which he named Rio de Los Reyes. Ascendino- this for a long distance northeast-

-erly, he reached an immense lake, on whose -shores he found a weaUhy and civiHzed nation, wiio had a capital city of great splendor called Conasset. and who welcomed the strangers with lavish hospitality. From this lake flowed another river easterly, and down this Fonte descended until he reached another great lake, from which a narrow strait led into the Atlantic ocean.

There is one curious thing about these legendary voyages, and that is the general accuracy of their descriptions of the coast. Although these accounts are unquestionably mythical, it is not impossible that their authors had actually visited the coast or had seen those who had, and thus gathered the material from which they fabricated, with such an appearance of plausibility, their Munchausen tales.

We are briefly referring to these fascinating old legends, not for the purpose of discussir.g them here at any length, but rather to remind the reader of the long period of romance and myth which enveloped the early history of our state. J^Iany years passed after the age of myth before there were authentic \-oyages. During the seventeenth century practically nothing was done in the way of Pacific coast exploration. But in the eighteenth, as by common consent, all the nations of Europe became suddenly infatuated again with the thought that on the western shores of America might be found the gold and silver and gems and furs and jjrecimis woods, f(jr which they had been striving so desperately upnn the eastern coast. English, French. Spanish, I\)rtuguese, Dutch. Russian and .\merican. ei'.tered their bold and hardy sailors into the race for the possession of the l.'uid of the Occident. The Russians were the first in the field. That gigantic power, which the genius of Peter the Great had suddenly transformed.

like one of the fabled genii, from the proportions of a grain of sand to a figure overtopping the whole earth, had stretched its arms from the Baltic to the Aleutian Archipelago, and had looked southward across the frozen seas of Siberia to the open Pacific as offering them another opportunity of expansion. Many years passed, however, before Peter's designs could Jje e-xecuted. It was 1728 when Vitus Behring entered upon his marvellous life of exploration. Not until 1741, however, did he thread the thousand islands of Alaska and gaze upon the glaciated summit of Mt. St. Elias. And it was not until thirty years later that it was known that the Bay of Avatscha, in Siberia, was connected by open sea with China. In 1771 the first cargo of furs was taken directly from Avatscha, the chief port of eastern Siberia, to Canton. Then first Europe realized the vastness of the Pacific ocean. Then it understood that the same waters which frowned against the frozen bulwarks of Kamtchatka washed the tropic islands of the South Seas and foamed against the storm-swept rocks of Cape Horn. Meantime, while Russia was thus becoming established upon the shores of Alaska, Spain was getting entire possession of California. These two great nations began to overlap each other. Russians became established near San Francisco. To oft'set this movement of Russia, a group of Spanish explorers, Perez, Martinez, Heceta, Bodega, and Maurelle, swarmed up the coast beyond the present site of Sitka.

England, in alarm at tlie progress made by .Spain and Russia, sent out the Columbus of the eighteenth century, in the person of Captain James Cook, and he .^ailed up and down the coast of Alaska and of Washington, but failed to discover either the Columlna river or the Straits of Fuca.

Xevertheless liis labors did more to establish true geographical notions than had the combined efforts of all the Spanish navigators who had preceded him. His voyages materially strengthened England's claim to Oregon, and added greatly to the Inster of her name. The great captain, while temporarily on shore, was killed by Indians in 1778. and the command devoh-ed ujion Captain Clerkg. who sailed northward, passing through Behring Strait to the Arctic ocean. The new commander died before the expeditii)n hail proceeded far on its return journey. Lieutenant Gore, a Virginian, assumed control and sailed to Canton. China. arri\-ing late in the year.

The main purpose of this expedition had been the discovery of a northern waterway between the two oceans and the extending of Briti.-h territory, hut, as is so often the case in human affairs, one of the most important results of the voyage was entirely unsuspected by the navigators and practically the i)utcome of an accident. It so happened that the two vessels of the expedition, the Resolution an<l the Discovery, toiik witli them to China a small collection of furs from the northwest coast of America. These were purchased by the Chinese with great avidity, the people exhibiting a willingness to barter commodities of much value for them and endeavoring to secure them at almost any sacrifice. The sailors were not backward in communicating their discovery of a new and promising market for peltries, and the impetus imparted to the fur trade was almost immeasurable in its ultimate effects. An entirely new regime was inau.gurated in Chinese and East India commerce. The north- W'Cst coast of America assumed a new importance in the eyes of Europeans and especially of the British. The "struggle for possession" soon began to be foreshadowed.

One of the principal harbors resorted to by fur-trading vessels was Xootka, used as a rendezvous and principal port of departure. This port became the scene of a clash between Spanish authorities and certain British vessels which greatly strained the frienilly relations existing between the two governments represented. In 1779. the viceroy of Mexico sent two ships, the Princesa and San Carlos, to convey Martinez and De Haro to the vicinity for the purpose of anticipating and pre\-enting the occupancy of Xootka sound by fur-traders of other nations and that the Spanish title to the territory might be maintained and confirmed. ?klartinez was to base his claim upon the discovery by Perez in 1774. Courtesy was to be extendeil to foreign vessels, but the establishment of any claim prejudicial to the rights of the Spanish crown was to be vigoriiusly resisted.

L'lii.m the arrival of Martinez in the harbor, it was discovered that the American vessel Columbia, and the Iphigenia. a British ship, under a Portuguese flag, were lying in the harbor. Martinez at once demandetl the i)apers of b<ith vessels and an explanation of their presence, vigorously asserting the claim of Spain that the port and contiguous territory were h.ers. Tlie captain of the Iphigenia pleailed stress of weather. On finding that the vessel's papers c unmanded the capture, under certain conditions, of Russian, Spanish or English vessels. Martinez seized the ship, but on being advised that the orders relating to captures were intended only to ap])ly to the defense of the vessel, the Spaniard released the Iphigenia and her cargo. The Xorthwest America, another vessel of the same expedition. was. however, seized by Martinez a little later.

divested themselves of their true natiimal character and donned the insignia of Portugal, their reasons being: first, to defraud the Chinese government, which made special harbor rates to the Portuguese, and second, to defraud the East India Company, to whom had l^een granted the right of trading in furs in northwest America to the exclusion of all other British subjects, except such as should obtain the permission of the company. To maintain tlieir Portuguese nationality, they had placed the expedition nominall}- under the control of Juan Cavalho, a Portuguese trader. Prior to the time of the trouble in Nootka, however, Cavalho had become a bankrupt and new arrangements had become necessary. The English traders were compelled to unite their interests with those of King George's Sound Company, a mercantile association operating under license from the South Sea and East India Companies, the Portuguese colors had been laid aside and the true national character of the expedition assumed. Captain Colnutt was placed in command of the enterprise as constituted under the new regime with instructions among other things "to establish a factory to be called Fort Pitt, for the purpose of permanent settlement, and as a center of trade around which other stations may be established."

One vessel of the expedition, the Princess Royal, entered Nootka harbor without molestation, but when the Argonaut, under command of Captain Colnutt, arrived, it was thought best l)y the master not to attempt an entrance to the bay lest his vessel should meet the same fate which had befallen the Iphigenia and the Northwest America. Later, Colnutt called on Martinez and informed the Spanisli governor of his intention to take possession of the countrv in the name of Great

Britain and to erect a fort. The governor replied that possession had already been taken in the name of his Catholic majesty and that such acts as he (Colnutt) contemplated could not be allowed. An altercation followed and the next day the Argonaut was seized and her captain and crew placed under arrest. The Princess Royal was also seized, though the American vessels in the harbor were in no way molested.

After an extended and at times heated controversy between Spain and Great Britain touching these seizures, the former government consented to make reparation and offered a suitable apology for the indignity to the honor of the tlag. The feature of this correspondence of greatest import in the future history of the territory affected is that through-* out the entire controversy and in all the royal messages and the debates of parliament, no word was spoken asserting a claim of Great Britain to any territorial rights or denying the claim of sovereignty so positively and persistently avowed by Spain, neither was Spanish sovereignty denied or in anv way alienated by the treaty which followed. Certain real property was restored to British subjects, but a transfer of realty is not a transfer of sovereignty.

We pass over the voyage of the illustrious French navigator, La Perouse, as of more importance from a scientific than from a political standpoint, neither can we dwell upon the explorations of Captain Berkley, to whom belongs the honor of having ascertained the existence of the strait afterward denominated Juan de Fuca. Of somewhat greater moment in the later history of the northwest are the \(jyages of Meares, who entered and described th.e al)o\-e mentioned strait, and who, in 1788, explored the coast at the \Knnt where the great

Columbia mingles its crystal current with the waters of the sea. In the diplomatic battle of later days, it was even claimed by some that he was the discoverer of that great "River of the West." Howbeit, nothing can be surer than that the existence of such a river was utterly unkniiwn t<i him at the time. Indeed his conviction <>{ its non-existence was thus started in his own account of the voyage : "W^e can now with safety assert that there is no such river as St. Roc (of the Spaniard, Heceta) exists, as laid dnwn in the Spanish charts," and he gave a further une(|uivocal expression of his opinion by naming the bay in that vicinity Deception Bay and the promontory north cif it Ca])e Disapjiointment. "Disappointed and deceived," remarks Evans facetiously, "he continued his cruise SdUthward to latitude forty-five degrees north."

It is not without sentiments of patriotic pride, that we now turn our attention to a period of discovery in which the vessels of our own nation plaxed a prominent ]iart. The northern mystery, which had been partially resolved by the Spanish, English, French and Portuguese explorations, was now to be completely robbed of its mystic charm, s]:)eculation and myth nuist now give place to exact knowledge, the game of discovery must hereafter be played principally between the two Ijranches of the .\nglo-Saxon race, and Anglo-Saxon energy, thoroughness and zeal are henceforth to characterize operations on thi shores of the Pacific northwest. The L'nited States had but recently won their independence from the British Crown and their energies were finding a fit field of activity in the titanic task of national organization. Before the constitution had become the supreme law- of the land, however, the alert mind of the American had begun projecting voyages of discovery and trade to the northwest, and in September, 1788^ two vessels with the stars and stripes at their mastheads arrived at Nootka sound. Their presence in the harbor while the events culminating in the Nootka treaty were transpiring has already been alluded to. The vessels were the ship Columbia, Captain John Kendrick, and the sloop Washington, Captain Robert Gray, and the honor of having sent them to our shores belongs to one Joseph Barrel, a prominent merchant of Boston, and a man of high social standing and great influence. While one of the impelling motives of this enterprise had been the desire of commercial profit, the element of patriotism was not wholly lacking, and the \-essels were instructed to make what explorations and disco\-eries they might.

After remaining a time on the coast. Cap-- tain Kendrick transferred bis shiji's proi:)erty to the Washington, with the intention of taking a cruise in that vessel. Pie jilaced Ca]itain Gray in command of the Columbia, with instructions to return to Boston by way of the Sandwich Islands and China. This commission was successfully carrie<l out. Tlie vessel arrived in Boston in September, 1790, was received with great eclat, refitted by licr owners and again dispatched to the shores of the Pacific, with Captain Gray in command. In July, 1 79 1, tlie Columbia from Boston and the Washington from China met not far from the spot where they had separated nearly two years before. They were not to remain long in company, however, for Captain Gray soon started on a cruise southward. On April 29, 179J, Gray met \'ancou\er just below Cape Flattery and an interesting collof|u\' took place. \"ancouver communicatee! to the .\merican skipper the fact that he had not yet made any important discoveries, and Gray, with equal an<l map." He also informed Captain Van- Shortly afterward Vancouver came to couver that he had been "off the mouth of ai Cape Disappointment to explore the Columriver in latitude forty-six degrees, ten minutes, bia, of which he had heard indirectly from where the outset, or reflux, was so strong as Captain Gray. Lieutenant Broughton of Vanto prevent his entering for nine days." couver's expedition sailed over the bar, as-

The important information conveyed by cended the river a distance of more than one Gray seems to have greatly disturbed the e(|ui- hundred miles to the site of the present Vanpoise of Vancouver's mind. The entries in couver, and with a modesty truly remarkable, his log shfjw that he did not entirely credit "takes possession of the river and the country the statement of the .American, but that he in its vicinity in bis llritannic Majesty's name, was considerably perturbed is evidenced by having every reason to believe that the subthe fact that he tried to convince himself by jects of no other civilized nation or state had argument that Gray's statement could not have e\'er entered it before." This, too, though be been correct. The latitude assigned by the bad received a salute of one gun from an American was that of Cape Disappointment, .American vessel, the Jennie, on his entrance to and the existence of a river nKJUtli there, the bay. The lieutenant's claim was not to though affirmed by Heceta, had been deniecj remain forever unchallenged, as will appear by Meares ; Captain Cook also had failed to presently.

being. He continued his journey northward, mystic charm always possessed by a terra inpas.sed through the strait of Fuca, and engaged cognita was Ijecoming irresistible to adventurin a thorough and minute exploration of that ous spirits, and the possibilities of discovering

May 7th he entered the harbor which now The honor of pioneership in overland exbears his name and four days later he passed ploration belongs to Verendrye, wh j under through the breakers over the bar, and bis ves- authority of the governor-general of Xew

France, in 1773, set out on an expedition to the Rocky mountains from Canada. This explorer and his brother and sons maile many important explorations, but as they failed to find a pass th.rough the RocW mountains by which they could come to the Pacific side, their ad\-entures do not fall within the purview of our volume. They are said to ha\-e reached the present \icinity of Helena.

If. as seems highly probable, the events chronicled by La Page in his charming "Histoire de la Louisiane." published in 1758, should be taken as authentic, the first man to scale the Rocky mountains from the east and to make his way overland to the shores of the Pacific was a Yazoo Indian, Moncacht-ape or IMontcachabe by name. But "the first traveler to lead a party of civilized men through the territory of the Stony mountains to the South Sea" was Alexander Mackenzie, who, in 1793, reached the coast at fifty-two degrees, twentyfour minutes, forty-eight seconds north, leaving as a memorial of his visit, inscribed on a rock with vermilion and grease the words. "Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada by land. July 22, 1793-'" His field of discovery was also without the scope of our purpose, being too far north to figure prominently in the international complications of later years.

Western exploration by land, had, however, elicited the interest of one whose energy and force were sufficient to bring to a successful issue almost any undertaking worth the effort. While the other statesmen and legislators of his time were fully engaged with the problems of the moment, the great mind of Thomas Jefferson, endowed as it was with a range of vision and more comprehensive grasp of the true situation, was projecting exploring expeditions into the northwest. In 1786. while serving as minister to Paris, he had fallen in with the ardent Ledyard, who was on fire with the idea of opening a large and profitable fur-trade in the north Pacific region. To this young man, he had suggested the idea of journeying to Kamchatka, then in a Russian \-essel to Nootka sound, from which, as a starting point, he should make an exploring expedition easterly to the United States. Ledyard acted on the suggestion, but was arrested as a spy in the spring of 1787, by Russian officials, and so severely treated as to cause a failure of his health, and a consecjuent failure of his enterprise.

The next effort of Jeft'erson was made in 1792. when he proposed to the American Philosophical Society that it should engage a competent scientist "to explore northwest America from the eastward by ascending the Missouri, crossing the Rocky mountains, and descending the nearest river to the Pacific ocean." The idea was favoralily received. Captain Meriwether Lewis, who afterwards distinguished himself as one of the leaders of the Lewis and Clark expedition, offered his services, but for some reason Andre Michaux, a French botanist, was gi\-en the preference. IMichaux proceeded as far as Kentucky, but there received an order from the French minister, to whom, it seems, he also owed otedience, that he should relincjuish his appointment and engage upon the duties of another commission.

It was not until after the opening of the new century that another opportunity for furthering his favorite project presented itself. .An act of congress, under which tradinghouses had been established for facilitating commerce with the Indians, was about to expire by limitation, and President Jefferson, in recommending its continuance, seized the opportunity, to urge upon congress the adx'isability of fitting out an expedition the object of which should be ''to explore the Missouri river and sucli principal streams of it as, by its course of communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean, whether the Columbia. Oregon, Colorado, or any other ri\-er. may offer the most direct and practical water communication across the continent, for the purposes of commerce."

Congress voted an appropriation for the purpose, and the expedition was placed in ch.arge of Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (or Clarke). President Jefferson gave the explorers minute and particular instructions as to investigations to be made by them. They were to inform themselves should they reach the Pacific ocean, "of the circumsiances which may decide whether the furs of those parts may be collected as advantageously at the head of the Missouri (convenient as is supposed to the Colorado and Oregon or Columbia) as at Nootka sound or any other part of that coast; and the trade be constantly conducted through the ]\Iissouri and United States more beneficially than liy the circumnavigation now practiced." Li addition to the instructions already quoted, these explorers were directed to ascertain if possible on arriving at the seaboard if there were any ports within their reach fre(|uented by the sea-vessels of any nation and to send, if practicable, two of their most trusted people back by sea with copies of their notes. They were also, if they <leemed a return Iw the way they had come imminently hazardous, to ship the entire party and return via Good Hope or Cape Horn as they might be able.

A few days before the initial steps were taken in discharge of the instructions of President Jefferson, news reached the seat of government of a transaction which added materially to the significance of the enterprise. Negotiations had been successfully consummated for the purchase of Louisiana on April 30, 1803, but the authorities at Washington did not hear of the important transfer until the ist of JuI3^ Of such transcendent import to the future of our country was this transaction and of such vital moment to the section with which our volume is primarily concerned, that we must here interrupt the trend of our narrative to give the reader an idea of the extent of territory involved and if possible, to enable him to appreciate the influence of the purchase. France, by her land explorations and the establishment of trading posts and forts, first accptired title to the territory west of the Mississippi and east of the Rocky mountains, though Great Britain claimed the territory in accordance with her doctrine of continuity and contiguity, most of her colonial grants extending i!i express terms to the Pacific ocean. Spain also claimed the country by grant of Pope Alexander VL A constant warfare had been waged between France and Great Britain for supremacy in America. Th.e latter was the winner in the contest, and, in 1762, France, apparently discouraged, ceded to Spain the province of Louisiana. By the treaty of February 10, 1763, which gave Great Britain the Canadas, it was agreed that the western boundary between English and Spanish possessions in America should be the Mississippi river. Great Britain renouncing all claim to the territory west of that Ixuuidru-y. In 1800, Spain retroceded Louisiana to France "with the same extent it has now in the hands of Spain, and which it had when France possessed it, and such as it should be according to the treaties subsequenlK- made between Spain and other states."

had not been establislied at tliat time, but some king on October 15, 1802. and, as alx>ve stated, the United States succeeded to the title by treaty of April 30, 1803. Exact boundaries idea of tlie extent of tliis purcliase may be had when we remember that it extended from the present Britisli line to the Gulf of Mexico and included what arc new the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, the territory of Oklahoma, Indian Territory, more than three-fourths of Montana and Wyoming, also parts of Colorado and New Mexico.

Thus an enterprise which had its inception for its chief object to advance the commerical interests of the L'^nited States acquired a new puqxjse, namely, the extending of the geographical and scientific knowledge concerning our ozvit domain. L'pon Lewis and Clark a further duty devolved, that of informing the natives that ol^edience Was now due to a new great father.

The world-old wizard of "Out West" stretched his wand over them, and under its magic sway they began, by mountain trail and river and open highway of the prairie, to follow i*: into the wilderness. That same impulse led them which drew the camel-dri\-ers of Syria to the shores of the Mediterranean, which filled the sails of Roman galleys, which beckoned the Norse Viking to the desolate grandeur of Greenland, and which lit a signal tire in the tropic verdure of the Bahamas for the farreaching vision of Columbus. So our greatgrandfathers were chasing toward the sunset the shadow of their own coming greatness, a shadow gigantic but always growing, crossing the great plains with seven-league boots and stepping across the ridge-pole of the continent like a Colossus.

It is not surprising that to minds just admitted to this atmosphere of boundless expectation, even this plain and common-place narrative of Lewis and Clark shouKI have had the fascination of a novel.

This historic ex])edition had been projected and even partially fitted out by Jefferson before the purchase of Louisiana. But immediately upon the completion of that most sagacious investment, the lingering preparations were hastened, and on the 14th of May, 1804, the party left St. Louis by boat, upon the muddy current of the Missouri, to search for the unknown mountains and ri\ers between there and the Pacific. Their plan was to ascend the Missouri to its source, cross tlie divide, strike the headwaters of the Columbia, and, descending it, reach the sea.

And what manner of men were undertaking this voyage, fraught with both interest and peril ? Meriwether Lewis, the leader of the party, was a captain in the United States army, and in Jefiferson's judgment was, by reason of endurance, boldness, and energy, the fittest man within his knowledge for the responsible duties of commander. His whole life had been one of reckless adventure.

It appears that at the tender age of eight he was already illustrious for successful midnight forays upon the festive coon an 1 the meditative possum. He was lacking in scientific knowledge, but. when appointed captain of the expedition, had. with characteristic pluck, spent a few spare weeks in study of some of the branches most essential to his new work. William Clark, second in command, was also a United States ofificer. and seems to have been ecjually fitted with Lewis for his work. The party consisted of fourteen United States regulars, nine Kentucky volunteers, two French voyageurs, a hunter, an interpreter, and a negn.!. To each of the common soldiers the gov- ernment offered the munificent reward of retirement upon full pay with a recommenflation for a soldier's grant of land. Special pains were taken to encourage the party to keep complete records of all they saw and heard and did. This was done with a vengeance, insomuch that seven journals besides those of the leaders were carefully kept, and in them was recorded nearly every event from the most important discoveries down to the ingredients of their meals and doses of medicine. They were abundantly provided with beads, mirrors, knives, etc., etc., wherewith to woo the savage hearts of the natives.

.\fter an interesting and easy journey of five months they reached the country of the A'andans, and here they determined to winter. The winter having been profitably spent in making the acquaintance of the Indians and in collecting specimens of the natural history of the plains - which they now sent back to the president with great care - they again embarked in a squadron of si.x canoes and two pirogues. On June 13th they reached the great falls of the Missouri.

A month was spent within sound of the thunder and in sight of the perpetual mistcloud rising from the abyss, before they could accomplish the difficult portage of eighteen miles, make new canoes, mend their clothes, and lay in a new stock of provisions. Of material for this last there was no end. The air was filled with migratory birds, and the ])arty was almost in danger of being overrun by the enormous herds of buffalo.

The long, bright days, the tingling air of tlie mountains, the pleasant swish of the water as their cano-s breasted the swift current - the vast camp fires and the nightly buffalo roasts - all these must have made this the pleasantest section of their long journey.

The party seems to have pretty nearly exhausted its supply of names, and after havingmade heavy draughts ( n their own with various ptrmutatory combinations, they were reduced to the extremity of loading innocent creeks with the ponderous names of Wisdom, Philosophy, and Philanthropy. Succeeding generationshave relieved the unjust pressure in two of th.ese cases with the sounding appellations of Big Hole and Stinking Water.

On the 1 2th of August the explorers crossed the great divide, the birthplace of mighty rivers, and descending the sunset slope found themselves in the land of the Shoshones. They had brought with them a Shoshone woman, rejoicing in the pleasant name of Sacajawea, for the express purpose of becoming acquainted with this tribe, through whom they hoped to get horses and valuable information as to their proper route to the ocean. But four days were consumed in enticing the suspicious savages near enough to hear the words of their own tongue proceeding from the camp of the strangers. When, however, th.e fair interpretress had been granted a hearing, she speedily won for the party the faithful allegiance of her kinsmen. They innocently accepted the rather general intimation of the explorers that this journev had for its primary object the happiness and prosperity of the Shoshone nation, and to these evidences of benevolence on the part of their newly adopted great father at Washington, they (|uickly responded by bringing plenty of horses and all tlie information in their poor p(.)wer.

It appears that the expedition was at that time on the headwaters of the Salmon river, near where Fort Lemhi afterward stood. With twenty-nine horses to carry their ainnidant burdens they bade farewell to the friendly Sho- .^hones on the last dav of .August, and com- niitted themselves to tlie dreary and desolate solitudes to the westward. They soon became entangled in the savage ridges and defiles, already spotted with snow, of the L5itter Root mountains.

Having crossed se\'eral branches of the great river named in Ikmhu- of Captain Clark, and becoming distressed at the increasing dangers and delays, tliey turned to the left, and, having punished a brawling creek for its inhospitality by inflicting on it the name of Coltkilled, commemorative of their extremity for food, they came upon a wild and beautiful stream, inquiring the name of which from the Indians they received the answer. "Konskooskie." This in realit_\- meant simply that this was not the stream for which thc\- were searching. But not understanding, they named the river Kooskooskie. This was afterwards called the Clearwater, and is the most beautiful tributary of the Snake.

The country still frowned on them with the same forbiddmg rocky heights and blinding snow storms as before. It began to seem as though famine would ere long stare them in the face, antl the shaggy precipices were marked with almost daily accidents to men and beasts. Their only meat was tlie flesh of their precious horses.

Under these circumstances Clark decided to take six of the most active men and push ahead in search of game and a more hospitable country. A hard march of twenty miles rewarded him with a view of a vast open plain in front of the broken mountain chain across which they had been struggling. It was three days, however, before they fairly cleared the edge of the mountains and emerged on the great prairie north and east of where Lewiston now is. They fomid no game except a stray horse, which they speedily dispatched.

Here the adx'ance guard waited for the main body to come up, and then all together they went down to the Clearwater where a large number of Nez Perce Indians gathered to see and trade with them. Receiving from these Indians, who. like all that they had met, seemed \cr\' amicabh- disposed, the cheering news that the great river was not \-ery distant, and seeing the Clearwater to be a fine, navigable stream, they determined to abandon the weary land march and make canoes. Five of these having been constructed, they laid in a stock of dog meat, and then committed themselves to the sweei)ing current with which all the tributaries of the Columbia hasten to their destined place. They left their horses with the Xez Perces, and it is worthy of special notice that these were remarkably faithful to their trust. Indeed, it may be safely asserted that the first ex])lorers of this country almost uniformly met with llie kindest reception. The cruelty and deceit afterward characjeristic of the Indians were learned jiartly of the whites.

On the loth of October, haNing traveled sixty miles on the Clearwater, its pellucid waters delivered them to the turbid, angry, sullen, and lava-banked Snake. This great stream they called the Kimooenim, its Indian name. It was in its low season, and it seems fiom their account that it. as well as all the other streams, must have been uncommonly low that year.

Thus they say that on October 13th they descended a very bad rapid four miles in length, at tlie lower part of which the whole river was compressed into a channel only twenfive yards wide. Immediately below they passed a large stream on the right, which they called Drewyer's river, from one of their men. This must lia\e been the Palouse river and rapid, and certainly it is very rare that the the boat was badly wetted. For the purpose Captain Clark ascended the Columbia to the of drying it they stopped a day, and finding mouth of a large river coming from the west, no other timber, they were compelled to use which the Lidians called the Tapteal. This a very appropriate pile which some Indians was, of course, the Yakima. The people livinghad very carefully stored away and cov- at its mouth rejoiced in the liquid name of ered with stone. This trifiing circumstance is Chimnapum. Here Captain Clark shot what noticed because of the exi)lorers speaking in he called a prairie cock, the first he had seen, connection with it of their customary scrupu- I.: was the sage hen, no doubt, a handsome bird lousness in never taking any property of the nearly as large as a turkey and very common Indians, and of their determination to repay along the river at the present time, the owner if they could find him, on their re- After two days' rest, being well supplied turn. If all explorers had been as particular, with fish, dog, roots, etc., and at peace with nuich is the distress and loss that wtndd have their own consciences and all the world, with been avoided. satisfaction at the prospect of soon completing They found almost continuous rapids from their journey, they re-embarked. Sixteen this point to the mouth of the Snake, which miles below the mouth of the Kimooenim, they reached on October i6th. Here they were which they now began to call the Lewis river, met by a regular procession of nearly two they described, cut clear against the dim horhundred Indians. They had a grand pow- i:;on line of the southwest, a pyramidal mounwow and both parties displayed great affec- tain, covered with snow - their first view of tion for each other, the whites bestowing Mount Hood.

medals, shirts, trinkets, etc., in accordance with The next day, being in the vicinity of the rank of the recipient, and the Indians re- Umatilla, they saw another snowy peak at a paying the kindness with abundant and pro- conjectured distance of one hundred and fifty longed visits and accompanying gifts of wood miles. This they supposed to be Mount St. arid fish. On the next day they measured the Helens, but it was, in reality, ]\Iount Adams. rivers, finding the Columljia to be 960 yards Near here Captain Clark. ha\-ing landed, shot wide, and the Snake 575. They indulge in no a crane and a duck. Some Indians near were poetic reveries as they stand by the river which almost paralyzed with terror. At last they rehad been one principal object of their search, covered enough to make the best possible use but they seem to have seen pretty much every- of their legs. Following them Captain Clark thing of practical value. In the glimmering found a little cluster of huts. Pushing aside haze of the pleasant October morning they no- the mat door of one of them, he entered, and tice the vast bare prairie stretching southward in the bright light of the unroofed hut discov-

Having hy kind looks and gestures soothed their grief, he held up his burning glass to a stray sunbeam with which to light his pipe. Thereat the consternation of the Indians revived, and they refused to be comforted. But when the rest of the party arrived with the two Indian guides who had come with them from the Clearwater, terror gave way to curiosity and pleasure. These Pishquitpaws - such was their name - explained to the guides their fear of Captain Clark by saying that he came from the sky accompanied by a terrible noise, and they knew that there was a bad medicine in it.

Being convinced now that he was a mortal after all. they became very affectionate, and having heard the music of two violins they became so enamoured of the strangers that they stayed up all night with them and collected to the number of two hundred to bid them good bye in the morning. The ]H"incipal business of these Indians seemed to be catching and curing salmon, which, in the clear water of the Columbia, the explorers could see swimming about in incredible numbers. Continuing with no extraordinary occurrence, they passed the river now called the John Day. to which they applied the name Lapage. Mt. Hood was now almost constantly in \iew. and since the Indians told them it was near the great falls of the Columbia, they called it the Timm (this seems to be the Indian word for falls) mountain.

On the next day they reached a large river on the left, which came thundering through a narrow channel into the e(|ually turbulent Columl)ia. This river, which Captain Lewis judged to contain one-fourth as much water as the Columbia (an enormous over estimate) answered to the Indian name of Towahnahiooks. It afterwards received from the French the name now used - Des Chutes.

They now perceived that they were near the place hinted at by nearly every Indian that thev had talked with since crossinor the divide - the great falls. And a weird, savage place it proved to be. Here the clenched hands of trachyte and basalt, thrust through the soil from the buried realm of the volcanoes, almost clutch the rushing river. Only here and there between the parted fingers can he make his escape.

After making several portages they reached th.at extraordinary place (now called The Dalles ) Avhere all the waters gathered from half a million square miles of earth are squeezed into a crack forty-five yards wide. The desolation on either side of this frightful chasm is a fitting margin. As one crawls to the edge and peeps over he sees the water to be of inky blackness. Streaks of foam gridiron the blackness. There is little noise compared with the shallow rapids abo\e. but rather a dismal sough, as though the rocks below were rubbing their black sides together in the vain eft'ort to close over the escaping river. The river is here "turned on edge." In fact, its depth has not b^en found to this day. Some suppose that there was once a natural tunnel here through which the ri\-er flowed, and that in consequence of a volcanic convulsion the top of the tunnel fell in. If there lie any truth in this, the width of the channel is no doubt much greater at the bottom than at the top. Lewis and Clark, finding that the roughness of the shore made it almost impossible to carry their boats over, and seeing no evidence of rocks in the channel, boldly steered right through this Witches' Cauldron. Though no

(called by the natives Ouenett), on a point of all the rapids behind and launching their carocks near the present location of the car noes on the unnl)structed \-astness of the lower

The next Indian trilie, extending appar- This was successfully accomplished on the enth- from the \icinity (if Crate's point to the 2d of November. 'l"he\- were greatly delightcascades, capped the clima.x of tongue-twist- ed with the verdure which now robed the gaunt ing names l)y calling themselves Chilluckitte- nakedness of the rocks. The island formed at (juaws. the lower cascades by Cnlumbia slough also

From this last circumstance they named it Strawberry island. At the lower part of that cluster of islands, that spired and turreted relic of the old feudal age of the river, when the volcano kings stormed each other's castles with earthquakes and spouts of lava, riveted their attention. They named it Beacon rock, but it is now called Castle rock. They estimated its height at eight hundred feet and its circumference at four hundred yards, the latter being only a fourth of the reality.

The tides were now noticeable. This fact must have struck a new chord of reflection in the minds of these hardy adventurers; this first-felt pulse beat of the dim vast of waters which grasps half the circumference of the earth. And so, as this mighty heart-throb of the ocean, rising and falling in harmony with all nature, celestial and terrestrial, pulsated through a hundred and eighty miles of river, it might have seemed one of the ocean's multiplied fingers outstretched to welcome them, the first organized expedition of the new republic to this westmost west. It might have betokened to them the harmony and unity of future nations, as exemplified in the vast e.xtent, the liberty, the 'human sympathies, the diversified interests, industries and purposes of that republic, whose motto yet remains, one from many.

The rest of their journey was a calm floating between meadows and islands from whose shallow ponds they obtained ducks and geese in great numbers.

They thought the "quick-sand river" - Sandy - to be a large and important stream. They noticed the W'ashougal creek, which from the great numl)er of seals around its mouth they called Seal river. But strange to say they missed the Willamette entirely on their down trip. The Indians in this part of the river called themselves Skilloots. Dropping rapidly down the calm but misty stream, past a large river called by the Indians the Cowaliske - Cowlitz - through the country of the Wahkiacums, at last, on the Jth of November, the dense fog with which the morning had enshrouded all objects, suddenly broke away, and they saw the bold mountainous shores on either side to vanish away in front, and through the parted headlands they looked into the infinite expanse of the ocean.

Overjoyed at the successful termination of their journey, they sought the first pleasant camping ground and made haste to land. The rain, which is sometimes even now observed to characterize that part of our fair state, greatly marred the joy of their first night's rest within sound of the Pacific's billows.

Six days passed in mouldy and dripping inactivity at a point a little above the present Chinook. They then spent nine much pleasanter days at Chinook Point. This, however, not proving what they wanted for a permanent camp, they devoted themselves to explorations with a view to discovering a more suitable location.

After many adventures of which lack of space forbids us to speak, they became settled. The party wintered in a log building at a point named by them Fort Clatsop, on the Lewis and Clark river, south side of the Columbia. On the 23d of March, 1806. they turned their faces homeward, first, however, having given to the chiefs of the Clatsops and Chinooks certificates of hospitable treatment, and posted on the fort the following notice : "The object o' this last is. that, through the medium of seme civilized person who may see the same, it may be made known to the world, that the party consisting of the persons whose names arc licrcunti) annexed and wlio were sent out liy tile t;i;vernnient of the United States to explore tile interiiir of the continent of North America, did ])cnelrate the same by way of the Missouri aiul Columbia rivers, to the discharge of the latter into the Pacific ocean, at which they arri\'ed on the 14th day of November, 1805, and dei)arted on their return to the United States by the same r(jute by which they had come."

Of this notice several copies were left amon<;- the Indians, one of which fell into the hands of Captain Hall of the brig Lydia and was conveyed to the United States.

The expedition made its way with no little difficulty up the C(jhimbia ri\'er. They discovered on their return a large tributary of that river (the Willamette) which had escaped their notice on their downward journey, and made careful inquiries of the Indians concernii:g it, the results of which were embodied in their ma]) of the expedition.

.\t the mouth of the John Day river their canoes were abandoned, their baggage was packed on the backs of a few horses they had imrchased from the Indians, rmd tra\'eling in thiis manner, they continued tlieir homeward march, arriving at the mouth of the Walla Walla river on April 27th. The great chief Yellept was then the leader of the Walla Walla nation, and by him the explorers were received with such generous hospitality that they _\'ielded to the temptation to linger a couple of days before undertaking further journeyings among the mountain fastnesses. Such was the treatment given them by these Indians, that the journal of the expedition makes this ap]M-eciati\-e notation concerning them: "We may indeed justly afiirm that of all the Indians that we have seen since leaving the United States,

''Leaving these hospitable people on the 29th of April, the ])arty passed eastward on the great 'Nez Perce trail." This trail was the great highway of the Walla Wallas, Cayuses and Nez Perces eastward to the Iniffalo ranges, t'.) which they aniuially resorted for game supplies. It passed up the valley of the Touchet, called by Lewis and Clark the AVhite Stallion,' thence over the high prairie ridges and down the Alpowa to the crossing of the Snake river, then up the north bank of Clearwater to the x'illage of Twisted Hair, where the exploring party had left their horses on the w^ay down the previous autumn. It was worn deep and broad, ;nid on many stretches on the open ]ilains and over the smooth hills twenty horsemen could ride abreast in parallel paths worn 1/y the constant rush of the Indian generations from time immemorial The writer has often passed over it when it lay exactly as it did when the tribes of Yellept and Twisted Hair traced its sinuous courses, or when Lewis and Clark and their companions first marked it with the licel of ci\'ilization. Rut the plow has long since obliterated it. and where the monotonous song of the Indian march was droningly chanted for so many barbaric ages the song of the reaper thrills the clear air as he comes to his garner bringing in the sheaves. A more delightful ride of a hundred and fifty miles than this that the company of Lewis and Clark made over the swelling prairie upland and along the crystal streams between Walla Walla and the village of Twisted Hair, in the soft May days

To trace the explorations of these travelers further is not within the province of this work, but in order to convey a general idea of the labors and e.xtent of the voyage we ciuote the brief summary made by Captain Lewis himself:

"The road by which we went out by the Avay of the Missouri to its head is 3,096 miles; thence Iw' land by way of Lewis river over to river and down that to the entrance of Traveler's Rest creek, where all the roads from routes meet; thence across the rugged ])art of the Rocky mountains to the navigable waters of the Columbia 398 miles, thence the ri\er 640 miles to the Pacific ocean - making a total distance of 4,1 34 miles. On return in 1806 we came from Traveler's Rest directlv to the falls of the Missouri river, Avhich shortens the distance about 579 miles, and is a much better route, reducing the distance from the ]\Iississippi to the Pacific ocean to 3.555 miles. Of this distance 2.575 miles is up the Missouri to the falls of that river; thence passing through the i)lains and across the Rocky mountains to the navigable waters of the Kooskooskie river, a branch of the Columbia. 340 miles. 200 of which is good road, 140 miles over a tremendous mountain, steep .-and broken, sixty miles of which is covered several feet deep with snow, on which we passed on the last of June ; from the navigable part of the Kooskooskie we descended that rapid river seventy-three miles to its entrance into the Lewis river, and down that river 154 miles to the Columbia, and thence 413 miles to its entrance into the Pacific ocean. About 180 miles of this distance is tide water. We passed several bad rapids and narrows, and -one considerable fall, 268 miles above the entrance of this river, thirty-seven feet, eight inches ; the total distance descending the Co- Ir.mbia waters 640 miles - making a total of 3.555 miles, on the most direct route from the Mississippi, at the mouth of the Missouri, to the Pacific ocean."

The safe return of the explorers to their homes in the L'nited States naturally created a sensation throughout this couritry and the world. Leaders and men were suitably rewardetl. and the fame of the former will live \\'hile the ri\-ers to which their names have been given continue to pour their waters into the sea. President Jefferson, the great patron of the expedition, paying a tribute to Captain Lewis in 1813, said: "Never did a similar event excite more joy throughout the United States. The humblest of its citizens have taken a lively interest in the issue of this journey, and looked with impatience for the information it would furnish. Nothing short of the official journals of this extraordinary and interesting journey will exhibit the importance of the service, the courage, devotion, zeal and perseverance under circumstances calculated to discourage, which animated this little band of heroes, throughout the long, dangerous and tedious travel."

Among many journeys of discovery liy land which followed that of Lewis and Clark we select as the most interesting and typical tl:at of the Hunt party, which was the land division of the great Astor movement to establish the Pacific Fur Company. That com- ]Xiny was established by John Jacob Astor for the purpose of making a bold and far-reaching attempt to control the vast fur trade of the Pacific coast in the interest of the United States. The sea di\'ision set sail frum New York in 1810 in the ship Tonquin. In the meantime Wilson Price Himt. the second part- iier in tiie concern, was at St. Louis organizing a land party, which was to cross tlie plains and with the dixisinn l)y sea. Hunt had been merchandising for some years at St. Louis. His principal trade being with trappers and Indians, he had become very familiar with the requirements of the business. In addition to this primary requisite he possessed a character, native and acquired, worthy of more frequent mention in our early annals and of more fre- emulation jjy his associates and successors. Bra\'e, humane, patient, cheerful and resolute, he rises from the mists of history and reminiscence as the highest type of the Jasons who vied with those of ancient story in their search for the fleeces (this time of seal and beaver instead of gold) of the far west. To a powerful physi(|ue and iron nerve Hunt added a refinement and culture rare indeed among the bold, free spirits of the frontier.

In company with Hunt from the outset was another partner, Donald McKenzie by name. He was a man insensible of fear, inured by years of hardship to the ups and downs of the trapper's life, and renowned even on the border for his marvelous accuracy with the rifle. The first thing for them was to get their men. To do this all the tact and patience of Hunt were brought into full play. For a proper understanding of his position it will be necessary to describe briefly the classes from whom he Avas obliged to fill his .ranks.

There were at tliis time two great classes ol trappers. The first and most numerous were the Canadian voyageurs. These men were mainly of French descent. Many of them were half-breeds. They were the legacy of the old French domination o\-er Canada. Cradled in the canoe or batteau. their earliest remembrance being the cold l)lne lake or foamine river, almost amphibious bv nature and trainir.g, gay and amiable in disposition, with true French vivacity and ingenuity, gilding every harsh and bitter experience with laugh and song, with their quick sympathies and humane instincts easily getting on the best side of the savages, not broad in designing but not the less patient, courageous and indomitable in executing, these French voyageurs were the n:ain dependence of traffic in the wilderness. The second class were free trappers ; Eooshaways they were sometimes called. These men were mainly Americans. Virginia and Kentucky were the original homes of many of them. They were the perfect antipodes of the voyageurs. Often with gigantic frames built up on prairie dew and mountain breeze, with buffalo steak and wild birds' flesh wrought into their iron sinews; with nerves of steel, on which it seemed might harmlessly play e\-en the lightnings of Missouri storms, the drifting snows of winter but a downy coverlid to them, and the furnace blasts of summer but balmy zephyrs ; gorging themselves in the midst of plenty, but mocking the power of hunger and thirst when in want; mighty braggarts, yet quick as lightning to make good their boasts; patient and indefatigable in their work of trapping, but when on their annual trips to the towns given to wild dissipations and savage rcvelings, "sudden and rash in quarrel," careless of each other's sympathy or co;niDany; harsh ami cruel to the Indians when in power over them, but bold and recklessly defiant when weaker than they; seizing without compunction the prettiest Indian women and the best horses as their rightful booty; with blood always in their eyes, thunder in their voices, and pistols in their hands, yet underneath it all many of tl-.em having hearts as big as- buffaloes, could th.ey but be reached, - this now vanished race of Booshaways has gone to a place in history be- side tlic 1)1(1 Spartans, whose greatest boast it was that the city had no walls, their army being the wall and every man tlierein a brick, or beside the Spanish con(|uerors of Mexico and Peru, like Orellana, who descended the Amazon on a raft and then put to sea with such a climax of audacity that even the stormy Atlantic was frightened into acrpiiescence and let him pass in safety.

This old streak of brutality and tyranny, originally cast into the Anglo-Sa.xon nature and n-.anifested in its best form in the savage grandeur of the Norse Valhalla, and in the overpowering energy of the Vikings, and at every emergency breaking with volcanic fury tln-ough the tliin crust of modern culture, has .shown itself in no way more notably than in the whole Indian management of the American Government. These free trappers executed with a vengeance the unsiioken, but not less real, policy of our government. Humanity, ar.d even shrewd ])olic}-. had little place in the thoughts and actions of most of them. The Irdians were simply to be stamped on like so many rattlesnakes. In the trapper's code, for an Indian to look longingly at a white man's horse, or even to be seen in the of a beaver trap, was sufficient warrant to send a ride ball |)loughing its way through his heart. The Gallic gentleness and social)ility which enabled the Canadian voyageurs to go almost anywhere unharmed among the Indians, found no counterpart in the sterner composition of the great majority of .\merican trappers and traders.

Such were the men from whom I hint had to make up his little army, and a ve.xatious job it was, too. The rivalries of opixjsing companies were the opportunity of the trappers. Big wages were demanded. Old whisky bills had to be paid off. The clutch of the sheriff had to be loosene 1 by the golden lever of wages in advance. Worst of all. Hunt found at nearly every station where he tried to eneaee men that the agents of the ilissouri Fur Comp;iny, chief of whom was a Spaniard named Manuel Lisa, were neutralizing his efforts by representing the dangers from the hostile tribes and barren wastes intervening between the Missouri plains and the Pacific. But Hunt's patience and perseverance, backed by Astor's unstinted purse, overcame all obstacles, and in .\pril. iSn. the winter rendezvous at the mouth of the Nodowa ( four hundred and eighty miles above St. Louis) was abandoned, and in four boats, one of large size, and mounting a swivel and two howitzers, the party of sixty set forth up the almost untraveled Missouri. Of the party five were partners. Hunt, Crooks, McKenzie, Miller and McLellan. One was a clerk. Reed by name. There were two English naturalists, Bradbury and Nuttall. Forty of the party were Canadian vo\-ageurs. They were to do the rowing, transporting, carrying, cooking, and all the drudgery in general. The remainder were American hunters and trappers. These were the fellows to hunt and fight and i>lan and explore, and, when the proper place was reached, to cast themselves upon the mercy of the savages and wild beasts, endure hunger and thirst and establish trading posts. The chief of these hunters was a \'irginian named John Day. We shall meet him freciuently. The party was in all respects most bountifully equipped. They designed following as nearly as possible the route of Lewis and Clark.

Many interesting and some thrilling and exciting scenes were encountered on the passage up the Missouri, especially on their way through the country of the Sioux Tetons. But thev met with no serious hindrance, and on the nth of June they reached a large village of the Arickaras, fourteen hundred and thirty miles above the mouth of the Missouri. It had been determined before this, on the advice of several hunters who joined the party in the wilderness, after they had left the Nodowa, to abandon' their canoes at this point and, securing horses, strike across the country south of Lewis and Clark's route, so as to avoid the dreadful Blackfeet, who, alike the terror of the other Indians as well as of the whites, dominated all the region of the upper Missouri. So with eighty-two horses heavily loaded - the partners only, together with the family of Pierre Dorion, being mounted - on the 1 8th of July they set out hopefully, though with many gloomy prognostications from trappers remaining at the Arickara village, on their march across the Great American Desert and through the volcanic defiles of the great divide.

On the wide monotony of the sky-bordered prairie they seemed to make no progress. Day succeeded day, and e\-ery morning's sun shot up, hot and dry, on apparently the very landscape of the day before. They did not seem in fact, though taking a more direct route, to make so good time as did Lewis and Clark. Guided by the Crow Indians, they penetrated range after range of the stepping stones to the final ridge, supposing each to be the last, only to find when it was surmounted that one yet higher succeeded, and at last on the 15th of September - the summer already gone - they mounted a lofty peak whence the boundless wilderness over which they had come as well as that which they must yet traverse, lay like a maj) at their feet. Gazing attentively westward tlieir guide finally pointed out three shining peaks ridging the western sky, whose bases he assured them were washed bv a tributary of the Colum1)ia. These peaks are now known as the Tetons from their peculiar shape. A hundred miles evidently lay between the wear}- travelers and that goal. When tJiere, they felt that they would be almost at the end of their journey, little realizing the character of the thousand miles of travel yet awaiting them.

Passing the green banks of Spanish river, a tributary of the Colorado, they laid in a large stock of the plentiful bufifalo, gave their horses five days' rest and grazing on the alumdant grass, and on the 24th of September, crossing a narrow ridge, found themselves on the lianks of a turbulent stream, recognized by their guide as one of tlie sources of the Snake. From the name of the guide the stream was called Hoback's river. Down the rugged promontories which flanked this stream the party descended, often in danger of fatal falls, to its junction with a much larger one, which so much exceeded the first in fury of current as to recei\'e the name of Mad river. This seemed to issue from the midst of the Tetons, whose glacial and snowy immensity overtopped the camp of the travelers at the junction of the two streams. The all important question now arose, should they abandon the horses and make canoes with which to descend the river. It was evident that, though containing abuntlant water for large boats, it was so impetuous as to render navigating a dangerous Imsiness. But the Canadians insisted on making the attempt. Weary of the toilsome and rocky foot-paths of the mountains, and having all confidence in their well-tried ability in handling boats in any kind of water, they longed to betake themselves once more to their favorite element, and, paddle in hand, their gay French songs beating time to the music of the paddles, they

\V()ukl lie ready t(5 shocit another Niagara, if it came in their way. Tlie partners linally gave tlieir consent to mai<e canoes. Fortliwith tiie voyageurs repaired with joyful hearts to the adjacent woods, whicii soon began to yield up its best timber for the projected boats. ]\Ieanwhile a party of three, of whom the redoubtable John Day was one, went down Mad river on a two days' journey. They returned declaring that neither in boats nor with horses along the banks could the jiarty possibly go. Disappointed in this plan they now took the advice of Hoback to go to a trapping post which had been established the year before by Mr. Henry, of the Missouri Fur Company. This post Hoback knew to be on one of the upper waters of the Snake and he thought that it could not be far distant. A violent storm of sleet, arising in the midst of their deliberations, admonished them that winter was near at hand and that they must hasten on one way or the other. The Snake Indians who had come to their camp liefore tlie storm and had professed to know the location of Henry's post, now agreed to guide them tliitlier. Acc(jrdingly on the 4th of October, the liills all around being spotted with snow, they resumed their horseback march. Four days of coUl and difticult journeying tonk them to a cluster of deserted log huts. This had been Hem"y's trailing station, liut was now entirely abandoned. Beside the huts flowed a beautiful river a hundred yards wide. It was to all ai)pearance a fine navigable stream. Two weeks of industrious \\ork provided fifteen canoes, and in these, hastily embarking, they pusheil out into the stream. 'I'heir horses were left in charge of the two Snake Indians. .\ine men also, including Miller, one of the partners, had been detached from the party at points l)etwcen Mad river and Henry's river, as the new stream was called. These men were to di\'ide up in squads and trap on the streams thereabout. Well provided with traps, clothes, horses and ammunition, they set out cheerfully into the unknown and wintry recesses of the mountins, expectii-g to issue thence in the spring with a great stock of valuable peltries, ^\'ith these they could make their best way to Astoria.

^^'ith the rapid current aiding the skillful paddles of the voyageurs, whose spirits rose to an unwonted height, even for them, as soon as they found themselves on the water, the canoes swept swiftly on toward the sunset. Tliey soon came to the mouth of a stream which they took to lie their old friend, the Mad river. They now considered themselves fairly embarked on the main body of the Snake, and already, in imagination, they began to toss on tlie vast current of the Columbia, and even ta smell the salt breeze of the mild Pacific. Occasional rocky points abutting on the river made rapids which alternated with calni stretches of water, whose banks, shallow and grass}', were enlivened with perfect clouds of wild geese and ducks. For nine days they swept gaily on, with comparatively slight interruptions, making over three hundretl miles from the place where they had first embarked.

1 hen they met with a most lamentable disaster. In the sec<ind canoe of the sipuulron were Mr. Crooks as bowman and .Vntoine Clajipine as steersman. The first canoe having safely passed a dangerous rajiid, the second essayed to follow. With a sudden lurch she missed her course and the next instant split ui)on a rock. Crooks and three of his companions succeeded, after a hard struggle, in reaching the land, but Clappine, one of the most i)oi)ular and useful men in the comj)any, was l«-)St amid the boiling surges. The_\' had now arrived at an unboatable chain of rapids and frightful bhiffs, among which neither boats nor horses, nothing, in short, 1nit wings, were of use. At the beginning of this strait was one of those volcanic cracks peculiar to the rivers of this coast, in which the whole volume of the Snake is scjueezed into a place thirty feet wide. This miniature maelstrom recei\ed from the disheartened voyagers the name of "The Caldron Linn."'

The whole sc|uadron now came to a halt. It was evident that a portage at least would be needed. And from the shaggy volcanic appearance about and below them, they had great fear that the ubstructions extended a long distance. This fear was realized when, after a forty-mile tramp down the river, Mr. Hunt discovered no prospect of successful navigation. Returning to the main body, therefore, and discovering that they had but five days' food and no prospect of getting more, he determined to divide the party into four parts, hoping that some ime of them might find aliundant game and a way out of the lifeless, volcanic waste in which they were. One party, under McLellan, was to descend the river; another under Crooks was to ascend it, hoping to find game or Indian guides on tlie way, but, if not, to keep on to the place where they had left their horses. Still another detachment, under McKenzie, struck northward across the plains, having in view to reach the main Cokimbia.

j\lr. Hunt, left in charge of the main body, proceeded at once to cache a large part of their goods. Nine caches having been made to hold the large deposit, they took careful notice of the landmarks of the neighborhood ff^- future return, and then got themselves in readiness to move just as soon as the word should come from any of the scouting parties. Within three days Crooks and his party returned. Despairing of success on their doleful, retrograde march, they had determined to share with their companions whatever might await them on the onward trip. Five days later, the party meanwhile beginning to see the ghastly face of famine staring at them, two of Mc- Lellan's party returned, bidding them abandon all thought of descending the river. For many miles the river ran through volcanic sluice-ways, roaring and raging, at many places almost lost from sight underneath impending crags, generally inaccessible from itsdesert bank, so that, though within sound of its angry ravings, they had often lain down, to their insufficient rest with parched and swollen tongues.

To manifest their anger at the hateful stream they named this long volcanic chute the "Devil's Scuttle Hole." What now remained ? Nothing, evidently, but to hasten with all speed, their lives being at issue, to some more hospitable place. Ihe party was, therefore, divided in two. One division, under Hunt, went down the north side of the river, and the other, under Crooks, took the opposite side. This was done in order to increase the chances of finding food and of meeting Indians. It was on the ninth of November that they started on this dismal and heart-sickening march. Until December they urged on their course, cold, hungry, oftea n.ear starvation. .\t occasional wretched Indian camps they managed to secure dogs for food, and once they got a few horses. These were loaded down with their baggage, but, through scarcity of food, began soon to be too N'cak to be of much serx'ice, and so their attenuated carcasses, one by one, were devoted to appease the hunger of the famished expk)rers.

ing presented an almost unvarying aspect of volcanic and snowy desolation. The feufrightened and half-starved Snake Indians that they encoinitered could give no information as to the route. They signified, however, that the great river was yet a long way off. Hunt estimated that they had now put about four hundred and seventy miles between them and Caldron Linn. They were evidently approaching something, for gigantic snowy mountains, lifeless and almost treeless, seemed to bar their further way. Nevertheless they persisted with the energy of despair and clambered painfully up the snowy heights until at a sufficient elevation to command a vast view. Then, with a waste of mountains in front and bitter winds whirling the snow and sleet in their faces, thev first began to despair of forcing their wav. The short winter's day shut in upon their despair, and they were compelled to camp in the snow. Timber was found in sufficient quantity to prevent freezing, but during the night another snow storm burst on them furiously, and daylight, sluggishly stealing through the snow-clogged atmosphere, found them in a perfect cloud. The roaring river far below them was their only guide to further progress. Down the slippery and windswept mountain side they picked their way to the river bank. Here the temperature was nnich milder. Devouring one of their skinand-lione horses, they crept a few miles along the rocky brink of the brawling flood and made a cheerless camp. On the following morning (December 6) they were startled by seeing, on the opposite bank of the stream, a party of white men more forlorn and desolate than themselves. A little observation convinced Hunt that these men were Crooks and party. Shoutir.g across the stream at last he made himself heard above the raging river. As soon as the men discovered him they screamed for food. From the skin of the horse killed the night liefore Mr. Hunt at once constructed a canoe. In this crazy craft one of the Canadians daringly and successfully crossed the fearful looking river, taking with him part of the horse and bringing back with him 'Mr. Crooks and Le Clere.

Appalled at the wasted forms and despondent looks of these two men, and still further disheartened at the account they gave of the insurmountable obstacles to continuing down the river, Hunt determined to retrace his steps to the last Indian camp they had passed, there to make a more determined effort to obtain guides and horses. With dismal forebodings, therefore, on the following morning they took the back track. Crooks and Le Clere were so weak as to greatly retard the rest of the party. In this extremity the men besought Hunt to leave those two to their fate while they hastened on to the Indian camp. But Hunt resoh.tely refused to abandon his weakened partner. The men began to push ahead until by night but five remained to bear him company. No provisions were left them except four beaver skins. After a night of freezing coldness, one of them being badly frost-bitten, Hunt, finding Crooks entirely unable to travel, concluded that his duty to the main company demanded his presence with them. Accordingly, having made the exhausted men as comfortable as possible and leaving two of the men and all but one of the beaver skins with them, Hunt and the remaining three men hastened on. A day and night of famine and freezing brought them up with their companions. The pangs of hunger were beginning to tell in vacant looks and tottering steps. Some of them had not eaten for three days. Toward evening of that distressing day they saw with surprise

Hunger knew no law. They descended on the camp, and seizing five horses, at once dispatched one of them. After a ravenous meal had satisfied their immediate necessities, they bethought them of their deserted companions. A man was at once sent on horseback to carry food to them and to aid them in coming up. In the morning Crooks and the remaining three men made their appearance. Food must now be got to the men on the opposite bank. But a superstitious terror seemed to have seized their companions as they looked across the sullen river at them. Ghastly and haggard, the poor wretches beckoning across with bony fingers, looked more like spectres than men. Unable to get any of the Canadians, o\'erwhelmed as they were with ghostly fancies, to cross, one of tjie Kentucky hunters at last ventured the dangerous undertaking. Putting forth all his strength he at last succeeded in landing a large piece of horse meat. Encouraged by this, one of the Canadians ventured over.

One of the starving crew, frantic by his long deprivations, insisted on returning in the canoe. Before they had got across, the pleasant savor of the boiling meat so inspired him that he leaped to his feet and began to sing and dance. In the midst of this untimely festivity the canoe was overturned and the poor fellow was swept away in the icy current and lost.

John Day, considered when they started the strongest man in the company, also crossed the river. His cavernous eyes and meager frame showed well how intense had been the suffering of the detachment on the west bank of the river. Often the wild cherries, dried

The mountains which thus turned back this adventurous band were no doubt that desolate and rather unnecessary range bordering the Wallowa country and the mouth of Salmon river. The detachments under Mc- Kenzie and McLellan, having reached these mountains Ijefore the heavy snows, and having found each other there, had stuck to that route until they had conquered it. After twenty-one days of extreme suffering and peril they reached the Snake at a point apparently not far from the site of Lewiston, and building canoes there, descended the river with no great trouble, reaching Astoria about the middle of January.

Hunt and his men, saved from starvation by the discovery of the horses, hastened on to find Indian guides. But first Hunt, with his usual honesty, left at the lodge (for the occupants had fled at their coming) an amount of trinkets sufficient to pay for the horses he had taken. A few days later they reached a small village of Snakes. This, the largest village that they had seen on this side of the mountains, they had observed on their down trip,' but had not been able to get any assistance from the inhabitants. Now, however, with a persistence born of their necessities, they insisted on a guide. The Indians demurred, representing that the distance to the ri\er was so great as to require from seventeen to twenty-one days of hard traveling. They said that the snow was waist deep and that they would freeze. They very hospitably urged the party to stay with them. But as they also said that on the west side of the mountains was a large and wealthy tribe called the Sciatogas, from whom they might get food and horses. Hunt determined to push on, if he could find a single Lidian to accompany him. By a most bountiful offer this desideratum was finally met. They were informed tb.at they must cross to the west bank of the river, and enter the mountains to the west. With infinite tact and patience Hunt sustained the drooping spirits of the party. Many of them wanted to cast their lot for the winter with the vagabond troop of Snakes. They shrunk from crossing the chilly flood of Snake river with its huge ice blocks grinding other with a dismal sound. Then to commit themselves again to the mountains inspired them with terror. In fact, four of the Canadians, together with Crooks and John Day, were unable to go at all. But at last, in spite of doubt and weakness, everything was got together ( though they were obliged to desert their six sick companions) and in the bitter cold of the early evening (December 23) they crossed the river and at once struck for the mountains. They could only make about fourteen miles a day. Their fi\e jaded horses floundered painfully through the snow. Their only food was one meal of horse meat daily. On the fourth day of their journey the mountains gave way to a beautiful valley, across which they journeyed twenty miles. This must have been Powder river valley. Leaving this valley and turning again into the mountains, a short but toilsome march brought them to a lofty height whence they looked down into a fair and snowless prairie, basking in the sunlight and looking to the winter-worn travelers like a dream of summer. Soon, best of all, they discerned six lodges of Shoshones, well supplied with horses and dogs. Thither hastening eagerly, their hungry mouths were soon filled with roasted dog. This vallev. which looked so much like a paradise, must have been the Grande Ronde. Beautiful at all times, it must have seemed trebly so to these ragged and famished wanderers. The next morning the new year (1812) burst in upon them, bright and cheerful, as if to make amends for the relentless severity of its predecessor. The Canadians must now have their holiday. ' Not even famine and death could rob them of their festivals. So with dance and song and dog meat roasted, boiled, fried and fricasseed, they met the friendly overtures of the newly crowned potentate of time. Rested and refreshed, they now addressed themselves to what their guides assured them was to be but a three days' journey to the plains of the great river. The time was mult.'plied by two, however, ere the cloudy canopy, which so enswathed the snowy waste as to hide both earth and sky from sight, parted itself before a genial breath from some warmer clime. And then, wide below their snowy eyrie, lay stretched the limitless and sunny plains of the Columbia. Not more gladly did Cortez and his steel-clad veterans look from their post of observation upon the glittering halls of the jMontezumas. They swiftly descended the slopes of the mountains and emerged upon that diamontl of the Pacific coast, the Umatilla jjlains.

Here a trihe of .Sciatogas or Tushepaws were camped, thirty-four lodges and two hundred horses strong. Well clad, active and hospitable, these Indians thawed out, almost as would have a civilized community, the well nigh frozen energies of the strangers. Rejoiced above all was Mr. Hunt to see in the lodges axes, kettles, etc., indicating that these Indians were in communication with the whites belmv. In answer to his eager questionings the Indians said that the great river was only two days distant and that a party of white of the journey was l^egun. Nothing extraormen had just descended it. Conchiding that dinary marked the two hundreil mile boat ride

After a thorough rest the now joyful way- bluffs of Tongue Point, they beheld with full farers set forth across the fertile plains and hearts the stars and stripes floating over the after a pleasant ride of two days on the horses first civilized abode this side of St. Louis, obtained of the Tushepaws, lifting their eyes Right beyond the parted headlands and the they beheld a mighty stream, a mile wide, deep, water bordering horizon, they recognized the blue, majestic, sweeping through the treeless gateway to the illimitable ocean. As they plain, the Columbia. The hard and dangerous drew near the shore the whole population of part of the journey was now at an end. Li ^Astoria came pouring down to the cove (near the absence of timber, however, and because the modern site of "Dad's" saw-mill, now of the unwillingness of any Indians that they wharved over) to meet them. First in the met to sell canoes, they were obliged to wait crowd came the party of McKenzie and jMctill reaching the dalles before launching upon Lellan. Having no hope that Hunt and his the stream. In the vicinity of the present men could escape from the winter and the fam- Rockland (they had come from L^matilla on ine they were the more rejoiced to see them., the north bank of the river) they had a "hyas Their joy in reuniting was proportioned to wa wa" with the redoubtable Wishram In- the darkness of the shadow of death whicli dians. Sharpened by their location at the coni had so long enshrouded them. The Canatluence of all the ways down stream, these In> dians, with French abandon, rushed into each dians had clearly grasped the fundamental other's arms, crying and hugging like so many doctrine of civilized trade, to-wit : Get the school girls. And even the hard-visaged greatest possible return with the least possible Scotchmen and nonchalant Americans gave outlay. To this end they levied a heavy toll themselves up to the unstinted gladness of the on all unwary passers. These levies were usu- occasion. The next day was devoted to feastally collected while the eyes of the taxed were ing and story telling. Xo doubt, like the feastotherwise engaged. In short, these \\'ishram ing mariners of the .'Eneid, they discussed Indians were professional thieves. with prolonged speech the "ainissos socios."

Their forlorn pliglu was c|uickly relieved with abundant food and clothes, anil while the canoes went flying down the stream with speed accelerated in the joy of deliverance, the two men related their pitiful tale. Left in destitution of food and clothing, they had sustained life by an occasional beaver or a piece of horse meat given by the Indians, whcj, seemingly possessed of a superstitious fear, dared not molest them. With rare heroism and self-abnegation, Crooks remained by the side of John Day until he was sufficiently recuperated to travel. Then, abandoned by three of the Canadians, they had plodded on amid Blue mountain snows, subsisting on roots and skins. In the last of March, having left the other Canadian exhausted at a Shoshone lodge. Crooks and Day pressed on through a last mountain ridge and found themselves in the fair and fertile plain of the Walla Wallas.

Here they were relieved by the kindness which marked the intercourse of those Indians with the whites. Fed and clothed they continued down the river with lightened hearts, only to find at the dalles that there are differences in Indians as well as whites, for there the Eneeshurs, or Wishrams. as Irving calls them, first tlisarming suspicion by a frieniUy exterior. perfidiously robbed them of the faithful ritles which thus far in all their distress they had never yet lost sight of. and. stripping them, drove them out. More wretched than ever they now turned toward friendly Walla ^\'alla. And just as they were striking inland they saw the rescuing boats. So with added gratitude they all paddled away for Astoria. But' poor Day never recovered. In an insane frenzy he tried to kill himself. Prevented from thia he soon pined away and died. The barren and bluffy shores of John Day river possess an added interest as we recall the melancholy story of the brave hunter who first explored them. The four Canadians were afterward fountl alive, though destitute, among the Shoshones.

The limits of this work forbid us to enlarge upon the subsequent fortunes of the great Pacific Fur Company's enterprise. We could hardly do justice, however, to the heroic age of Oregon history without a few additional words about the fur business and a brief description of that most dramatic event in all our early history, the destruction of the Toncpiin.

Astor seems to have designed that Astoria should be the central depot of trade and supplies; that from it parties should radiate by land and river, and trade with the Indians for furs as well as fit out trapping parties of their own ; that from Astoria, as headquarters, should proceed the annual supply ship (from New York) on fur trading trips to the bays and ports north of the Columbia : and that those supply ships having filled up partially on those trips should complete their lading at Astoria. Then away for China, the great market for furs at that time. In China the emptied vessel should reload with nankeens and teas and silks wherewith to clothe and exhilarate the fair inhabitants of New York. Two years would pass in completing this vast commercial "rounding up." For the still further enlargement of his business, Mr. Astor had also made arrangements to supply the Russian posts at New Archangel. He wished to do this partly for the profits accruing therein and partly to shut off competition in

There were at that time three especially valual)le fur-producing animals found in vast numbers in this country. Tlie first, the beaver, was found in all the interior valleys, the Willamette country, as was afterward found, being pre-eminent in this respect. The two others, the sea otter and seal, were found on the coast. The sea otter fur was the most valuable. Its velvety smoothness and glossy l)lackness rendered it first in the markets of the world of all furs from the temperate zones of Xorth America, and inferior only to the ermine and sable and possibly the fiery fox of the far north.

The profits of the fur trade were such as miglit well entice daring and avarice to run the gauntlet of icebergs, starvation, ferocious savages and stormy seas. The profits of a single voyage might liquidate even the enormous cost of the outfit. For instance, Ross, one of the clerks of Astor's company, and located at Okanogan, relates that one morning before breakfast he bought of Indians one hundred and ten beaver skins at the rate of fi\-e leaves of tobacco per skin. Afterward a yard of cotton cloth, worth, say, ten cents, purchased twenty-five beaver skins, worth in New York $5 apiece. For four fathoms of blue beads, worth, perhaps, a dollar, Lewis and Clark obtained a sea otter skin, the market price of which varied from $45 to $60. Ross -notes in another place that for $165 in trinkets, cloth, etc., he purchased peltries worth in the Canton market $11,250. Indeed, even the ill-fated voyages of Mr. As-- tor's partners proved that a cargo worth $25,000 in New York might be expected to be replaced in two years by one worth a quarter of a million, a profit of a thousand per cent. We cannot wonder, then, at the eager enterprise and fierce, S(jmetimes bloody, competition of the fur traders.

A Frenchman, Franchere by name, one of the Astoria clerks, is the chief authority for the story. Irving seems to have taken some poetic license with this account. According to him, with a total force of twenty-three and an Indian of the Chehalis tribe called Lamazee, for interpreter, the Tonquin entered the harbor of Neweetee. Franchere calls the Indian Lamanse, and the harbor, he says, the Indian called Newity. We shall probably be safe in following Bancroft and suppose tha place to have been Nootka. Nootka sound, on the west side of Vancouver's island, has been referred to on a previous page as a bad place for the traders. In 1803 the ship Boston and all her crew but two had been destroyed there.