Adventures of the first settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River

Front matter

LIBRARY

3 1197 23374 8034

Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River

Preface to Original Edition . xxv

1 . The Genesis of the Expedition .... 3

2. The Voyage of the Tonquin . 16

3. The Hawaiian Islands . 34

4. From Hawaii to the Columbia .... 57

5. The Founding of Astoria . 76

6. The Natives of the Lower Columbia . . 95

7. From Astoria to the Narrows . . . . hi

8. From the Narrows to the Okanogan . . 13 1

9. The Destruction of the Tonquin .... 165

10. Across the Continent with Hunt and Mc¬ Kenzie . .183

11. The Adventures of Ramsey Crooks and

John Day . 199

12. Operations in the Interior . 209

13. Trading Activities on the Spokane and the

Snake . 226

14. Stuart’s Return to St. Louis and Arrival of

the Beaver . 245

15. The Sale of Astoria . 262

16. Warlike Measures Afloat and Ashore . . 275

17. The End of a Great Adventure . . . .293

vii

Content^

CHAPTER PAGE

1 8. Manners and Customs of the Okanogan . 308

19. Marriage, Medicine Men, and Gamblers . 322

20. Habitations, Food, and Other Matters . . 337

21. Further Manners and Customs of the Okan¬ ogan . 349 viii

Historical Introduction i^gtorfcal SItttroDitction

THE recital of the adventures of the Greeks returning from the Trojan wars gave employment to the pen of Homer in the Odyssey, one of the few great epics of world literature. The toils and dangers of the adventurers whose exploits comprise the theme of the present volume were not less great than those of the heroes of Homer’s tale, while the distances traversed by the ancient Trojans, and the variety of climes and peoples en¬ countered, pale to insignificance in comparison with those which figure in the tale of their modern prototypes.

In these modern days of steamship and aeroplane, of telegraph and radiophone and newspaper, the “ great silent places of earth” have for the most part ceased to be; while such as remain have become the familiar theme of the no less silent drama of the screen. Gone forever from the world are the days when the leaders of important commercial ventures could remain for months or even years in ignorance of facts so material to them as the outbreak of important wars. It is but little over a century since Captain Meriwether Lewis encountered at Great Falls, Montana, such a series of adventures as to lead him to

XI

Jl^igtoricai ^nttotiuction think he was in an enchanted land; and only the “prickly pears,” piercing his feet through his thin buckskin moccasins, convinced him of the reality of his experiences. Today, his land of t enchantment has become the seat of a thriving commercial city; while the falls he discovered and named have been harnessed to drive the most powerful locomotives in the world over hundreds of miles of mountain highway. Here indeed is romance, but of a far different sort than that which attends the tale of Homer’s heroes or of our own Astorians.

The Astorian enterprise originated in the fertile brain of one of the greatest business men America has yet produced, John Jacob Astor. The son of a village butcher of eighteenth century Germany, in youth he turned his back on his native land, and just at the verge of manhood found his way to America, the land of freedom and opportunity. For him op¬ portunity presented herself in the guise of the fur trade. Embarking on this on the humblest possible scale, in a quarter of a century he found himself one of the chief factors of the business in America, while his ambitious vision anticipated the time when he would dominate the trade of the United States, if not, indeed, of the continent. To this end he endeavored to unite his interests with those of the great North West Company, which then shared with the Hudson’s Bay Company the xii

!^i£totical introduction control of the fur trade of Canada, besides operating extensively in the northern half of the United States. Rebuffed, Astor proceeded to organize a new concern, the Pacific Fur Company, for which he provided the capital, andmto wliich he drew a number of men who had been partners in the North West concern. The design of the Pacific Fur Company was to gain control of the fur trade of the Pacific Northwest (into which as yet the Hudson’s Bay and North West companies were but beginning to enter), and marketing the furs and other products of that region in distant China, bring thence to the Atlantic seaboard the cargoes of tea, damasks, and other riches of the fabled Orient which the American con¬ sumer craved.

Here it is not the purpose to tell the story of Astoria, but merely to introduce the narra¬ tive of one who was an actor in it. In the execution, the Napoleonic dream of Astor failed miserably — why, becomes apparent, in part, upon perusal of Ross’s narrative. Soberly reviewing it after the lapse of nearly a century, Captain Chittenden, one of the ablest students of the American fur trade, concludes that “ the general plan upon which it was based stands above criticism. It was a project no less feasible than magnificent. Although its course was one of almost uniform disaster, its very failures showed that under normal conditions its success would have xiii i^ijtftorical 3rnttoimction excelled the anticipations of its great pro¬ moter. He had proposed well, but God and man, with tempest and war, had disposed in a way which he could scarcely have imagined possible.”1

Breeder of strenuous rivalry in its own time, the Astorian expedition has been the fruitful source of a lengthened historical controversy. The Astorians were peculiarly fortunate in their first historian, for about a quarter of a century after the occurrence of the events concerned, Astor enlisted the interest of Washington Irving in the expedition and induced him to write its history. To this end, the journals, diaries, letters, and other records pertaining to the expedition were placed at the great author’s disposal, who, in addition, enjoyed the advantage of personal acquain¬ tance and interviews with many of the actors in it. As a consequence there appeared from the press of Carey and Lea at Philadelphia, in 1836, Astoria; or Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains . Of the literary charm and artistry of this work, which has gone through numerous editions, no question has ever been raised. The brilliant author was inspired by a real love of his subject and he enjoyed the great privilege of almost unlimited access to original sources of information. Fortunate indeed is the historian whose task

1 Hiram M. Chittenden, The American Fur Trade of the Far West (New York, 1902), Vol. I, p. 228.

xiv

Oistoncai introduction of composition is facilitated by the possession of such advantages.

Over the historical quality of Astoria , how¬ ever, much "discussTohlias been Indulged, and the validity of the work, and even the motives which animated its author, have been vigor¬ ously assailed. Probably the most noted of these critics is Hubert Howe Bancroft, the noted historian of the Pacific Slope of America. His criticisms are repelled by Chittenden with a like degree of outspoken vigor, whose con¬ clusions may be adequately summarized in the statement that Bancroft’s “ persistent bias of judgment and his bitter prejudice, which place him in an attitude of constant hostility toward Astor and Irving, and lead him repeatedly into sheer falsifications and downright slander, are wholly without rational explanation.” The criticisms advanced against Astoria may be summarized under three heads: inaccuracy as to dates and other details; an undue partiality for Astor which caused Irving to write an apologia for his friend rather than an impartial history; and finally an undue freedom with the literary property of earlier and less noted writers which is vulgarly char¬ acterized as plagiarism. Against all of these charges Chittenden has made, in behalf of Irving, a spirited and, as it seems to me, successful defense. That the work is inaccurate in certain minor details he admits, as indeed are all considerable historical compositions;

XV

J^i^torical introduction but he justifies the author in part, and for the rest denies the existence of any undue degree of inaccuracy. From the remaining charges he wholly exculpates Irving. Speaking for myself, I have undertaken no thorough-going study of this controversy, but as far as I have gone into the matter my impressions coincide with the conclusions of Chittenden, and until a new and abler critic of Astoria shall appear I am content to accept his seasoned judgment in the premises. Although Irving’s Astoria is not now being presented to the reader, it is a work with which most well-read Americans are familiar, and it still remains the best sec¬ ondary history of the expedition, for which the narrative of Ross constitutes one of our prime sources of original information.2 The charges against it have attained widespread currency, even among professional historians, and it seems desirable to afford the lay reader (for whom, primarily, the Lakeside Classics are intended) this summary view of the question.

From this brief review of secondary his¬ tories of the Astorian expedition we turn to a consideration of the original sources of in¬ formation, to which the narrative of Ross

2 For more recent accounts of the Astorian expe¬ dition than that of Irving, the reader is referred to Chittenden’s American Fur Trade of the Far West , Vol. I, pp. 163-246; and Constance Skinner’s Adven¬ turers of Oregon (New Haven, 1920), pp. 1 10-210.

xvi i^igtoricai ^ntrotmction properly belongs.3 The martinet soul of chol¬ eric Captain Thorn of the ill-fated Tonquin was sorely vexed by the scribbling propen¬ sities of certain of the youthful clerks who were aboard his ship in the capacity of unwelcome passengers. But to the industrious pens of these self-same diarists we owe three exten¬ sive and important original narratives of the expedition, on which, aside from Irving’s Astoria , our knowledge of it chiefly depends. One of Ross’s fellow clerks who went out in the Tonquin was Gabriel Franchere, a young French-Canadian from Montreal. He re¬ mained with the Astorians until the sale of the company’s effects in October, 1813,, after whicH7 altEbugh urged to enter the employ of the North West Company, he improved the earliest opportunity to abandon the country, returning to Montreal in September, 1814. Soon after, he again entered Astor’s employ and within a few years removed within the borders of the United States, finally dying at St. Paul in 1863. In 1820 Franchere published at Montreal in French his narrative of the

3 Since Ross undertook to write the history of the entire expedition, while he himself participated in only a portion of its scenes and events, his book is neces¬ sarily in part of a secondary character. Yet even here his familiarity with persons and places involved, and his knowledge of difficulties encountered, gives his work a different character than that attaching to the ac¬ counts prepared by historians writing wholly from written records in a later generation.

xvii historical ^ntrotiuction

Astorian expedition, — the first by many years to appear in print. It was reprinted at New York in 1854 in English translation, and this edition was reprinte^ by Dr. R. G. Thwaiies in his important series of reprints of Early Western Travels (Cleveland, 1904).

The. second journal of the Astorians, in point of time of publication, is Ross Cox’s Adventures on the Columbia River , printed at New York in 1832. It is a voluminous work of over 300 finely printed pages, and in addi¬ tion to the story of the Astorian expedition proper it recites the experiences of the author during several succeeding years in the Colum¬ bia River region. It is an interesting and valuable narrative, but so far as known to the present writer it has never been reprinted.

We come at length to a consideration of the writings of Alexander Ross, some knowledge of whose career is essential to the intelligent understanding of the work we are here re¬ printing. A native of Scotland, as a young man Ross migrated to Canada in 1804 in search of fortune. After several years, the quest still proving elusive, he eagerly enlisted as a clerk in the Astorian expedition, which determined the course of his future life. In 1813, at his post of Okanogan, Ross married an Indian woman. Unlike many wTnfeTraders wEoentereHlipon such alliances, Ross remained permanently loyal to his dusky wife, who long outlived him, dying at an advanced age at xviii

Oi^tortmt ^ntrobuction

Winnipeg in 1886. Upon the break-up of the Astorian enterprise in 1813 Ross entered the employ of the North West Company, serving it and its successor, the Hudson’s Bay Com¬ pany, in the Northwest until the year 1825. He then returned to the borders of civilization, locating in the then new Red River settlement of Manitoba, where now is the city of Winni¬ peg. This remained his home until ^iis death in 1856, and during this later period of life he became both wealthy and locally promi¬ nent. He became “the first sheriff of Red River, became the most trusted trader of the Selkirk settlers, and was, as well, through his Indian wife, a potent force among the native people.” Indicative of his interests in another field is the fact that to him is ascribed the first establishment of the Presby¬ terian Church in the Red River Valley.

In the closing years of life Ross turned his attention to literature, producing in rather quick succession three important books. The , first of these, the one we here reprint, was published in London in 1849. The second, entitled The Fur Hunters of the Far West , was published in 1855. It describes the au¬ thor’s years spent in the Rocky Mountain country in the employ of the North West and the Hudson’s Bay companies. The year fol¬ lowing its appearance (and the last of his life) Ross published a history of The Red River Settlement , Its Rise , Progress , and Present State

XIX l^igtorital introduction

It will be seen from this short sketch that aside from his comparatively brief employ¬ ment by the Pacific Fur Company, all the associations of Ross’s life were British and Canadian. A Scotchman by birth, he re¬ mained a British subject to the end of his life. The North West Company was domi¬ nated by Scotchmen, and although some of its members temporarily affiliated themselves with the Pacific Fur Company, they speedily returned to their old allegiance, and to this day reputable Canadian historians are in doubt whether they ever intended loyally to ally their fortunes with those of the American house of Astor. Whatever the truth may be as to this point, there was a direct conflict of interest between the American and Canadian companies, and the conduct of some of the Scotch-Canadian partners of Astor — of Mc- Dougall in particular — seems equivocal enough. Throughout Ross’s narrative there is evidence of a curious contradiction of sentiment and "motive. At times he is outspoken in his criticism of his superiors, Canadian as well as American; yet for the most part he seems disposed to exculpate his Scotch-Canadian employers and friends, while criticizing with unnecessary vigor the conduct of the American partners, and above all of Astor, the head of the enterprise. It seems not unreasonable to suppose that the influence of national and racial associations prejudiced the author’s xx

J^igtorical ^FntcoDuction mind and swayed his pen in expressing these judgments. Attention is called to the matter not with any view of discrediting his narrative, but merely to assist the reader to assess it more intelligently at its true worth.

As to that worth there is no room for question. The Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon is a clear and readable account of this interesting phase of the history of our Pacific Northwest, and the narrative will en¬ dure as long as men shall continue to feel an intelligent interest in this subject.

As in the editing of earlier volumes of the Lakeside Classics , I have endeavored to repro¬ duce faithfully the evident meaning of the author, but have given no heed to reproducing the typographical style or mechanical forms adopted by his original publisher. The latter was sadly remiss, judged by modern standards, in his duty to his author, particularly in the matter of punctuation. The table of contents, map, chapter heads, punctuation, and other typographical details, and, on occasion, the orthography, therefore, may be ascribed to the present editor.

Milo M. Quaife.

Madison, Wisconsin.

ADVENTURES

OP THE FIRST SETTLERS ON THE

OREGON OR COLUMBIA RIVER

BEING

A NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION FITTED OUT BY JOHN JACOB ASTOR*

TO ESTABLISH THE

“ PACIFIC FUR COMPANY;”

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF SOME

INDIAN TRIBES ON THE COAST OF THE PACIFIC.

BY ALEXANDER ROSS,

ONE OF THE ADVENTURERS

LONDON:

SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL 1849.

preface to tyt Original €Mtfon

HAVING been one of the first commercial adventurers to the Columbia River, and having spent fifteen years of my life traveling among the savage tribes west of the Rocky Mountains, I was induced, from time to time, to note down such incidents and opinions illustrative of savage fife and manners as ap¬ peared to me either new or interesting.

To the characteristic details of Indian life I have added that of personal adventure, the trials and misfortunes which the first adventur¬ ers had to undergo among the Indians in that quarter; connecting therewith an account of the trade and commerce of the country during the early days of that bold spirit which ani¬ mated the first explorers of the Columbia.

These different subjects have been arranged and linked together in their natural order, so as to form one complete narrative, embodying the history of the Pacific Fur Company.

It is not an armchair narrative, derived from hearsay tales, but the result of practical ex¬ perience on the spot. From beginning to end I had personally to act my part in the scenes described; they passed under my own eyes; and

XXV

Original preface the account altogether may derive more value from being authentic than from any adventi¬ tious embellishment bestowed on it.

While on this part of our subject it may be observed that there is an error which most travelers, especially those pioneers who first penetrate into dark and remote regions, fall into; they generally run into the extreme, and spoil a simple story by coloring. Not content to leave nature in its simple garb, they must brighten or darken, magnify or diminish, every¬ thing they describe, until at last the real like¬ ness of the thing is entirely effaced and truth itself, by over-refinement, is thrown into the shade.

What belongs to oneself is generally viewed with a partial eye, and perhaps that partiality influences my own opinion as to the interest of the subject before us. In reference to this sub¬ ject, however, others have written on it as well as myself. Let our readers, therefore, judge for themselves.

In presenting the present work to the pub¬ lic I have no very sanguine expectations. All I aim at is to lay before my readers a faith¬ ful and impartial statement of what took place during my own times in a quarter hitherto but little known.

Freedom from imperfection is not to be ex¬ pected; yet, on the whole, I hope that this volume will prove to the calm inquirer, in all matters connected with the subject generally,

XXVI

Original preface a sure and satisfactory guide: allowance being made for any changes that may have taken place since this account was written, thirty years ago.

Red River Settlement, Rupert’s Land,

August i, 1846.

xxvii

Adventures of the First Settlers the Oregon or Columbia River

Chapter i THE GENESIS OF THE EXPEDITION

WHEN I first conceived the idea of writing the following narrative my design was to begin with a brief out¬ line of the discoveries already made on the coast of the Pacific, from Drake in 1579 to Vancouver in 17921; or rather, down to the present time; but on second thoughts I felt convinced that enough had been done already in that branch of inquiry; or, at least, that the further prosecution of it might be better left to those who aspire to literary fame. Mine is an humbler ambition — not to figure as an author, but to record faithfully, as a trader, the events in which I bore a part; and in so doing to gratify a desire kindled by an ac¬ quaintance with strange scenes and new fields of action, in a remote country which is still but little known.

The progress of discovery contributes not a little to the enlightenment of mankind; for mercantile interest stimulates curiosity and

1 Captain George Vancouver of the British navy commanded the Discovery in a voyage of exploration in the North Pacific which lasted from 1790 to 1795. He entered the Columbia River, and took possession of the northwestern coast of America in the name of his government.

$Uerantier ftogg adventure, and combines with them to enlarge the circle of knowledge. To the spirit of enterprise developed in the service of com¬ mercial speculation, civilized nations owe not only wealth and territorial acquisitions, but also their acquaintance with the earth and its productions. The illustration of these re¬ marks will be found in the following pages.

Mr. Astor of New York, a German by birth but a citizen of the United States, raised him¬ self by his adventurous and enterprising spirit from small beginnings to be one of the wealthi¬ est and most eminent merchants in America. Soon after his arrival in the United States, about the year 1784,2 he commenced his com¬ mercial career in the traffic of furs: at first on a very narrow scale, but gradually expand¬ ing as his means increased. In this way he made visits to Canada, purchasing furs in that country and shipping them from thence to the London market: and it is supposed that at this period his buoyant and aspiring mind conceived the vast project of grasping in his own hands, at some future day, the whole fur trade of North America.

The valuable furs and peltries scattered in former days over the extensive forests, lakes, and rivers of the Canadas, like the rich mines of Potosi and Mexico, invited many

2 It was in 1783 that John Jacob Astor, the founder of the family fortune, came to America.

&titoenture£ on tfje Oregon adventurers. The French, for some time after settling there, carried on an irregular but lu¬ crative traffic in furs and peltries, with very little opposition, until the year 1670, when the Hudson’s Bay Company, established by royal charter, took possession of the territory now called “Rupert’s land,” or Hudson’s Bay. The Canada, or as it was more generally called, the North West Company, was formed in 1787; and these soon became the two great rival companies of the North, as we shall have occasion to notice more fully hereafter. Next on the theater of action appeared the Mackinac Company, which swept the warm regions of the South, as the two others did those of the wintry North, until the American Fur Company, established by Mr. Astor in 1809, commenced operations; but he, finding the Mackinac fur traders somewhat in his way, bought out that company, and added its territorial resources in 1811 to those of the American Fur Company. This body corporate was entitled the South West, in contradis¬ tinction to the North West Company.

Mr. Astor now saw himself at the head of all the fur trade of the South, and his intention was to penetrate through the barriers of the northern company, so as eventually to come into possession of all the fur trade east of the Rocky Mountains. With this plan still before him, he now turned his views to the trade on the coast of the Pacific, or that new field

&lejcantier 11006 lying west of the Rocky Mountains, and which forms the subject of our present narrative. In this quarter the Russians alone had regular trading ports, opposite to Kamchatka, where they still carry on a considerable trade in furs and sealskins, sending them across the Pacific direct to China. Their capital is limited, and their hunting grounds almost entirely con¬ fined to the seacoast and islands around their establishments. The American coasting ves¬ sels also frequent this quarter, collecting vast quantities of valuable furs, which they convey to the Chinese market. This casual traffic by coasters yielded to their owners in former days, by means of the returning cargo, an average clear gain of a thousand per cent every second year; but these vessels are not so numerous of late, nor are the profits thus made so great as formerly.3

The comprehensive mind of Mr. Astor could not but see these things in their true light, and to perceive that if such limited and desultory traffic produced such immense profits, what might not be expected from a well-regulated trade, supported by capital and prosecuted with system: at all events, the Russian trader would then be confined within his own limits, and the coasting vessels must soon disappear altogether.

3 An excellent sketch of the early trade between the Northwest Coast and China is contained in Samuel E. Morison’s Maritime History of Massachusetts , 1783- 1860 (Boston and New York, 1921), Chaps, iv, v, and vi.

&btoenture0 on tfje #regon

Towards the accomplishment of the great plan which he had in view, JVTr. Astor now set about opening a new branch of the fur trade on the Pacific, under the appellation of the Pacific Fur Company, the grand central depoF of wKicE^ was to be at the mouth of the Columbia River, the “Oregon” of the Spaniards.4 By this means he contemplated carrying off the furs of all the countries west of the Rocky Mountains; at the same time forming a chain of trading posts across the Continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, along the waters of the great Missouri: con¬ necting by this chain the operations of the South West Company on the east, with that of the Pacific Fur Company on the west side of the dividing ridge.

4 The earliest known use of the name Oregon for the Columbia River was by Major Robert Rogers, the noted Indian fighter and leader of rangers in the French and Indian War. Rogers, shortly after that war, went to England, where among other activities he petitioned the government for authority to lead an exploring expedition across the continent of North America from the upper waters of the Mississippi to the river “ Ore¬ gon having attained the Pacific Coast, it was Rogers’ ambition to search out the long-desired Northwest Passage around the continent. His project was never carried out, but the use of the term “ Oregon” for the as yet unknown Columbia River was brought to public knowledge in Jonathan Carver’s famous and widely read book of Travels , first published in London in 1778. Where Rogers obtained the term, and what may be its significance, has been the subject of much futile discussion by scholars.

This grand commercial scheme, appearing now plain and practicable, at least to men of sanguine disposition, gave much satisfaction to the American public, who, from the results contemplated, became deeply interested in its success; for all the rich cargoes of furs and peltries thus to be collected annually over the vast expanse were to be shipped in American vessels for the great China mart, there to be sold and the proceeds invested in a return cargo of teas, silks, beads, and nankeens, and other articles of high demand in the United States; which would not only prevent to some extent the American specie from going out of the Union for such articles, but also turn the barren wilds of the North and Far West into a source of national wealth. Some, how¬ ever, of the more sagacious and influential among the Americans themselves observed to Mr. Astor at the time that his plan would be likely to give umbrage to the British, and arouse them to assert more speedily their claims of prior discovery to the Oregon quar¬ ter, and that such a step would operate against him. To these suggestions Mr. Astor simply observed that he had thought of that, but intended chiefly to employ in his undertaking British subjects, and that he should on that account give less offense; “ besides,” added he, “ the claims of prior discovery and territorial right are claims to be settled by Government only, and not by an individual. ”

&Dtoenture£ on tf) t Oregon

Mr. Astor’s plans, hitherto known only to a few, now began to develop themselves more publicly. On the first intimation of the scheme, the North-Westerners took the alarm; for having already, in the prosecution of their trade, penetrated to the west side of the Rocky Mountains, in the direction of New Caledonia5 and the north branch of the Columbia, where they expected to reap a rich harvest, they viewed Astor’s expedition to that quarter with a jealous eye, according to the old adage that “ two of a trade seldom agree”; but others agam ex tolled the brilliant project as the brightest gem in the American Union, and particularly many of the retired partners of the North West Company, who, not being provided for in some late arrange¬ ments, had left that concern in disgust, and therefore were the most likely to oppose with effect the ambitious views of their former coadjutors. These were just the men Mr. Astor had in his eye: men of influence and experience among savages, and who from their earlier days had been brought up in, and habituated to, the hardships of the Indian trade. To several of these persons Mr. Astor