A History of Oregon, 1792-1849 Part 12

He appeared quite fond of telling "yarns." In the conversation, Mrs.

Whitman asked him if he ever had any difficulty or fights with the Indians. "That we did," said he. "One time I was with Bridger's camp; we were traveling along that day, and the Blackfeet came upon us. I was riding an old mule. The Indians were discovered some distance off, so all the party put whip to their horses and started to get to a place where we could defend ourselves. My old mule was determined not to move, with all the beating I could give her, so I sung out to the boys to stop and fight the Indians where we were; they kept on, however. Soon, my old mule got sight of the Blackfeet coming; she p.r.i.c.ked up her ears, and on she went like a streak, pa.s.sed the boys, and away we went. I sung out to the boys, as I pa.s.sed, 'Come on, boys, there is no use to stop and fight the Indians here.'" Fun and firmness were the two prominent characteristics of this young mountain hunter. He expressed a wish and a determination to visit and settle in lower Oregon (as the Wallamet Valley was then called). He had a native wife, and one son, just beginning to speak a few words. The father seemed, on my first noticing him, to be teaching this son of his to say "G.o.d d----n you," doubtless considering this prayer the most important one to teach his son to repeat, in the midst of the wild scenes with which he was surrounded.

Though, to his credit be it said, this same wild, youthful mountaineer has become a good supporter of religious society, and has a respectable family, in an interesting neighborhood, near Forest Grove, in Oregon.

We will call these mountain hunters by numbers, for convenience, as we shall refer to them in our future political sketches, in which they partic.i.p.ated.

No. 2. A man of medium height, black hair, black whiskers, dark-brown eyes, and very dark complexion; he was formerly from Kentucky. (I am not positive.) He was quite fond of telling yarns; still, as he was not considered very truthful, we will only give the story as we have it of the manner in which he and the one we will give as No. 3 obtained their t.i.tles. 2 and 3 were traveling together; 3 was from Cincinnati, Ohio.

They had reached Independence, Mo.; says 3 to 2, "t.i.tles are very necessary here in Missouri, what t.i.tles shall we take?" "Well," says 2, "I will take _Major_." 3 says, "I will take _Doctor_." Very good. They rode up to the best hotel in the place and called for lodgings.

2. "Well, Doctor, what shall we have for supper?"

3. "I don't care, Major, so as we get something to eat."

The Major and the Doctor enjoyed their supper and have borne their t.i.tles to the present time. The Major has never been, from all I could learn of him, a very truthful man or reliable citizen. He spent several years in Oregon and in the mountains, and found his way back to Missouri. The Doctor is now a resident of Idaho. The most remarkable trait in his composition is story-telling, or yarns, and a disposition to make friends of all political parties, or join all religious sects--something of a good lord and good devil order. He appeared in those early times to belong to that party that paid him the best. He was first in the employ of the American Fur Company, but appeared to lend his influence to the Hudson's Bay Company. He also had a native wife of the Nez Perce tribe, and was considered by the Hudson's Bay Company a useful man to divide the American influence in trade with the Indians in the mountains, and equally useful to distract and divide the political influence of the early settlers. By his connection with the natives in marriage, the Hudson's Bay Company in trade, and good lord and good devil principles, he could adapt himself to the Protestant or Catholic religion, and in this manner become a kind of representative man, something like _strong lye and aquafortis mixed_, and just about as useful as such a mixture would be. He succeeded, by political maneuvering, or as the sailors say, "boxing the compa.s.s," to fill a place and draw a salary from Uncle Sam; carrying out the principles he has acted upon in his whole life, his efforts have been to neutralize what good others might do.

No. 4. A young man from Ohio, of a serious turn of mind; at least I concluded this to be the case, from the fact that he asked of the ladies if they had any books to sell, or that they could spare. A nice pocket-bible was given him, for which he politely expressed his thanks, after offering to pay for it. The pay, of course, was declined, as a few bibles were brought along for distribution. This young man, in a few years, followed the mission party and became a settler and a prominent man in the provisional government.

No. 5. A wild, reckless, don't-care sort of a youth, with a Nez Perce wife, so thoroughly attached to Indian ideas and customs that he has felt it beneath his dignity to turn from the ancient habits of the Indian to a "more recent invention" of religion and civilization. His curiosity was a little excited, which induced him to pay his respects to the missionaries, on account of their wives. He called on them, and spoke of some day finding his way somewhere down about where the missionaries might be located; as he had bought him a Nez Perce wife, she might want to go and see her people, and he might make up his mind to go and settle. This man, from his utter disregard for all moral and civilized social relations, has coiled himself up in the tribe he adopted, and spit out his venomous influence against all moral and civil improvement, training his children so that the better portion of the natives treat them with contempt. For a time he had considerable influence in shaping government policy toward the tribe and securing his own personal Indian position, to the injury of all other interests. I am unable to say how he obtained his t.i.tle of colonel, unless it was from the influence he once pretended to have with the Indians, and a disposition on the part of those of his countrymen to t.i.tle those who aspire to such honors.

No. 6. What the miners nowadays would call a "plain, honest farmer,"

with a native wife and one child. He called on the party, took a look at their cattle, and some four years afterward, after going into Mexico and Taos, found his way to the Wallamet as a settler, with a few head of cattle, which he managed to get through. This man is a quiet and good citizen, and has a respectable family of half-native children. The accursed influence of slavery in his neighborhood has borne heavily upon his children. Whether they will be able to rise above it and stand as examples of good citizens remains for them to demonstrate.

No. 7. A short, thick-set man, with a Nez Perce wife; a good honest farmer; has done credit to himself and family in giving them every possible advantage for education and society, though the aquafortis mixture has been strong in his neighborhood; his family are respected; his Indian wife he considers as good as some of his neighbors', that don't like her or her children. In this opinion all who are not saturated with our _cultus_ mixture agree with him. His t.i.tle in the mountains was Squire, but I think it has been improved since he came to the settlements by adding the E to it, he having been duly elected to fill the office under the provisional, territorial, and State government. I have learned, with much regret, that the Squire of the Rocky Mountains, who had courage and strength to meet and overcome all the dangers and trials of early times, has not the courage to resist the approaches of false friends and bad whisky, which will ultimately bring himself and his family to that certain destruction that follows the debasing habit of using liquor in any shape.

No. 8. A fair, light-haired, light-complexioned, blue-eyed man, rather above the medium height, with a Nez Perce wife, came about the camp, had little or nothing to say. I am not quite certain that he had his native wife at that time, still he had one when he came into the settlement.

He has a good farm, and if he avoids his false friends and the fatal habits of his neighbors, he may have a good name, which will be of more value to his children than his present social and vicious habits.

Doctor Marcus Whitman, they considered, on the whole, was a good sort of a fellow; he was not so hide-bound but what he could talk with a common man and get along easily if his wife did not succeed in "_stiffening_,"

starching him up; he would do first-rate, though there appeared considerable doubt in their minds, whether, from her stern, commanding manner, she would not eventually succeed in stiffening up the Doctor so that he would be less agreeable. Mrs. Whitman, they thought, was a woman of too much education and refinement to be thrown away on the Indians.

"She must have had considerable romance in her disposition to have undertaken such an expedition with such a common, kind, good-hearted fellow as the Doctor. As to Spalding, he is so green he will do to spread out on a frog-pond; he may do to preach to Indians, but mountain men would have to be fly-blown before he could come near them. Mrs.

Spalding is a first-rate woman; she has not got any starch in her; it is strange she ever picked up such a greenhorn as she has for a husband; she will do first-rate to teach the Indians, or anybody else; she has got good common sense, and doesn't put on any frills. As to Gray, he is young yet, is not quite so green as Spalding; he seems inclined to learn a little; by the time he goes to the Columbia River and travels about more, he will know a good deal more than he does now. He may do well in his department if he 'keeps his eye skinned.'"

I suppose by this expression was meant a sharp look out for swindlers, rogues, and thieves, to see that they do not lie, cheat, and steal, every opportunity they may have, or at least that you do not allow them to take your property under false pretenses. Be that as it may, the general conclusion was, that, as this mission party had succeeded in getting thus far on their journey, they might get still further, and perhaps (most were certain) make a failure, either by being sent out of the country by the Hudson's Bay Company, or destroyed by the Indians.

Good wishes and hopes that they might succeed were abundant from all, as was plainly expressed, and a disposition, in case the mission succeeded in establis.h.i.+ng themselves, to find their way down into the Columbia River Valley with their native families, and become settlers about the mission stations. Lightly as these frank, open expressions of good wishes and future ideas of the mountain hunter may appear, the missionaries saw at once there was the germ of a future people to be gathered in the Columbia River Valley, probably of a mixed race. These men had all abandoned civilization and home for the wild hunter life in the midst of the mountains. They had enjoyed its wild sports, felt its fearful dangers and sufferings, and become, most of them, connected with native women--a large proportion of them with the Nez Perce and Flathead tribes. Their family, at least, could be benefited by education, and taught the benefits of civilization and Christianity. The men had expressed kind wishes, good feelings, and treated them kindly; why should they not include this cla.s.s of men and their families in their efforts to benefit the Indians in the valleys of the Columbia River.

As before stated, the mission party had been introduced by Captain Wyeth to Mr. John McLeod, a gentleman holding the rank of chief trader in the Hudson's Bay Company. He had frequent interviews and conversations with the mission party while at rendezvous, and as often as any of these mountain men met him at the mission camp, he would leave without ceremony. There appeared a mutual dislike, a sort of hatred between them. This chief trader of the Hudson's Bay Company, in the conversations had with him, informed the mission party that it was not the wish of the company to encourage any of these mountain hunters and trappers to go to the Columbia River to settle, or to have any thing to do with them, a.s.signing as a reason that they would cause trouble and difficulties with the Indians. He also gave them to understand that should they need manual labor, or men to a.s.sist them in putting up their houses and making their improvements, the company would prefer to furnish it, to encouraging these men in going into the country. This intimation was distinctly conveyed to the party, with the advice and intimations received from Captain Wyeth, who had seen and understood all the policy of the Hudson's Bay Company, and had been compelled to sell his improvements at Fort Hall to this same McLeod, and his goods designed for the trade to Dr. McLaughlin, soon after their arrival in the country. These facts and statements, with the decided manner of Mr.

McLeod, compelled the mission party to defer any effort for these mountain men, but subsequently they advised the sending of a man to travel with their camps.

CHAPTER XVI.

Missionaries travel in company with Hudson's Bay Company's party.--The Lawyer's kindness.--Arrival at Fort Hall.--Description of the country.--The Salmon Indians.--The Hudson's Bay Company's tariff.

Letters all written to friends, and everybody supposed to have any particular interest in the person or individual who wrote them; the letters placed in the hands of Captain Wyeth; mission camp overhauled and a.s.sorted; all goods supposed unnecessary, or that could be replaced, such as irons for plows, blacksmith's tools, useless kettles, etc., etc., disposed of. (All articles left, the party were careful to learn, could be had at Vancouver of the Hudson's Bay Company, or Methodist Mission, at reasonable prices.) Tents struck; good-byes said; over the party goes to Horse Creek, not far from the Nez Perce camp, where we found that of McLeod and McKay. Soon after we reached camp, along comes Dr. Whitman with his wagon, notwithstanding all parties and persons, except the Indians, advised him to leave it. He was literally alone in his determination to get his old wagon through on to the waters of the Columbia, and to the mission station that might be established no one knew where. The man that says Dr. Whitman is fickle-minded, knows nothing of his character and less of his moral worth.

Next day, all camps, including those of the Flathead and Nez Perce Indians, were "raised," as the expression is, and on we went; the Hudson's Bay Company and mission camp, or caravan, together, Dr. Whitman in charge of his wagon, with some Indians to help him. They seemed rather to get the Doctor's ideas of this _chick-chick-shauile-kai-kash_ (iron rolling carriage), and hunted a road around the bad places, and helped him along when he required their a.s.sistance. Our route was nearly the same as the great overland route to Bear River and Soda Springs.

Two days before we reached Soda Springs one of the mission party became quite unwell, and unable to sit upon his horse. He was left, at his own request, on a little stream, while the caravan pa.s.sed on some six miles further to camp. After remaining alone and resting some two hours, The Lawyer and an Indian companion of his came along, picked up the sick man, put him upon a strong horse, got on behind him, and held him on till they reached camp. Dr. Whitman gave him a prescription, which relieved him, so that next day he was able to continue the journey with the camp. This transaction has always been a mystery to the writer. The place where the sick man was left was a beautiful stream, and a good place for a camp for the whole caravan. The sick man was wholly unable to proceed; did not ask the caravan to stop and bury him, but simply informed them he could proceed no further; his strength was gone; they could leave him to die alone if they chose. A word from McLeod would have stopped the caravan. Should the mission party remain with him? He said: "No; go on with the caravan and leave me; you will be compelled to seek your own safety in continuing with the caravan; I am but an individual; leave me to my fate." He requested a cup that he might get some water from the stream, close to the side of which he wished them to place him. Dr. Whitman remained with him as long as was deemed safe for him, and pa.s.sed on to overtake the caravan. The Lawyer and his companion came along two or three hours afterward, picked up the dying or dead man (for aught the caravan knew), and brought him into camp. My impression of this transaction has always been that McLeod wished to get rid of this young American, who was then in the service of the mission party.

"That d----d Indian, Lawyer," as the Hudson's Bay Company's men called him, by his kindness of heart and determination not to let an American die if he could help it, defeated the implied wish of these Hudson's Bay Company's men in this case. The Lawyer says the sick man vomited all the way into camp, and called for water, which his young man got for him.

From the Soda Springs the Indian camps went north into the mountains for buffalo.

The Hudson's Bay Company and mission party continued their journey through the spurs of the mountains over on to the waters of the Portneuf to Fort Hall. It is due to Dr. Whitman to say that notwithstanding this was the most difficult route we had to travel, yet he persevered with his old wagon, without any particular a.s.sistance; from Soda Springs to Fort Hall his labor was immense, yet he overcame every difficulty and brought it safe through. I have thrice since traveled the same route, and confess I can not see how he did it, notwithstanding I was with him, and know he brought the wagon through.

Fort Hall, in 1836, was a stockade, made of cotton-wood logs, about twelve feet long, set some two feet in the ground, with a piece of timber pinned near the top, running entirely around the stockade, which was about sixty feet square. The stores and quarters for the men were built inside with poles, brush, gra.s.s, and dirt for covering, stamped down so as to partially shed rain, and permit the guards to be upon the tops of the quarters and see over the top of the stockade. It is situated on an extensive level plain or flat, with spurs of the Rocky Mountains on the east, at the distance of thirty miles, high ranges of barren sage hills on the south, some eight miles distant. As you leave the flat level bottom formed by the Snake and Portneuf rivers, all along its banks it is skirted with a fine growth of cotton-wood, relieving the landscape and forming a beautiful contrast to the high barren plains beyond. To the west is the valley of the Snake River, from thirty to sixty miles wide, a high, sandy, and barren sage plain. This valley is bounded on the south by a low range of hills, running from northwest to southeast. On the north side of Fort Hall is an extensive high plain; this plain is, from Fort Hall, across it, full forty miles. The only objects that meet the eye on this extensive plain are three high basaltic b.u.t.tes or mountains thrown up near its center. At the foot of the one a little to the south and west of the two rounder and equally prominent ones, is a fine spring of water. In 1837, the writer, in his explorations of the country, was anxious to learn more than was then known of the character of this great basin in the mountains, having the year previous entered it by way of Soda Springs and Portneuf. This time he came into it from the north by Codie's Defile, and concluded he would take a straight course and pa.s.s between the two northeastern b.u.t.tes, and reach Snake River near Fort Hall. His Indian guide objected; still, as we had good horses, and were traveling light, we took the precaution to water our animals before entering this plain. We were twenty-six hours on horseback, having stopped but six hours to rest; we tied our horses to the sage brush, to prevent them from leaving us to hunt for water.

Not a drop did we find on our route till we reached Snake River, thirty-two hours from the time we left running water on the north and west sides of this plain. In our course we found nothing but barren, basaltic rock, sand, and sage. It is possible, had we turned to the right or left, we might have found water, but I saw nothing that gave indications that water was near; on the contrary, I noticed that the fine stream at which we watered our animals sank into the rocks, leaving no marks of a channel to any great distance. In fact, my impression was, after twelve hours' ride, that it was useless to spend our time and strength to hunt for water, and kept our course. Jaded and fatigued as our animals were, as we approached Snake River every nerve seemed strung to the utmost; our animals became frantic and unmanageable; they rushed forward at full speed and plunged into the first water they saw.

Fortunately for them and the riders, the water was only about three feet deep; water appeared to be preferred to air; they plunged their heads deep in and held their breaths till their thirst was relieved.

This plain is bounded on the north and east by spurs of the Rocky and Bear River mountains; on the south and west by the high plains of Portneuf and Snake River valleys. There is a range of mountains commencing on the northwest of this plain, extending west and north along Snake River, dividing the waters of the Snake and La Riviere aux Bois (the wooded river.) This whole plain has the appearance of having been one vast lake of lava, spread over the whole surrounding country, appearing to have issued from the three basaltic mountains in the midst of it. I noticed, as we pa.s.sed between the two, which were probably not more than ten miles apart, that we appeared to be on higher rock than in any direction around us. From this fact I concluded that the three must have been pouring out their volcanic lava at the same time and ceased together, leaving the country comparatively level. The small amount of soil found upon the surface, as well as the barrenness of the rock, indicated no distant period of time when this volcanic plain had been formed.

At Fort Hall we had another overhauling and lightening of baggage. The Doctor was advised to take his wagon apart and pack it, if he calculated to get it through the terrible canons and deep, bottomless creeks we must pa.s.s in going down Snake Plains. Miles Goodyear, the boy we picked up two days from Fort Leavenworth, who had been a.s.signed to a.s.sist the Doctor, was determined, if the Doctor took his wagon any further, to leave the company. He was the only one that could be spared to a.s.sist in this wild, and, as all considered, crazy undertaking. Miles was furnished a couple of horses, and the best outfit the mission party could give him for his services, and allowed to remain or go where he might choose. In his conclusions, he was influenced by the stories he heard about the treatment he might expect should he reach the lower Columbia. His idea of liberty was unlimited. Restraint and obedience to others was what he did not like at home; he would try his fortune in the mountains; he did not care for missionaries, Hudson's Bay men, nor Indians; he was determined to be his own man, and was allowed to remain at Fort Hall. This loss of manual strength to the mission party compelled the Doctor to curtail his wagon, so he made a cart on two of the wheels, placed the axletree and the other two wheels on his cart, and about the 1st of August, 1836, our camp was again in motion. As we reached camp on Portneuf the first night, in pa.s.sing a bunch of willows, Mrs. Spalding's horse, a kind and perfectly gentle animal, was stung by a wasp, causing him to spring to one side. Mrs. S. lost her balance; her foot hung fast in the stirrup; the horse made but a single bound from the sting of the wasp, and stopped still till Mrs. S. was relieved from what appeared almost instant death. Next day we continued on down the river till we reached Salmon Falls, on Snake River.

We found a large number of the Salmon and Digger Indians at their fis.h.i.+ng stations. Their curiosity was excited, and overcame all the fears that had been attributed to them by former travelers. All of them came about the camp, and appeared quite friendly, furnis.h.i.+ng to the party all the fresh and dried salmon they wanted, at the most reasonable rates, say a fine fresh salmon for two fish-hooks; four for a common butcher-knife; ten dried ones for a s.h.i.+rt; in fact, receiving only such pay or presents for their fish and roots, as the Hudson's Bay Company's traders saw fit, or would _allow_ the missionary party to give them. It will be remembered that, in the conversation with Captain Wyeth, the party had been cautioned as to dealing with the Indians, or in any way interfering with the Indian trade, or tariff, as the Hudson's Bay Company gentlemen call the prices they were in the habit of giving to the Indians, for any article of property they might have to dispose of, or that the company might want. If the Indian would part with it at all, he must receive the price or the article they chose to give him, not as an equivalent for his article, but as a condescension on the part of the trader, in allowing him the honor of making the exchange. The Indian's property or article, whatever it might be, was of no consequence to the trader, but the article he gave or furnished to him was of great value.

The Indian knew no other system of trade; it was that or nothing; hence the wealth of this arrogant and overgrown company, claiming exclusive trading privileges, as also the right to occupy the country in such a manner, and for such purposes as they chose. As a matter of course, the mission party were not in a condition to vary or change this system of trade; neither were they allowed to encourage the Indians in the expectation of any future change, except as to the religious instructions they were at liberty to impart to them.

The gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company were frank with the mission in giving them their tariff: For a salmon at Salmon Falls, two awls or two small fish-hooks; one large hook for two salmon; for a knife, four salmon; for one load of powder and a charge of shot, or a single ball, one salmon. At Wallawalla the tariff was nearly double, say two b.a.l.l.s and powder for one large-sized salmon; a three-point blanket, a check s.h.i.+rt, a knife, five or ten b.a.l.l.s and powder, from half a foot to three feet of trail-rope tobacco, the price of a good horse. In short, there was but one single object the Indian could live for; that was to contribute his little mite of productive labor to enrich the Honorable Hudson's Bay Company, and to a.s.sist them, when required, to relieve the country of intruders. That they were in a state of absolute subjection to the control of the company no one that traveled in it at that early day can doubt for a moment. Speak of improving the condition of the Indians to gentlemen of the company, they would insist that it only made them more insolent, demand higher prices for their produce, and be less inclined to hunt for the furs necessary to supply the goods furnished for their use. The idea of improving the condition of the Indian, and raising him in the scale of civilization, and by that means increase his natural wants, and encourage him with a fair compensation for his labor, was no part of their chartered privileges. They found the Indian as he was; they would leave him no better. The country and all in it was theirs; they could not allow any interference with their trade. "If you missionaries wish to teach them your religion, we have no particular objection, so long as you confine yourselves to such religious instruction; as to trade, gentlemen, we will not object to your receiving from the Indians what you may require for your own personal use and subsistence, provided you do not pay them more for the article you buy of them than the company does. We will give you our tariff, that you may be governed by it in your dealings with the Indians. You will readily perceive, gentlemen, that it is necessary for us to insist on these conditions, in order to protect our own interests, and secure our accustomed profits."

CHAPTER XVII.

An explanation.--Instructions of company.--Their tyranny.--Continuation of journey.--Fording rivers.--Arrival at Boise.--Dr. Whitman compelled to leave his wagon.

It may be asked why the writer gives this explanation of trade and intercourse with the Indians and missionaries before they have reached the field of their future labors? For the simple reason that the party, and the writer in particular, commenced their education in the Rocky Mountains. They learned that in the country to which they were going there was an overgrown, unscrupulous, and exacting monopoly that would prevent any interference in their trade, or intercourse with the Indians. This information was received through the American fur traders, and from Captain Wyeth, who was leaving the country; and from Mr. John McLeod, then in charge of our traveling caravan. It is true, we had only reached Salmon Falls, on Snake River, and we only wished to buy of the miserable, naked, filthy objects before us, a few fresh salmon, which they were catching in apparent abundance; and as is the case with most American travelers, we had many articles that would be valuable to the Indian, and beneficial to us to get rid of. But this overgrown company's interest comes in. "You must not be liberal, or even just, to these miserable human or savage beings; if you are, it will spoil our trade with them; we can not control them if they learn the value of our goods."

This supreme selfishness, this spirit of oppression, was applied not only to the Digger Indians on the barren Snake plains and the salmon fisheries of the Columbia River, but to the miserable discharged, and, in most cases, disabled, Canadian-French. This policy the Hudson's Bay Company practiced upon their own servants, and, as far as was possible, upon all the early settlers of the country. In proof of this, hear what Messrs. Ewing Young and Carmichael say of them on the thirteenth day of January, 1837, just three months after our mission party had arrived, and had written to their friends and patrons in the United States glowing accounts of the kind treatment they had received from this same Hudson's Bay Company. How far the Methodist Mission joined in the attempt to coerce Mr. Young and compel him to place himself under their control, I am unable to say. The Hudson's Bay Company, I know, from the statement of Dr. McLaughlin himself, had an abundance of liquors. I also know they were in the habit of furnis.h.i.+ng them freely to the Indians, as they thought the interest of their trade required. Mr.

Young's letter is in answer to a request of the Methodist Mission, signed by J. and D. Lee, C. Shepard, and P. L. Edwards, not to erect a distillers on his land claim in Yamhill County (Nealem Valley). The Methodist Mission was made use of on this occasion, under the threat of the Hudson's Bay Company, that in case Mr. Young put up his distillery the Hudson's Bay Company would freely distribute their liquors, and at once destroy all moral restraint, and more than probable the mission itself. Lee and party offered to indemnify Mr. Young for his loss in stopping his distillery project. The Hudson's Bay Company held by this means the exclusive liquor trade, while the mission were compelled to use their influence and means to prevent and buy off any enterprise that conflicted with their interests. Mr. Young says, in his reply:--

"Gentlemen, having taken into consideration your request to relinquish our enterprise in manufacturing ardent spirits, we therefore do agree to stop our proceedings for the present: but, gentlemen, the reasons for first beginning such an enterprise were the _innumerable difficulties_ placed in our way by, and the _tyrannizing oppression_ of, the Hudson's Bay Company, here under the absolute authority of Dr. McLaughlin, who has treated us with more disdain than any American's feelings could support; but, gentlemen, it is not consistent with our feelings to receive any recompense whatever for our expenditures, but we are thankful to the society for their offer."

The writer of the above short paragraph has long since closed his labors, which, with his little property, have done more substantial benefit to Oregon than the Hudson's Bay Company, that attempted to drive him from the country, which I will prove to the satisfaction of any unprejudiced mind as we proceed, I am fully aware of the great number of pensioned satellites that have fawned for Hudson's Bay Company pap, and would swear no injustice was ever done to a single American, giving this hypocritical, double-dealing smooth-swindling, called honorable, Hudson's Bay Company credit for what they never did, and really for stealing credit for good deeds done by others. The company insisted that the mission party should, as a condition of being permitted to remain in the country, comply with their ideas of Indian trade and justice in dealing with the natives. The utmost care and attention was given to impress this all-important fact upon the minds of these first missionaries. They were told: "Gentlemen, your own pecuniary interests require it; the good--_yes, the good_--of the natives you came to teach, requires that you should observe our rules in trade." And here, I have no doubt, lies the great secret of the partial failure of all the Protestant missions. But, thank G.o.d, the country is relieved of a curse, like that of slavery in the Southern States. An overgrown monopoly, in using its influence with Catholicism to destroy Protestantism in Oregon and the American settlements, has destroyed itself. Priestcraft and Romanism, combined with ignorance and savagism, under the direction of the Honorable Hudson's Bay Company traders, is a kind of mixture which Mr. Ewing Young says "is more than any American citizen's feelings could support;" yet for six years it was submitted to, and the country increased, not so much in wealth, but in stout-hearted men and women, who had dared every thing, and endured many living deaths, to secure homes, and save a vast and rich country to the American Republic. Was the government too liberal in giving these pioneers three hundred and twenty acres of land, when, by their toil and patient endurance they had suffered every thing this arrogant, unscrupulous, overgrown monopoly could inflict, by calling to its aid superst.i.tion and priestcraft, in the worst possible form, to subdue and drive them from the country?

Is there an American on this coast who doubts the fact of the tyrannical course of the company? Listen to what is said of them in 1857, '58, in their absolute government of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, by a resident. He says:--

"In my unsophisticated ignorance, I foolishly imagined I was entering a colony governed by British inst.i.tutions; but I was quickly undeceived. It was far worse than a Venetian oligarchy; a squawtocracy of skin traders, ruled by men whose lives have been spent in the wilderness in social communion with Indian savages, their present daily occupation being the sale of tea, sugar, whisky, and the usual _et caeteras_ of a grocery, which (taking advantage of an increased population) they sold at the small advance of five hundred per cent.; by men, who, to keep up the _entente cordiale_ with the red-skins, scrupled not (and the iniquitous practice is still continued) to supply them with arms and ammunition, well knowing that the same would be used in murderous warfare. I found these 'small fry' claiming, under some antediluvian grant, not only Vancouver Island, but a tract of country extending from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, from British Columbia to Hudson's Bay--a territory of larger area than all Europe. The onward march of civilization was checked; all avenues to the mineral regions were closed by excessive, unauthorized, and illegal taxation; and a country abounding with a fair share of Nature's richest productions, and which might now be teeming with a hardy and industrious population, was crushed and blasted by a set of unprincipled autocrats, whose selfish interests, idle caprices, and unscrupulous conduct, sought to gratify their petty ambition by trampling on the dearest rights of their fellow-men. In Victoria and British Columbia the town lots, the suburban farms, and the water frontage were theirs,--the rocks in the bay, and the rocks on the earth; the trees in the streets, which served as ornaments to the town, were cut down by their orders and sold for fire-wood; with equal right (presumption or unscrupulousness is the appropriate term) they claimed the trees and dead timber of the forests, the waters of the bay, and the fresh water on the sh.o.r.es; all, all was theirs;--nay, I have seen the water running from the mountain springs denied to allay the parched thirst of the poor wretches whom the _auri sacra fames_ had allured to these inhospitable sh.o.r.es. They viewed with a jealous eye all intruders into their unknown kingdom, and every impediment was thrown in the way of improving or developing the resources of the colony. The coal mines were theirs, and this necessary article of fuel in a northern climate was held by them at thirty dollars per ton. The sole and exclusive right to trade was theirs, and the claim rigidly enforced. The gold fields were theirs likewise, and a tax of five dollars on every man, and eight dollars on every canoe or boat, was levied and collected at the mouth of the canon before either were allowed to enter the sacred portals of British Columbia. This amount had to be paid hundreds of miles from the place where gold was said to exist, whether the party ever dug an ounce or not. They looked upon all new arrivals with ill-subdued jealousy and suspicion, and distrusted them as a praetorian band of robbers coming to despoil them of their ill-gotten wealth."

Was this the case in 1858? Show me the man who denies it, and I will show you a man devoid of moral perception, dest.i.tute of the principle of right dealing between man and man; yet this same Hudson's Bay Company claim credit for saving the thousands of men they had robbed of their hard cash, in not allowing a few sacks of old flour and a quant.i.ty of damaged bacon to be sold to exceed one hundred per cent. above prime cost. "Their goods were very reasonable," says the apologist; "their trade was honorable." Has any one ever before attempted to claim honorable dealing for companies pursuing invariably the same selfish and avaricious course? This company is not satisfied with the privilege they have had of robbing the natives of this coast, their French and half-native servants, the American settlers, and their own countrymen, while dependent upon them; but now, when they can no longer rob and steal from half a continent, they come to our government at Was.h.i.+ngton and make a demand for five millions of dollars for giving up this barefaced open robbery of a whole country they never had the shadow of a right to. It is possible the honorable commissioners may admit this arrogant and unjust claim. If they do,--one single farthing of it,--they deserve the curses due to the company who have robbed the native inhabitants of all their labor, their own servants they brought to it, the country of all they could get from it that was of any value to them, and the nation upon whom they call for any amount, be it great or small.

I have not time, and it would be out of place, to say more upon this subject, at this rime, in the historical sketches we propose to give. Be a.s.sured we do not write without knowing what we say, and being prepared to prove our statements with facts that have come under our own observation while in the country. We will leave the Hudson's Bay Company and return to our mission party.

After getting a full supply of salmon for a tin whistle, or its equivalent, a smell of trail-rope tobacco, we came to the ford at the three islands in Snake River, crossed all safe, except a short swim for Dr. Whitman and his cart on coming out on the north side or right bank of the river. As nothing serious occurred, we pa.s.sed on to camp. The next day, in pa.s.sing along the foot hills of the range of mountains separating the waters of the Snake River and La Riviere aux Bois, we came to the warm springs, in which we boiled a piece of salmon. Then we struck the main Boise River, as it comes out of the mountain, not far below the present location of Boise City; thence, about ten miles down the river, and into the bend, where we found a miserable pen of a place, at that time called Fort Boise. It consisted of cotton-wood poles and crooked sticks set in a trench, and pretended to be fastened near the top. The houses or quarters were also of poles, open; in fact, the whole concern could hardly be called a pa.s.sable corral, or pen for horses and cattle. I think, from appearances, the fort had been used to corral or catch horses in. We were informed that it was established in opposition to Fort Hall, to prevent the Indians, as much as possible, from giving their trade to Captain Wyeth, and that the company expected, if they kept it up, to remove it near the mouth of Boise River.

At this place, McLeod and McKay, and all the Johnny c.r.a.pauds of the company, united in the opinion that it was impossible to get the Doctor's cart any further without taking it all apart and bending the iron tires on the wheels, and packing it in par-fleshes (the dried hide of the buffalo, used as an outside covering for packs), and in that way we might get it through, if the animals we packed it upon did not fall with it from the precipices over which we must pa.s.s. _Impossible_ to get it through any other way. After several consultations, and some very decided expressions against any further attempt to take the wagon further, a compromise was made, that, after the party had reached their permanent location, the Doctor or Mr. Gray would return with the Hudson's Bay Company's caravan and get the wagon and bring it through.

To this proposition the Doctor consented. The wagon was left, to the great advantage of the Hudson's Bay Company, in removing their timber and material to build their new fort, as was contemplated, that and the following seasons.