I THE GIFT OF FLORENCE V. V. DICKEY TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES THE DONALD R. DICKEY LIBRARY OF VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY 2013 JlsH II. AMERICAN EXPLORERS SERIES. Xarpenteur's Hutobfoarapbs. VOL. I, r FORTY YEARS A FUR TRADER ON THE UPPER MISSOURI THE PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF CHARLES LARPENTEUR J833-J872 EDITED, WITH MANY CRITICAL NOTES, BY ELLIOTT COUES MAPS, VIEWS, AND PORTRAITS IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I NEW YORK FRANCIS P. HARPER 1898 COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY FRANCIS P. HARPER. Edition Xtmlteo to 950 Copiee. College Library DEDICATED TO THE EMINENT ANTHROPOLOGIST WASHINGTON MATTHEWS, M. D., LL. D., MAJOR AND SURGEON, U. S. ARMY, AUTHOR OF ETHNOGRAPHY AND PHILOLOGY OF THE HIDATSA, ETC., ETC., ETC., LONG IDENTIFIED WITH THE WEST DESCRIBED BY LARPENTEUR, AND BUT FOR WHOM THIS WORK WOULD NOT BE : WITH THE GREAT RESPECT AND WARM REGARD OF HIS FRIEND, THE EDITOR. CONTENTS. VOLUME I. CHAPTER I. (1807-33.) MY PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. PAGE France America Baltimore St. Louis Des Moines Rapids Keokuk Captain Throckmorton Interpreter Blondeau St. Louis Ashley's Outfit in Sublette and Campbell Determined to Engage in the Fur Trade in 1833 Recommendation Secured American Fur Com- pany Declined Rocky Mountain Fur Company Ac- cepted Good-by to Civilization St. Charles Lexington The Matter of Mules, i CHAPTER II. (1833) OVER THE PLAINS TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. Composition of the Party Their Guests Hard Times Begin Poor Fare Guard Duty On the Platte First Buffalo Boiled Bull Beef From Poor Bull to Fat Cow The North Platte Chimney Rock Laramie Kicking against the Pricks A Good Samaritan Bullboats The Usual Orgies South Pass of Continental Divide A Fugacious Trinity Green River Rendezvous Bonne- ville's Stockade 15 vii V11I CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. (1833-) FROM GREEN RIVER RENDEZVOUS BY THE BIGHORN AND THE YELLOWSTONE TO THE MISSOURI. PAGE A Party Sent to Pierre's Hole One Sober Man in Camp- Acting as Clerk Detailed for the Yellowstone ' ' Mad Wolf ! " George Holmes and Others Bitten Departure for the Yellowstone On the Sweetwater Wind River Man Shot Fatalities from Hydrophobia Down the Big- hornIndian Hostilities Feared Friendly Absarokas Crow Camp Fort Cass Down the Yellowstone To the Missouri Mule Talk Swimming the River, . . . 32 CHAPTER IV. (1833-34.) FORT WILLIAM. The Building Begun And Occupied Horse and Cart Well Matched And Driver Too Tchatka Interviewed Tchatka " Forks " " Co-han ! "Out of Luck Pem- mican, Pepper, and Salt Fort William Described Sublette Sells out The Assiniboine Arrives Prepara- tions for Home Unexpected Overtures In Good Luck Bargain Made To Fort Union Clerk A. F. Co., . 51 CHAPTER V. (1834-35.) FORT UNION. A Coatless Clerk Bashful at the Nabob's Table Assigned to New Duties Bossing Moncrevie's Job Promoted in Charge of Men Story of the Still Re-engaged for CONTENTS. ix PAGE Another Year First Homicide Other Incidents in Fall of 1834 Spring of 1835 Express from Fort Clark War Party Arrives Fatalities Another War Party Prepa- rations for Defense How the Fight Ended Mr. Ham- ilton More Stories to Come, 70 CHAPTER VI. (1835-36.) FORT UNION : CONTINUED. Murderous Conspiracy Put to the Question Old Des- champs Killed Temporary Truce Character of Gauche His Glorious Campaign Treachery Medi- tated Cowardly Murder Ready for Battle Midnight Alarm Deschamps Family Doomed Deschatnps Massacre Cremation Quietude Story of the Two Thieves, 87 CHAPTER VII. (1836-38.) FORT UNION : CONTINUED. Kenneth McKenzie On the Upper Missouri Fort Union Founded Mission to the Blackfeet Blackfeet in Sight " Now for the Butcher Shop ! " Diplomacy of Berger Blackfeet Brought in The Blackfoot Post A Yel- low-haired Bourbon In Flagrante Delicto Belea- guered Garrison Brazeau to the Rescue The Siege Raised Lothario Laid Low Canoe Assiniboines Pierre Garreau So-called Tobacco Garden Larpen- teur en Derouine Tortoise in Liquor Hooting Owl Heard Back from Canoe Camp To Fort Union Again Smallpox Ravages of the Epidemic Cheerful Un- dertaker Only a Few Shots Fired, . . . .106 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. (1838.) ROUND TRIP TO THE STATES. PAGE Down the Missouri First Fright Second Fright Third Fright Charbonneau and Sakagawia Fort Clark Franois A. Chardon The Vermilion Post Mr. Dick- son Aboard the Antelope At Home in Baltimore Shooting Match Driving the Center Off from St. Louis Fever and Ague Deer Hunting Fort Clark Again White Earth River ' ' Indians ! " Polyglot Malediction Back to Fort Union, . " . . . .136 CHAPTER IX. (1838-42.) COMPOSED OF ALL SORTS. Fatal Festivities Sentence of Death Corporal Punish- ment Round Trip to St. Louis Return to Fort Union Unholy Trinity Fort Van Buren The Mexican and his India Arrival of the Crow Outfit Character of Alexander Harvey His Threatened Settlements Plot to Kill Him He Kills the Spaniard Fort Van Buren Burned Departure for Adams Prairie Story of the Grizzly Bear Arrival of the Opposition Fort Alex- ander Built Return to Fort Union, . . . .158 CHAPTER X. (1843-44.) WINTERING AT WOODY MOUNTAIN. At Fort Union again Ebbitt's Opposition Fox, Livingston and Co. Mr. Kelsey Fort George Founded Forcible Eviction Mr. Cotton Fort Mortimer Crazy Bear, the CONTENTS. XI PAGE Assiniboine Chief His Appearance before Mr. Cul- bertson Trade Pushed en Derouine Ordered to Woody Mountain with Mr. Denig The Start The Journey Arrival at the Cree Camp Ready for Opera- tions The Liquor Trade Blizzards Mules Frozen to Death Epicureanism The Tale Adorned with a Moral Suffering from Cold On the Return Sur- prised by Indians Trade Declined He Who Fears His War Club Supposed Horse Thieves Wounded Leg's Camp Colloquy with Wounded Le'g Successful Diplomacy Camp in the Cherry Bushes No Fire, Food, or Sleep Boiled Dog Safe Back to Fort Union The Hand Killed Golden Visions, . . . .17? CHAPTER XL (1844-45.) CARNIVAL OF CRIME. Jim Bridger and his Men Sortie against Sioux Gardepied Killed Cowardice of Bridger's Men How Trade was Made Brisk F. A. Chardon The Blackfoot Massacre Harvey's Awful Deed, 211 CHAPTER XII. (1845-46.) POPLAR RIVER CAMP. Outfitting for the Blackfoot Post Repeated Desertions Sioux Attack Assiniboines Harvey Badly Beaten Harvey's Plans Harvey, Primeau and Co. Return of Kenneth McKenzie Ordered to Poplar River In Pop- lar River Camp Rage of the Iron-eyed Dog Pacific Oratory Tempest in a Teapot Conclusion of the Affair Return to Fort Union Left Masters of the Country 221 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VOL. I. PORTRAIT OF CHARLES LARPENTEUR (WITH AUTOGRAPH), Frontispiece Sioux CITY, IOWA, IN 1866, .... Facing page 22 DEVIL'S GATE, SWEETWATER RIVER, WYOMING, " " . 28 FORTS UNION, WILLIAM, AND BUFORD, (MAP), " . 50 CAMP OF PEMBINA HALF-BREEDS, WITH RED RIVER CARTS, -54 FORT UNION, FROM HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED DRAWING OF 1864 " " . 68 PORTRAIT OF PIERRE GARREAU, . . . " " . 124 INTRODUCTION. HUMAN documents are always interesting, and those which attest the development of the Great West will claim rightful place in literature till the final word concerning that to which they relate shall have been spoken. Such finality in Western history is still afar; it is to be attained by none now living. The field of research is much too wide; and if it be not exactly virginal, nor even have lain quite fallow, the workmen are as yet too few to gather in the immense outstand- ing crop. The history of what Transmississippian State or Territory has been brought fully up to date? That of not one. Young as most of them are in com- parison with a Massachusetts or a Virginia, some are older by far than their reputed ancestors; Arizona and New Mexico had quite a literature before any Plym- outh Rock or Jamestown acquired a place on map or in mind. Reviewing what has been done already for the better settled side of the great river, I am op- pressed by a sense of the story yet to be told of the " biggest half " of the American commonwealth. Now is none too early to cease to be inarticulate in XVI INTRODUCTION. the parts we have to perform; for the plot thickens and the setting of the stage is splendid. Let us speedily utilize our properties; they are readily ac- cessible, and they abound; they should not be suffered to lapse with fugacious years in the insatiable maw of Time the cosmic cannibal, the ceaseless corroder and obliterator, alike the progenitor of all things and their relegator to forgetfulness. Lest we too may forget, I wish to do my share as a curator of historical materials, even if I may not aspire to the office of historian. Among my beliefs is that of the prime utility of contemporaneous docu- ments for historical purposes. These are the great antiseptics to the ptomaines of tradition the stocky facts so fatal to mythopoetic microbes. Much his- tory so called may be the Carlylese " distillation of rumors," or the Napoleonic "fable agreed upon"; but much more may be relieved of any such imputa- tion if we do our duty by our documents. It would surprise most persons to realize how quickly a neglected core of fact gathers the mold of myth. Take the Lewis and Clark expedition, for example. Never, perhaps, was a true story more minutely and completely told; to know all about it, we have only to read what the explorers themselves had to say, less than one hundred years ago. But the take-it-for- granters, the forsoothers, the forgetters, the prevari- INTRODUCTION. XV11 cators, the misquoters, the unreaders the whole tribe of quidnunc impressionists have meanwhile found out more things that never happened in this case than they ever learned about what did happen. Accord- ing to such authorities, there are few early years of this century in which Lewis and Clark were not traveling; fewer routes they did not take across the continent; and fewest of all are the places in the Rocky mountains where they did not pass one or two winters. Many persons who live in the shadow of Pike's Peak never knew the initials of his name; some think he was Albert Pike, the great Freemason; some never thought anything about it; and nearly all sup- pose that one Pike discovered and surmounted the peak which bears his name. Yet anyone who should take the trouble to consult the very original docu- ment which Pike himself has handed down to us would learn all there is to be known on that particu- lar point. The history of the West is still largely the story of discovery, exploration, survey, colonization, and the like; for aught else is of comparatively recent develop- ment is contemporaneous, or nearly such. The bison was the original engineer, who followed the lay of the land and the run of the water; the Indian fol- lowed the bison; the white man followed the Indian; the gun and trap, the pick and shovel, the whiskey-jug, XV111 INTRODUCTION. plow, and locomotive followed the white man, at little if any interval: this is the order of empire westward. Every step of this succession is of absorbing interest and momentous consequence; perhaps none more so than those taken during what I may style the pictur- esque period, when the plain was furrowed not by the plow but by the hoof of the bison, when no Indian war-whoop had been silenced by a steam-whistle, when the trapper and trader were romantic figures in scenes untamed to more prosaic industries. Such times as these call for chroniclers; and it is the purpose of the AMERICAN EXPLORER SERIES, of which the present volumes form a continuation, to traverse this historic ground, perhaps to cultivate some corners of this fruitful field. What results may be expected are instanced in the case of the Journal of Jacob Fowler, with which the series began. Whoever heard of it, or of its author, till this year of grace 1898? A float- ing paragraph in one or two not well-known books was to the vague effect that a trader named Glenn took a party to Santa Fe in 1822 that was all. Now we have the narrative of that enterprise, complete in every detail, in an authentic, genuine, original, con- temporaneous human document and of such is the kingdom of history. Few persons now living may measure the full im- portance of the Fur Trade as a factor in the develop- INTRODUCTION. xix ment of what has been called the " wild and woolly West " thereby giving occasion for Lummis' witty retort upon a " tame and cottony East." Fewer still can be aware of what iniquities and atrocities the seamy side of that indispensable industry reveals. Those who have read the Journals of Alexander Henry and David Thompson have had their eyes opened to the systematic swindling and debauching of Indians which characterized the traffic as conducted in Canada and some portions of the United States, and may readily believe that the pursuit of pelf in pelt was always tarred with the same stick. This identical subject intrinsically important, in some respects re- pellent, never failing of tragic interest, albeit sordid and squalid is continued in the autobiography of Charles Larpenteur. As Fowler's Journal and Fowler himself were until this year, so have Larpenteur and his narrative been hitherto unknown. The latter, like the former, will be found composed of the very fiber that goes to the web of history. It is a notable and entirely novel contribution to our knowledge of the Fur Trade of the Upper Missouri for a period of more than an average lifetime, by one who lived the life and worked his way through it, from the position of a mere hand to that of one of its heads. Among other conclusions we may draw from this narrative, it would appear that XX INTRODUCTION. the unpalliated and unmitigated evils were inherent in the system of traffic itself, red and white natures being what they respectively were; that there was a smoother than the seamy side of the business; that a good, kindly man might be about it, and die poor but honest; and that it called out some of the best as well as the worst of human qualities some of the most manly, even heroic, traits, remote from cupidity and cruelty. The circumstances under which Larpenteur*s manuscript came into my possession are to be here noted. One day in 1872, when my friend and then brother-officer of the medical corps of the army, Dr. Washington Matthews, was at Fort Buford, he re- ceived from the author a letter, the material portions of which I copy literally from the original now before me, as follows: Little Sioux March the first. 1872 Doctr Washington Mathew Dear Sir Your kind favor was received on the 2gth ult. And was pleased to learn that you was well as well as all the folks, and that Buford was progresing so fast. I would like very much to see the old place again. I Cannot take any more Comfort down here, particularly after the death of my little boy. . . But a few days ago I got through writing a book of my life, by this title History of the life of Charles Larpenteur. With INTRODUCTION. XXI many interesting Stories written by himself, after the residence of fourty years in the Indian Country Also his views on Indian affairs and sugestions for their governement I intended to have this work publishd but it will Cost me more than I Can afford I have tried some in Sioux City, they say it will Cost $1.25 per page, to get it ready for the print, now there Comes the printing, binding, and illustrations, it would amount to at least $500. not knowing whether it would take. This manuscript would be of some use to you, if you whish I will send it up to you, you Can look it over and tell me what you think of it. I think also that you Coud get it up in good shape for the print I would satisfy you well for your trouble. It will Contain about three hundred pages, a book the size of Ecy, omo [Ecce Homo] ... I have the honor to remain very respectfully Yours [signed] Chas Larpenteur After some further correspondence, the original manuscript of this " History of the Life of Charles Larpenteur," etc., making about two hundred closely written foolscap pages, was mailed to Dr. Matthews by its author, on June 14, 1872. A clerical copy was made, and the original returned to its owner. This copy was kindly placed in my hands by Dr. Matthews, at Washington, D. C., on Oct. 17, 1897, for any use I might wish and be able to make of it. I soon after- ward received the original from Mr. A. L. Larpenteur, of St. Paul, Minn., a nephew of the author; and through the friendly attentions of Mr. Mitchell Vin- cent, of Onawa, la., I was further favored with vari- ous other of Larpenteur's autograph journals and xxii INTRODUCTION. note-books which had been found in the possession of his widow at Fontainebleau, near Little Sioux, la. Such are the first-hand materials upon which the pres- ent work has been prepared for publication ; and thus has been realized the desire of the author's heart, a quarter of a century after it ceased to beat. Larpenteur seems to have cherished aspirations be- yond his powers of accomplishment ; his ambition out- ran the strict limitations of his frontier environment, so untoward authorship. He was fond of himself, as most persons are, and doubtless found in the pen a last means of relieving the uneasy introspection con- sequent upon financial failure, ill health, and other grievous burdens. But he journalized more or less from beginning to end of his adult life, the principal events of which he faithfully set forth, according to his lights, in the final " History " which he com- pleted a few months before his death. Dr. Matthews, who knew Larpenteur personally, describes him to me as a small, spare, wiry man of dis- tinct Gallic type, as shown in the photographic frontispiece of this volume. He was very intelligent, vivacious and witty in conversation, full of anecdote and reminiscence, and unusually well-informed for a man in his position. He was also fairly well-read, which may have made him a full man, though his reading never enabled him to acquire any consider- INTRODUCTION. XX111 able facility or felicity of expression in writing. Not- withstanding his habitual handling of the pen, he was never on good terms with English orthography and syntax. This does not seem to have been due to his nationality; English so early took the place of his mother tongue that it is not probable he could have written better, if as well, in French. Indeed, the rarity of a French phrase or word in his writings is notable, and there is hardly a trace of foreign idiom in the composition of this FranQais de France. In disposition Larpenteur was kindly and amiable, though quite capable of harboring resentment against any who had ruffled his quick plumes or wounded his amour-propre. Personal vanity was no doubt his foible, as it is that of most Frenchmen, and a great many other people. That once wounded was hard to heal, perhaps never quite cured; and when unhurt it often made him consider himself a more important factor in the universe than the facts may have seemed to others to warrant. But he had marked ability in his business and was considered a safe and sure man, who could be implicitly trusted, even by those who did not like him personally; his integrity was ques- tioned by none. This is a characterization given me by more than one person of whom he speaks dis- paragingly in his book, and whose good opinion in this particular I trust will not be modified by anything XXIV INTRODUCTION. he has written. I think myself that he has been, no doubt unintentionally, unjust in one or two instances I could cite; but I have not felt at liberty to materially modify any expression of his sentiments. These are in the nature of quit-claims to some old scores, not open to reconsideration since the mortgage has been foreclosed by death. " The journalist," as he often styled himself, took pride in his personal appearance, and liked to adorn it. He was very courteous in address, never addicted to profane or indecent language, and seldom drank never to excess. All this was quite enough to set him apart unpleasantly from most of his associates, and make him a sort of white crow or black swan to the half- horse, half-alligator individualities of that Missourian fraternity among whom his lot was cast. His cour- age was rather of the moral than of the physical kind, and therefore viewed with unconcern by the average dare-devil of his entourage. Unlike most of his white companions he had no dull indifference to theology; he took an inquisitive interest in such speculations, and became an unbeliever in church creeds and dogmas. He found in salutary cynical philosophy a refuge from the many reverses and misfortunes he experienced; and his final financial ruin in the business to which he had devoted the best years of his life had made him a INTRODUCTION. XXV practical pessimist by the time he wrote his memoirs. A Voltairish undertone runs through them; he seems to be always greeting the inevitable with a shrug, and soothing his self-love to the last by shifting the blame on fate as much as to say, I must have been born to bad luck, else how explain this result of all my in- dustry, ability, and other commendable qualities? He was a man who made warm friends, and enemies of like temperature; those who knew him best were most likely to be the former. As for the latter, we must remember the significant fact, that almost every native American on the Upper Missouri hated a Frenchman on general principles, as a matter of race- prejudice hardly possible to overcome. But of all such things, and others that might oc- cupy the remainder of this Introduction, the discern- ing reader will be able to judge as well as the editor, upon sufficient scrutiny of the full-length portraiture Larpenteur has naively left of his individuality. The editor need not say much of his share in the net re- sult, as it consists chiefly in polishing and hanging appropriately the mirror in which Larpenteur viewed his own likeness. The author was aware of his liter- ary infirmity when he sent the manuscript to Dr. Matthews, thinking that the latter " could get it up in good shape for the print "; and this is what I have tried to do. The writing was not bad enough to pre- XXVI INTRODUCTION. serve inviolate as a curiosity, like Jacob Fowler's; yet there was scarcely a sentence in it all that did not need to be recast to some extent in preparing the manuscript for publication. But this is a mere mat- ter of grammar; I have simply helped the author to express himself; the sense and sentiment are his own, if the style is not. Readers of Larpenteur will judge of his ability as a raconteur. Of his truthfulness there is no question. He has given us a very notable contribution to the history of the West one with which future writers upon his time and scene must reckon. I am sure that this is a book of which it may be said, in the mother tongue of a Montaigne, " cecy est un livre de bonne f&y." Dr. Washington Matthews, who generously relin- quished to me his copy of the original manuscript, is further to be credited with no small share of the edit- ing, annotating, and illustrating of these volumes. I make more formal acknowledgment to him on a pre- ceding page; here I have the pleasure of witnessing his kind assistance throughout the work. In reading the proofs with me he has always given me the bene- fit of his long experience on the Upper Missouri, of his keen criticism and wise counsel: so that, if any points be left obscure or dubious, it is because our united in- tellects were unequal to the emergency. I am also particularly indebted to Mr. Mitchell Vincent for plac- INTRODUCTION. xxvii ing much valuable material in my hands, including a map of Fontainebleau and vicinity, which he drew for this work; and to Lieutenant Colonel H. M. Chitten- den, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., for many friendly attentions and valued suggestions during the progress of the work. I have also been assisted in various ways by Mr. A. L. Larpenteur and Mrs. Charles Lar- penteur; Mr. Henry A. Boiler, of Denver, Col., who has taken in such good part certain strictures which will be found in his quondam partner's text; Hon. Charles Aldrich, of the State Historical Department, Des- moines, la.; Mr. John H. Charles, of Sioux City, la.; Mr. D. W. Butts, of Little Sioux, la.; Mr. D. W. Longfellow, of Minneapolis, Minn.; Rev. C. L. Hall, of Elbowoods, N. Dak.; Mr. W. O. Owen, of Chey- enne, Wyo. ; Mr. Maurice Kingsley, of New Rochelle, N. Y.; Mr. F. W. Hodge, of the U. S. Bureau of Eth- nology at Washington, D. C.; General O. B. Willcox, U. S. A. ; Prof. Asaph Hall, of Cambridge, Mass. ; Ex- President Benjamin Harrison, of Indianapolis, Ind. ; and Miss Helen P. Clarke, of the Otoe Agency, Okla. The extensive Index, which renders immediately ac- cessible every capitalized name to be looked for in the book, and various other subjects, has been prepared by Mrs. Mary B. Anderson with the same skill and care she has shown in several previous instances. E. C. No. 1726 N STREET, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 17, 1898. LARPENTEUR'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. CHAPTER I. (1807-33.) MY PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. IN order to inspire the reader with confidence in the veracity of my writing for it must be borne in mind that I write this book for true and faithful in- formation of the public I thought it would be well to give him an introduction to myself, before entering on the journey. I was born in France, in the year I8O7, 1 five miles from Fontainebleau, on the border of the beautiful Seine, 45 miles from Paris. My father, who was neither rich nor poor, but a great Bonapartist, left France for America immediately after the battle of Waterloo, thinking that the American government 1 Date of birth at variance with the inscription on his tomb- stone, which states that he died Nov. 15, 1872, aged 69 years, 6 months, 7 days. 2 FROM FRANCE TO AMERICA. would make some attempt to get Napoleon off the island of St. Helena; but after conversing with several individuals, and particularly with Commodore Porter, 2 he found that the government would countenance no such attempt. So the project was abandoned I say the project, for it had been started by the many French officers who were at the time in Philadelphia. Louis XVIII. having issued a pardon, most of them returned to France. My father returned after an ab- sence of one year, during which he found the Ameri- can government and the country to suit him. So he sold all his property and left France in 1818, with a family of four children three boys and one daughter, I being the youngest son. In his travels in America he had chosen Baltimore as his future residence. Having landed at New York we came to Baltimore, where he purchased a small farm of 60 acres, five miles from the city. This farm belonged to some French who had been forced to emigrate by the massacre of St. Domingo, and was established by Monsieur La 9 David Porter, the distinguished American naval officer, father of Admiral David Dixon Porter, b. Boston, Feb. i, 1780, d. Pera, Turkey, Mar. 3, 1843. At date of the battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815, and thereafter to Dec., 1823, Capt. or Comm. Porter was a member of the board of naval commissioners. He resigned from the navy in 1826, had command of the naval forces of Mexico in 1826-29, was consul-general of the United States to Barbary for a year or more, and finally U. S. minister to Turkey, 1831-43. FROM BALTIMORE TO ST. LOUIS. 3 Bie Du Bourgh De Berg [sic] ; it was well supplied with fruits, but the soil was poor and stony, and this lad got sick of it. Hearing much of the fine rich soil of Missouri, I determined to try my luck in the Far West for at that time it was considered quite a jour- ney to St. Louis. So at the age of twenty-one I determined to leave home, and started with a gentleman by the name of J. W. Johnson, who had been a sutler at Prairie du Chien, and had a large number of negroes whom he was taking to Missouri. I assisted him as far as Wheeling, where he took a steamer, and I went across country on horseback alone. That is 43 years ago. I had a fine trip of 22 days. I remained two years about St. Louis in the capacity of overseer for Major Benjamin O'Fallon, 3 a retired Indian agent, with whom I had a great deal to talk about Indians and 8 Son of Dr. James O'Fallon and Frances Clark (sister of William Clark and afterward Mrs. Thruston), and brother of Col. John O'Fallon: see Lewis and Clark, ed. 1893, pp. Ixv, Ixxx, xci. " Benjamin O'Fallon was for many years an Indian Agent of the United States. He was an honest, courageous, and careful officer, who possessed great influence over the various tribes with whom he came in contact, and was of great service in aid- ing the government in many treaties. His memory is perpetu- ated in the West by O'Fallon's Bluff on the Platte River in Nebraska, and O'Fallon's Creek in Montana, near Glendive," Cont. Hist. Soc. Montana, ii, 1896, p. 227. For other names of O'Fallon's creek, tributary to the Yellowstone, see L. and C., ed. 1893, p. 1163. 4 DES MOINES RAPIDS KEOKUK. Indian countries, which finally induced me to try the wilderness. My first trip was up the Mississippi to Des Moines rapids, the year previous to the Black Hawk War of 1832. At this time there were two stores at Keo- cuck * not yet called by that name ; one of them be- longed to an individual named Stillwell, 5 and the other to Mr. Davenport, 6 who was afterward murdered on 4 Keokuk, Lee Co., la., was chiefly known as The Point in 1831, but also called Foot of the Rapids, and Puckeshetuck, until it was christened after the celebrated Sac chief whose name it still commemorates. The proposal to call it Keokuk appears to have been first made by Col. George L. Davenport, at a meeting held to celebrate July 4, 1829. on a steamboat then lying at what is now the foot of Main St.: so Dr. Isaac Galland, in a letter published some years before his death in 1858, quoted in Hist. Lee Co. There is a conflict of dates here; Isaac R. Camp- bell states that there was no Ke-O-kuk till 1835, when the name was proposed by some steamboat men detained there to lighten over the rapids; but the original proposal and final adop- tion of the name may easily have been at different dates. "From this time" 1835, says Mr. Campbell "the name of Keokuk was adopted, and, in 1837, I sold my potato-patch enclosure to Dr. Isaac Galland, Agent of the New York Land Company, and, under his supervision, a city in embryo was formally inaugurated and recorded as ' Keokuk.' " The first house is said to have been built there by Dr. Samuel C. Muir, in 1820; Dr. Galland laid out the original town plat in 1837. s Moses Stillwell, whose daughter Margaret was the first white child born at The Point, Nov. 22, 1829. 6 Col. George L. Davenport, murdered in his home on Rock Island, by the Fox and Hodges gang, July 4, 1845 the noted CAPTAIN THROCKMORTON. 5 Rock Island. I came up to the place in a small steamer called the Red Rover, commanded by Capt. Throgmorton, 7 who is still alive and has made many trips up this river as fine a gentleman as I ever knew. On the way up I became acquainted with Mr. Blondo, 8 interpreter for the Sac and Fox Indians. He took a great fancy to me, and nothing would do but I must go with him to his farm, seven miles up the rapids, and remain there until the boat got over the rapids, which it was supposed would take a long time, as the river was very low. I consented, got a horse caloh, 9 and we started. The improvements consisted of a comfortable log cabin, and Blondo was indeed person for whom the city of Davenport, la., was named, and not to be confounded with Col. William Davenport of the U. S. Army, who was some time stationed on Rock Island. His house was still standing in 1890 or later. See Davenport Democrat of Dec. 16, 1890, and Ann. of Iowa, ii, Nos. 2 and 3, July-Oct., 1895, p. 243 1 Dr. Matthews informs me that Larpenteur's praise of Capt. Throckmorton is none too generous, and adds: " He was an old resident of St. Louis a steamboat owner who often took com- mand of his own vessels, and hence was called captain. He had a large family, mostly daughters, some of whom must still live in St. Louis. His boat, with himself and family on board, was frozen in at Fort Buford one winter I think 1870-71. I have met him frequently, but do not remember his first name." 8 Interpreter Blondeau had been there or thereabouts for many years: see Pike, ed. of 1895, pp. 32, 34, 211, referring to 1805-06. 9 Sic probably for calash, calesh, or caleche a sort of one- horse vehicle. 6 INTERPRETER BLONDEAU. well fixed for the country at the time. After some little time he took me into the village and introduced me to several of the leading men, of whom a great many were drunk, and toward evening he got so drunk himself that he frequently asked me if I did not want to " smell powder," but as I never felt like smell- ing powder as he proposed, I declined, not knowing why he used the expression. After the spree the old gentleman was very kind, took me all over the half- breed reservation as fine country as I ever saw and finally remarked that he would give me all the land I wanted if I should happen to make a match with his niece, Louise Dauphin. That was said after I had given up the idea of going on to Prarie du Chien, where I was bound; but, thinking myself too young, I declined all overtures, although I confess that I came very near accepting the offer, for Louise was one of the handsomest girls I ever saw it cost me many long sighs to leave her, and more afterward. After two months' residence at the rapids I re- turned to St. Louis, with full determination to see more of the wild Indians. General Ashley, 10 who 10 JGeneral William H. Ashley, one of the most enterprising and successful of the St. Louis fur traders, lieutenant governor in 1820-24, member of Congress, etc. His name was a power all over the West in those days. The curious reader will find much about him, and some things very much to the personal point, in James P. Beckwourth's book, passim: see, for example, the RETURN OF ASHLEY'S OUTFIT TO ST. LOUIS. 7 was then carrying on great beaver trapping in the Rocky mountains, was in the habit of hiring as many as loo men every spring. They were engaged for 1 8 months, to return in the fall of the following year with the furs. Not long after I came from the rapids General Ashley's party returned from the mountains with 100 packs of beaver. A pack of beaver is made up of 60 average beavers, supposed to weigh 100 Ibs., worth in New York at that time from $7 to $8 per Ib. It is impossible to describe my feel- ings at the sight of all that beaver all those moun- tain men unloading their mules, in their strange mountain costume most of their garments of buck- skin and buffalo hide, but all so well greased and worn that it took close examination to tell what they were made of. To see the mules rolling and dusting is interesting and shocking at the same time; most of them, having carried their burdens of 200 pounds' weight for about 2,000 miles, return with scarcely any skin on their backs; they are peeled from withers to tail, raw underneath from use of the surcingle, and many are also lame. William Sublette " and Robert Campbell 11 had redoubtable Jim's quarrel and reconciliation with him, pp. 57-68 of C. G. Leland's ed., 1892. 11 Each a well-known person in the fur trade, of whom we hear much in the sequel. In 1833 they were partners in the Rocky Mt. Co., and their trip to the mountains in 1832, when they were 8 DETERMINED TO ENGAGE. attended General Ashley on several trips to the moun- tains Campbell as clerk, mostly on account of his health; he had previously been clerk for Keith and O'Fallon. 12 Sublette was a farmer near St. Louis, but was more for trapping beaver than farming. The sight of all this made me determined to take a trip of the same kind. The journey to the Rocky mountains at that early period was considered very hard, and dangerous on account of the Pawnees and Blackfeet. While trapping that summer William Sublette had been badly wounded in the shoulder in a fight with the Blackfeet. 13 But not all this danger, and the hardships to be endured on such a trip, could prevent me from engaging, in the spring of 1833" accompanied by N. J. Wyeth's party, will be found noted in Irving's Bonneville, chap. vi. 12 Col. John O'Fallon: see note 3 , p. 3. 13 The battle of Pierre's Hole, 1832, which became well-known by Irving's spirited description in his Bonneville, chap, vi, where Sublette's wound in the shoulder is noted. 14 The Autobiography had here: " As near as I can remember in the spring of thirty-two 1832." But Larpenteur's memory was then at fault; the date is 1833. This is proven by his Original Journal, which he began to write at Fort Union on Sept. 8, 1834, and which is now before me. It opens thus: " Fort Union Missouri Mouth of the Yellow Stone September the 8 1834 Being always desirous to visit the Rocky Mountains and not being able to sat- isfy my curiosity by means of cash I was oblidged to hire to M p Sublette & Campbell has [as] a common hand to protect there RECOMMENDATION SECURED. 9 I first provided myself with a good recommenda- tion from Major Benjamin O'Fallon, who was well known for his integrity, and would give no one a recommendation unless he deserved it. Provided with this document I next made application to the American Fur Company, which was then carried on by P. Chouteau and Co. J. J. Astor was still in the goods and all that appertained to the said Sublette and Campbell to the risk of our lives indangered by Indians and all other axi- dents. wee left the City of Saint Louis on the isth of April etc. the date interlined and framed in a rectangle to make it more conspicuous, as here printed. Larpenteur then goes on to. give an orderly account of consecutive incidents as they occurred in 1833 and 1834, till he thus " catches up " to his date of writing in 1834. As his memory was then fresh, and as there is no break in sequence of events, it is clear that 1833 is the date of his start from St. Louis though why he did not refresh his failing mem- ory by referring to his own Journal can hardly be imagined. Dates are infrequent in the greater part of the Autobiography, but toward its close they recur regularly, showing that Larpen- teur had before him a journal of these later years. We shall have frequent occasion to challenge or check his Autobiography, written so late in life, by means of his old Journals, four of which I possess; and shall sometimes weave into his present narrative materials derived from the same authentic sources. Our start in 1833 is confirmed by various other data, of which I select two : i. Bonneville first crossed the plains in 1832, win- tered 1832-33 in the mountains, and met Larpenteur's party at the Green River rendezvous in July, 1833. 2. Larpenteur in his Journal, as above, accounts continuously for events of 1833-34 to Nov. 30, which he gives as date of an eclipse of the sun, which I have ascertained was visible to him on Nov. 30, 1834. 10 AMERICAN FUR COMPANY DECLINED. company. Mr. J. B. Sarpy was at the time the person who engaged the men. As I was young, well dressed, and not a bad-looking lad, but did not seem to be very robust, he remarked that he did not think I would answer for his purposes. I then showed him my document from the major, whom we both knew well, and the remark he made was, " Ah, if you had not deserved this, you would not have gotten it." Then, said he, " you are a Frenchman? " I replied in the affirmative. " You have some education," he con- tinued ; " why do you want to engage as a common hand? " I then told him that my desire was to see the Rocky mountains, that I was willing to undergo all the hardships of such a voyage, and that I wished to start from this place on horseback. He then re- ferred me to Messrs. Sublette and Campbell, saying that, if I engaged with him, I should have to go as far as Fort Pierre, 15 and there start for the mountains with Mr. Fontenelle. Being anxious for an immedi- ate ride, that proposition did not suit me. I then went to the office of Sublette and Co., which firm had bought out all Gen. Ashley's interests in the moun- 15 Old Fort Pierre, on the right (west) bank of the Missouri, 3 m. above the mouth of Teton or Bad river; so named for Pierre Chouteau, Jr. the one whom Larpenteur has already mentioned. The locality is that of present Pierre, S. Dak., which takes its name from the long-noted establishment of P. Chouteau, Jr. , and Co., otherwise the A. F. Co.: see L. and C., ed. 1893, p. 131. ROCKY MT. FUR COMPANY ACCEPTED. II tains, and were also making up an outfit to carry on an opposition to all the trading posts of the Ameri- can Fur Co. on the Missouri; but I did not know this when I first applied to them. I found Mr. Campbell in his store, and on informing him of my intentions he appeared to have pretty much the same ideas as Mr. Sarpy. I soon discovered this and showed him my recommendation. Being very much of a gentle- man, he had the politeness to invite me to his office, and there did all he could to make me abandon the idea of taking such a trip, giving me a full description of what I should be likely to undergo. But nothing could deter me; go I must, and under the promise that he should never hear me grumble, I signed an article of agreement for 18 months, for the sum $296 and such food as could be procured in the Indian country that excluded bread, sugar, and coffee. Now I was thus enlisted, ready for service; but Mr. Campbell was kind to me and always did his best to make my situation pleasant. So he employed me in St. Louis to assist in packing goods for the upper country, and in equipping the men who were getting ready to leave with the mules for Lexington, Mo., to await the arrival of the steamer which was to bring all their goods up to that point, and of the keel boat which was intended to be cordelled or towed as far as Fort Union with goods for the Indian trade. I 12 GOOD-BY TO CIVILIZATION. was kept in the store until all the outfits had left St. Louis. April ^th, 1833. Now, my dear reader, my mule is saddled, bridled, and hitched at the store in Wash- ington avenue, St. Louis, ready to take me to Lexing- ton, to join the party. If you wish to sacrifice all the comforts of civil life, come with me and share what I shall endure but no! you can do better than that. For a small sum wherewith to purchase this book you can know it all without leaving your comfortable room. So good-by to civilization not for eighteen months, but for forty years. Myself and an individual by the name of Redman started in advance of Mr. Campbell, who was to join us at St. Charles. After we had been there two days he arrived with a young man named James Lee, and a little Snake Indian called Friday, who had been adopted by Mr. Fitzpatrick, a trapper in the moun- tains and afterward an Indian agent for which tribe I do not recollect. I shall not be able to give exact dates, as I did not expect to ever write a book; but I will endeavor to come as near as possible. We were eight days on our journey from St. Charles to " Copy has 1832: see note u , p. 9, where it appears from the Orig. Journ. that Larpenteur left St. Louis Apr. 13, 1833. The year is certain, and Apr. 13 is probably nearer than Apr. 7, for the Journal goes on to say that he reached Lexington on Apr. 70. ENCAMPED AT LEXINGTON. 1 3 Lexington; we fared extremely well, Mr. Campbell having treated us like himself wherever we put up. On the 1 8th [or 2oth] of April we reached Lex- ington, where we found our party camped in tents, awaiting our arrival. There the sumptuous fares were all over. Mr. Campbell called me up and said, " Charles, I will now assign you to your mess. I have a mess of nine first-rate old voyageurs French boys from Cahokia you will be well off with them." I was not quite a stranger to them, having formed ac- quaintance with some of them before leaving St. Louis; and I am glad to say that they did all they could for me as long as I remained with them. None of those men had any education, and would frequently remark that if I took care of myself I could get into good business. Our fare during our stay at Lexing- ton was not bad; we drew rations like soldiers, and having yet a little pocket money we could add to our provisions considerably. As to our bedding, it was not very soft, for we were not allowed to carry more than one pair of 3-pound 17 blankets. A few days after " More commonly called i-potnt blankets by traders and trappers whose narratives I have read. The "point" was a short black stripe, about four inches long, woven into the Mack- inaw blanket to indicate its weight ; a 3-pound blanket had three such stripes. So a point was a pound in blankets, just as in cooking recipes " a pint's a pound, the world round." As to the mule-packs of which Larpenteur goes on to speak, his 14 THE MATTER OF MULES. our arrival mules were given to each of us two to pack and one to ride. Mr. Campbell gave me his favorite mule Simon to ride; old Simon was not so kind that he would not buck me off his back when he took a notion to do so, but on the whole was a good fellow in comparison with many others. My two pack mules were very gentle, but would kick off their packs sometimes. My two loads consisted of beaver traps and a small top pack a choice load, not likely to turn over like dry goods. As I was a green hand my mates assisted me a great deal, and I was always thankful to them for it. Journal is more explicit. " On the 28th," it says, " Our names were taken and our load given us, consisting of liquor Guns Powder led Blanket, Pantaloons Shirts capos [capotes] Beaver Traps and many other artikals too numerous to mention. Three Mules were given me, one for my rideing Animal and the two others for packing, my loads consisted of traps raisins choco- latte." CHAPTER II. (1833.) OVER THE PLAINS TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. ON the 1 2th of May * we took our departure for the mountains, and at the same time the keel boat left Lexington landing, manned by thirty men with the cordell on their shoulders, some of them for the distance of about 1800 miles. Our party con- sisted of 40 2 enlisted men; Robert Campbell, boss in charge; Louis Vasquez, an old mountain man; Mr. Johnesse, a clerk in charge of the men, whose place it 1 Date in question: Orig. Journ. makes the start from Lexing- ton Apr. 28, "on the same day " the mule-packs were made up and given out. The first day out they traveled only 5 m., and then waited 3 days for Mr. Sublette, who was coming in a steam- boat that was to tow the keel boat as far as Liberty, Mo. " On the 7th of May we left the Settlements and on the gth at knight was the first knight wee stood uard," etc. Some of the dis- crepancy is evidently due to difference in date of leaving Lex- ington and of finally clearing out from the last settlement. 3 Orig. Journ. agrees nearly, saying: "Our number was 45, which was divided into nine guards four at a relief and one offi- cer which made nine officers of which I was one," etc. l6 HARD TIMES BEGIN. was to remain in the rear to aid in readjusting the loads, which would get out of order, and to have an eye to the whole cavalcade. As guests, 3 were Cap- tain Stewart from England, on a pleasure trip; old General Harrison's son, with the view to break him from drinking whiskey; and Mr. Edmund Christy, of St. Louis. Now hard times commenced. At first the mules kicking off packs and running away was amusing for those who were all right, but mighty disagreeable for the poor fellows who were out of luck. I had my 3 Beckwourth says of this party, whom he met near the Big- horn river: " I was introduced to a Captain Stuart, who had figured conspicuously, as I was informed, under the Iron Duke, and was now travelling in the far West in pursuit of adventure; also to a Dr. Harrison, son of the hero of Tippecanoe, and to a Mr. Brotherton, with several other gentlemen, who were all tak- ing a pleasure excursion," Autobiogr., 2d ed., 1892, p. 226. Captain or Sir William Stuart's estate, called Murthly Castle, was on the south side of the Tay in Perthshire, Scotland, running about 4 miles down river from the gates of Dunkeld. In 1862 the castle was rented to Mr. Robert Graham of Glasgow, and Sir William lived at what was known as the Cottage, a pretty house filled with Indian trophies and other curios, overlooking the Tay, about halfway between the Castle and Dunkeld. Mr. Maurice Kingsley of New Rochelle, N. Y., who gives in these particulars in lit., Jan. 18, 1898, adds that he well remembers Sir William in 1862-65, when the nobleman must have been about 70 years of age Slightly over middle height, a trifle bent, spare but broad- shouldered, with long thin hair almost white, square face and restless grayish -blue eyes very active still, though gouty and POOR FARE. 17 share of this, but it was not to be compared with the troubles of some of my comrades. This kind of kick- ing up lasted three or four days in full blast; it finally subsided, yet there would be a runaway almost every day. Our fare consisted of bacon and hard-tack no sugar nor coffee for three or four days, after which we each received a small piece of sheep meat, as we had a drove 4 to last us until we got into the buffalo. While the sheep lasted we had but that alone. I then commenced to think that what Mr. Campbell had re- irascible. He published a book about his adventures, the title of which is one of a great many things I do not know. " Old General Harrison's son," whom Larpenteur character- izes so tersely, was Dr. Benjamin Harrison, son of William Henry Harrison, hero of Tippecanoe, and ninth President of the U. S., Mar. 4-Apr. 4, 1841. On applying to ex- President Benja- min Harrison for further information, I was favored with the following letter, dated Indianapolis, Ind., Dec. 6, 1897: " My Dear Sir: I have your letter of Dec. 2. I had an uncle, Dr. Benjamin Harrison, who died when I was a lad. I have only a faint remembrance of him. He was of a wild and adventurous disposition, participated, I think, in the Texas war of independ- ence, and in a good many other frontier scrapes, but I have no particular knowledge of the events of his life. . . Very truly yours, BENJAMIN HARRISON." 4 Orig. Journ. has: " the provisions we had consisted in twenty sheeps two loads of Bacon 500 weight of corn meal which was intended to eat until we got to the Buffello this food to be eaten without bread was not very rellishing when I came to be wnead [weaned] of bread I found that I Should soon be satisfyed of my trip" t. f., would soon have enough of it, with such poor fare. 1 8 GUARD DUTY. marked was on the march. 5 About a week after we had been under march the guard was established, and I was appointed an officer. It became the duty of the officer every third day to post his men around the camp, as soon as all the animals were brought in and picketed in the circle of the camp; those men were to remain quite still at their stations; the officer was to cry out " All's well " every 20 minutes, and the men to cry out the same, so as to find out whether they were asleep or awake. Should any one fail to reply, it was then the duty of the officer to go the rounds to find out the individual, and if caught asleep to take his gun to the boss' tent; then in the morning he would be informed of what he had to undergo, which was a $5 fine and three walks. 6 The men on guard were not permitted to move from their stations, as it was considered dangerous on account of Indians being known to creep up to camp and watch to shoot some- one whom they could discover strolling about; so the officer was more in danger than his men. The usual time of guard was 2\ hours. Having traveled all day, being obliged to remain quiet at one's post was very trying on the sleeping organs, and consequently there would be some poor fellow trudging along on foot 5 Meaning that what Mr. Campbell had said would happen was happening. That is, to go afoot for three days. ON THE PLATTE FIRST BUFFALO. IQ almost every day. Our route, as well as I can re- member, crossed the Little and Big Blue rivers and continued along the south side of the Platte. 7 I com- plained, as my messmates did, of the sheep meat, but they consoled me as well as themselves by speaking of the fine feast we soon would have on the buffalo, which they said they would prefer to all the good messes that could be gotten up in the States. Three days after we had reached the Platte the hunters brought in one evening a load of meat; but the cry of " buffalo meat ! " was heard long before they came in, and there was great rejoicement in camp. Sheep meat could be had very cheap that evening, and it was amusing to see the cooks hunting their kettles some cursing them for being too small, as though it was the poor kettle's fault for its size; but it was not long before they found the kettles were large enough. Then came trouble there was no wood to be found about camp, and all the fuel we could obtain was the stalks of some large dried weeds, the wild sunflower. Now 1 But crossed the Kansas before reaching the Platte, as the party were on the regular Oregon Trail. The Orig. Journ. says: " the first river of any consiquence that we crossed was the Caw river where there is an agensey for the Caw Indians which is kept by General Clark relation of old General Clark, superintendent of the Indian affaires in St. Louis." Journ. further states that they crossed the Kansas May 15; camped there i6th and lyth; decamped i8th; reached the Platte zsd; and continued on 24th. 20 BOILED BULL BEEF. and then some hungry fellow would bring in a small armful of that kind of fuel, and his first words would be, " Is the kettle boiling? " Upon being answered in the negative a long string of bad expressions would be heard, the mildest being, " Waugh! I believe that damned kettle won't never boil! " Thanks to the virtue of sunflower stalks, however, it boiled at last, and every countenance became pleasant at the thought of tasting that much-talked-of buffalo meat. When it was thought cooked by the old voyageurs, preparations were made to dish it out; but, as we had no pans, a clean place was looked for on the grass, and the contents of the kettle were poured out. All hands seated around the pile hauled out their long butcher knives, opened their little sacks of salt, and then began operations. But it was not long before bad expressions were again used in regard to the highly praised quality of buffalo meat. " I can't chew tt " " Tougher'n whalebone " " If that's the stuff we've got to live on for eighteen months, God have mercy on us! " For my part I thought about the same, but said nothing; and after I had chewed as long as I could without being able to get it in swal- lowing condition, I would seize an opportunity to spit it into my hand, and throw it out unseen behind me. My comrades asked me how I liked buffalo meat; I replied I thought it might be some better FROM POOR BULL TO FAT COW. 21 than it was, and they said, " Never mind, Larpenteur; wait until we get among the fat cows then you will see the difference." 8 At this time of the year, in the early part of June, the cows are not fit to kill; for they have their young calves, and are very poor. For several days after this sheep meat would have kept up its price, and perhaps would have risen in value; but none was allowed to come into market, what little there was being reserved for the boss' mess. So we had to go it on buffalo alone; but, thank Provi- dence ! we soon got into fine fat cows, and fared well. My comrades had told me that we should now get a sickness called by them le mal de vache 9 ; it is a dysen- tery caused by eating too much fat meat alone, and some are known to have died of it. So it was not long after we fared so well on the fat of the land that very bad expressions were used in reference to living on meat alone. I cannot say that anything of great importance took place during our journey to the rendezvous; but nowadays, when we have a great deal to say in the newspapers about traveling from Sioux City to Fort Randall, I think that I may indulge in a few more 8 Out West, instead of saying " to know B from a bull's foot," they have it, " to know poor bull from fat cow," as a criterion of discernment. 9 Literally "cow-sickness." 22 THE NORTH PLATTE CHIMNEY ROCK. remarks before I reach Green river. 10 After crossing the South fork of the Platte, the only curiosity of note is Chimney Rock "; that part of the country is 10 Larpenteur will be found on acquaintance to have a dry humor, and a sly satire, in a good many things he says, not always evident at first sight. There was no Sioux City, la., till about the middle of the so's; Fort Randall, S. D., was not estab- lished till 1856; the railroad only pushed into the former in Feb- ruary, 1868; and the distance between the two places, about 175 miles by boat, much less by land, was of course a mere jaunt in comparison with the journey our author was making in 1833 to the rendezvous on Green river, one of the two main forks of the Colorado of the West, beyond the Continental Divide. In the fall of 1872 I reached Sioux City by rail, but took a steamboat on the Missouri to Fort Randall, to which post I had been ordered as its medical officer; I was about three days on the boat, Oct. 15-18. 11 Having come up the main Platte, crossed the S. Platte at the forks, and continued up the N. Platte, the party has reached this long-famous landmark, on the S. side of the river, in Chey- enne Co. , Neb. It was one of several less conspicuous mounds at isolated points along both sides of the river, not far below Scott's bluffs. The Orig. Journ. describes it as "a kind of nat- ural monument which the travellers calls the chimney it is seen in clear weather from the distance of three or four days travel it represents pricizely a chimney the base of it is in the shape of a square pointed roof and from the midst of this roof the chimney puts out from about twenty-five to thirty feet higlj and appears to be something like 100 feet high." This is a much more reason- able estimate than was often given of the height, some calling it upward of 500 feet. There is a picture of it on the full-page plate opp. p. 38 of the Senate ed. of Fremont's Exped. of 1842, pub. 1845 ; at which date Mr. Charles Preuss says the marl and earthy limestone of the chimney were rapidly wearing away, the whole formation being not over 200 feet above the river. LARAMIE. 23 too well known at present for me to enter into any description of it. From this point to La Ramie's 12 fort nothing took place worth mentioning except the 14 The personality of this name is now well-nigh forgotten, in speaking of Fort Laramie, Laramie river, Laramie plains, Lara- mie peak, and Laramie Co., Neb. La Ramie or Laramie (full name not at hand as I write) was one of the first of the Canadian French voyageurs or coureurs de bois to hunt and trap beaver in this part of the world, and was killed by Arapahoes somewhere about the headwaters of the stream which thenceforth has borne his name. In the course of time there have been several differ- ent establishments about the mouth of Laramie river, which finally became a long and well-known military reservation of over 50 sq. m. We find Larpenteur speaking of La Ramie's " fort " in 1833; but that isex post dicto ; his Journ. simply speaks of fourche la Ramie, which he crossed on a raft of cottonwoods, and his present words mean simply the site of the subsequent establishment. I may also mention that J. K. Townsend, with the Wyeth expedition of 1834, speaks of crossing Laramie fork on June i, when there was nothing on the spot. The first post appears to have been built that year, 1834, by Wm. Sublette and Robert Campbell; this was a mere stockade of logs, with small bastions on two diagonal corners, and the usual living rooms inside; it stood on the very site of the future U. S. Fort Laramie, on the W. bank of Laramie river, \\ m. above its mouth. Irving's Bonneville says that it was " about three years " after 1832 that Mr. Robert Campbell built the first post at Laramie ( "which he named Fort William, after his friend and partner, Mr. William Sublette," no doubt referring to the same original log stockade of 1834, whose name of Fort William must have speedily lapsed, if indeed it was ever current. In 1835 it was bought by Milton Sublette, "Jim" Bridger, and others, who went into business with the A. F. Co., and it immediately became a rendezvous for Oglala Sioux, under the name of Fort John. 24 KICKING AGAINST THE PRICKS. overthrow of our long friend Marsh. It happened that, in traveling through a countrv thickly settled with prickly pears, bad luck would have it that a small particle of one accidentally found itself under the tail of his riding mule. The poor animal, finding itself so badly pricked, kicked and bucked at such a rate that our long friend was soon unsaddled, and thrown flat on his back in a large bunch of the prickly pears. By 1836 the pickets were rotting, and the A. F. Co. replaced the original stockade with an adobe structure, the last traces of which did not disappear till 1862. With the old pickets also went the name Fort John, and Fort Laramie the post was always afterward. It was held by the A. F. Co. till 1849, when it was sold to the U. S. government, and became a military post in July of that year, when it was garrisoned by Companies C and D of the Mounted Rifles under Maj. Winslow F. Sanderson, who had attained his majority on Jan. 8 of the previous year, and died Sept. 16, 1853; Capt. (afterward Gen.) William Scott Ketchum came with Co. G of the Sixth Infantry in August of the same year (1849). How important a place Fort Laramie was in those years, and for long subsequently, may be inferred from the fact that in 1850 wagon-trains and other outfits representing an aggregate of 40,000 animals crossed Laramie river below the fort. I have in hand an unpublished sketch of Fort John ; a plate of the adobe Fort Laramie of 1842 faces p. 40 of Fremont's Report, already cited. It would be idle to attempt to cite the references to Fort Laramie which incessantly recur in books, but I may mention that it was a sort of hdqrs. for the future celebrated historian Francis Parkman, when, fresh from college, he was knocking about among the Indians, and making materials for his Oregon Trail not one of his works upon which his fame rests most securely. The best account of the military post, as it was late in A GOOD SAMARITAN. 2$ Although he was over six feet in his stockings, the length of his limbs was not enough to reach out of the patch; and there he lay, begging for pity's sake of his comrades, as they passed by, to help him out of his prickly situation. But all he heard in reply to his entreaties was bursts of laughter throughout the company as they passed by, till he was relieved by Mr. Johnesse, 13 who had charge of the rear. I could but the 6o's, is by Dr. H. S. Schell, U. S. A., in Circular No. 4, War Dept., Surgeon General's Office, Washington, Dec. 5, 1870, pp. 345-350, whence I derive some of the data of this note. 13 1 fear this good Samaritan who brought up the rear and did not pass by on the other side must remain anonymous or pseu- donymous, as far as his editor is concerned. He seems to be the Antoine Jeanisse of note ', p. 52 ; but such a name varies from Jeunesse to Johnson in the MSS. before me, and I can make nothing of it. Compare one Auguste Janisse of Fremont's list of his men, Exped. of 1842, p. 9. Larpenteur is too much concerned for his poor friend Marsh's, plight to give some other particulars which belong here, as I find by his Orig. Journ. On crossing La Fourche de La Ramie and traveling 5 or 6 m. to camp on the N. Platte, it appears that " they was three gentlemen which made there appearance in ta our camp of which one of them was mr. Frap one of the mem- bers of mr. Fitz Patrick trarping company which was going to st Louis to purchase goods with the intention to return to the Mountains in the fall, the following day we moved camp about half a mile where we remained two days during that time mr Frap maid some agreements with mr Campbell on which he bought the outfit with the exeption of ten mules and ten Barrills of liquor and two bales of goods." This Mr. Frapp was a well- known person in the business for many years, though less noted 26 BULL-BOATS. pity the poor fellow, but, at the same time, his situa- tion excited mirth. There he lay in a large bunch of prickly pears, stretched out as though he had been crucified. Poor Marsh! I shall remember him as long as I live. On approaching La Ramie's river we discovered three large buffaloes lying dead close together. The party was ordered to stop and form in double line, while the hunters were gone to find out the cause of those buffaloes' deaths, surmising that they had been killed by Indians. They were gone but a little while before they returned, reporting that the animals had been killed by lightning during a storm we had the previous day; so our fears of Indians were removed, and the party resumed their march. We soon reached the [Laramie] river, where we were ordered to dismount and go to work making a boat out of the hides of the buffalo quite a new kind of boat 14 to than Fitzpatrick the Broken Hand. Fr6mont, p. 40, has this item concerning him: " For several years the Cheyennes and Sioux had gradually become more and more hostile to the whites, and in the latter part of August, 1841, had had a rather severe engagement with a party of six whites, under the command of Mr. Frapp, of St. Louis. The Indians lost eight or ten warriors, and the whites had their leader and four men killed. This fight took place on the waters of Snake river, and it was this party, on their return under Mr. Bridger, which had spread so much alarm among my people." 14 This was the ordinary " bull -boat," as it is called, made of hides stretched over a light framework of sticks, of circular THE USUAL ORGIES. 2/ me. But the boat was made, and the party with all the goods were crossed over by sunset. The next day, or the day after, according to custom Mr. Camp- bell sent Mr. Vasquez with two men to hunt up some trappers, in order to find out where the rendezvous would be, and we awaited their return at this place. They were gone eight days, which time we enjoyed in hunting and feasting on the best of buffalo meat. On the arrival of the trappers and hunters 15 a big drunken spree took place. Our boss, who was a good one, and did not like to be backward in such things, I saw flat on his belly on the green grass, pour- ing out what he could not hold in. Early next morn- ing everything was right again, and orders were given shape, like a great clothes-basket or deep saucer. Such a boat was in regular use by the Indians, and is described and figured by many authors. A specimen may be seen in the U. S. National Museum, to the fishery exhibit of which it was contributed some years ago by Dr. Matthews. I think that this is the one figured in the late Dr. Charles Rau's Prehistoric Fishing. It is not so well made as some I have seen on the upper Missouri. The original exploration of the Yellowstone in 1806 was made in bull- boats: see L. and C., ed., 1893, p. 1172. 15 Orig. Journ. has : " Mr. Campbell had sent for Mr Fitz Patrick to come and receive his goods at a place near the Black Hills the place appointed for the randezvous. . . We remained three days at the randezvous after which time Mr Fitz Patrick arived with three men and six mules loaded with Beaver the fol- lowing day they settled all their affairs and started Mr Frap with a party of ten men to go and trap amongst the Black Hills we also left our camp," etc. 28 SOUTH PASS OF CONTINENTAL DIVIDE. to catch up and start. Everything moved quite smoothly until we reached the Divide, 18 where my '* The Continental Divide, at South Pass, near the head of Sweetwater river, July 2, 1833. Orig. Journ. is much more explicit than the above meager text. After continuing up the N. Platte some distance (not given) from Laramie, the party passed over to the Sweetwater by a route a little off the Platte, and reached the former river at or near the famous Independ- ence Rock, so frequently mentioned in books of Western travel and adventure. " The ordinary road leaves the Platte, and crosses over to the Sweet Water river, which it strikes near Rock Independence," Fremont, p. 54. Orig. Journ. describes the rock with some particularity. Five m. above it is the curious formation known as the Devil's Gate, where the river runs through a narrow opening, 300 yards long, 35 yards wide, and 400 feet deep: plate of the Gate in Fremont, opp. p. 57. This appears to be the place that was originally called " The Fiery Narrows" by the incoming Astorian overlanders, Oct. 31, 1812: see this date in Irving's Astoria, chap, xlviii. This party of seven persons descended the Sweetwater part way, having prob- ably struck it below its upper caSon; they were the first of whom we have any account as being on this river, long before it received its present name. In my Henry Journ., 1897, pp. 884, 885, where I discussed the route of these Astorians, I was inclined to bring them through South Pass and thus down the whole of the Sweetwater. But in a review of Astoria which appeared in the N. Y. Nation of Dec. 23, 1897, I say: " Attentive reconsideration of this point induces us to fetch them from Green River about south-southeast to very near South Pass perhaps within twelve or fifteen miles of it when they wandered off the Indian trail which would have brought them through this pass, and kept about southeast until they had headed the Sweetwater entirely. They then struck east, south of that river, and finally fell on it lower down per- DEVIL'S GATE, SWEETWATER RIVER. WYOMING. A FUGACIOUS TRINITY. 29 faithful old Simon I may say the whole trinity played out on me. 17 About two hours before camping time the pack of one of my mules got so much out of order that I was obliged to stop to lash it again. Mr. Simon, who was in the habit of waiting for me on occasions of that kind, changed his notion and took it into his head to follow the party without me; the well-packed one followed suit, and it was all I could do to prevent the third one from leaving before get- ting his pack on; but as soon as that was done the gentleman took to his heels, and all three got into camp about an hour before me. The want of Simon was the cause of my being obliged to wade a small creek tributary to the Sweetwater which was very cold, although it was the 2d of July. I was wet up to my waist, and it was my guard late that night. When haps via Whiskey [or Muddy] Gap, between the Green and the Seminole Mountains." It is due to Capt. H. M. Chittenden to say that this modification of my view resulted from his criticism, during correspondence which we had upon the whole subject of the overland Astorian routes. Capt. Chittenden has lately favored me with the blue print of a map on which he locates the main winter camp of the incoming Astorians in the bend of the N. Platte at Poison Spider creek, a little above Casper, Wyo. Larpenteur's Journ. states that his party ascended the Sweet- water for six days, and that " on the second of July we arived on the Divide where we encamped." 11 His riding-mule and two pack-mules composed the " whole trinity." Perhaps he forgot to put on the blinders! 50 GREEN RIVER RENDEZVOUS. I was wakened to go on guard my clothes were still wet, and on that morning, the 3d of July, water froze in our kettles nearly a quarter of an inch thick. I felt quite chilly and was sick for about eight days. As near as I can remember we reached the rendez- vous on Green river on the 8th of July. 18 There 18 Orig. Journ. has: "On the fifth [of July] we arived to the randezvous which was on the ques qui di river near Mr. Barna- villes Fort which is supposed [writing in 1834] to have been distroyed by the Black Feet." The author's "Quesquidi" is Green river, the principal fork of the Colorado; the Crow Indian name has uncounted variants in spelling, among which I have noticed Siskadee, Siskede-azzeah, Sheetskadee, and Seedskedee- agie; the word is said to mean Prairie-hen river (with reference to the sage grouse, Centrocercus urophasianus}. Our name, Green river, translates Rio Verde of the Spanish, who came to it somewhere about 1818, and were struck with the color of its water. Green river is also often and not improperly called the Colorado, as it is the main upper reach of that great stream. From South Pass it was two or three days' journey on the regu- lar road S. W., down the Little and Big Sandy, to the rendezvous on Green river, near Capt. Bonneville's post. The exact loca- tion of this rendezvous, which Larpenteur does not give, is recoverable from Irving's chaps, xix and xx, where it appears that Bonneville, who had wintered 1832-33 elsewhere in the mountains, reached Green river July 13, 1833, an d " sent out spies to his place of rendezvous on Horse creek," a small tributary of the Green from the W. " About four miles from the rendezvous of Captain Bonneville was that of the American Fur Company hard by which was that also of the Rocky Mountain Fur Com- pany " the latter being, of course, that to which Larpenteur belonged. This does not mean that the rendezvous where the parties met was at Horse creek, for this creek is much higher BONNEVILLE'S STOCKADE. 31 were still some of Capt. Bonneville's men in a small stockade. He had come up the year previous [1832], Thus ended our journey so far. up the Green, and was Bonneville's own place of rendezvous, to which he sent spies from the point where he met the other traders. The regular road passed W. from this vicinity by way of Black's and Ham's forks, and so on over to Bear river. When the Wyeth expedition was at the rendezvous the follow- ing year (June 19-30, 1834), Townsend states in his Narr., 1839, p. 75, that he met there Wm. Sublette, Capts. Serre, Fitzpatrick, and other leaders. With him was the distinguished botanist, Thomas Nuttall; and "we were joined at the rendezvous by a Captain Stewart, an English gentleman of noble family, who is travelling for amusement, and in search of adventure. He has already been a year in the mountains," etc. This is the English- man whom Larpenteur has named as accompanying his party in 1833. "Another Englishman," continues Townsend, p. 79, "a young man named Ash worth, also attached himself to our party." I am particular to cite Townsend in this connection, because his testimony is conclusive that the rendezvous was not on Horse creek. For example, he says, p. 69: " We left the Sweet-water, and proceeded in a south-westerly direction to Sandy river; " and again, p. 71 : " Our course was still down the Sandy river," etc. Thus he reaches the rendezvous by the regular road which I have mentioned above, and it was where I have said. Nobody went up to that Horse creek place to pass from Green to Bear river, CHAPTER III. (1833-) PROM GREEN RIVER RENDEZVOUS BY THE BIGHORN AND THE YELLOWSTONE TO THE MISSOURI. THE day after we reached the rendezvous Mr. Campbell, with ten men, started to raise a beaver cache at a place called by the French Trou a Pierre, which means Peter's Hole. 1 As I was sick, Mr. Camp- bell left me in camp, and placed Mr. Fitzpatrick in 1 1 have not elsewhere found Trou a Pierre translated " Peter's" Hole always Pierre or Pierre's Hole, the name it still bears. It is said to have been so called after one Pierre, an Iroquois in the employ of the H. B. Co., " who fell by the hands of the Black- feet and gave his name to the fated valley of Pierre's Hole," says Irving's Bonneville, chap, x., date not given, stated to be "many " years before 1832. The history of the place dates back to 1811, when the outgoing overland Astorians passed through it, between Oct. 4 and 8 ; but it was then nameless. This party were en route from the main or S. fork of Snake river, at the mouth of Hoback's river, to the point on Henry's or N. fork of Snake river where Andrew Henry had established his post in 1 8 10, and been driven therefrom in 1811. Their way was over the Teton range by Teton Pass into Pierre's Hole, which is the recess between the mountains just said and the Snake River range ; the Hole is watered by the numerous affluents of Teton ONE SOBER MAN IN CAMP. 33 charge during his absence, telling the latter to take good care of me, and if the man Redman, whom he left as clerk, did not answer, to try me. In a short time a tent was rigged up into a kind of saloon, and such drinking, yelling, and shooting as went on I, of course, never had heard before. Mr. Redman, among the rest, finally got so drunk that Mr. Fitzpatrick could do nothing with him, and there was not a sober man to be found in camp but myself. So Mr. Fitzpat- rick asked me if I would try my hand at clerking. I remarked that I was willing to do my best, and at it I went. For several days nothing but whisky was sold, at $5 a pint. There were great quarrels and river, from all the mountains round about, and the Teton flows into Henry's fork in the vicinity of the place where Henry's fort stood, but lower down. This post was on the left bank of Henry's fork, about opposite present Elgin, 2-3 m. from present Wilford, say 10 m. below confluence of Fall river with the main stream. Pierre's Hole was retraversed by the incoming Astorians early in October of the following year, 1812, and in Larpenteur's time had become a great resort. " Pierre's Hole " will be found marked on various maps, but the name seems to be lapsing of late years, like that of Pierre's river for the Teton. The meridian line be- tween Wyoming and Idaho runs through Pierre's Hole, near long. m W. The most notable event in the early history of Pierre's Hole is the fight with the Blackfeet of 1832, best narrated in Irving's chap. vi. A recent letter from John Ball, dated Grand Rapids, Mich., Oct. 14, 1874, published in Cont. Mont. Hist. Soc., i, 1876, pp. in, 112, gives another notice of the same place in 1832: " I crossed the Rocky Mountains in 1832, in the party of Mr. Nathan- 34 ACTING AS CLERK. fights outside, but I must say the men were very civil to me. Mr. Fitzpatrick was delighted, and wondered to me why Mr. Campbell had not mentioned me for 'clerk in the first instance instead of that drunken Red- man. After seven or eight days Mr. Campbell re- turned with ten packs of beaver. A few days after- ward the rumor was circulated in camp that he was about to sell out their interest in the mountains to Fitzpatrick, Edmund Christy, Frap, and Gervais. In the meantime sprees abated, and the trappers com- menced to buy their little outfits, consisting of blankets, scarlet shirts, tobacco, and some few trinkets to trade with the Snake Indians, during which transactions I officiated as clerk. iel Wyeth. . . In upper Missouri our party joined a trading- company headed by Mr. William Sublette, with whom we traveled. A Mr. Robert Campbell of St. Louis was also of the caravan. We passed Captain Bonneville's party, which was traveling with wagons, between the Kansas and the Platte, went up the North Platte and Sweetwater, and reached the South Pass early in July. We kept close under the Wind River Mountains for a hundred miles, and came to a branch of the Lewis river (Snake river), and at Pierre's Hole, which was a famous resort, met Sublette 's trappers and the Flathead and Nez Perce Indians." The reader will remember that this was the time and place of Sublette's wounding, already mentioned by Larpenteur, p. 8. The Orig. Journ. states that the party which went to " raize the cash " in Pierre's Hole left July 8, and consisted of 18 men, who returned July 15 ; two days after which camp was shifted a little further down Green river, where there was better pastur- age, and remained there until July 24. DETAILED FOR THE YELLOWSTONE. 35 The rumors at last became verified; the sales were effected, but things went on as usual until Mr. Campbell sent for me one morning. On entering his tent I was presented with a good cup of coffee and a large-sized biscuit; this was a great treat, for I be- lieve that it was the first coffee I had drunk since I left Lexington. Then he remarked, " Charles, I suppose you have heard that I sold out our interest in the mountains; but I have reserved all your mess, ten mules, and the cattle (we had four cows and two bulls, intended for the Yellowstone). I have 30 packs of beaver, which Fitz is to assist me with as far as the Bighorn river, where I intend to make skin boats and take my beaver down to the mouth of the Yellowstone. There I expect to meet Sublette, who is to take the packs on to St. Louis. You are one of the ten men whom I have reserved, but Fitz would like much to have you remain with him, and I leave you the choice, to stay with him or come with me." My reply was, " Mr. Campbell, I have engaged to you, you have treated me like a gentleman, and I wish to follow you wherever you go." Upon which he said, " Very well, very well," with a kind smile; " go to your mess." On return- ing, my messmates, expecting some news, asked me what was the result of my visit to the boss; and, on being informed, a great shout of joy was the answer. 36 " MAD WOLF!" The beaver was all packed and pressed ready for the march; so the next day the order came to catch up the animals, receive our packs, and move camp. This was not our final departure; it was merely to get a fresh grazing ground for the mules and horses. A day or so later we learned that a mad wolf had got into Mr. Fontenelle's camp about five miles from us, and had bitten some of his men and horses. My messmates, who were old hands, had heard of the like before, when men had gone mad. It was very warm, toward the latter end of July ; we were in the habit of sleeping in the open air, and never took the trouble to put up the tent, except in bad weather; but when evening came the boys set up the tent. Some of the other messes asked, " What is that for? " The re- ply was, " Oh, mad wolf come he bite me." When the time came to retire the pack saddles were brought up to barricade the entrance of our tent, the only one up in camp, excepting that of the boss. After all hands had retired nothing was heard in the camp ex- cept, now and then, the cry of " All's well," and some loud snoring, till the sudden cry of, " Oh, I'm bit- ten! " then immediately another, and another. Three of our men were bitten that night, 2 all of them 1 This affair of the mad wolves is also narrated by Irving in Bonneville's Adventures, chap, xx ; where, after describing the wild revelry and deviltry that went on in the several camps of GEORGE HOLMES AND OTHERS BITTEN. 37 in the face. One poor fellow, by the name of George Holmes, was badly bitten on the right ear and face. All hands got up with their guns in pursuit of the animal, but he made his escape. When daylight came men were mounted to go in search, but nothing could be seen of him. It was then thought that he had gone and was not likely to return, and no fur- ther precaution was taken than the night before. But it seems that Mr. Wolf, who was thought far away, had hidden near camp; for about midnight the cry of " mad wolf " was heard again. This time the animal was among the cattle and bit our largest bull, which went mad afterward on the Bighorn, where we made the boats. The wolf could have been shot, 8 but orders were not to shoot in camp, for fear of accident- ally killing some one, and so Mr. Wolf again escaped. this great rendezvous, he says : " During this season of folly and frolic, there was an alarm of mad wolves in the two lower camps," *. e., of the A. F. Co. and R. Mt. Co. The chapter ends with 1 ' another instance we have from a different person who was present in the encampment. One of the men of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company had been bitten," etc. This case seems to be no other than that of George Holmes, and very likely Lar- penteur was Irving's informant. 3 Larpenteur says in his Orig. Journ. that he could have shot the wolf, " but I was hindered by Captain Stward which was offi- cer of guard at the time." He forgets to state, among events at the rendezvous, that on July 22 Mr. Gervais started with 30 men to trap in the "root diger's country, "*'. e., among the Digger Indians. 38 DEPARTURE FOR THE BIGHORN. But we learned afterward that he had been killed by some of Mr. Fontenelle's men. As well as I can remember it was the first week in August * when we were ordered to take final leave for the Horn. Our party was then much reduced; the members of the new company remained on Green river with the intention, according to custom, to set out through the mountains so soon as trapping time 4 Orig. Journ. gives July 24 as date of final departure from the rendezvous for the Bighorn. That this is correct is shown by Irving's Bonneville, opening of chap, xxiii, where we read : " On the 25th of July [1833] Captain Bonneville struck his tents, and set out on his route for the Bighorn, . . . and soon fell upon the track of Mr. Robert Campbell's party, which had preceded him by a day." Irving's whole chapter, in fact, should be read with the present chapter of Larpenteur, as it gives many addi- tional particulars. The two parties came together Aug. 4 ; on which date Irving mentions Fitzpatrick, as well as Campbell ; the English Captain Stewart (or Stuart), whom Larpenteur has dropped, though this guest was still with the party ; and Nathaniel J. Wyeth, who was attached to Larpenteur's party, on his return from his outgoing of 1832 with Wm. Sublette and R. Campbell, after he had been to the Columbia and returning had met Bonneville at the rendezvous on Green river. The various parties continued together about a fortnight, before they separated on their several diverse routes. Bonneville set out for a rendezvous at Medicine Lodge on Aug. 17. Captain Stuart started for the Crows on his adventures, of which he had plenty, as we may read in Beckwourth's book. Wyeth went on ahead of Larpenteur's party, down the Bighorn in a bull-boat ; left Fort Cass Aug. 18, and reached Fort Union Aug. 24 ; Milton Sublette was with him. Irving's chap, xli traces Wyeth's journey. ON THE SWEETWATER. 39 commenced. Fitzpatrick came with us, with about 20 of his men; Harrison was with Fitz, intending to winter in the mountains. We turned back on the same route by which we had reached the rendezvous, to Sweetwater, from which we struck off for Wind river. 5 Two days after leaving the Sweetwater we 6 The main upper reach of the Bighorn itself is so called above the confluence of Popo-agie river. Wind river runs S. E. to this confluence, whence the course of the Bighorn is almost N. to the Yellowstone. Larpenteur retraversed South Pass and thus got on the Sweetwater, but did not go far down the latter before turning away from it certainly nowhere near " Rock Independ- ent," as he says by mistake in a passage above which I have stricken out, as nothing of the sort is indicated by the Orig. Journ. " Wind River " occurs in Irving's Astoria, orig. ed. 18.36, but the name is much older. The stream was first ascended by the outgoing overland Astorians under Wilson Price Hunt, Sept. 9-14, 1811 ; and appears to have soon become known by its pres- ent name, though this does not occur in any Lewis and Clark text, orig. ed. 1814. The Bighorn was of course so named from the mountain sheep, Ovis montana : an Indian name of this ani- mal is rendered ahsahta by Irving, and Arsata appears as an alternative name of the river on Lewis' earliest map. In one place in chap, xxiv " Big Horse " runs through all the eds. of Astoria by misprint. In David Thompson's MS. I found the name " River of Large Corn," evidently mistranslating the French Grosse Corne (big horn). Pappah-ahje of the above text is one of many variants of the Crow Indian name now usually rendered Popo-agie, meaning Reed river. Bonneville spells it Po-po-az- ze-ah. In his Bonneville Irving mistakenly translates it " Head " river. On consulting Dr. Matthews in this case, I am favored with the following : " Popo-Agie is a Crow name. As you know, Crow and Hidatsa are closely allied tongues, and as you know 40 WIND RIVER MAN SHOT. reached Wind river, near the mouth of a small stream called Pappah-ah-je, which place Dr. Harrison visited on account of the remarkable oil spring which puts into that stream. Some distance from the river we learned by one of the men, who had gone ahead to find a good encampment, that the Indians, the night previous, had shot a trapper asleep through the ear, that the ball had come out under his jaw, and that he had an arrow-point in his shoulder-blade. Three old trappers 6 had left Green river some time before us, intending to meet us on Wind river. Dr. Harrison extracted the arrow-point and dressed the wound, which he pronounced not dangerous. We remained in camp two days. From this point until we got to the other side of the mountains, game became so scarce that we had to live for two days on such berries and roots as we could find. Two days before reach- also, the sounds of o and u are easily interchanged in any lan- guage, English included. Now look at my Hidatsa Dictionary for the words pitpu and dzi (ahzhee), and put them together; then look at the word for head (atii) and see if you can make " Head River " out of this name. Ptipu is, I believe, the com- mon reed, Phragmites communis. This plant figures again in the Tobacco Garden story, which comes later on in Larpenteur. " ' These were three of Mr. Frapp's men. A fuller account of the shooting is given in the Orig. Journ., from which it appears that the Indians were Shoshones who, disguised with bushes on their heads, crept up so close to their victim that the powder burned his cap. Irving's chap, xxiii notes the same incident. FATALITIES FROM HYDROPHOBIA. 41 ing the Horn one of our bulls commenced to show some symptoms of hydrophobia by bellowing at a great rate, and pawing the ground. This scared my poor friend Holmes, who was still in our party, but not destined to reach the Yellowstone. He was a young man from New York, well educated, and we became quite attached to each other on our long journey. The poor fellow now and then asked me if I thought he would go mad; although thinking within myself he would, being so badly bitten, I did all I could to make him believe otherwise. When he said to me, " Larpenteur, don't you hear the bull he is going mad I am getting scared," I do believe I felt worse than he did, and scarcely knew how to an- swer him. The bull died two days after we arrived at the Horn, and I learned, some time afterward, from Mr. Fontenelle, that Holmes had gone mad. For some days he could not bear to cross the small streams which they struck from time to time, so that they had to cover him over with a blanket to get him across; and at last they had to leave him with two men until his fit should be over. But the men soon left him and came to camp. Mr. Fontenelle immediately sent back after him; but when they arrived at the place, they found only his clothes, which he had torn off his back. He had run away quite naked, and never was found. This ended my poor friend Holmes. 42 DOWN THE BIGHORN. It was about the loth of August when we reached the Horn, which is the same as Wind river, only the latter loses its name after crossing the mountains. It is not navigable through the mountains, I am in- formed, even for a small canoe; and this is the reason why our boats had to be made on this side of the mountain. So, immediately after our arrival, a large party of hunters, with men and mules, started out, with the view of bringing in hides rather than meat; but, as luck would have it, Mr. Vasquez, clerk and old mountain man, killed one of the fattest buffalo I ever saw. Three days after this three boats were com- pleted, 7 and everything in readiness to leave. In the morning I was sent for by Mr. Campbell, who then gave me some instructions I was not expecting. " Now," said he, " Charles, I am going down by the river with my beaver. Mr. Vasquez will go down by land in charge of the party, with the mules and cattle. There will be but five of you. You are going to travel through the most dangerous part of the coun- try. Mr. Vasquez will keep ahead of the party on the strict lookout, and should anything happen to him, I wish you to take charge of the party." My re- ply was, " Very well, sir," though such instructions, I must confess, made me feel a little nervous. But it did not last; I very soon became quite cheerful, and 7 The bull-boats were made about Aug. 12-15, by Orig. Journ. INDIAN HOSTILITIES FEARED. 43 anxious to be under way. Mr. Campbell started that same day, and we all left early next morning. For the four first days we traveled slowly and quietly. We could not travel fast on account of the cattle, whose feet were badly worn out and tender. On the fifth morning, 8 a little while after we left camp, we saw Mr. Vasquez coming back toward us, which made us suspect he had discovered something; we thought it might have been a band of buffalo. But when he came up to us he said that he had discovered Indians three, on the other side of the river; but he was sure we had not been discovered by them, and moved that we should go near the river, to secure water and make some kind of a fort, for defense in case of attack. As he was in charge, and an old experienced man, we readily consented. So on we went to the river, but on arrival we found, to our great surprise, the opposite shore red with Indians, who commenced to yell enough to frighten Old Nick himself. No time to make a fort, or even to un- saddle, before they began to throw themselves into the river and make toward us. Mr. Vasquez ordered us to take position behind a large cluster of cotton- woods and cock our rifles, but not to shoot until he gave the order. So there we stood in readiness, like Aug. 17 is this date by Orig. Journ., which says it was after two days' travel that the incident occurred. 44 FRIENDLY ABSAROKAS. veterans; the first fright was over, and we were ready to make the Indians pay dearly for our hair. None of us understanding their language, we made sure they were Blackfeet, and fight we must. In less time than it takes me to write this, they were upon us. One tall scoundrel came up a little ahead of the rest with a white flag, making signs not to shoot. An old French mountaineer named Paulette Desjardins understood a few words of Crow, and as the Indian pronounced the name of his tribe, the old man said " They are Crows * there is no danger for our lives, but they are great thieves." Mr. Vasquez also knew as much about them as the old man did, and so we let them come up. Then the shaking of hands took place, and our hearts went back into the right place again. As we had a large supply of buffalo meat, we made a feast, which they appeared to relish very much, and then they expressed a desire to open trade; but we had no goods for that purpose. We had not gone more than three miles when we discovered some ten Indians galloping toward us as fast as their horses could go; we stopped until they ap- proached us, when we found that they were the chiefs and leading men of the camp. They looked splendid, '"They made us sign that they were Ab-sah-rokier-bats-ats meaning they were the great crow Indians," Orig. Journ. Liter- ally, " we are Crow men: " see Matthews, Hidatsa Gram., para- graphs 33, 168. CROW CAMP. 45 dressed in the best of Indian costumes, and mounted on fat ponies. They all shook hands and made signs that they would look for a good place to camp, and for us to follow. Somewhat against our will we did so. It was not long before the desired spot was found, and the whole camp soon made its appearance, containing upward of 400 lodges. This was a great sight for me, who had never seen such a formidable Indian camp. The Crows, at that time, generally roamed together, and on this particular occasion they looked richer than any other Indians, for they had just made their trade at the fort, one day's march from where we were. The Crows did not drink then, and for many years re- mained sober; it was not until a few years ago, when they were driven out of their country by the Sioux, and became a part of the tribe on the Missouri, that they took to drinking with the Assiniboines. As they did not drink, their trade was all in substantial goods, which kept them always well dressed, and ex- tremely rich in horses; so it was really a beautiful sight to see that tribe on the move. As soon as the proper place was found for encamping, the chief made us a sign to unsaddle and to put all our plunder in a circle which he himself described; and on the arrival of the camp his lodge was immediately erected over it, so that all was safe. We finally left the Crow camp and soon reached 46 FORT CASS. Fort Cass, 10 then incharge of Mr. Tulloch, who was a man possessed of good common sense, very reliable, and brave withal. He was called the Crane by all the Indians, on account of the extreme length and slen- derness for which he was remarkable almost a curi- osity; he was extremely popular among the Crows, and well liked by the mountain men. When he left Fort Union to establish this new post, Mr. [Kenneth] McKenzie requested him to take all such articles as the Crows might fetch, so as to get them in the way of trade. His first returns consisted mostly of elk, deer, and all kinds of horns, which made great mirth at Fort Union; yet his trade had been profitable. It 10 Fort Cass, on Yellowstone, 2 m. below the mouth of the Big- horn, was established in 1832 by A. J. Tullock the same for whom Tullock's fork of the Bighorn was named. He is frequently Tulloch, and Tulleck occurs throughout Beckwourth's book, in which much is said of the man and his post : see also L. and C., ed. 1893, p. 1152. "In 1832, McKenzie sent Tullock, with forty men, to build a fort at the mouth of the Big Horn river," says James Stuart, in Cont. Mont. Hist. Soc. , i, 1876, p. 88. This is right; but his further statements require correction. " Tullock built the fort named Van Buren, on the south side of the Yellowstone, about three miles below the mouth of the Big Horn." But this was Fort Cass. The writer goes on to say that in 1863 he saw the location, marked by ashes and some standing chimneys. In so stating he means not Cass but Van Buren, which was burned by Larpenteur himself, in 1842, as we shall see in due course; and Van Buren stood at the mouth of the Rosebud, not near the Big- DOWN THE YELLOWSTONE. 47 was started again, and when we arrived there it was his second year. We learned that this was a very dangerous post; they had had some men killed by the Blackfeet, and were even afraid to go out to chop wood. This fort was situated about two miles below the mouth of the Horn. Next day at ten o'clock we were again on the move, with a journey of about 250 miles before us, to reach the month of the Yellowstone. Nothing worthy of note took place during this part of our journey, which would have been extremely pleasant had it not been for anticipated danger from Indians. We had to erect a large pen for our animals every night, for fear horn. The writer follows with other statements, singularly wrong. Speaking of the Crows as an insolent, treacherous tribe, he says: "They wanted the location of their trading-post changed nearly every year, consequently they had four trading posts built from 1832 to 1850, viz.: Ft. Cass, built by Tullock, on the Yellowstone, below Van Buren [read below the Bighorn], in 1836 [read 1832]; Ft. Alexander, built by Lawender [read Lar- penteiir], still lower down on the Yellowstone river, in 1848 [read 1842], and Ft. Sarpey [read Sarpy] built by Alexander Culbertson, in 1850, at the mouth of the Rosebud." Mr. Stuart was a well-informed and usually accurate man ; this passage is so far wrong that I am inclined to think that his copy got mixed in the type-setting. Certainly no reader who did not know who built Fort Alexander at Adams prarie in 1842 would guess that " Lawender " stood for Larpenteur. The date of founding of Fort Van Buren is 1835; it lasted eight years. Fort Sarpy, named for John B., lasted six years, 1850-55. 48 TO THE MISSOURI. of sudden attacks, and to stand frequent guard, as our party was small. But we lived on the fat of the land, as at that season game was in good order, and the Yellowstone valley abounded with all kind of game at that early period, and for many subsequent years. We were often frightened at large bands of elk, which, at a distance, bear the exact appearance of a mounted party of Indians, till, by the aid of a good spyglass, our fears were relieved. Our two cows added a great deal to our good living; as we had no coffee, milk was a great relish. We made but slow progress, on account of the cattle, whose feet became very tender, and finally got so bad that we were obliged to make shoes of raw buffalo hide. We arrived safe and sound at the mouth of the Yellowstone on the 3d of September," and thus ended our long trip. We were soon discovered by our people, who were at the landing where our fort was to be erected, two miles below the mouth of the Yellowstone, and were informed that Mr. William 11 Orig. Journ. happily agrees to this date Sept. 3, 1833 per- haps the first absolute identity between itself and the present text thus far. It appears that the party went down the S. side or right bank of the Yellowstone, as it speaks of crossing Tongue and Rosebud rivers ; two or three days after passing which latter the Yellowstone was crossed and the journey completed on its other side. The Journ. has : " On the third of September on our arrivel at this place we saw a paper stuck on a pole stating MULE TALK. 49 Sublette arrived there eight days before and Mr. Campbell three; but he had capsized in the Horn, lost two packs of beaver, and been near losing his life. Otherwise everything was right; they would have been glad to see us across, but it was too late in the evening to attempt this, as we had to swim. Now that I am obliged to pass a night on this side, if my reader will be so kind as to help me we will try to find out how long I have been in the saddle. As near as I can come, it is five months lacking four days. 12 We should have been much better pleased if we could have crossed over on our arrival; still we felt quite merry, and it was a long time before we could go to sleep. In the evening, after we caught up our stock, one could hear great talk to the mules, calling them by name, telling them that they were near the end of their journey, and what they might expect in future ; it was really amusing, and it was almost thought that the poor dumb beasts understood what was said to Mr. Sublette's arrivel and [that he] was at the time two miles below the mouth [of the Yellowstone] on the north side of the Missouri where he intended to build his fort which is two miles and a half from fort Union belonging to the American fur Com- pany : and our fort was named fort William after the name of the owner whos name was William Sublette." 12 By our text ostensibly Apr. 7-Sept. 3, agreeing within a week with the Orig. Journ. See note u , p. 12. 5O SWIMMING THE RIVER. them. All hands were up early, mules and cattle turned out, and we waited impatiently to cross over. Between 10 and u a. m. Mr. Johnesse, who had come down by water with Mr. Campbell, and was still our foreman, appeared on the opposite shore to show us the place where we had to swim the stock across. The river at that season was low, and the channel so narrow that we could plainly hear all he said. When we got ready to drive the stock in, he hallooed to me, thinking I did not know how to swim, to take hold of the bull's tail. Not being an expert in the science, I took his advice and the bull's tail too, and, making use of my three loose limbs, I reached the opposite shore with ease. In a short time we were all safe on the north bank of the Missouri, upward of 2000 miles from St. Louis. 13 13 In round numbers, as then supposed, like all of Larpenteur's. estimates thus far. The channel mileage of the Missouri, from its mouth to the Yellowstone, is now given as 1,760 m. St. Louis is now 17 m. below the mouth of the Missouri. From the utmost source of the Missouri, above Upper Red Rock lake, by so-called Red Rock, Beaverhead, and Jefferson rivers, to Three Forks, is 398 m., thence to confluence of the Missouri with the Mississippi, 2,547 ; thence by the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, 1,276 ; total channel mileage, 4,221 making the longest continuous water-course in the world. See Brower, The Missouri , 1897, pp. 117-121. ? f ', ^^-^^^^^^St^fc^^ 'it?t\ njr' ^ .- T3\ 'V'' "; v*^' **c. * ft fr- i': e* v - sv w v e u*wf * *^ ***t-Jl i. sc. XFX99^KV^V^^ ; MV River 0,-t moic-tli. of a.r Feb. 26, 1871. 8 The same who has been already incidentally mentioned, p. 162. I once made the following memorandum from Palliser, 1853, p. 83: " Mr. Murray, a Scotchman in the service of the [Ameri- can Fur] Company, and in charge of Fort Alexander on the Yel- lowstone," where Palliser met him in 1847. 1 76 RETURN TO FORT UNION. to ride and one to pack. As it was cold, and snow on the ground, I had to leave my better half behind. One of our horses soon gave out, and our trip of eight days was a tough one. I should remark here that, about two weeks before I left Fort Alexander, a gentleman by the name of Frederick Groscloud arrived in charge of a Mack- inaw boat, with a fine equipment. He had been for- merly in the employ of Mr. Tulloch, and understood the Crow language, but was not considered a person of much force of character. CHAPTER X. (1843-44.) WINTERING AT WOODY MOUNTAIN. ABOUT the ist of December, 1842,* I made my en- trance again in Fort Union. It was at night; a large trading party were at the highest pitch of drunken- ness; boss and clerks not far behind them in this re- spect. But I did not find it strange or surprising. Mr. Culbertson, on seeing me, remarked, " Well, Larpenteur, I am mighty glad to see you. We are having a hot time, and I'm tired of it. I suppose you are tired, too, and want to go to sleep." I supposed that he, having drunk so much, did not think about eating, for I had not got that invitation as yet, so I replied, " I'm not so tired as I am hungry." " Well," said he, " there's plenty to eat." I ran to the kitchen, and the cook got me up a rousing supper. I ate too much, and next morning found myself foundered; 1 Copy has " 1841" clearly a mistake of Larpenteur's memory, which I correct. See adjustment of dates in notes to last chapter. 178 EBBITT'S OPPOSITION. but I had received orders to resume the grog depart- ment, and, notwithstanding my stiffness, went on to set things in order. They needed it very much. In the course of time 2 I was informed of the cause of this appointment. A certain individual by the name of Ebbitt had, a year previous, brought up a small equipment and made his way as far as the Sioux district. He had a small Mackinaw with 12 men, which was considered by the American Fur Com- pany too slight an affair to oppose; in consequence of which he made a very profitable return of 500 s " In the course of time " covers a considerable portion of 1843, during all of which year Larpenteur was at Fort Union. In tak- ing up his MS. I expected of course to find mention of Audu- bon's visit to Union in the summer of 1843, with which I had familiarized myself in reading his Journals, before their publica- tion by Miss M. R. Audubon (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, Dec. , 1897). His party, consisting of himself, Edward Harris, John G. Bell, Isaac Sprague, and Lewis Squires, reached Fort Union on the steamer Omega, Capt. John A. Sire, at 7 p. m. of Monday, June 12, and left in the Mackinaw boat Union at noon of Wednes- day, Aug. 1 6, 1843. It probably did not occur to Larpenteur that one of these visitors was the most distinguished person who had ever come to see him; or, if he had any such idea, it left no impression on his mind; for he never mentions one of them by name, nor does he even note their arrival or departure. On the contrary, Audubon repeatedly speaks of Larpenteur: see Journs. ii, pp. 41, 65, 68, 73, 77, 81, 124, 126. 183, at dates running June ig-Aug. 8. In a special article on Fort Union, by Mr. Edwin T. Denig, at date of July 30, 1843, Larpenteur is named as being then in charge of the retail store. FOX, LIVINGSTON AND CO. 179 packs of robes. Elated with his success he went to New York with his returns, and there formed an ac- quaintance with the great firm of Fox, Livingston and Co., 3 telling them how cheaply he had traded, and also remarking that the American Fur Company so abused the Indians and clerks that everything was working against them in fact, if a large company, such as would inspire confidence among whites and Indians, should be organized, the American Fur Company would soon leave the country. This story took well; such a company was formed, and started in charge of a gentleman by the name of Kelsey, one of the members of the new firm. Mr. Kelsey had not ascended the Missouri very far before he began to regret what he had done, which was that he had put $20,000 into the concern. The farther he came up river the more he regretted it; and when he arrived at the mouth of the Yellowstone and saw Fort Union in its full splendor, he could not refrain from re- marking to Mr. Culbertson, " Had I known how the American Fur Company were situated, I would have kept clear of investing in this opposition " ; and con- cluded by saying, " I hope you will not be too hard on 3 Audubon, when approaching the Great Bend, May 25, 1843, speaks of meeting three Mackinaws belonging " to the (so called) Opposition Company of C. Bolton, Fox, Livingstone & Co., of New York," Journ. i, 1897, p. 511. This was the second year of the Company, which first came up in 1842. 180 MR. KELSEY FORT GEORGE. us." The old gentleman went off, leaving a man named Cotton in charge. Mr. Kelsey, who, accord- ing to agreement, was to remain in the Indian coun- try and make his headquarters among the Sioux, chose a point 4 20 miles below Fort Pierre, opposite a beautiful island. Upon this there were four men living in a small cabin, which he considered his. He ordered them several times to leave ; but they paid no attention to him, and remained in possession. One morning the old gentleman armed himself and de- termined to make the men leave. On entering the 4 Fort George, which was built on the S. (right) side of the Missouri, on a small creek of the same name, at the 1156^ mile point of the river by the Mo. R. Commission chart of 1882, which marks Rousseau's ranch on the same creek, in the Lower Brul6 Sioux Reservation, S. Dak. The site in mention was 3$ m. below the mouth of Little Medicine creek, which falls in on the oppo- site (left) side of the Missouri; this is the Wiyo Paha Wakan or East Medicine Knoll river of Nicollet, Warren, and Raynolds, originally Reuben's creek of Lewis and Clark, ed. 1893, p. 127 ; Rousseau, P.O., Hughes Co., S. Dak., at its mouth. That this is the very spot Larpenteur means is confirmed by the narrative of Audubon, who reached Fort George at 3 p. m. Sunday, May 28, 1843, and says, Journ. i, 1897, p. 519: "This is what is called the ' Station of the Opposition line;' some Indians and a few lodges are on the edge of the prairie. Sundry bales of Buffalo robes were brought on board, and Major Hamilton, who is now acting Indian agent here until the return of Major Crisp [?Dripps] came on board also. . . He pointed out to us the cabin on the opposite shore, where a partner of the ' Opposition line ' shot at and killed two white men and wounded two others. FORCIBLE EVICTION FORT MORTIMER. l8l cabin he fired at one of them, who was in the act of taking a kettle off the fire, and who fell dead in the fire. Another one, who ran out, was also shot, and fell dead over the fence. By that time a third man, who was trying to escape in double-quick time, was shot through the shoulder, of which wound he came near losing his life. During the following night the old gentleman made his escape. I was informed that he went to Mexico. This was the last of Mr. Kelsey. Mr. Cotton, the person left in charge at Fort Wil- liam, which he now called Fort Mortimer, 6 had not yet all of whom were remarkable miscreants." This is obviously the same incident that Larpenteur relates in greater detail. In the same connection Audubon repeatedly mentions a Mr. Cutting, as " a young gentleman," etc. Larpenteur's " Cotton " and Audu- bon's " Cutting" are the same person, though which is the right name I do not know. Audubon says on p. 524, " Mr. Cutting was writing to his post near Fort Union to expect us, and to afford us all possible assistance." Compare also " Collins," next note. I may mention here that alongside old Fort Pierre (the first one, 3 m. above Teton river), there was once a post called Fort Tecumseh, which had been abandoned and was in ruins in 1833: Maximilian, ed. of 1843, p. 155, where is also named a Fort Teton, of the French Fur Co., a little above Teton river, abandoned when the companies joined and old Fort Pierre was built. 5 As I have remarked in an earlier note, p. 52, Audubon has much to say of Fort Mortimer as it was in 1843. Visiting that post on June 23, he describes it as follows in his Journ. ii, p. 53: " We found the place in a most miserable condition, and about to be carried away by the falling in of the banks on account of the great rise of water in the Yellowstone, that has actually dammed 1 82 GREEN COTTON CRAZY BEAR. got dry he was still green cotton, full of Mr. Ebbitt's stories about the general discontentment of Indians and whites. He soon commenced to try his hand on one of the most important chiefs of the tribe, Crazy Bear, 8 who, like many others, on learning that a big Opposition had arrived, came in with his band to pay them a visit. Mr. Cotton invited him into his room, the Missouri. The current ran directly across, and the banks gave way at such a rate that the men had been obliged already to tear up the front of the fort and remove it to the rear. To-morrow they are to remove the houses themselves, should they stand the coming night, which appeared to me somewhat dubious." Again, July i, p. 70: " Mr. Culbertson and I walked to the Pilot Knob with a spy-glass, to look at the present condition of Fort Mor- timer. This afternoon Squires, Provost, and I walked there, and were kindly received as usual. We found all the people en- camped two hundred yards from the river, as they had been obliged to move from the tumbling fort during the rain of last night." On July 13 Audubon went to Fort Mortimer to ask Mr. Collins, a young man from Hopkinsville, Ky., who was then in charge, to let him have a hunter named Boucherville to go after mountain sheep, p. 86. This man Boucherville was a famous hunter and trapper; Palliser, p. 198, met him at Fort Berthold in April, 1848, took him into his service, and has much to say of him in his book, passim. 6 Assiniboine name Mato Witko, in French L'Ours Fou. This chief was one of the deputation which accompanied Father De Smet to a great council in 1851. A letter from him appears in De Smet's Western Missions and Missionaries, New York, 1859, pp. 130-132. No doubt it reflects the savage's statements and sentiments fairly enough, but the language has been fancifully dressed in translating it into English for publication. Crazy Bear first met De Smet at Fort Union, in the summer of 1851. CRAZY BEAR'S PERFORMANCE. 183 made him a great speech, dressed him up in a splen- did military suit, such as had never been brought into the country before, and then laid a two-gallon keg of whiskey at his feet. Crazy Bear's band was at Union, waiting for his return; but, instead of going directly to them, he went into Mr. Culbertson's private room, not very drunk, took a seat, and remained some time without saying a word. Mr. Culbertson, surprised to see him so splendidly dressed, and thinking that he had lost his chief, was also silent. Finally Crazy Bear broke the ice by saying, " I suppose you think I have left our big house. No; I am not a child. I went below to see the chief, who treated me well. I did not ask him for anything. I did not refuse his presents. But these cannot make me abandon this house, where are buried the remains of our fathers, whose tracks are yet fresh in all the paths leading to this place. No, I will not abandon this house!" After which he rose from his seat and took off his fine fur hat and feathers, which he threw on the floor with all his might; then unbuckled his beautiful sword, with which he did the same; and kept on till he had stripped himself of all his fine clothes, without speak- ing a word. When this performance was over he said to Mr. Culbertson, who stood in great aston- ishment, " Take away all these things and give me such as you see fit, and don't think I am a child who 184 TRADE PUSHED EN DEROUINE. can be seduced with trinkets." This Crazy Bear, who was not at all crazy, proved afterward to be the greatest chief of the Assiniboines. Mr. Cotton, on hearing of this, was so surprised he could scarcely believe it; but when Mr. Culbertson showed him the suit, which had been badly torn, he was convinced, and began to think that Mr. Ebbitt's stories had been somewhat exaggerated. That was the way the green cotton commenced to dry. Still, his trade was pushed to the extreme. He had plenty of goods and was very liberal with them. Both sides then began to send out men to the Indian camps; but as all the most important camps were soon supplied, I began to think that I might escape that disagreeable trade. Being always an unlucky man, I was still disappointed in this. One evening toward the last of January [1844], while I was thinking of anything but that which was forthcoming, Mr. Culbertson sent for me to come to his room. It was extremely cold and a great deal of snow was on the ground. This, I believe, was the reason he did not broach the subject at once, but finally said, " Larpenteur, I want you to go to Woody Mountain, 7 to a camp of Crees and Chippewas, who T Woody Mountain recalls to mind my own experiences on the U. S. Northern Boundary Survey, season of 1874, when, starting from Fort Buford, June 21, I was in a few days camped at Fort ORDERED TO WOODY MOUNTAIN. 1 8$ have plenty of robes, and have sent for traders from both companies. The Assiniboines have also sent for traders at the meat-pen, which is on the same road that you are going. I want you and Mr. Denig to go into the store, get up your equipment to-night, and start in the morning." Such were my orders, at short notice, after thinking I was going to remain at the fort. I had to make a trip of at least 100 miles, northward into the British possessions, and this was not calculated to make me feel very good. But Mr. Denig and I went to work, and at midnight the equipments were ready. Next morning with one sled apiece, two mules and one driver to each sled, we started on our journey, accompanied by several In- M. J. Turnay, on Frenchman's river, near the parallel of 49 N. Woody Mountain is a long, irregular mass of drift, making a series of elevations some of them up to 3,800 feet which strag- gle E. and W., mainly between long. 106 and 107 W., 10 to 20 or more miles N. of the British boundary. From their N. slopes the drainage is by Woody Mountain river in the watershed of the South Saskatchewan ; on our side these elevations give rise to both the main branches of Poplar river, tributary to the Mis- souri below the mouth of Milk river, and to the heads of Little Rocky creek, which falls into Milk river next below the mouth of Frenchman's river. On the British side, Woody Mountain post occupies tp. 4 of range iii. W. of the 3d init. merid., in Assini- boia; the cattle quarantine is on the line of 49, among the heads of Little Rocky creek, occupying tps. i of ranges v. and vi. A cart trail from the Red River of the North reaches Woody Mountain settlement, continuing thence to Fort Turnay, and so on to Fort Peck, on the Missouri above the mouth of Milk river. 1 86 START FOR WOODY MOUNTAIN. dians, among whom was one called Wounded Leg, chief of the band of the Rocks, whose camp was at the sand hills, about 60 miles on our road from the fort to Woody Mountain. At our first camp my interpreter, a half-breed named Andrew, was taken sick; he complained of headache, and in the morning he was so ill that I had to let him go back to the fort. I understood some little Cree, and, as many of them spoke Assini- boine, I thought I could do without him. Next day we reached Wounded Leg's camp, and took a night's lodging with him. My friend Denig had been for the past few days in such a state that it was impossible for him to freeze he was too full of alcohol. He had not walked one step; this disgusted the chief, who proved an enemy afterward. The morning was so stormy that we would not have left camp had we not learned that the Opposition had gone by with dog- sleds. Not wishing to be outdone by them, I awoke Mr. Denig, who was still under the influence of liquor, and told him that we must be off that the Opposition had gone by, and that if they could travel I did not see why we should not. When the chief saw that I was determined to leave, he remarked that it would be well for us to go ; that a certain Indian was expected from the fort with a large keg of whiskey, and that it would not be well for us to remain in camp JOURNEY TO WOODY MOUNTAIN. 187 while they were drunk; for, as he knew, we had to leave Mr. Denig behind. The mules were soon harnessed up, and into the hard storm we started, with but one Indian, who was my guide. It was an awful day; we could see no distance in any direction, floundered in deep snowdrifts, and knew not where to go for timber. But our guide was a good one, who brought us to a small cluster of scrubby elms. The snow had drifted so deep that we could find no dry wood and had to go to bed without a fire. We made ourselves as comfortable as we could by dig- ging holes in the snow for shelter. We were then only a little distance from the meat-pen, where Mr. Denig 'was to stop, and reached it early next day. Mr. Denig wanted me to remain with him over night, but as he had to make a liquor trade, and I did not wish to be serenaded, I declined his kind offer. Hav- ing packed the contents of my sled on my two mules, and left the sled, which I found to be a nuisance, I proceeded on my journey to Woody Mountain. After this snowstorm the wind changed to a strong, extremely cold northwester. There were only three of us myself; my guide, a young Chippewa; and my driver, a young Canadian named Piche, which means pitcher. 8 As my poor Pitcher contained more water 8 Larpenteur seems to be punning, and perhaps intends another play on the words "mettle" and " metal." The tru 1 88 JOURNEY TO WOODY MOUNTAIN. than whiskey, I was much afraid he would freeze and crack; but he was made of good metal, that could stand heat or cold. Early this evening we came to a good camping place, with plenty of dry firewood; but it was so intensely cold, and we had to dig so deep in the snow to make a fireplace, that it was with the greatest difficulty we could start a fire. But we suc- ceeded at last in making a comfortable camp the best one we had had since we left the fort. A little while after this we were sitting at a good supper of dried buffalo meat, a few hard-tacks we had saved, and a strong cup of coffee. After supper arrange- ments were made for sleeping, as a bedroom had yet to be cleared out, in a deep snowdrift, where my friend Pitcher was to be my bedfellow. We pro- ceeded to excavate, and soon had ourselves buried alive in the snow. I believe this was the coldest night I ever felt. The guide got up first, to make a fire, to the delight of Pitcher and myself. A breakfast much like our supper was soon ready, the mules were packed, and we were off again. We had not traveled more than an hour when the wind rose, and the snow began to drift, so blinding us that we could scarcely see. We had over 10 miles to travel to timber; but, fortunately, we were on the main road, which the In- name may have been Pichou or Picheau : for this word, see my Henry Journ., 1897, p. 1018. APPROACH TO THE CREE CAMP. 189 dians had made so hard, in going from one camp to another, that the drifting snow could not lodge on it; so the tracks remained visible, which enabled us to reach camp in good time. At sunset the wind fell, and we had an easy time in making preparations for our last night out. There being no road between this place and the Indian camp, which was 20 miles off, over level prairie, and wishing to reach the camp in good time, we made an early start next morning. The day was clear, cold, and calm. In my small outfit I had about five gallons of alcohol, in two kegs of three and two gallons, neatly packed in the bales of goods. I thought this quantity would be too much to bring in camp at once and concluded to cache one of the kegs on the road, for I knew it would be im- possible to keep it concealed in the Indian lodge. In order to do this my guide must be dispatched ahead, for I did not think he could be trusted. So, when we got within about five miles of the camp, I remarked to him that I wished him to go on into camp and tell Broken Arm, 9 the chief of the Crees, that I wished him to prepare me a large lodge and make ready for a big spree to-night. To this proposition the guide readily 9 One of this name appears in Boiler, p. 121, but he is given as an Assiniboine, not Cree. " A party of thirty Assinniboines arrived to visit the Gros Ventres. The new-comers have been sent from a camp known as ' the band of Canoes,' by the chief, ' Broken Arm,' " etc. NORTH OF NORTH HERE. consented, and, having pointed out the direction of the camp, he left on a dog-trot. As soon as he was out of sight and we had reached a place that my friend Pitcher would be sure to find again, we cached the smaller keg in a snowbank and resumed our journey. We had made but a few miles when we came in sight of Indians; but, as we could see no lodges, we presumed they were Indians returning from a hunt. We soon discovered men, women, and children; still no ,camp, and the prairie looking level as far as the eye could reach. We could not imagine what this meant, and were not relieved of our uneasiness till some of the bucks came running up and told us that there was the camp, pointing to a deep valley. Hav- ing gone about half a mile we came to a precipice, on the north of which the Indians were camped, near the bottom. It was an awful place; I could not imagine how they could stand such a place without freezing, for the sun did not reach them more than two hours out of the twenty-four. " Now," said I, to my friend Pitcher, " we are north of north here." " Yes, sir," said he, " and we'll freeze. I can't see what made them d d Indians camp here." For the first time my good Pitcher was overflowing with bad humor, and indeed I did not blame him, for the prospect of staying in such a hole was anything but encouraging. READY FOR OPERATIONS. 19 1 But there was no alternative; we had to enter the lodge a large double one which we found already prepared for our reception. After our mules were unpacked and our baggage was arranged, a kettle of boiled buffalo tongues was brought in; a strong cup of coffee was made from our own stores, and we took supper alongside a good fire, after which symptoms of good humor returned. Being now ready for operations, I sent for water, telling the Indians it was to make fire-water, and it was not long in forthcoming; the news circulated through the camp, and before I was prepared to trade the lodge was full of Indians, loaded with robes, ready for the spree. The liquor trade commenced with a rush, and it was not long before the whole camp was in a fearful uproar; but they were good Indians, and there was no more trouble than is usual on such oc- casions. This was the first time that I ever felt snow- blind; during the spree, which lasted the whole night, I complained considerably of sore eyes, attributing it to the smoky lodge. They told me the lodge did not smoke, except at the place where it ought to, and said I must be getting snow-blind. This I found to be the case, and, though I was soon over it, it was bad enough to be extremely painful. By morning I had traded 150 fine robes, about all there were dressed in the camp, and during the day I traded 30 192 BLIZZARDS. more for goods. I then feared no opposition, as their robes were nearly all traded that is, the dressed ones. We had plenty of leisure after that, but tremendously cold weather. It frequently happens in that part of the country, that, after a clear, calm morning, a cloud rises in the northwest about ten o'clock, and in a very short time a tremendous snowdrift 10 comes on, which lasts all day; but the weather generally becomes calm at sunset, turning very clear and cold. Such weather we were blessed with most of the time we remained there, which was about six weeks. Imagine the pleasant time we spent in camp under that steep hill, where I am certain the sun did not shine more than 24 hours altogether during those six weeks. 10 It will be observed that Larpenteur does not use the word " blizzard " for what he describes; but that is what he means. The word is recent; Dr. Matthews tells me he did not hear it applied to a storm until after he left Dakota, where he resided in 1865-72; but if I remember rightly, it was in common use when I was Post Surgeon at Fort Randall, S. Dak., 1872-73. In Boiler's Among the Indians, written of 1858-66, a Dakota blizzard is called "pouderie "and " pouderie." Either of these forms is pretty bad French, but the root of the word is poudre, powder, and perhaps it is a corruption otpoudrerie, powder-mill the force of which will be appreciated by anyone who has had a blizzard burst upon him. The best explanation of the word "blizzard" will be found in the Century Diet. It seems to have first meant a rattling volley or discharge of fire-arms, then something likened to such, as a howling spree, and finally fixed itself as the name of a furious snowstorm. The word has no etymological history. MULES FROZEN TO DEATH. 193 The third day after we arrived I rent my Pitcher to see how the mules were getting along; the Indi- ans had them in their charge, but I wanted to know their actual condition from a surer source during such intensely cold weather. The Pitcher was so be- numbed that he was unable to tell the news on his return until he had warmed his mouth, which ap- peared so stiff with cold that he could not move his jaws; but I could see in his countenance that some- thing was wrong. Being anxious to learn what the matter was, and giving him scarcely time to thaw out, I said, " Well, Pitcher, how are the mules? " " Ha! the mules both froze dead one standing up, the other down. My good fat white mule standing up thought she alive, but she standing stiff dead." By this time his jaws had got limber, and he made them move at a great rate, with some mighty rude expressions in regard to the place where we were. When well warmed up he began to crack a smile again, and all went well until a couple of days after- ward, when I found him so much out of humor one morning that I thought surely my poor Pitcher must be broken, or at least badly cracked. When break- fast was served by the wife of Mr. Broken Arm, the great chief of the Crees, who had been to Washing- ton, Pitcher would not partake. " What is the mat- ter, Pitcher," said I, " are you sick? Why not have 194 EPICUREANISM. some of this good fat buffalo meat? " " Not much the matter," he replied; " I will tell after a while " fearing perhaps that the story he had to tell would not agree with my digestive organs. Some time after that, when the things were removed, dishes washed up, and the cook had gone out, my Pitcher poured out his story. " Mr. Larpenteur," he said, " if you please, after this I will do our cooking." " Why so," said I. " Why, sir, because that enfant de garce that old squaw is too dirty. Sacre! She scrape the cloths of that baby of hers with her knife, give it a wipe, cut up the meat with it, and throw into the kettle. This morning I see same old crust on the knife that what the matter too much for me." After this explanation I was no longer surprised at poor Pitcher's looking so broken ; and if my digestive powers had not been strong, as they have always proven to be, I am afraid my own breakfast would have returned the way it went; but with me, when- ever the meat-trap was once shut down it was not easily opened again, and things had to take their natu- ral course. Shortly after the death of our two mules, I traded a pony of an Indian, and Pitcher would now and then go to see how the animal stood this latitude. Then the time came when I thought the Indians might have robes enough dressed to raise a frolic; THE TALE ADORNED WITH A MORAL. 195 so one morning I sent for the keg of alcohol , I had cached on the road. Not wishing the Indians to know what we were about, on their asking where my man was going, I told them he was going to look after my pony. He delayed longer than they thought necessary, and they remarked it; but finally he ap- peared in the lodge with the keg on his back that being the kind of a pony he had gone to take care of. I was soon prepared for operations, and another glori- ous drunk took place; but the robe trade was light, only 50 in number. This ended the business, there being no liquor and hardly any robes left in camp. 11 11 No narrative of fur trading en derouine needs moralizing, to adorn the tale of such an atrocious affair. But it may be observed that this story shows up the seamy side of the business to perfection. That old transaction we read of, in which a birth- right was exchanged for a mess of pottage, was not a worse bargain than these Crees made with their trader. The weather was such that a mule froze stiff, standing up ; buffalo robes were the main protection of the Indians from the killing cold. Out of 210 robes which Larpenteur says he traded, 180 were secured for 5 gallons of alcohol, on which the camp got drunk twice ; the other 30 were obtained for ' ' goods " some flimsy cloth and such trinkets as beads, hawk-bells, red paint, and hand looking-glasses. " This ended the business," as he says, " there being no liquor and hardly any robes left in camp." The percent, of profit to the trader in this transaction is unsaid I suppose it to have been several thousand, as five-sixths or more of the poisonous liquor the Indians drank was water for which that proportion of robes was exchanged, under circumstances which would seem to have made a single robe a more tangible if not a more valuable com- 196 SUFFERING FROM COLD. I then sent the Indian to Fort Union with a letter for Mr. Culbertson, requesting from him the means to bring back the robes I had traded. Notwithstand- ing continued severely cold weather, ten days after- ward a party of eight men and 20 horses arrived in camp, in charge of the hunter of the fort, Antoine Le Brun. Those men had suffered so much with the cold that it was almost impossible to recognize them noses, cheeks, and eyes all scabby from frost-bite, and so dark from exposure that they looked more like Indians than white men. Mr. Culbertson's let- ter was anything but satisfactory, its contents being about as follows: " Larpenteur, I send you 20 horses, thinking them sufficient to bring in your trade; if not, try to get some good Indians to help you ; tell them I will pay them well. From what I can learn some Indians, who are moving north on your route, have modity than any sort of a birthright. I am here reminded of a striking passage in Bancroft, Works, xxxi, 1890, p. 276: "Whiskey, as applied to the noble savage, is a wonderful civilizer. A few years of it reduces him to a subjection more complete than arms, and accomplishes in him a humility which religion can never achieve. Some things some men will do for Christ, for country, for wife and ( children ; there is nothing an Indian will not do for whiskey." Turn it as we may, three things, which have done most to make the Indian what he is to-day, are not the state, the church, and the army they are alcohol, syphilis, and smallpox. Truly, " God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to per- form." ON THE RETURN. 197 said they will steal all your horses; therefore I advise you to take a different route." Now, what to do? The snow was drifted so deep in all the hollows that I could not possibly take any road but the old beaten one. To go any other way would be at the risk of freezing to death or at least of losing all my animals in the snow; I preferred to take the chances of being robbed and perhaps beaten on the old road. Next morning by ten o'clock we were under way, with all my trade. I had some few goods remaining, which I carefully concealed between the packs of robes, so that they could not be seen by the Indians whom we expected to meet ; and I kept a few trinkets in sight, to make some small presents, should it be necessary. With much difficulty we made out to ex- tricate ourselves from the awful abyss into which we had plunged when we came to this camp. The morn- ing was clear, but extremely cold, and as we reached the level prairie we perceived the usual cloud, indicat- ing a snowdrift. Not long afterward it came on, so bad that we had great trouble to keep our horses in the track. As the old saying is, " There is no bad wind but what will bring some good." This wind was one of them. We should have reached our camping place in good time, had it not been for this heavy snow- drift. A little before dark, when we came to camp, 198 SURPRISED BY INDIANS. we were surprised by the barking of Indian dogs, which appeared to be not far off. The country was here very broken, and wooded with small oaks. We concluded that this was the camp of the very Indians who intended to rob us. Owing to the heavy snow- drift, which had lasted all day, they had not discovered us, and we arrived unknown to them. Finding our- selves undiscovered, I told the men to make no noise, build no fires, and early in the morning to go for the horses, as I wanted to be off by the peep of day. Some were reluctant to obey orders, but consented to do so on my telling them they did not know what might happen. Sleeping without any fire, in such cold weather, was certainly a hardship, but I thought it necessary for our safety. Supper was made on a little dried buffalo meat about all we had. After a long, sleepless night, at break of day the horses were all brought up to pack, and at clear day we were un- der march. On the first hill we ascended we per- ceived an Indian with his hand on his mouth, which is a sign of surprise. He called out, " Ho! ho! have you traveled all night? " I answered, " No, we camped at the spring." " Why," said he, " did you not come to our camp? You would have been well off with us we have meat, sugar, and coffee." I told him that if I had known the camp was so near, I certainly would have gone there. All this time my men were TRADE DECLINED. 199 filing by, and as each one passed me I told him to hurry up; that I would remain behind with my pack- horse, and get out of the scrape the best I could. The news soon reached the Indian camp, and in a little while I was surrounded. Their main object was to trade horses, and they wanted me to stop my men. I told them the men would not stop; they were cold, and had gone too far off. " Well," said they, " we have got a few robes we would like to trade." I found from their actions, after my poor excuse for declining the horse trade, that they were not so badly disposed as Mr. Culbertson had repre- sented them to be; yet, if they had got the chance at night, I believe they would have relieved me of some of the horses, if not the whole band. They brought a few robes, which I traded ; and not wishing my men to get too far off, I made the Indians a pres- ent of what little stuff I had left. When they found I was so generous they let me go in peace, with my good Pitcher, whom I had kept by me. With much relieved hearts we started double-quick, and soon overtook the party. We found them de- lighted at our good success, and glad they had fol- lowed my advice, saying, " If we had been discovered, we should not have one horse left, and God knows what would become of us." One said, " Did you see that big painted rascal, how he look? Bet you he'd 2OO HE WHO FEARS HIS WAR CLUB. have mounted one of them "; and, after several such expressions, it was agreed among them that I was a first-rate leader. The day became pleasant, we traveled well, and came to camp at the meat pen, where we fell in with two Indian lodges. One of these was that of He Who Fears his War Club, a respectable and brave man, who I knew could be relied on. After we had gotten everything righted in camp, the old fellow told me to come to his lodge, that he had something to tell me. As we had little to eat in camp I was in hopes that I would get a supper out of him, and per- haps something for my men to eat; but I was disap- pointed in that, for he was as bad off as we were. On entering he bade me sit down; and having smoked a few whiffs, he asked me if I had heard the latest news from the fort. I told him I had learned none since the news brought to me by my men. " Well," said he, " something very bad has taken place since, and, if I were in your place, I would not go to Wounded Leg's camp; for he has had a quarrel with Long Knife (meaning Mr. Denig) and your chief (meaning Mr. Culbertson). They took him by the arms and legs and threw him out of the fort, and he has sworn vengeance against the whites. It will not be good for you to go to his camp, or even in sight of it, for I tell you he is very mad." SUPPOSED HORSE THIEVES. 2OI This news struck me pretty hard. I had got out of one scrape, but was already in another; this was something else for me to cipher on that night, and if my stomach was empty my head was full. On my re- turn to camp I was asked what the old fellow had said; the men suspected that all was not quite right, so I told them the whole story. " Now we are in a pretty fix again," said one. " Yes," said another, " they get drunk with the Indians and fight, but don't think much of us poor fellows on the prairie," and all such expressions. One said, " Don't go that way " ; and another replied, " You d d old fool, what other way can we go in this deep snow? " Finding them disconcerted, I said, " Don't be uneasy, boys; I'll figure out a plan to get through." Meanwhile two strapping big bucks made their ap- pearance in camp, and, of course, they were supposed to be horse thieves; but their story was that they were going to the fort, expecting to join a war party. Notwithstanding this, a guard was placed over them and I took care that they should have a good bed in camp, where they could be easily watched. Early in the morning all hands were roused up; our thieves were all right, but one of the old chief's little boys, about fourteen, had got up still earlier and mounted one of our best horses. He was seen in the act, but could not be overtaken. His father, a good man. 202 TO WOUNDED LEG'S CAMP. was very sorry, and said that the horse would not be lost to the Company. The theft, at this time, was of great importance, as all our horses were getting very poor and weak. From this place to Wounded Leg's camp was a good level road, about 25 miles, which we expected to make early. Now that all was ready for the move, the boys expressed a desire to know what plan I had to get them through safe. I said to them, " This is my plan: I am going on this road right straight to Wounded Leg's lodge. I know him well; he is a good friend of mine, and I am sure I can fetch him all right. When we come in sight of the camp I will go ahead alone. You can come on slowly; if any- thing happens to me, do the best you can for your- selves; but if things are all right, I will make you signs to come in." They were apparently satisfied, placing confidence in me, and so we started; but, moving at too fast a gait, we were obliged to leave two horses, which had given out. This made three loads which had been divided on the others; it was very hard on them, and we commenced to think we should be forced to leave some of our robes on the way also. About three in the afternoon the dreaded camp was in sight. I caused all hands to halt, and told them, " Now, boys, I am going to the camp. When you COLLOQUY WITH WOUNDED LEG. 2O3 get within 400 or 500 yards of it, stop. If you see Indians coming, not out of a walk, remain until they reach you; but if they come rushing, make up your minds that Larpenteur is gone up, and defend your- selves the best you can." Off I started. When I came into camp I inquired for Wounded Leg's lodge, which was immediately shown to me. On entering I found his old woman alone. She felt somewhat sur- prised, but looked cheerful, and we shook hands. She had always been a good friend of mine, and I thought myself pretty safe as far as she was concerned. I asked her where her old man was. She said he had gone to the lodge of such a one. I then requested her to send for him, which she did, and a few minutes afterward he made his appearance. His countenance was not calculated to inspire confidence. Having shaken hands, he sat down and prepared to smoke, as is customary before conversing. I had to hold my tongue, but my eyes were wide open, watching the face of my enemy while he was making ready for the smoke. To my great satisfaction I thought I could perceive a change in my favor. The pipe being ready a few whiffs were exchanged, and time to break silence came. Upon which I commenced, saying, " Comrade, I have heard some very bad talk about you. I was told not to come to your lodge, or to your camp; that you intended to harm me and my 204 SUCCESSFUL DIPLOMACY. men. Knowing you to be a good friend of mine, I would not mind that talk, and you see I have come straight to your lodge." His first remark was, " Who told you all this? " On my naming the individual, he said, " He told you the truth. I did say all that. I was very angry at the way in which I had been treated at the big house. But I have thought the matter over, and given up the idea of putting my threat into execu- tion; though I am not pleased yet." I soon found that I was in a pretty fair way of success; yet some- thing farther on my part was to be said. So, know- ing the Indian character, and, for one thing, that praise of their children goes a long way with them, I commenced thus: " Now, my comrade, you know that the difficulty you had with those men at the big house was when you were all in liquor. You know very well that you are liked by the whites. You are a chief; you have a son your only child you love him. He is a fine boy. Although but a boy, you know that the chief of the big house has already armed him like a chief. Would you do anything to deprive your only child, as well as yourself, of chief- hood? No! certainly not. I know you too well for that." At this speech I heard the old woman groan; and, during the pause which ensued, I observed that I had them both about melted down into my affec- TO CAMP IN THE CHERRY BUSHES. 2O$ tions. The idea of his boy's being so much liked and respected by the whites took the old man's fancy, and a pleasanter or more cheerful chap could scarcely have been raked up. " Now," said I, " this is not all. I want my men to come in camp and stay with you to-night, and I want you to go to the fort with me. I assure you they will be glad to see you, and I will see that you are well paid for your trouble." Turning to the old lady, I added, " I will send you a nice cotillion." 12 " How! " said she, which meant ''Thank you!" Then Wounded Leg said, " That is all right, but you must not come into this camp; it would not be good for you. We are starving, our dogs also; they would eat up your saddles and the cords of your packs. You had bet- ter go to camp in the cherry bushes," which he then showed me about a mile off. Taking his advice, I started back to the boys, and when near them made signs for them to come on. Meeting me and learning the result of my mis- sion, they could not help laughing at the way I had " buttered the old fool," as they said. We steered our course for the cherry bushes, which we reached at sunset. The wind had changed to the north; it be- came again very cold, and to save our lives we could 18 A piece of dress goods for women's wear, woven in black- and-white. 206 NO FIRE NO FOOD NO SLEEP. not get a fire out of those green bushes. There was not a stick of dry wood to be found, and a tremendous hard night we had. Sleep was out of the question, and it was too cold to stand a good guard; the re- sult was that the two bucks, who had followed us thus far, disappeared with two of our best horses, one of which we called Father De Smet, because he had been brought from the Flatheads on that mis- sionary's return from the Columbia. We were then nearly 50 miles from the fort, which distance would have taken us two days; but now, being short of horses, it would take us double that time. I found an Indian, whom I knew to be a good traveler, and asked him if he could go to the fort by sunset; he said he could, for he had already done it. I dis- patched him with a letter to Mr. Culbertson to send me more horses, and also some dried meat, as we were starving. Dividing the loads as best we could, we got under way again, making but slow progress, with Wounded Leg, several other men, and some squaws in company. We again camped, as we all hoped for the last time; but where was supper to come from? We had not a thing to eat and were mighty hungry. I thought of trying rawhide cords, of which we had a few bundles left. I got a squaw to cut them up fine and boil them; besides which, as a great favor, I got an Indian dog killed and boiled. That I knew would BOILED DOG. 2O/ be good; and as I could not obtain more than one dog, the cords, if the cooking proved successful, would help to fill up. I am sorry to say that I was defeated there, for the longer they boiled the harder they got, and they could not be brought into condi- tion to swallow. So there was only the dog for sup- per. I had sent it to a squaw to cook for us, and when she gave it to us some of the boys cried, " Mad dog! mad dog!" Sure enough, he did look like a mad dog; for there was his head sticking partly out of the kettle, with a fine set of ivories, growling as it were, and the scum was frothing about his teeth. After the mirth had abated, and no one offered to dish out the " mad dog," I appointed Pitcher master of cere- monies, thinking a pitcher could pour out soup and hold some of it too. He commenced with great dig- nity, but some of the boys refused to partake, saying they would rather be excused, and could stand it until they got to the fort. This made the portions so much the larger for the balance of us; the biggest part of the thigh fell to my share, which I soon demolished, and I must say it sat very well on my stomach. But some of the boys began to say the " mad dog " was trying to run out the same way he went in; and some noises heard outside might have been taken to signify that the animal was escaping. It was no trouble to get all hands up next morning, 208 SAFE BACK TO FORT UNION. but some of our worn-out horses had to be whipped up. When once loaded and warmed up by means of the whip, they could only be made to keep on their feet by the same cruel means, which we were obliged to use pretty lively all the morning. Between the hours of eleven and twelve o'clock we perceived the re-enforcement from the fort, at which a great cry of joy was heard throughout the company. The loads were soon rearranged ; each man took a piece of dried buffalo meat in his hands to eat on the way; the march was resumed, all eating and whipping, as there was no time to spare to reach the fort that day. Owing to those double exertions, by sunset we were on the ridge, in sight of Union and of its fine large American flag. This had been hoisted on our return from an expedition which had caused much uneasiness, from the many reports which had made it doubtful whether we could ever get back. We were also in sight of the Opposition, and I afterward heard that Mr. Cotton, on seeing us, said, " Well, Larpenteur was not badly robbed see what a fine lot of robes he has!" In ten minutes after reaching the ridge we were safe in the fort. Chief Wounded Leg, like the rest of us, met with a cordial welcome; and as a large trading party had just arrived, a keg of liquor was presented him, to drink with his friends. Among them was a certain THE HAND KILLED. 209 Indian named the Hand, the greatest rascal in the tribe, it was believed, who had retaken two horses from some Assiniboines who had stolen them from the fort, and he had come to return them, in company with us. In some drunken spree he had killed an in- dividual whose relations were in the trading party above mentioned. Fearing that he might be killed, 1 remarked to Mr. Culbertson that it would not be advisable to let him go out and drink with the other Indians better let him have a little liquor in the fort, and if he got too troublesome we could tie him. This plan was adopted; and as I was much fatigued, I re- tired, telling Mr. Culbertson to awaken me in case they could not manage him without me. He got so drunk they could do nothing with him, and insisted on leav- ing; so the door was opened and the gentleman turned out. Earlv in the morning, I was again on duty. The doors were still shut; but, being tired of hearing a constant knocking, I went to see who was there. By the sound of the voice I knew who he was, and that he was all right; so I opened the small door. " Here," said the Indian, " I killed a dog last night. Take him in and shut the door." This dog was Mr. Hand, whose corpse had been wrapped up in his robe and bundled on a dog-travaille. 18 So much for him, and we were not sorry, as he was a devil. 13 For the various spellings and etymology of this word, as well as description of the vehicle, see Henry Jonrn. i, 1897, p. 142. 2IO GOLDEN VISIONS. Shortly afterward we learned that another indi- vidual had killed his own father. I shall have occa- sion to mention him again. Some time before our re- turn I learned that my interpreter had died about eight days after he reached the fort, complaining of headache. The vulgar said he died of the hollow horn; and others, of the hollow head. My good friend Pitcher, I was informed long afterward, struck for Virginia City, where I hope he became a pitcher full of gold. 14 14 Larpenteur puns on Piche's name to the end of the chapter, as we see, but it must be noted that in this last instance he is speaking of something that happened about 20 years after the time to which the rest of the chapter refers. Virginia City and Nevada City, a mile apart on Alder Gulch, in present Madison Co., Montana, were two places which sprung up like magic from the rudiments of the first mining camps of June and July, 1863, as if at the touch of King Midas that great alchemist whose art transmuted all things into gold. The mining district was first called Fairweather, from the name of one of the prospectors, and Virginia City was first named Varina City, in honor of Jeff Davis' wife; but Unionists would not stand this sign of Southern sym- pathy, and Varina was changed by some caprice to Virginia be- fore its former name had been generally adopted. See, for exam- ple, Langford's Vigilante Days and Ways, i, 1893, p. 352, etc., where will be found the best account extant of Virginia City and Alder Gulch and indeed I think that anyone who reads it will be likely to finish both volumes of this work, which is one of the most entertaining and trustworthy books ever written on the makers and the making of the West. It cost me a sleepless night, which I have never regretted. CHAPTER XL (1844-45-) CARNIVAL OF CRIME. JIM BRIDGER, being a great trapper, and having been told that there were many beaver on Milk river, thought of trying his luck in that direction. He left the mountains with a picked party of 30 men, all good trappers and Indian fighters. Nothing unusual tran- spired at Fort Union until about the month of Novem- ber [1844] when Bridger and his men made their appearance, having come from Milk river with the intention of passing the winter with us. Mr. Laid- law, who was in charge at the time, offered him all assistance he could afford, to make his winter quarters pleasant and comfortable, and so Bridger pitched his camp about half a mile from the fort. But he had been deceived by exaggerated reports of the quantity of beaver that could be had on Milk river, and his hunt had been a very poor one. The main substance of Bridger's conversation was his brave men, his fast horses, and his fights with Black- 212 SORTIE AGAINST SIOUX. feet, till we were induced to believe that, with such a party to defend us, there would be no danger for us in case of an attack by Sioux. At that time such affairs became quite frequent, and the Sioux generally came in large parties. Bridger soon had an oppor- tunity to display the bravery of his men, whom he had cracked up so highly. A few days before Christmas [1844] a large war party made a raid on the band of horses belonging to the fort, running off six of them, and wounding one of the guard in the leg with buckshot. The alarm was immediately given, and the braves were mounted to pursue the Sioux. Bridger's clerk, who had been left in camp, came run- ning into the fort out of breath, scared to death. " Get up all the men you can ! The Sioux are in camp they are butchering us! " Mr. Denig and I, with a few men, all we could get, took our guns, and ran with all our might to render what assistance we could. Finding that this was a case in which we had to be cautious, we went along under the steep bank of the river till we thought ourselves about opposite the camp, where we stopped to listen for the cries of the reported butchering. Hearing nothing, we cau- tiously raised our heads over the bank, to see some of the performance. Neither seeing nor hearing any- thing, we came to the conclusion the murderous work had been done, and determined to go to the camp, REPORT OF THE RESULT. 213 expecting to find people cut to pieces and scalped. To our great surprise we saw nothing not a sign that any Indians had been near the camp. Now as- sured that Bridger's brave clerk had lied, we returned to the fort laughing at his fright. During our absence on this dangerous sortie, Mr. Laidlaw was left alone that is, without a clerk. I had, in my hurry, taken the key of the store with me, and pressing demands were made for ammunition. Mr. Laidlaw, who was a fiery, quick-tempered old Scotchman, smashed in the window of the retail store. Seeing this, on our entrance, we could not imagine what could have been the matter. No word had been received from Bridger's army, but we expected them to return with the recaptured horses and with scalps flying. But soon, to our great disappointment, came the report that a man had been killed; that a mare belonging to Mr. Ellingsworth, 1 the Opposition book- keeper, had been shot through the hip, and that the Indians were daring the whites to fight. The Oppo- sition, who had seen Bridger's men turn out to fight, 'Audubon, Journ. i, 1897, p. 520, date of May 28, 1843, has: " Squires and I walked to Fort George, and soon met a young Englishman. . . His name was Illingsworth; he is the present manager of this establishment." Mr. Illingsworth talked buffalo to Audubon, promised to get him a calf, and was better than his word; for he sent one which Audubon skinned to pickle the hide, and the head of another which Isaac Sprague drew. 214 GARDEPIED KILLED. had concluded to join them. Mr. Ellingsworth had bought this fine American mare of Mr. Laidlaw, who had brought her here in the fall. An old half- breed Creek was also well mounted, and they both very soon came up with Bridger's party, who had halted at the foct of the hills. When Ellingsworth and the old man approached they saw the cause of the halt; the Sioux were on a hill, making signs for them to come on and fight. By this time their party had been re-enforced, and Bridger's men, not accustomed to deal with such a large force, declined the invitation. The old half- breed, who was clear grit, put the whip to his horse, telling the balance to come on; but only Ellingsworth followed. The Sioux, who understood this kind of warfare, and expected the whites to accept the chal- lenge, had left concealed in a ravine a small body of their party, ready to let fly in case the enemy at- tempted to come on. As the old Indian went by at full speed with Ellingsworth, the Indians fired a vol- ley, which dropped the former dead off his horse, and wounded Ellingsworth's mare in the hip; but did not come so near killing her that Ellingsworth could not make his escape. The Indians, seeing this, com- menced to yell, and renewed their defiance. But the brave party concluded to turn back, somewhat ashamed of themselves. Bridger was extremely COWARDICE OF BRIDGER'S MEN. mortified, and said he could not account for the cow- ardice of his men on this occasion. At the funeral of Gardepie that being the name of the old man these words were pronounced: " This burial is caused by the cowardice of Bridger's party." This expres- sion, it was thought, would result in a fight with the Opposition; but the discontentment disappeared with- out any disturbance. In the meantime the Sioux went away, having killed one man, wounded another's mare, and taken six head of horses. Bridger became very much dissatisfied with his men, who dispersed in all directions, and he returned to the mountains. Before I come to the story of the Blackfoot massa- cre, which is not yet known, I will explain the man- ner in which trade was carried on this winter [1844- 45]. Owing to the local laws which were put in force, we were not allowed to go into Indian camps to trade; the trade had to be done either at the fort, or at an outpost allowed by the agent. So we had to drum up Indians to get them into the fort, and be on the lookout for trading parties coming in. Being well supplied with horses, which we kept constantly in the fort, we had a great advantage over our op- ponents, who were deficient in that respect. As soon as our pickets, whom we always kept out, in every di- rection, made the signs agreed upon, we immediately mounted, and, according to signs understood by 2l6 HOW TRADE WAS MADE BRISK. us, the required number of horses followed. With our pockets full of tobacco and vermilion, we gal- loped as fast as we could, in order to get ahead of the Opposition, and induce the Indians to consent to come to our fort. But frequently, whether yes or whether no, their robes were put on our horses, and taken to the fort. When the party was large, and some trouble was expected in bringing in the chiefs, a sled was brought out, having a small keg of liquor placed on it, to treat the gentlemen; and a band of music, bearing the flag, was also in attendance. The instru- ments consisted of a clarionette, a drum, a violin, and a triangle, besides the jingling bells on the sled, and it was almost impossible for Indians to refuse such an invitation. They laughed with delight at the display, and the Opposition could not " come it over them," as the saying is. Mr. Cotton found himself about as badly used up this winter as he had been last; he learned that he stood a poor show in opposing the American Fur Company, and that it would take Mr. Ebbitt, or any other man, a long time to get a foot- ing in the country. This winter [1844-45 ?] we learned that Mr. F. A. Chardon had had a fight with the Blood Indians, a band of Blackfeet bearing that name; but no particu- lars were known until the arrival of the returns, which generally came down the latter part of April or THE BLACKFOOT MASSACRE. the first part of May. At that time I was well in- formed on the subject by Mr. Des Hotel, 2 one of the clerks, in whom full confidence could be placed. Mr. Chardon, who, as has been stated, was the man who [in 1843] built the Blackfoot post at the mouth of Judith river, generally called Fort Chardon, hap- pened to have a man killed by that band of Blood Indians last [?] winter. 3 This man was a negro by the 2 Or des Autel, as the name appears in De Smet's earlier book, 1847, p. 338. This clerk was at Fort Madison in 1846. 3 "Last winter," by our reckoning, should be 1843-44 ; but it appears to have been that of 1842-43. The massacre was cer- tainly known in the spring of 1843 ; for it is mentioned by Audubon, Journ. i, 1897, p. 501, at date of May 19, 1843, when he says : " I forgot to say yesterday two things which I should have related, one of which is of a dismal and very disagreeable nature, being no less than the account given us of the clerks of the Company having killed one of the chiefs of the Blackfeet tribe of Indians, at the upper settlement of the Company, at the foot of the great falls of the Missouri, and therefore at the base of the Rocky Mountains, and Mr. Laidlaw assured us that it would be extremely dangerous for us to go that far towards these Indians." The scene of the atrocity was not Fort Chardon, as our text leaves us to infer, but the post above Maria's river, variously called Fort Piegan, McKenzie, or Brule. It is probable that Larpenteur's account is the most reliable one we possess, aside from the discrepancy in date, which may be rather apparent than real. The exact date, to the day, must be known ; but I have not happened upon the record. This massacre is narrated somewhat differently by James Stuart, in Cont. Mont. Hist. Soc. i, 1876, pp. 87, 88 : " In 1842, F. A. Chardon, who was in charge of Ft. Brule [sic meaning Fort 2l8 THE BLACKFOOT MASSACRE. name of Reese. Mr. Chardon, it appears, set great store by that negro and swore vengeance on the band. He communicated his designs to Alexander Harvey, who, wishing no better fun, agreed to take an important part. They also got old man Berger to join them. The plot was, when the band came to trade, to invite three of the head men into the fort, where Harvey was to have the cannon in the bastion which commanded the front door loaded with balls; when the Indians should be gathered thickly at the door, waiting for the trade to commence, at a given signal the three head men were to be massacred in the fort, and Harvey was to kill as many others as he could at one discharge; on which they expected the surviv- ing Indians to run away, abandoning all their robes McKenzie, above the mouth of Maria's river] massacred about thirty [!] Blackfeet Indians. The Indians had stolen a few horses and some little things out of the fort from time to time, and Chardon concluded to punish them for it. He waited until a trading party came in, and when they were assembled in front of the gate, he opened the gate and fired upon them with a small cannon loaded with trade balls. After firing the cannon, the men went out and killed all the wounded with knives. The Blackfeet stopped trading, and moved into the British Posses- sions, and made war on the post, and were so troublesome that Chardon abandoned Brule in the spring [1843], went to the mouth of the Judith, and built Ft. F. A. Chardon on the north bank of the Missouri river, a short distance above the mouth of Judith river, which was burnt up when Culbertson built Ft. Lewis and made peace with the Blackfeet." THE BLACKFOOT MASSACRE. 219 and horses, of which the three whites were to become the owners, share and share alike. But it did not happen quite to their satisfaction; for, through some means, the wicked plot was made known in time for the chiefs to run out of the office and escape by jumping over the pickets. Mr. Chardon was quick enough to shoot, and broke the thigh of the principal chief. Harvey touched off the cannon, but, as the In- dians had commenced to scatter, he killed but three and wounded two. The rest quickly made their es- cape, leaving all their plunder; but saved nearly all their horses, most of which were at some distance from the fort. After firing the shot, Harvey came out of the bastion and finished the wounded Indians with his large dagy. 4 I was told he then licked the blood off the dagy and afterward made the squaws of the fort dance the scalp dance around the scalps, which he had raised himself. I will conclude this chapter with one more of Har- vey's awful deeds. It happened that, while he was at old Fort McKenzie, some Indians, who had a spite against the fort, took it into their heads to kill some of the cattle. One day a party of five chased away some of the milch cows, one of which they shot 4 So copy, for dague, French name of a dag or dagger, of the sort we should now call a dirk or bowie-knife. The word runs in many forms through various European languages. 220 HARVEY'S AWFUL DEED. when they had gone a short distance from the fort. On learning this, Harvey and some others got on their horses and went in pursuit. Harvey, who always kept a No. i horse, soon overtook the Indian who had shot the cow, and when he got within a few steps fired and broke his thigh; the Indian fell off his horse, and there he lay. Harvey came up to him, got off his horse, and took his seat near the wounded Indian, saying, " Now, comrade, I have got you. You must die. But, before you die, you must smoke a pipe with me." Having lighted his pipe and made the poor Indian smoke, he then said, " I am going to kill you, but I will give you a little time to take a good look at your country." The Indian begged for his life, saying, " Comrade, it is true I was a fool. I killed your cow; but now that you have broken my thigh, this ought to make us even spare my life! " " No," said Harvey; " look well, for the last time, at all those nice hills at all those paths which lead to the fort, where you came with your parents to trade, playing with your sweethearts look at that, will you, for the last time." So saying, with his gun pointed at the head of his victim, he pulled the trigger and the Indian was no more. CHAPTER XII. (1845-46.) POPLAR RIVER CAMP. THE steamer made her appearance at the usual time, in June [1845], Mr. Honore Picotte in charge. As it was customary for all the partners to meet in St. Louis in summer, I was left in charge of Fort Union until one of them returned in the fall. I asked Mr. Picotte what kind of men he had brought up; to which he replied, " First-rate men." " Will they not be apt to desert? " " No," said he, " not one." My fear of their desertion was based on their probably being unwilling to go to the Blackfoot post, on ac- count of the massacre of last [?] winter. The steamer left the same day, in the evening. During the night I was made the father of a fine son. In the morning the artillery was playing, and, in consequence of this, something extra must be done. All hands had a holiday, with the promise of a big ball at night. Scrubbing, washing, and cooking went on all day, and at night the ball opened; it went off peaceably, which 222 OUTFITTING FOR THE BLACKFOOT POST. was rarely the case in this place. All hands retired in good time, and had a good night's sleep. Mr. Auguste Chouteau, who was clerk and had charge of the men, came to my room early in the morning, say- ing, " Mr. Larpenteur, twelve men left last night." Although I expected some desertions, I did not think any would occur until the men were notified to go to the Blackfeet; but they had been persuaded by some of the Opposition who came to the ball, and be- ing afraid they would have to go, they thought best to disappear while they could get employment else- where. I had still many men left, went on preparing the outfit, and in a few days all was ready for their departure. James Lee had been sent for by Mr. Chardon, who had heard he was a bully and a bravo. Lee was to go up to the Blackfoot post, and it after- ward appeared that he intended to chastise Harvey. During the outfitting we learned enough to induce us to believe that a plot had been made to pound Harvey on their arrival, but not to murder him. Mr. Chardon was then at Fort Clark, his old sta- tion. Mr. Culbertson was in charge of the Black- foot outfit, with the understanding that he was to burn down Fort Chardon, and build farther up the Missouri. I finally succeeded in getting the outfit all right, but with a frightened set of men. As they pushed REPEATED DESERTIONS. 223 off a large number of the Opposition men were on the shore, crying out to them, " You are going to the butcher-shop good-by forever! " But the boys, who felt the effects of a good jigger to which they had just been treated, scoffed at this, and went off finely. After this I had the Crow outfit to start off; but there were plenty of men left for this, and for my own use at the fort. Early next morning Mr. Chou- teau came to me again, saying, " Seven more men gone last night." This was rather a striker, but on count- ing the number left, I found that I could send up the Crow outfit, and went to work at the equipment. The following morning, however, three more had de- serted, and others kept leaving, one by one, until I had to abandon the Crow outfit. Desertions con- tinued until I was left with but four men all told. This number being too few to keep the fort in safety until the return of the gentlemen in the fall, I imme- diately dispatched Owen McKenzie, 1 the son of Ken- neth McKenzie, with letters to Fort Pierre, to be '"At the White River post, I availed myself of Owen McKenzie's hospitable welcome, and remained in his log-house with another trader of the American Fur Company. Besides these two gentlemen were two other white traders, who had established themselves in a log-house at little more than gun- shot distance," Palliser, 1853, p. 165, writing of 1847-48. The opposition traders were Martin and Frederick, the former a Frenchman. 224 SIOUX ATTACKS ASSINIBOINES. forwarded thence to St. Louis. Much were they astonished when the dispatch arrived. Men were im- mediately engaged and sent up by Mr. Denig, who had gone on a visit to his friends this summer. Hav- ing so few men with me, the Opposition men became very troublesome; so much so that I had to lock the door on them. Shortly after the return of McKenzie from Fort Pierre, a party of Sioux came to war on the Assini- boines, and had taken all the horses belonging to the Opposition when the alarm was given. We ascended the bastion to see the performance, but it was all over, and the Sioux made bold enough to sit on the hill, quietly smoking their pipes, in full view of both forts. McKenzie, who was very young, active, and brave, said to me, " Mr. Larpenteur, this is too bad; let us go and exchange shots, and see if we cannot get back some of those old plugs." As I agreed to this, we ran down at once, mounted the two swiftest horses in the fort, and off we went. Bullets were soon flying about us, but we succeeded in recapturing four head of horses, which we generously gave back to the Opposition, and our names went high up among the bucks and squaws who were singing and dancing around the fort. After this times passed off somewhat more smoothly. Mr. Denig, who had been started up with HARVEY BADLY BEATEN. 22$ a new supply of men, arrived early in October [1845], and things became quite lively again. Soon after his return, when we were sitting on the porch one even- ing, we saw Harvey walking up to the house with his rifle across his arm. At a little distance he stopped to ask, " Am I among friends or enemies here? " Being told that we did not think he was in any danger here, he entered and commenced his story with, " Boys, I came very near being killed." Being asked by whom, he replied, " By Malcolm Clark, Jim Lee, and old man Berger; but the d d cowards could not do it." Then he pulled off his hat, show- ing the mark of Clark's tomahawk, with which his head had been' broken; and his hand was injured where Lee had struck him with a pistol. Being then asked the particulars, he said that, on learning of the arrival of the boat, he got on his horse to meet it and learn the news, as is customary on such occasions. Having gone about 20 miles below the fort, he saw the boat, and beckoned them to land. As he had been left in charge of the fort, they could not well re- fuse to do so. As the boat landed he gave his horse in care of the man whom he had taken with him, and suspecting nothing, but glad to see the men, he jumped on board and entered the cabin where the three gentlemen were sitting. He offered his hand to Clark, who said, " I don't shake hands with such a 226 HARVEY'S PLANS. d d rascal as you," on which a blow of his toma- hawk followed, and then a blow with the butt of a rifle from Berger. In spite of all this he would have succeeded in throwing Clark into the river, had it not been for Lee, who struck him such a severe blow on the hand with a pistol that he had to let go his hold and make his escape. " I then got on my horse," he continued, " and when I arrived at the fort I told the men my story. They were much displeased, and as they did not like Clark, and had already learned Lee's character, they consented to protect me. I told them that I intended to hold the fort and not let a d d one in." To this the men agreed, and preparations were made for defense. When the boat arrived no one was allowed to enter, not even Mr. Culbertson. But after hard pleadings Mr. Culbertson, who had always proved a friend to Harvey, made him agree to give up the fort, on condition that Mr. Culbertson should give him a draft for all his wages, and a good recom- mendation. On receiving those papers, Harvey left in a small canoe with one man. He remained but a couple of days at Union, and, on leaving, said, " Never mind ! you will see old Har- vey bobbing about here again; they think they have got me out of the country, but they are damnably mistaken. I'll come across Clark again." HARVEY, PRIMEAU AND CO. Fort Pierre was then the headquarters of the trad- ing posts on the Missouri; all drafts and papers had to be examined and signed there. The company owed Harvey $5000, and he had to get his draft there for the whole amount. Mr. Picotte appeared some- what slow and did not come to time until Harvey threatened to pound him, when the draft was made out. It happened that, when Harvey arrived at Fort Pierre, the most important clerks of the post were dissatisfied with their treatment, and had made up a company in opposition to the American Fur Com- pany. The members of this new organization were Harvey himself, Charles Primeau, 2 Joseph Picotte (nephew of Honore Picotte), and Bonise, the book- keeper of Fort Pierre, under the firm name of Har- vey, Primeau and Co. Under those agreements, which were not known at the time, Harvey immediately left for St. Louis. There he apprised Colonel Robert 3 A well-known trader for many years among the Sioux and other Indians, and the same for whom was named Fort Primeau, which in the fifties or later stood about 300 yards from Fort Clark, at the Mandans. Mr. Primeau was born in St. Louis, and had been a clerk in the A. F. Co. when he formed the part- nership named above. It lasted a few years, and was then absorbed in the A. F. Co. He continued to serve the latter for a time, and afterward held an appointment as government inter- preter. He was living at Fort Yates in 1896. 228 RETURN OF KENNETH McKENZIE. Campbell of the arrangements, and in the spring [1846] the company started operations, with a large outfit, sufficient to establish themselves at all the posts of the American Fur Company. Harvey came up to the mouth of the Yellowstone in the steamer, and went on to Benton in a Mackinaw with his outfit. A short time after Harvey left us Mr. Kenneth Mc- Kenzie arrived to take charge of Fort Union. He had left the country six or seven years previously, but had reserved a share in the Company, on condition that in case of opposition he would return, should it be deemed necessary by the members of the Com- pany, and on that understanding he now returned. This was about the commencement of the meat trade [of 1845] > on ms arrival my charge ended, and I was reinstated in the liquor shop. Mr. McKenzie was pleased with my administration; he found everything to his satisfaction, and said I had done well, though I ought not to have left the fort, at a time when I had so few men, to fight Indians. The American Fur Company, having always had more influence in this country than the Indian de- partment, thought they would abolish the local law, and carry on trade on the old principle, which was camp trading. So when the robe trade commenced, traders were dispersed in all directions. But Mr. Mc- Kenzie, like Mr. Culbertson, kept me at the fort un- ORDERED TO POPLAR RIVER. 229 til the last. Finally my turn came, and I was sent with a good outfit into a large camp on Poplar river, 3 about 60 miles by land above Union. As a matter of course I took plenty of liquor. I had four men and ten horses more than I wanted but the intention was for me to send them back loaded with meat for the fort. A certain Indian by the name of Iron-eyed Dog was known as the greatest rascal and ugliest In- dian in the camp; his brother had been killed while camped at the fort by a war party of Sioux, who sur- prised them in the night. This brother was a chief, called the One who Guards the Whites a very good Indian for us to have. He was shot in the back, the ball passing through his breast. The Indians, know- ing that the whites thought much of him, and believing their medicine might cure him, brought him to the fort from camp, which was not more than 300 yards off. That happened about midnight. Shortly after 3 Present name of the second considerable tributary of the Missouri from the N., above the mouth of the Yellowstone, Big Muddy being the first such tributary. Poplar river is the Porcu- pine of Lewis and Clark, ed. of 1893, P- 2 93. whose Martha's river is the present Big Muddy. The Fort Peck Indian Reservation ex- tends along the Missouri on the N. from Big Muddy, past Poplar, to the mouth of Milk river. Camp Poplar River is the military post and agency at the mouth of the stream whence the name was derived, and there is now Poplar station, near where the G. N. Ry. crosses this river. The distance from Union by trail was as said in text ; by the river it is about 95 miles. 230 IN POPLAR RIVER CAMP. he was brought in his brother, the Iron-eyed Dog, came knocking at the door to be let in; but as many others had knocked, we paid no attention to him. This made him extremely angry, and he swore he would kill me on the first opportunity, for he knew I was the doorkeeper. Such was the character with whom I expected to have to deal in this camp, where I arrived on the third day out from Union. After I had stored everything properly, I was in- vited into the lodges of the chiefs and leading men, to partake of a dish of pounded buffalo meat and marrow grease, as is their custom. In one of the lodges, where several Indians had assembled, I was in- formed that Iron-eyed Dog, whom they call in their language Shonkish-ta-man-zah, 4 had gone to the fort, but was expected back that night, and would be apt to make much trouble, and very likely kill me; but they thought I might be able to reconcile him by talking to him and making him a little present, as usual on such occasions. Knowing the Dog of old, I invited the principal chief to my lodge and gave him what he thought was sufficient; he started off, saying that he, with the others, would do their utmost 4 Shonk-ishta-maza would be a fair spelling of the name, which is compounded of shonka, dog; tshta, eye; and maza, metal. The individual seems to have been a notable character, for I have his name in print, though I do not find the reference among my memoranda. RAGE OF THE IRON-EYED DOG. 231 for me. This was some consolation, but did not go very far toward making me feel safe. That night, when the liquor trade commenced, the very devil was raised in camp. Iron-eyed Dog, who had arrived, and all the other dogs, including my life preservers, soon got drunk. There was I, with only four other men, among about 300 drunken Indians, with no alternative but to trust to luck. One stout, fine-looking Indian whom I had never seen before, and who suspected something, took his seat by my side, holding a large war-club between his knees, and kept very quiet the whole time. At first I did not know what he was there for, but soon found out; things were as I suspected and feared. Suddenly in came Iron-eyed Dog in great fury, saying, " Here you are! Do you expect to live through this night you who would not open the door for me when my brother was killed? Did I not say I would kill you? " He went on like this at a tremendous rate, and then rushed out again. But it seemed to me that he did not like the looks of the man with the war-club, who now and then pressed his hand on my knee, as much as to say, " Be not afraid." Then came two more drunken Indians; one of them named Cougher, and ihe other an individual who had killed his own father; both had plotted with others to murder me in the lodge and plunder my outfit. But it happened that I had a 232 PACIFIC ORATORY. good old friend in camp, whose name was the Ha- ranguer, and who made such a fine speech that they abandoned the idea. This is about as near as I can interpret it: " What is it that I hear? Brothers and kindred, do you think you will need your trader no longer, now that spring is come and trade is over? You have your fill of everything, and now talk of kill- ing your trader. Where will you go? Go north and starve? Give away your hunts for nothing? Why kill this poor white man? What has he done to you? No, brothers! have pity upon him, upon me; spare his life." On his saying this, which they understood to be the conclusion of his speech, a young man got up and handed him his knife, as a sign of approval, and so the idea was given up. My war-club man all this time said never a word, but the repeated appli- cations of his hand inspired a sense of safety in my badly frightened heart. After that came the One Who Killed His Father, and Mr. the Cougher, when all the liquor was gone, wanting absolutely to get some more, saying, " If you have none, make some. You whites are strong medi- cine. You can make fire-water." Seeing, however, that I was not " medicine," they insisted on my giving their squaws some trinkets, and off they went, saying that they would soon be back. Then in popped the Dog again, and came at me AFTER THE TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT. 233 with his pipe, saying, " Smoke! smoke! Why don't you smoke? I'll make you smoke you dog, you." This Indian knew I seldom smoked, and only during some of their ceremonies, so he kept running in and out in this manner, and never left the lodge without threatening to kill me. At last this night, so long to me, wore away; when day came all was quiet in camp, and I felt as though I had been on board a vessel in a gale which had subsided in a perfect calm. After such a storm my appetite was not very sharp, but we had to get breakfast early, before any Indians came loafing in. A strong cup of coffee was soon ready; this revived me, but the dread of seeing the mad dog again was still heavy on my mind. My war-club man was gone, and I saw. no one about me that would be likely to take my part. Iron-eyed Dog soon made his appearance with about 20 of his young men, all armed and painted, and I thought then surely I was gone up. The Dog was quite sober, and said to me, " It was a good thing for you that I got too drunk to come to your lodge once more last night, for I did intend to kill you. Now you must give each of my young men some ammunition, tobacco, and vermilion, a knife, and a looking glass; and give those," he continued pointing to four or five " a breech-cloth 234 CONCLUSION OF THE AFFAIR. apiece." This being done, he ordered them to go away; " and now," said he, " give me my pres- ent." So I gave him 50 rounds of ammunition the usual allowance for a big man eight small plugs of tobacco, one knife, one palette of ver- milion, and a breech-cloth. To his squaw who was present, I gave a cotillion of cloth, some beads, and other trinkets. He went off without saying another word and I never saw him again; but what became of him will be made known in the sequel. 6 The trading being nearly over, I sent to the fort for horses to bring in my returns, and five days afterward eight men arrived with 32 head of horses. Mr. Mc- Kenzie advised me by letter to be very cautious on my return, as a party of young men had gone up my way with the intention of stealing the horses; to stand strong guard each night, and, if possible, get some good Indians to come with me. I had all my returns ready to be loaded, and next day we got under march 5 Larpenteur tells a good story, but we cannot help suspect- ing that the whole affair was a " bluff," to extract presents by working on the trader's fears. It seems to have been a put-up game, in which the war-club man agreed to take a hand, and play the part of a protector for a share of the swag. It will be observed that he does not appear upon the scene, after his disin- terested benevolence. The haranguer's eloquence also appears melodramatic. However, there is no saying what a lot of roaring drunk Indians might have done on such an occasion, which was always liable to lead to bloodshed. RETURN TO FORT UNION. 235 with 35 packs of robes, besides some small furs. The second night we reached Big Muddy 6 river, about 30 miles from Union. This being a place which I thought dangerous, and likely to be my last camp, I stood the first guard, with one-half of my party. I had taken with me one of the first chiefs of the Indian camp, with three of his most reliable soldiers, which made our party rather strong. About eleven o'clock I discovered the gentlemanly horse thieves coming straight into camp; they shook hands, seemed glad to see us, and after smoking a while laid down to sleep. Seeing us so well on our guard, they gave up the idea of robbing us; early in the morning they took their leave, and glad we were to see them off. The morn- ing was fine and warm, which enabled us to get an early start. We expected to encamp at the Little Muddy, ten miles above Union; but arriving there about two hours before sunset, and not liking the idea of another night's guard, we concluded to push on to the fort. After smoking a pipe we resumed our march, and entered the fort a little after dark. The fort was full of drunken Indians, as usual. Mr. Mc- Kenzie was extremely glad to see me back, and be- gan to tell me how things had gone on during my ab- The first considerable tributary of the Missouri from the N. above Fort Union to be distinguished from another stream of the same name below the fort. Distance 42 m. by river. 236 LEFT MASTERS OF THE COUNTRY. sence, saying he was at a loss how to get through with all those drunken Indians, with the traders he had in that shop. Finally he said, " Larpenteur, I am forced to ask you to finish this trade, although I know you must be tired. I have been frequently tempted to go and trade myself, but you know that would never do." Finding the old gentleman in such trouble, although much fatigued I went into the shop after a good supper, traded all that night, finished the business, and got the Indians off next day. This [1845-46] winter's trade convinced the New York firm of Fox, Livingston and Co. that it was a losing game to oppose the American Fur Company; they came to the conclusion to sell out, and we were again left masters of the country. AMERICAN EXPLORERS SERIES NO. I THE JOURNAL OF JACOB FOWLER Narrating an Adventure from Arkansas through the Indian Territory, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mex- ico to the sources of the Rio Grande Del Norte, 1821-22. Edited, with Notes, by DR. ELLIOTT COUES Plate, 8vo cloth, uncut. $3.00 net Edition limited to 950 numbered copies, and published uniform with "Forty Years a Fur Trader on the Upper Missouri." Major Jacob Fowler is a hitherto unknown explorer, whose expedi- tion from Fort Smith to the Rocky Mountains and return to St. Louis has never been heard of before. It is printed -verbatim et literatim from the autograph MS. The date of Fowler's expedition is a critical one, immediately follow- ing Long's, and fills with new data a page hitherto blank in the history of Western Exploration. It contains the first record of ascent of the Arkansaw from Fort Smith to the site of Pueblo, Colorado, first record of building an inhabited house at site of Pueblo, 20 years before Pueblo was founded, first record of making Sangre de Cristo Pass by an American party, first record of ascent of the Rio Grande to its head- waters by an American party, etc., etc. A FEW REVIEWS ON THE APPEARANCE OF THIS WORK NEW YORK TIMES: The Journal of this expedition now first presented to the public, is a rich addition to the pioneer history of Western America. THE AMERICAN, PHILADELPHIA: What (Dr. Coues) has already done fully entitles him to the unique and enviable position of historian of the early history of Western North America. His volumes attest his indefatigable energy and zeal in the work, and conscientious painstaking research, no less than his knowledge of the subject and his ability to handle it. THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS: The value of the work (Fowler Journal) is very largely increased by nearly 180 notes by the editor who is peculiarly well fitted for the work by intimate acquaint- ance with the subject and previous experience in editing similar books. THE SUN, BALTIMORE: It supplements early Western exploration, and the prior accounts of the dis- position, manners and customs of the Arapahoes, Osages, Comanches and others, and is a very amusing display of the real, unadulterated human nature of these pioneers. The spelling is a curiosity, and is given as Major Fowler wrote it down. AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW: The memoranda jotted down from day to day by Major Fowler relate to a world in much of which he was the earliest explorer. They ought to have been published long ago. His experience as a land surveyor doubles the value of his observations. Multitudes in Kansas and Colorado will greet his book with a double welcome. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES COLLEGE LIBRARY This book is due on the last date stamped below. BEC'D COl^. LIB. ^M^aTiw \ w^ 1 'jS Book Slip-15m-8,'58(5890s4)4280 THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UCLA-College Library F598L32V.1 L 005 716 684 5 F $98 L32 v.l