USA > Oregon > Pioneer days of Oregon history, Vol. I > Part 4
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In course of the next day Lewis induced the Indians to come on board and himself retreated to the hold. In time the deck was thronged with savages, and when the saturnalia was at its height, a terrific explosion destroyed the vessel. Lewis knew he could not live and determined to take a fearful vengeance by exploding the magazine when the deck was crowded with savages. The interpreter, who survived and told the story after his return to Astoria, described the disappearance of the ship beneath the waves, the destruction of over an hundred of the natives, and mutilation of many more. The bay was covered with wreckage, with broken canoes, many dead and many in agonies of death ; for days after the limbs and bodies of the slain were thrown by the waves upon the land. The four who made the heroic defence in the cabin were captured by the Indians and killed with all the lingering torments of savage cruelty. This was the ter- rible news the interpreter brought to Astoria.
Of the large number who were on board the Tonquin when she arrived off the Columbia, thirty-one had met sudden death, six at the entrance to the river, and twenty-five when
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The Astor Expedition
the ill-fated Tonquin met her fate on the shores of Van- couver Island. Meantime, the expedition by land, under Wilson P. Hunt, was making slow way across the broad con- tinent. What hardships and suffering they underwent is related in full in Irving's "Astoria." Mr. Hunt, with what were left of that expedition, arrived at Astoria, February 15, 1812. Eleven men had reached there a month ahead of his coming. That same season expeditions were started to trade with the Indians east of the Cascade Mountains ; the ship Beaver having arrived with reinforcements and sup- plies, the Pacific Fur Company was prepared to commence business vigorously.
At what was long known as Walla Walla-known now as Wallula-the expedition separated, part going to establish a post at Spokane, part to Okanogan, and others to the Nez Percés country.
A successful year's business had been accomplished, and the enterprise-when the force were all reassembled at head- quarters, in the early summer of 1813-might have been considered as well organized and inaugurated. Posts were established and commencement made for permanent business through a wide interior, and pleasant relations generally existed with the Indians. Difficulties seemed overcome and the future promised all that the genius of Mr. Astor should warrant. But in the time since these plans were laid war broke out with Great Britain and formed the only cloud on the horizon. The British Northwest Company sent the Isaac Todd letter of marque around the Horn, with orders to capture and destroy Astoria. J. G. McTavish, one of their partners, went overland with seventy-five men, to meet her and take possession of captured stores. The ship had not
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arrived, and McTavish and his party had neither ammuni- tion nor provisions, but Duncan McDougal, who was in charge in absence of Mr. Hunt, was a British subject, and though a partner with Mr. Astor, was ready to transfer all the stock of furs on hand to the Northwest Company at one- third the actual value. This he did, and became a partner in the Northwest Company thereafter.
Mr. Hunt returned from the Sandwich Islands, and April 3d left Astoria by sea. The next day all Americans who had belonged to the station-eighty-eight in all-also left to cross the continent to their homes. Thus Astoria was left to the British, and the Racoon, a British armed ship, having arrived meantime, the post was newly christened Fort George, and the name Astor for awhile was relegated to the past, to be again revived when Americans settled and possessed the land.
When peace was soon after declared the rights of Astor were restored, but he never claimed them. The adventure had proved too costly, the results were far too uncertain, the scene of action was too far away for him to load his life with a venture so expensive. True, the game was made and un- certainty in a measure was overcome, but Astoria was too distant to be easily controlled ; the Northwest Company re- mained in possession and the Stars and Stripes disappeared from that shore until brought there, thirty years later, by Americans who settled Oregon.
INCIDENTS THAT OCCURRED
A chapter from the book of Alexander Ross pictures events happening on the upper waters of Snake River, and
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The Astor Expedition
shows the perils of life in that savage region and the fierce adventures that beset the lives of fur traders in the closing months of the Astor Company, when news of war had just reached there.
John Clarke was in charge at Spokane and left there with thirty horses loaded with furs. In six days he reached the Pavilion on the Palouse, where the chiefs had kept his canoes in good condition. Clarke made the chief a present and also a sup of wine out of the silver goblet that was the pride of his heart, expatiating on its value, and that the chief was a greater man than ever before for having drank such liquor from such a cup. The Indians heard his wonderful story, and the wonderful cup passed from hand to hand. The next morning the precious goblet was missing, and Clarke was furious. Search was made everywhere, and when it dawned on Clarke that it had been stolen, he raged and swore, pronouncing sentence on the thief. The Indians called a council, made inquest and found the cup in possession of one in decidedly low repute. It was recovered for the owner, but Clarke demanded the man, and when he was in his hands told him he had to die, and that the fur trader never told lies. They thought it was a jest, until the irate trader hung the man before their eyes ; then the friendly chief threw down his robe, a sign of anger, and harangued his people, who all set off to call their tribes to vengeance. Clarke saw the hornet's nest he had roused, loaded his canoes and started for Walla Walla.
There was a gathering of several parties at Walla Walla that spring, who were surprised to see the unusual stir and natives assembling from all sides. Clarke came down the river and soon learned that word had come that he had mur-
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dered a Palouse, which tribe was related to the Walla Wallas and Cayuses. All united to condemn the act ; meantime the Indians were flying about, howling and whooping in wild commotion. An old chief, who had been ever friendly, came and said: "What have you done? You have spilled blood on our lands ! What can I do?" Then he wheeled and rode off, very much agitated. They saw it was useless to wait and take chances, so they loaded up and pushed off for Van- couver in all haste. When they returned up the river again they found at least 2,000 Indians gathered to demand ven- geance. The old chief, Tum me at a pam, had worn himself out trying to make peace, but Mr. Stuart, one of the most politic of the traders, managed to quiet them with a few gifts, a good smoke with the chiefs, and the pipe of peace. John Clarke learned a lesson, for he had to charge his soul with the deaths of Mr. Reed and eight others who were mur- dered in that region the following season. While this oc- curred at Palouse, on the north, McKensie was going through a wild experience on the waters of Snake River, to the southeast, among the Nez Percés.
He had left his goods safely cached-as he supposed-but the cache had been found and robbed. The Indians were quiet and did not come near him. McKensie summoned the chiefs, told his loss and demanded that they secure the return of the goods ; if so, all would be as friendly as of old. They admitted the robbery. It was the young men who did it, and they could not control the young men. As nothing could be done in that way McKensie resolved on a bold scheme. He and his men, fully armed, started on foot for the Indian camp with charged bayonets ; they attacked the wigwams and cut and ripped as they looked for stolen prop-
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The Astor Expedition
erty. When they had searched a few lodges the chiefs offered, if they would desist, to find the goods themselves. While the whites looked on they found and returned most of the stolen property. It was a bold and dangerous move, but that was the way to treat the case, as Indians never fight with wives and children around them. This was the boldest act ever performed in the history of that time.
But the Indians were determined to get even and refused to sell them anything to eat. The traders were living on horse meat and the Nez Percés had immense bands of horses -yet not a horse would they trade, though greater than usual prices were offered. An no Indians came near, Mc- Kensie bribed five of them to act as spies, and through them kept well posted; they came at night and gave news of the hostile camp. He thus learned that they intended to starve them to terms or drive them away. When they wanted meat they killed an Indian horse and tied up goods to pay for it in a bundle stuck near by on a pole, and generally it was the fattest and best of the horses that they took. When this got tiresome, the spies brought word that the Indians in- tended to attack the whites with overwhelming numbers. This was proved when an Indian offered to sell a horse and take powder and ball for pay.
McKensie and his men retreated to an island in the river, and there the Indians besieged them. Once in a while they made a foray to shoot down a horse as meat was needed. This was tiresome to the natives. A parley was called and treaty made to sell horses at the usual price. But the whites were satisfied to leave, and having traded for all the horses they had use for, McKensie and his men left. They reached Walla Walla just in time to meet John Clarke's party, after
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the tragedy told of as happening at Palouse. Those were rough times in the fur trade.
AS TOLD BY ALEXANDER HENRY
Mr. Elliot Coues has published the journal of Alexander Henry, commencing when the Astor Company was betrayed in 1813 and continuing under the management of the Northwest Company. December 18, 1813, he mentions that there came with a Clatsop chief a man about thirty years of age who was extraordinarily ugly as to features, with dark red hair and freckles, a face strong in char- acter, said to have been "offspring from a ship that was wrecked south of the river many years ago." There will be occasion to tell an interesting story of that wreck and of the red-haired white man, who was its only survivor. On the same date he records that "great quantities of beeswax continue to be dug out of sand near this spot and the Indians bring it to trade with us." Concerning this beeswax there will also be more to be said.
Ross Cox, in his account of that time, says: "An Indian belonging to a small tribe on the coast, to the southward, occasionally visits the fort ; he was lusus natura, and his history rather curious. His skin was fair and his face partly freckled; his hair was quite red; he was about five feet ten inches in height ; slender, but remarkably well made ; his head had not undergone flattening ; he was called "Jack Ramsby," as that name was punctured on his arm. The Indians say his father was a sailor who deserted from a trading vessel and had lived many years among their tribe, one of whom he married; that when Jack was born he insisted on preserving
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The Astor Expedition
the child's head in its natural form; while young he punc- tured the child's arm in the above manner. Old Ramsby died about twenty years before that ; he had several more chil- dren, but Jack was the only red head." According to this, the man Ramsby might have been there fifteen years before the Columbia was discovered; then it is a question if there were any white men, even whalers, on this coast in 1775-80.
January 23, 1814, Henry tells of a trip up the Willam- ette, above the falls. There was a trading post on Barlow Prairie, or near there, planted by William Henry and thirty- five others. The Calipooias were numerous, but small and diminutive and wore little covering. They occupied all the Willamette Valley with several distinct bands ; led wandering lives, had no horses, no permanent homes, lived in open air in good weather and under big fir trees in bad weather ; deer were numerous, etc. One of their men was pursued by ten men on horses and got behind a tree with his gun. An old Indian dismounted, as if afraid of the gun, and told them they must not come there, for the noise of the guns drove deer away ; if they did not leave his people would drive them away. They may have been Nez Percés, or Cayuses, as they came over the mountains to hunt. The Willamette Indians had no horses. They had bows and arrows, and spears and lances, and dressed in leather shirts and leggings ; were painted with white clay and red ochre, and painted their horses with same.
Alexander Henry saw deer tracks in plenty wherever they went. On the way they had trouble with Indians at the Falls of the Willamette; their village consisted of one very long house, on the river bank, below the falls in the cañon ; this must have been three hundred feet long, divided for different
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Pioneer Days of Oregon History
families to occupy ; they could not go near without danger of being defiled, as there were piles of excrement all around it. The houses seemed tolerably clean within, and near the fire -- which was always in the centre, with a hole above for smoke to escape-mats were spread where they sat and slept ; with great troughs where they urinated.
The Indian women were fair and comely ; the men all had sore eyes, and, like other tribes, were scabby all over, be- cause of filthy living. Women's dresses were made of the fibre of cedar bark and leather, fringed ; they used the skins of fox, squirrels, wild cat, and wolf for dress goods ; lived on salmon, deer meat, dog meat, smelt, camas bulbs and nuts.
At Sauvie's Island, where the Willamette River enters the Columbia, the Indians were catching great sturgeon and staking them in the river; tying them, some way, to posts driven in the river, to keep until wanted. In the river they saw-besides great sturgeon-sea lions, porpoises and seals plentiful. Coffin Rock was literally covered with coffins, or canoes hung in trees, in which people had been buried-just as we saw them thirty years later.
It was deemed good policy to find a location, in 1818, farther up the Willamette, so an expedition left Astoria April 17, 1818, to look for a site. It examined the shores of the Columbia and Willamette as far up as where Portland now is, but found no place that was satisfactory.
The ship Isaac Todd arrived in the Columbia April 17, 1814, from Portsmouth, England. One of the men of the reinforcement brought along a barmaid he came across in Portsmouth, and for a while Jane Barnes was a feature at Astoria, or Fort George, so attractive that Com-com-ly's son tried to capture her heart and person-though he had four
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The Astor Expedition
wives-with promise of an hundred sea otter skins; and further condition that the other wives should wait on her as if "to the manner born." But she felt herself superior, even to the conditions of the white society there, and determined to return to England. On the way back she captured the affections of a rich Britisher at Canton and married him.
One day, when McTavish, one of the chief factors, and Alexander Henry were trying to go aboard the Isaac Todd, there came up a fearful squall that wrecked their canoe, and they both-as also several others-were drowned in the bay, which untimely fate ended the diary of Mr. Henry. Mr. Coues found it very redundant in the use of the mother tongue, and says he tried to simplify it. It is interesting by recital of many facts.
Alexander Ross, who came out with the Astor expedition, relates an interesting incident that occurred in the summer of 1811, soon after their arrival in the Columbia. There appeared at Astoria two Indians who passed for man and wife; spoke Algonquin and came from east of the Rocky Mountains. In time there came two mountain men who knew them for two Indian women, one of whom masqueraded as the husband of the other. When Ross went up the Columbia, to locate on the head-waters, these women also went and made considerable trouble by reporting to the different tribes that the great white chief intended that all things should be given the Indians free, and that they were being cheated, that they were not freely given all that they bought of the whites. These impudent Amazons had lived a thousand miles east of Astoria, where white traders were common, and received presents of horses and all they needed from the credulous natives to whom they told these stories. They were prac -.
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Pioneer Days of Oregon History
ticed cheats, who traded on human credulity and must have been very adventurous to wander so far and carry on so bold a system of frauds.
That was the first white man's expedition that ever as- cended the Columbia ; they pushed on up the rocky shores six hundred miles to Okanogan, finding friendly tribes all the way after leaving the junction with the Snake. When they came to what is known as Priest's Rapids, they made acquaintance with an Indian medicine, or priest, who ren- dered good service, so they named those rapids for him. When they bought horses he took charge of them and pushed on by land. They put full confidence in him until Mr. Stuart missed his watch, that struck the hour. The priest had stolen and hid it, but they heard it strike and found it where he had concealed it-in the sand; so his reverence was paid off and discharged. In those days Indians thronged all the rivers and were very friendly. It seems surprising that so small a party could convey valuable goods in safety among savage tribes who had never seen white men or such articles. Many times there was evidence of trouble brewing, but Stuart was expert among Indians and managed to get leading men's protection by giving liberal presents. When a trading house was built at Okanogan, Stuart took all the party, leav- ing Ross alone there, while he crossed to the Fraser. Then winter came and snows were so deep they could not return and poor Ross was left alone in that far wilderness for 188 days. The natives were kind; he bought 1,550 beaver skins and other peltries at average cost of eleven cents each, or £35, in all $175, that would bring in the Canton market £2,250-$11,250-which was not a very poor winter's work.
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Speaking of the loneliness of that time, he says: "Only picture to yourself how I must have felt, all alone in that un- hallowed wilderness, without friend or white man within hun- dreds of miles, surrounded by savages who never saw a white man before. Every day seemed a week, every night a month; I pined, languished, my head turned gray, and in a brief space ten years were added to my age. Yet man was born to endure, and my only consolation was my Bible." One day he heard his little dog-Weasel-bark ; and, sure enough ! Stuart and the rest were come again !
That same little Weasel was his only companion. To be sure, there were plenty of friendly natives who were around by day and had the grace to retire at night. But they often had alarms and feared assault from their own enemies, so Ross freshly primed his gun and pistol and lay with them between his blankets in case of need. One night Weasel ran and barked until Ross thought some lurking savage must be in the house; half asleep and fearfully alarmed, he seized his arms, and stirring the embers with his ramrod could see the dog in a terrible rage. All the goods, tobacco, etc., were in a small cellar, kept out of sight, save a little to trade on. He imagined the intruder to be in the cellar. He had lighted a candle, and when he got to the cellar door saw a skunk sitting on a roll of tobacco. A shot from his gun blew the varmint to atoms and perfumed the premises so that it was hardly possible to breathe there for a week. It did even worse, for hundreds of Indians who were camped near by rushed to the rescue and saw the rolls of tobacco and bales of goods with envious eyes. For some time they were importunate and troublesome, and he had occasion to regret the intrusion of the offensive night visitor. He placated
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them by calling an assemblage of all the chiefs and told them he soon expected Mr. Stuart to come with another large as- sortment of goods for trade, which put them in good humor.
Alexander Ross touches on the management of Mr. Astor in a way that Washington Irving could not admire, for he bitterly criticises his selection of McDougal for chief trader at Astoria, and Captain Thorne to command the Tonquin. He attributes the failure of the expedition to those two men chiefly, as the qualities of Wilson P. Hunt, Stuart and Mc- Kensie could not redeem the failures of the other two.
Ross also severely criticises Astor's assortment of goods sent to the Columbia: "None knew better than Mr. Astor, himself what was necessary and suitable for that market, but he had nothing of this kind. Instead of guns we got old metal pots and gridirons ; instead of blankets, molasses. In short, all the useless trash and unsalable trumpery which had been accumulating in his shops and stores for half a century were swept together to fill his Columbia ships."
He also asserts that the articles of agreement, and prom- ises for promotion originally made, were violated by him. When war broke out, Boston merchants-at great expense -- sent intelligence to their ships on the Northwest Coast of that event, and when they applied to Mr. Astor for his quota of the expense he refused, saying: "Let the United States flag protect them." As a consequence, no definite word of the declaration of war reached them to warn them for their safety.
When the Tonquin sailed for the north, most of her cargo had not been unloaded, and was to be discharged at Astoria on her return ; but as she was lost at Nootka, there was but small supply of goods left for the Indian trade. This was
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The Astor Expedition
due to the headstrong will of Captain Thorne. Certainly, Astor could not have managed other business as he did this expedition to the Columbia, or he never could have succeeded as he did.
Early in Astor's time there was trouble to get supplies at Fort Astoria ; the natives there thought they had a sure thing, until a bargain was made with skilled hunters who ranged the Upper Willamette for meat as well as skins and furs. They loaded their game and peltries into canoes and made a portage at the Falls of the Willamette. Young Mc- Kay went through there with his father in 1838; they found all game abundant and the grass was as fine as could be grown.
CHAPTER X
ALEXANDER ROSS AND ROSS COX
ALEXANDER Ross, who was at Okanogan in 1811, had been brought up in the fur trade, and seems to have been of a re- ligious temperament. In his book of adventures he says : "The paramount evil that frustrates the labors of the mis- sionary arises from sects of different persuasions interfering with one another, an evil that tends rather to destroy than to promote religious feeling among savages. It is no un- common thing in the wilderness to see the pious and per- severing evangelist, after undergoing every hardship, to open a new field for his labors among the heathen, followed often by some weak zealot of another sect who had not en- ergy nor courage of himself to lead, but who no sooner reaches the cultivated vineyard of his precursor than he begins the work of demoralization and injustice by denying the labors and creed of his predecessor, clothes some dis- affected chief and infuses animosity and discord among all parties, in order to get a footing and establish himself."
To illustrate. He cites an Indian village of 300 souls on the frontiers of Canada, where they had a neat chapel and missionary who taught a school and all seemed comfortable and happy. Three years later all was changed; they were less numerous, less thriving, and instead of one missionary there were three, and as many chapels. Religious animosity ran high and one of the churches had been burned by re- ligious fanatics ; another was despoiled and abandoned, and
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Alexander Ross and Ross Cox
the third remained a sad monument to Christian hate. The schools were deserted, and this desolation and demoralization resulted from the unhallowed practice of one sect of religion interfering with another.
Ross Cox was contemporary with Alexander Ross, but sta- tioned in a different region. The Flatheads, who dwelt close to the Rocky Mountains, he describes as superior to all other tribes in physique, character, and the women as perfectly chaste. They came near the ideal of life in primitive con- ditions, but their fathers hunted buffalo east of the range, and they claimed that right, while the fierce Blackfeet re- sented it.
As a consequence, there was war on the most savage lines, the Flatheads getting the worst of it, as they were least numerous, only kept up by their bravery. Their war chief lost his wife, captive to the Blackfeet, and mourned for her, refusing to be comforted or to marry again. The picture given is touching, but the next year he made a raid and cap- tured the chief who had been their bravest enemy-who took his wife prisoner and tortured her. Cox looked on while he in turn was tortured and butchered by inches, making no sign of distress, taunting his tormentors that he had done them fearful harm "You don't know how to torture. Try it again! We make your relatives cry out aloud for pain- like children. It was to my arrow [to another ] you lost your eye." Then the warrior referred to rushed at him and scooped out his eye and otherwise hacked him ; but this did not stop him. Looking to one and another: "I killed your father, who was a fool"- and was scalped by the man ad- dressed. Then to the chief : "It was I made your wife pris- oner last fall-we put out her eyes-we tore out her tongue
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