An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 6

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company
Number of Pages: 1146

USA > Washington > Kittitas County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 6
USA > Washington > Yakima County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 6
USA > Washington > Klickitat County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 6

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

When Mr. Mackay, who was on shore at the time, returned to the ship, he became indignant at Thorne, and urged that he set sail at once. Lamanse, the Chehalis Indian, seconded him, asserting that all prospects of profitable trade were destroyed and that a longer stay in the har- bor was attended with very great danger, but advice and importunity were vain.

Early next morning a number of Indians, demure and peaceable, paddled over to the vessel, holding aloft bundles of fur as an evi- dence of their wish to trade. Thorne called Mackay's attention to the success of his method of dealing with the red men. "Just show them that you are not afraid," said he, "and they will behave themselves." The Indians exchanged their furs for whatever was offered, making no remonstrances or demands for higher prices.

Other canoe loads of savages came aboard and still others, the self-satisfied Thorne welcoming all in his blandest manner. The more watchful sailors became suspicious and alarmed, but they well knew that remonstrance against the course of Captain Thorne was vain. Soon, however, even he noticed that the Indians had become massed at all the assailable points of the vessel. He was visibly startled by this discovery, but pretending not to be aware that anything was wrong, he ordered his men to get ready for sail- ing, and the Indians to leave the vessel.

The latter started towards the ladder, but as they did so, they drew from the unsold bundles of furs the weapons therein concealed.

"In an instant the wild war-yell broke the awful silence, and then the peaceful deck of the Tonquin saw a slaughter grim and pitiless.

Lewis, the clerk, and Mackay were almost in- stantly despatched. Then a crowd, with fiendish triumph, set upon the captain, bent on evening up at once the old score. The brawny frame and iron will of the brave, though foolhardy, old salt made him a dangerous object to attack, and not until half a dozen of his assailants had meas- ured their bleeding lengths on the slippery deck did he succumb. Then he was hacked to pieces with savage glee. Meanwhile four sailors, the only survivors besides the interpreter, Lamanse, by whom the story was told, having gained access to the hold, began firing on the triumphant Indians; and with such effect did they work, that the whole throng left the ship in haste and sought the shore. Lamanse, meanwhile, was spared, but held in captivity for two years. The next day, the four surviving sailors attempted to put to sea in a small boat, but were pursued and probably murdered by the Indians. And then, like a band of buzzards circling around a carcass, the Indian canoes began to cluster around the deserted ship."

But an awful retribution was about to over- take the Indians. Cautiously at first, but with more boldness as they observed the apparent life- lessness of everything on the ship, they began next day to climb aboard, and soon several hun- dred of them were rifling the storehouses, gloat- ing over the disfigured bodies of their victims, and strutting across the deck, clad in gaudy blankets, and lavishly adorned with beads and tinsels.

Then came a terrible boom, and the luckless Tonquin, with all on board, both quick and dead, was scattered in fragments over the face of the deep. Her powder magazine had exploded, destroying the ship and her enemies in one awful ruin. According to Lamanse, as quoted by Franchere, two hundred Indians were destroyed by this explosion.

Franchere was unable to state what caused the ship to be blown up, but surmises that the four sailors attached a slow train to the maga- zine before their departure. As Franchere is the only known authority, it seems certain that Irving must have fabricated his account, which is to the effect that Lewis, wounded, remained on the ship after the four sailors had gone, and that he enticed the savages aboard, that he might destroy himself and them in one final retri- bution.

A report that the Tonquin was destroyed reached Astoria in due time, the news being borne by Indians. At first the story was entirely discredited, but as time passed and no Tonquin appeared, it became more and more evident that there must be some truth in it. No details of the tragedy were known, however, until Lamanse reappeared some two years later.

On July 15, 1811, David Thompson, with eight white men, arrived at Astoria. His expe-

THE ASTOR EXPEDITION.

dition had been long delayed on the eastern side of the Rocky mountains, in the search for a pass. Desertions among his crew also impeded his progress, and the final result was that he had to return to the nearest post and remain over win- ter. In the early spring he hurried forward. The party distributed many small flags among the Indians along the Columbia, built huts at the forks of the river and took formal possession of the country drained by the Columbia and its tributaries in the name of the King of Great Britain, and for the company which sent them out. But the main object of the expedition was not realized. They were unable to occupy the mouth of the Columbia, and the perfidy of the Northwest Company failed of its reward. Hos- tile though the expedition was, it was received at Astoria with open-handed cordiality, Mac- dougal furnishing Thompson with supplies for the return journey against the urgent remon- strance of David Stuart. Such generosity to one's commercial enemy is, to say the least, a little unusual, but the magnanimity displayed has for some reason failed to call forth the plaudits of historians.

At the time of Mr. Thompson's arrival, David Stuart was about to start for the Spokane coun- try to establish a post, and he delayed his depar- ture for a short time that his and Mr. Thompson's party might travel together. At the confluence of the Columbia and Okanogan rivers, Mr. Stuart erected Fort Okanogan, the first interior post west of the Rocky mountains within the limits of the present state of Washington.

January 8, 1812, a part of the Hunt expedi- tion reached Astoria in a pitiable condition. "The adventures of different members of this party form a sad chapter in the history of the fur trade. Hunt was met by overwhelming obstacles from the very first. In his efforts to get men for his expedition he was harassed in every way possi- ble by persons interested in rival fur companies, and when, at last, owing to his own indomitable perseverance and Astor's unstinted purse, he got a party together, the battle was by no means won. In April, 1811, Hunt set his face toward the Pacific. With him were sixty men, four of whom, Crooks, Mackenzie, Miller and Maclellan, were partners, and one, Reed, was a clerk. The rest were free trappers and Canadian voyageurs, except two English naturalists, Bradbury and Nuttall.

The earlier portions of their journey afforded many interesting and some exciting experiences, but all went fairly well with them until the mountains were entered, when their troubles began. The story of their wanderings, their struggles, hardships and starvation on that terri- ble winter trip through the interminable laby- rinths of the mountains, and on the desolate and forbidding lava plains is heart-rending in the extreme. Detachments under Mackenzie and

Maclellan passed through the mountains to Snake river before winter was fairly upon them, though even they had to endure extreme suffer- ing. It was these who reached Astoria in Jan- uary as before stated. On the 15th of February the main party under Mr. Hunt also reached the scene. As they drew near Astoria, the whole population of that settlement came pouring down to meet them, the foremost being Mackenzie and Maclellan, who, having abandoned hope that Hunt and his men could survive the famine and the rigors of winter, were the more rejoiced to see them alive. "The Canadians, with French abandon, rushed into each other's arms, crying and hugging like so many school girls, and even the hard-visaged Scotchmen and nonchalant Americans gave themselves up to the unstinted gladness of the occasion." Crooks and John Day, with four Canadians, had been left sick on the banks of the Snake. It was not thought likely that they would ever be seen alive again, but the next summer, Stuart and Maclellan, while journeying from Okanogan to Astoria, found the two leaders, naked and haggard, near the mouth of the Umatilla. Their pitiable plight was speedily relieved, but poor John Day never recovered and soon was numbered among the dead. The Canadians were afterward found alive, though destitute, among the Shoshones.

On the 5th of May, 1812, the Beaver, another of Astor's vessels, reached Astoria. Among those on board was Ross Cox, author of Adven- tures on the Columbia River, a work of great historical value. About this time, also, Robert Stuart, while bearing despatches by land to Mr. Astor, discovered the South Pass through the Rocky mountains, which in later years became the great gateway to the Pacific for immigrant trains.

Pity it is that the historian must record the failure of an enterprise so wisely planned as that of Astor, so generously supported and in the execution of which so much devoted self-abnega- tion was displayed, so many lives sacrificed. But the clouds were now beginning to darken above the little colony on the shores of the Pacific. On August 4th the Beaver sailed northward for Sitka, with Mr. Hunt aboard. While there an agreement was entered into between that gen- tleman and the Russian governor, Baranoff, the gist of which was that the Russian and Ameri- can companies were to forbear interference with each other's territory and to operate as allies in expelling trespassers on the rights of either. The Beaver had been instructed to return to Astoria before sailing to Canton, but instead she sailed direct, so Mr. Hunt was carried to Oahu, there to await a vessel expected from New York, on which he should obtain passage to Astoria. But he did not arrive until too late to avert the calamity which befell the Pacific Fur Company. War was declared between Great Britain and the

CENTRAL WASHINGTON.

United States. Mr. Astor learned that the Northwest Company was preparing a ship mount- ing twenty guns, the Isaac Todd, wherewith to capture Astoria. He appealed to the United States for aid, but his efforts were unavailing. Discouragements were thickening around the American settlement. Mackenzie was unsuc- cessful at his post on the Shahaptin river, and had determined to press for a new post. He visited Clarke, and while the two were together, John George MacTavish, of the North- west Company, paid them a visit and vaunt- ingly informed them of the sailing of the Isaac Todd, and of her mission, the capture or destruc- tion of Astoria. Mackenzie returned at once to his post on the Shahaptin, broke up camp, cached his provisions, and set out in haste for Astoria, at which point he arrived January 16, 1813. Macdougal was agent-in-chief at Astoria in the absence of Hunt. It was resolved by him and Mackenzie that they should abandon Astoria in the spring and recross the mountains. Mac- kenzie at once set off to recover his cached pro- visions and to trade them for horses for the jour- ney. He also carried despatches to Messrs. Clarke and David Stuart, advising them of the intention to abandon Astoria and directing them to make preparations accordingly. Mackenzie met a party of the Northwest Company, with MacTavish as one of the leaders, and the parties camped, as Irving says, "mingled together as united by a common interest instead of belonging to rival companies trading under hostile flags."

On reaching his destination, Mackenzie found his cache had been robbed by Indians. He and Clarke and Stuart met at Walla Walla as per arrangement, and together descended the Columbia, reaching Astoria June 12th.

Stuart and Clarke refused to break up their posts and to provide horses or make other prepa- rations for leaving the country. Furthermore, Mackenzie's disappointment in finding his cache broken into and its contents stolen made it nec- essary that the departure should be delayed beyond July Ist, the date set by Macdougal for dissolution of the company. Treason was to have time and opportunity to do its worst. Mac- Tavish, who was camped at the fort, began negotiations for the purchase of trading goods, and it was proposed by Macdougal to trade him the post on the Spokane for horses to be deliv- ered the next spring, which proposition was eventually accepted. An agreement for the dis- solution of the company to take effect the next June was signed by the four partners, Clarke and Stuart yielding to the pressure much against their wills. Hunt, who arrived on the 20th of August, also reluctantly yielded, the discourag- ing circumstances having been pictured to him by Macdougal, who pretended to be animated by a desire to save Mr. Astor's interests before the place should fall into the hands of the British,

whose war vessels were on their way to effect its capture. Hunt then sailed to secure a vessel to convey the property to the Russian settlements for safe keeping while the war lasted, first arranging that Macdougal should be placed in full charge of the establishment after January Ist should he fail to return.

While en route to advise Messrs. Clarke and Stuart of the new arrangement, Mr. Mackenzie and party met MacTavish and J. Stuart with a company of men descending the river to meet the Phoebe and the Isaac Todd. Clarke had been advised of the situation and was accompa- nying them to Astoria. Mackenzie decided to return also to the fort, and with Clarke attempted to slip away in the night and so reach Astoria before the members of the Northwest Company arrived, but was discovered and followed by two of MacTavish's canoes. Both MacTavish and Mackenzie reached their objective point on Octo- ber 7th, and the party of the former camped at the fort. Next day Macdougal, by way of prep- aration for his final coup, read a letter announc- ing the sailing of the Phoebe and the Isaac Todd with orders "to take and destroy everything American on the Northwest coast."

"This dramatic scene," says Evans, "was fol- lowed by a proposition of MacTavish to purchase the interests, stocks, establishments, etc., of the Pacific Fur Company. Macdougal then assumed sole control and agency because of the non-arrival of Hunt, and after repeated conference with MacTavish, in which the presence of the other partners was ignored, the sale was concluded at certain rates. A few days later J. Stuart arrived with the remainder of the Northwest party. He objected to MacTavish's prices, and lowered the rates materially. Mr. Stuart's offer was accepted by Macdougal and the agreement of transfer was signed October 16th. By it Duncan Macdougal, for and on behalf of himself, Donald Mackenzie, David Stuart and John Clarke, partners of the Pacific Fur Company, dissolved July Ist, pre- tended to sell to his British confreres and co-con- spirators of the Northwest Company 'the whole of the establishments, furs and present stock on hand, on the Columbia and Thompson's rivers.' " Speaking of the transaction in a letter to John Quincy Adams, secretary of state, Mr. Astor himself says:

"Macdougal transferred all of my property to the Northwest Company, who were in possession of it by sale, as he called it, for the sum of fifty- eight thousand dollars, of which he retained four- teen thousand dollars as wages said to be due to some of the men. From the price obtained for the goods, etc., and he having himself become interested in the purchase and made a partner of the Northwest Company, some idea may be formed as to this man's correctness of dealing. He sold to the Northwest Company eighteen thou- sand one hundred and seventy pounds of beaver

THE ASTOR EXPEDITION.

at two dollars, which was at that time selling in Canton at five and six dollars per skin. I esti- mate the whole property to be worth nearer two hundred thousand dollars than forty thousand dollars, about the sum I received in bills on Montreal. "

Charitably disposed persons may suggest that Macdougal's actions were in a measure justifia- ble; that a British force was actually en route to capture Astoria, and that the post, being without adequate means of defense, must surely fall; that it was better to save a pittance than that all should be lost. Macdougal's conduct subsequent to the transfer of Mr. Astor's property was, however, "in studied and consistent obedience to the interests of the Northwest Company." On his return on February 28, 1814, in the brig Pedler, which he purchased to convey Mr. Astor's property to a place of safety, Mr. Hunt found his old partner, whom he had left in charge of the fort, still presiding over it, but now a dignitary in the camp of the enemy. There was no other course open to him than to digest the venom of his chagrin as best he could, take his diminutive drafts on Montreal, and set sail in the Pedler for New York. Macdougal had been given a full partnership in the Northwest Company. What was the consideration?

It is needless to add that on the arrival of the British vessels, Astoria became a British posses- sion. The formal change of the sovereignty and raising of the union jack took place on Decem- ber 12th, and as if to obliterate all trace of Mr. Astor's operations, the name of Astoria was changed to Fort George. The arrival of the Isaac Todd the following spring with a cargo of trading goods and supplies enabled the North- west Company to enter vigorously into the pros- ecution of its trade in the territory of its wronged and outraged rival.

"Thus disgracefully failed," says Evans, "a magnificent enterprise, which merited success for sagacity displayed in its conception, its details, its objects; for the liberality and munifi- cence of its projector in furnishing means ade- quate for its thorough execution; for the results

it had aimed to produce. It was inaugurated purely for commercial purposes. Had it not been transferred to its enemies, it would have pioneered the colonization of the northwest coast by citizens of the United States; it would have furnished the natural and peaceful solution of the question of the right to the territory drained by the Columbia and its tributaries. * * * *

"The scheme was grand in its aim, magnifi- cent in its breadth of purpose and area of opera- tion. Its results were naturally feasible, not over-anticipated. They were but the logical and necessary sequence of the pursuit of the plan. Mr. Astor made no miscalculation, no omission; neither did he permit a sanguine hope to lead him into any wild or imaginary venture. He was practical, generous, broad. He executed what Sir Alexander Mackenzie urged should be adopted as the policy of British capital and enterprise. That one American citizen should have individu- ally undertaken what two mammoth British com- panies had not the courage to try was but an additional cause which had intensified national prejudice into embittered jealousy on the part of his British rivals, the Northwest Company."

By the first article of the treaty of Ghent, entered into between Great Britain and the United States, December 14, 1814, it was agreed "that all territory, places and possessions what- soever, taken by either party from the other, during or after the war, should be restored." Astoria, therefore, again became the possession of the United States, and in September, 1817, the government sent the sloop-of-war Ontario "to assert the claim of the United States to the sovereignty of the adjacent country, and espe- cially to reoccupy Astoria or Fort George." The formal surrender of the fort is dated October 6, 1818.

Mr. Astor had urged the United States to repossess Astoria, and intended fully to resume operations in the basin of the Columbia, but the Pacific Fur Company was never reorganized, and never again did the great captain of industry engage in trade on the shores of the Pacific.

CHAPTER IV.

THE NORTHWEST AND HUDSON'S BAY COMPANIES.

It is pertinent now to inquire somewhat more particularly into the fortunes and antecedent his- tory of the Northwest and Hudson's Bay Com- panies, which are each in turn to operate exclu- sively in the territory with which our volume is concerned. By the Joint-Occupancy treaty of October 20, 1818, between the United States and Great Britain, it was mutually covenanted "that any country which may be claimed by either party on the northwest coast of America, west- ward of the Stony mountains, shall, together with its harbors, bays and creeks, and the navi- gation of all rivers within the same, be free and open, for the term of ten years from the date of the signature of the present convention, to the vessels, citizens and subjects of the two powers; it being well understood that this agreement is not to be construed to the prejudice of any claims which either of the two high contracting parties may have to any part of the said country; nor shall it be taken to affect the claims of any other power or state to any part of said country; the only object of the high contracting parties in this respect being to prevent disputes and differences among themselves."

The Northwest Company, whose members were, of course, British subjects, was, therefore, permitted to operate freely in all disputed terri- tory, and it made good use of its privileges. Its operations extended far and wide in all direc- tions; its emissaries were sent wherever there was a prospect of profitable trade; it respected no rights of territory; it scrupled at no trickery or dissimulation. When it learned of the expe- dition of Lewis and Clarke it sent Daniel W. Har- mon with a party, instructing him to reach the mouth of the Columbia in advance of the Amer- icans. The poor health of the leader prevented this. Of its efforts to circumvent Mr. Astor's occupancy of the mouth of the Columbia we have already spoken.

It showed also its intention to confirm and strengthen British title to all territories adversely claimed, and wherever a post was established the territory contiguous thereto was ceremoni- ously taken possession of "in the name of the king of Great Britain for the Northwest Com- pany."

Although organized in 1774, the Northwest Company did not attain to high prestige until

the dawn of the nineteenth century. Then, however, it seemed to take on new life, and before the first half decade was passed it had become the successful rival of the Hudson's Bay Company for the fur trade of the interior of North America. The Hudson's Bay Company when originally chartered in 1670 was granted in a general way the right to traffic in Hudson's bay and the territory contiguous thereto, and the Northwest Company began to insist that the grant should be more strictly construed. The boundaries of Prince Rupert's land, as the Hud- son's bay territory was named, had never been definitely determined, and there had long been contention in those regions which were claimed by that company, but denied to it by the other fur traders. Beyond the recognized area of the Hudson's bay territory, the old Northwest Com- pany (a French corporation which had fallen at the time of the fall of Canada into the possession of the British) had been a competitor of the Hudson's Bay Company. When this French association went out of existence the contest was kept up by private merchants, but without lasting success. The new Northwest Company, of Mon- treal, united and cemented into one organization all these individuals for the better discharge of the common purpose. It is interesting to note the theory of trade of this association as con- trasted with that of the Hudson's Bay Company.

From established posts as centers of opera- tions, the Montreal association despatched parties in all directions to visit the villages and haunts of the natives and secure furs from every source possible. It went to the natives for their goods, while the rival company so arranged its posts that these were convenient to the whole Indian population, then depended upon the aborigines to bring in their peltry and exchange the same for such articles as might supply their wants or gratify their fancies. Consequently the one com- pany required many employees, the other com- paratively few. The clerks or traders of the Montreal association were required to serve an apprenticeship of seven years at small wages. That term successfully completed, the stipend was doubled. Skill and special aptitude in trad- ing brought speedy promotions, and the chance to become a partner in the business was an unfailing incentive to strenuous effort. The

NORTHWEST AND HUDSON'S BAY COMPANIES.

Hudson's Bay Company, on the other hand, had established fixed grades of compensation. Pro- motion was slow, coming periodically rather than as a reward for specially meritorious service, and though faithfulness to duty was required, no incentive was offered for special endeavor. The Hudson's Bay Company based its territorial title upon a specific grant from the crown, while the rival association sought no other title than such as priority of occupancy and pre-emption afforded. It claimed as its field of operation all unoccupied territory wherever located.

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An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 6

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company Number of Pages: 1146

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company
Number of Pages: 1146