USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > An illustrated history of Walla Walla County, state of Washington > Part 5
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71
three days Crooks and his party returned. Despairing of success on their doleful, retro- grade march, they had determined to share with their companions whatever might await them on the onward trip. Five days later, the party meanwhile beginning to see the ghastly face of famine staring at them, two of Mc- Lellan's party returned, bidding them aban- don all thought of descending the river. For many miles the river ran through volcanic sluice-ways, roaring and raging, at many places almost lost from sight underneath im- pending crags, generally inaccessible from its desert bank, so that, though within sound of its angry ravings, they had often lain down to their insufficient rest with parched and swollen tongues.
To manifest their anger at the hateful stream they named this long volcanic chute the "Devil's Scuttle Hole." What now re- mained? Nothing, evidently, but to hasten with all speed, their lives being at issue, to some more hospitable place. The party was, therefore, divided in two. One division, un- der Hunt, went down the north side of the river, and the other, under Crooks, took the opposite side. This was done in order to in- crease the chances of finding food and of meeting Indians. It was on the ninth of No- vember that they started on this dismal and heart-sickening march. Until December they urged on their course, cold, hungry, often near starvation. At occasional wretched In- dian camps they managed to secure dogs for food, and once they got a few horses. These were loaded down with their baggage, but, through scarcity of food, began soon to be too weak to be of much service, and so their attenu- ated carcasses, one by one, were devoted to ap- pease the hunger of the famished explorers.
The country through which they were pass-
24
HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
ing presented an almost unvarying aspect of volcanic and snowy desolation. The few frightened and half-starved Snake Indians that they encountered could give no information as to the route. They signified, however, that the great river was yet a long way off. Hunt estimated that they had now put abont four hundred and seventy miles between them and Caldron Linn. They were evidently approach- ing something, for gigantic snowy mountains, lifeless and almost treeless, seemed to bar their further way. Nevertheless they persisted with the energy of despair and clambered painfully up the snowy heights until at a sufficient ele- vation to command a vast view. Then, with a waste of mountains in front and bitter winds whirling the snow and sleet in their faces, they first began to despair of forcing their way. The short winter's day shut in upon their despair, and they were compelled to camp in the snow. Timber was found in sut- ficient quantity to prevent freezing. but dur- ing the night another snow storm burst on them furiously, and daylight, sluggishly steal- ing through the snow-clogged atmosphere, found them in a perfect cloud. The roaring river far below them was their only guide to further progress. Down the slippery and wind- swept mountain side they picked their way to the river bank. Here the temperature was much milder. Devouring one of their skin- and-bone horses, they crept a few miles along the rocky brink of the brawling flood and made a cheerless camp. On the following morning (December 6) they were startled by seeing, on the opposite bank of the stream, a party of white men more forlorn and desolate than them- selves. A little observation convinced Hunt that these men were Crooks and party. Shout- ing across the stream at last he made himself heard above the raging river. As soon as the
men discovered him they screamed for food. From the skin of the horse killed the night before Mr. Hunt at once constructed a canoe. In this crazy craft one of the Canadians dar- ingly and successfully crossed the fearful look- ing river, taking with him part of the horse and bringing back with him Mr. Crooks and Le Clere.
Appalled at the wasted forms and despond- ent looks of these two men, and still further disheartened at the account they gave of the insurmountable obstacles to continuing down the river. Hunt determined to retrace his steps to the last Indian camp they had passed. there to make a more determined effort to obtain guides and horses. With dismal forebodings, therefore, on the following morning they took the back track. Crooks and Le Clere were so weak as to greatly retard the rest of the party. In this extremity the men besought Hunt to leave those two to their fate while they hast- ened on to the Indian camp. But Hunt reso- lutely refused to abandon his weakened partner. The men began to push ahead until by night but five remained to bear him company. No provisions were left them except four beaver skins. After a night of freezing coldness, one of them being badly frost-bitten, Hunt, finding Crooks entirely unable to travel. concluded that his duty to the main company demanded his presence with them. Accordingly, having made the exhausted men as comfortable as possible and leaving two of the men and all but one of the beaver skins with them. Hunt and the remaining three men hastened on. A day and night of famine and freezing brought them up with their companions. The pangs of hunger were beginning to tell in va- cant looks and tottering steps. Some of them had not eaten for three days. Toward evening of that distressing day they saw with surprise
25
HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
and profound gratitude a lodge of Shoshones with a number of horses around it.
Hunger knew no law. They descended on the camp, and seizing five horses, at once dispatched one of them. After a ravenous meal had satisfied their immediate necessities, they bethought them of their deserted compan- ions. A man was at once sent on horse- back to carry food to them and to aid them in coming up. In the morning Crooks and the remaining three men made their appearance. Food must now be got to the men on the op- posite bank. But a superstitious terror seemed to have seized their companions as they looked across the sullen river at them. Ghastly and haggard, the poor wretches beckoning across with bony fingers, looked more like spectres than men. Unable to get any of the Cana- dians, overwhelmed as they were with ghostly fancies, to cross, one of the Kentucky hunters at last ventured the dangerous undertaking. Putting forth all his strength he at last suc- ceeded in landing a large piece of horse meat. Encouraged by this, one of the Canadians ventured over.
One of the starving crew, frantic by his long deprivations, insisted on returning in the canoe. Before they had got across, the pleas- ant savor of the boiling meat so inspired him that he leaped to his feet and began to sing and dance. In the midst of this untimely festivity the canoe was overturned and the poor fellow was swept away in the icy cur- rent and lost.
John Day. considered when they started the strongest man in the company, also crossed the river. His cavernous eyes and meager frame showed well how intense had been the suffering of the detachment on the west bank of the river. Often the wild cherries, dried
on the trees, together with their moccasins, were their only food.
The mountains which thus turned back this adventurous band were no doubt that desolate and rather unnecessary range border- ing the Wallowa country and the mouth of Salmon river. The detachments under Mc- Kenzie and Mclellan, having reached these mountains before the heavy snows, and hav- ing found each other there, had stuck to that route until they had conquered it. AAfter twenty-one days of extreme suffering and peril they reached the Snake at a point ap- parently not far from the site of Lewiston, and building canoes there, descended the river with no great trouble, reaching Astoria about the middle of January.
Hunt and his men, saved from starvation by the discovery of the horses, hastened on to find Indian guides. But first Hunt, with his usual honesty, left at the lodge (for the occupants had fled at their coming ) an amount of trinkets sufficient to pay for the horses he had taken. A few days later they reached a small village of Snakes. This, the largest vil- lage that they had seen on this side of the mountains, they had observed on their down trip, but had not been able to get any assist- ance from the inhabitants. Now, however, with a persistence born of their necessities, they insisted on a guide. The Indians de- murred, representing that the distance to the river was so great as to require from seven- teen to twenty-one days of hard traveling. They said that the snow was waist deep and that they would freeze. They very hospitably urged the party to stay with them. But as they also said that on the west side of the mountains was a large and wealthy tribe called the Sciatogas, from whom they might get
·
26
HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
food and horses, Hunt determined to push on, if he could find a single Indian to accompany him. By a most bountiful offer this desid- eratum was finally met. They were informed that they must cross to the west bank of the river, and enter the mountains to the west. With infinite tact and patience Hunt sustained the drooping spirits of the party. Many of them wanted to cast their lot for the winter with the vagabond troop of Snakes. They shrunk from crossing the chilly flood of Snake river with its huge ice blocks grind- ing other with a dismal sound. Then to commit themselves again to the mount- ains inspired them with terror. In fact, four of the Canadians, together with Crooks and John Day, were unable to go at all. But at last, in spite of doubt and weakness. everything was got together (though they were obliged to desert their six sick com- panions) and in the bitter cold of the early evening ( December 23) they crossed the river and at once struck for the mountains. They could only make about fourteen miles a day. Their five jaded horses floundered painfully, through the snow. Their only food was one meal of horse meat daily. On the fourth day of their journey the mountains gave way to a beautiful valley, across which they journeyed twenty miles. This must have been Powder river valley. Leaving this valley and turn- ing again into the mountains, a short but toil- some march brought them to a lofty height whence they looked down into a fair and snowless prairie. basking in the sunlight and looking to the winter-worn travelers like a dream of summer. Soon, best of all, they dis- cerned six lodges of Shoshones, well supplied with horses and dogs. Thither hastening eagerly, their hungry months were soon filled with roasted dog. This valley, which looked
so much like a paradise, must have been the Grande Ronde. Beautiful at all times, it must have seemed trebly so to these ragged and famished wanderers. The next morning the new year ( 1812) burst in upon them, bright and cheerful, as if to make amends for the relentless severity of its predecessor. The Canadians must now have their holiday. Not even famine and death could rob them of their festivals. So with dance and song and dog meat roasted, boiled, fried and fricasseed, they met the friendly overtures of the newly crowned potentate of time. Rested and re- freshed, they now addressed themselves to what their guides assured them was to be but a three days' journey to the plains of the great river. The time was multiplied by two, however, cre the cloudy canopy, which so enswathed the snowy waste as to hide both earth and sky from sight, parted itself be- fore a genial breath from some warmer clime. And then, wide below their snowy eyrie, lay stretched the limitless and sunny plains of the Columbia. Not more gladly did Cortez and his steel-clad veterans look from their post of observation upon the glittering halls of the Montezumas. They swiftly descended the slopes of the mountains and emerged upon that diamond of the Pacific coast, the Uma- tilla plains.
Here a tribe of Sciatogas or Tushepaws were camped, thirty-four lodges and two hun- dred horses strong. Well clad, active and hos- pitable, these Indians thawed out, almost as would have a civilized community, the well nigh frozen energies of the strangers. Re- joiced above all was Mr. Hunt to see in the lodges axes, kettles, etc., 'indicating that these Indians were in communication with the whites below. In answer to his eager questionings the Indians said that the great river was only
27
HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
two days distant and that a party of white men had just descended it. Concluding that these were Mckenzie and party, Hunt felt re- lieved of one great anxiety.
After a thorough rest the now joyful way- farers set forth across the fertile plains and after a pleasant ride of two days on the horses obtained of the Tushepaws, lifting their eyes they beheld a mighty stream, a mile wide, deep, blue, majestic, sweeping through the treeless plain, the Columbia. The hard and dangerous part of the journey was now at an end. In the absence of timber, however, and because of the unwillingness of any Indians that they met to sell canoes, they were obliged to wait till reaching the dalles before launching upon the stream. In the vicinity of the present Rockland (they had come from Umatilla on the north bank of the river) they had a "hyas wa wa" with the redoubtable Wishram In- dians. Sharpened by their location at the con fluence of all the ways down stream, these In, dians had clearly grasped the fundamental doctrine of civilized trade, to-wit: Get the greatest possible return with the least possible ·
outlay. To this end they levied a heavy toll on all unwary passers. These levies were usu- ally collected while the eyes of the taxed were otherwise engaged. In short, these Wishram Indians were professional thieves.
Endeavoring at first to frighten Mr. Hunt into a liberal "potlatch," then to beg of him by representing their great services in pro- tecting him from the rapacity of other Indians, but finding no recognition of their claims ex- cept abundant whiffs at the pipe of peace, they gave up in disgust and contented themselves with picking up whatever little articles might be lying around handy. After considerable haggling several finely made canoes were pro- cured of these people and in these the last stage
of the journey was begun. Nothing extraor- dinary marked the two hundred mile boat ride. down the river.
On the 15th of February, rounding the bluffs of Tongue Point, they beheld with full hearts the stars and stripes floating over the first civilized abode this side of St. Louis. Right beyond the parted headlands and the water bordering horizon, they recognized the gateway to the illimitable ocean. As they drew near the shore the whole population of Astoria came pouring down to the cove (near the modern site of "Dad's" saw-mill, now wharved over) to meet them. First in the crowd came the party of Mckenzie and Mlc- Lellan. Having no hope that Hunt and his men could escape from the winter and the fam- ine they were the more rejoiced to see them .. Their joy in reuniting was proportioned to the darkness of the shadow of death which had so long enshrouded them. The Cana- dians, 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. The next day was devoted to feast- ing and story telling. No doubt, like the feast- ing mariners of the JEneid, they discussed with prolonged speech the "amissos socios." These, as the reader will remember, were. Crooks and John Day, with four Canadians, who had been left sick on the banks of the Snake. Little hope was entertained of ever seeing them again. But as their story is a natural sequel to that just ended, it shall be given now. The next summer a party under Stuart and Mclellan, on their way from Okanagan to Astoria, saw wandering on the river bank near Umatilla two wretched beings, naked and haggard. Stopping their canoes to
28
HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
investigate. they discovered to their glad sur- he tried to kill himself. Prevented from this prise that these beings were Day and Crooks.
Their forlorn plight was quickly relieved with abundant food and clothes, and while the canoes went flying down the stream with speed accelerated in the joy of deliverance. the two men related their pitiful tale. Left in destitution of food and clothing, they had sustained life by an occasional beaver or a piece of horse meat given by the Indians, who. seemingly possessed of a superstitious fear, dared not molest them. With rare heroism and self-abnegation. Crooks remained by the side of John Day until he was sufficiently re- cuperated to travel. Then, abandoned by three of the Canadians, they had plodded on amid Blue mountain snows, subsisting on roots and skins. In the last of March, hay- ing left the other Canadian exhausted at a Shoshone lodge. Crooks and Day pressed on through a last mountain ridge and found them- selves in the fair and fertile plain of the Walla Wallas.
Here they were relieved by the kindness which marked the intercourse of those Indians with the whites. Fed and clothed they contin- ted down the river with lightened hearts, only to find at the dalles that there are differences in Indians as well as whites, for there the Eneeshurs, or Wishrams, as Irving calls them, first disarming suspicion by a friendly exterior. perfidiously robbed them of the faithful rifles which thus far in all their distress they had never yet lost sight of, and, stripping them, drove them out. More wretched than ever they now turned toward friendly Walla Walla. And just as they were striking inland they, saw the rescuing boats. So with added grati- tude they all paddled away for Astoria. But' poor Day never recovered. In an insane frenzy
he soon pined away and died. The barren and bluffy shores of John Day river possess an added interest as we recall the melancholy story of the brave hunter who first explored them. The four Canadians were afterward found alive, though destitute, among the Sho- slones.
The limits of this work forbid us to en- large upon the subsequent fortunes of the great Pacific Fur Company's enterprise. We could hardly do justice, however, to the heroic age of Oregon history without a few addi- tional words about the fur business and a brief description of that most dramatic event in all our early history. the destruction of the Tonquin.
Astor seems to have designed that .Astoria should be the central depot of trade and sup- plies: that from it parties should radiate by land and river, and trade with the Indians for furs as well as fit out trapping parties of their own; that from Astoria, as headquarters, should proceed the annual supply ship ( from New York) on fur trading trips to the bays and ports north of the Columbia: and that those supply ships having filled up partially on those trips should complete their lading at Astoria. Then away for China, the great market for furs at that time. In China the emptied vessel should reload with nankeens and teas and silks wherewith to clothe and exhilarate the fair inhabitants of New York. Two years would pass in completing this vast commercial "rounding up." For the still fur- ther enlargement of his business, Mr. Astor had also made arrangements to supply the Russian posts at New Archangel. He wished to do this partly for the profits accruing therein and partly to shut off competition in
29
HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
his own territory. This last he could accom- plish through that semi-partnership with the Russians in furnishing them supplies.
There were at that time three especially valuable fur-producing animals found in vast numbers in this country. The first, the bea- ver, was found in all the interior valleys, the Willamette country, as was afterward found, being pre-eminent in this respect. The two others, the sea otter and seal, were found on the coast. The sea otter fur was the most valuable. Its velvety smoothness and glossy blackness rendered it first in the markets of the world of all furs from the temperate zones of North America, and inferior only to the ermine and sable and possibly the fiery fox of the far north.
ter of a million, a profit of a thousand per cent. We cannot wonder, then, at the eager enterprise and fierce, sometimes bloody, com- petition of the fur traders.
With this outline of the business awaiting the Tonquin, let us pursue her fortunes to their terrible conclusion.
A Frenchman, Franchere by name, one of the Astoria clerks, is the chief authority for the story. Irving seems to have taken some poetic license with this account. According to him, with a total force of twenty-three and an Indian of the Chehalis tribe called Lama- zee, for interpreter, the Tonquin entered the harbor of Neweetee. Franchere calls the In- dian Lamanse, and the harbor, he says, the Indian called Newity. We shall probably be safe in following Bancroft and suppose the place to have been Nootka. Nootka sound, on the west side of Vancouver's island, has been referred to on a previous page as a bad place for the traders. In 1803 the ship Bos- ton and all her crew but two had been de- stroyed there.
The profits of the fur trade were such as might well entice daring and avarice to run the gauntlet of icebergs, starvation, ferocious savages and stormy seas. The profits of a single voyage might liquidate even the enor- mous cost of the outfit. For instance, Ross, one of the clerks of Astor's company, and located at Okanogan, relates that one morn- But it is well worth noting that these In- dians, like all others on the coast, were dis- posed at first to be friendly, and only the in- dignities and violence of traders transformed their pacific disposition to one of sullen treach- ery. Captain Thorn had been repeatedly and urgently warned by Mr. Astor and his asso- ciates against trusting to the Indians. One standing rule was that not more than four or five should be allowed on the deck at once. But the choleric Thorn treated with equal con- tempt the suggestions of caution and savage hucksters. A great quantity of the finest kind of sea otter skins had been brought on deck and to all appearance a most lucrative and am- icable trade was before them. But twenty ing before breakfast he bought of Indians one hundred and ten beaver skins at the rate of five leaves of tobacco per skin. Afterward a yard of cotton cloth, worth, say, ten cents, purchased twenty-five beaver skins, worth in New York $5 apiece. For four fathoms of blue beads, worth, perhaps, a dollar, Lewis and Clark obtained a sea otter skin, the mar- ket price of which varied from $45 to $60. Ross notes in another place that for $165 in trinkets, cloth, etc., he purchased peltries worth in the Canton market $11,250. In- (leed, even the ill-fated voyages of Mr. As- tor's partners proved that a cargo worth $25,000 in New York might be expected to be replaced in two years by one worth a quar- years of traffic with the whites and a long
30
HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
·course of instruction from the diplomatic and successful chief Maquinna had rendered the Nootka Indians less pliable and less innocent than Thorn expected. His small stock of pa- tience was soon exhausted. At one cunning and leering old chief, who seemed to be urg- ing the others to hold out for higher prices, the captain soon began to scowl with special rage. But the oily visage was scowl-proof, and the impatient sailor had the mortification to see that he was likely to be out-Jewed by one of those dirty and despised redskins. He could stand it no longer. In his most impres- sive and naval manner he bids the Indians to leave. But the obnoxious chieftain stands mo- tionless, a perfect statue of savage impudence. .All sense and judgment vanished from the captain's mind. Seizing him by the hair he propelled him rapidly toward the ship-ladder. Then, with a convenient bundle of furs, snatched up furiously, he emphasized the chieftain's exit. Nor is it likely that he spared a liberal application of boot leather to the most accessible part of the savage trader's anatomy. Instantly, as if by magic, the Indians left the ship. In place of the babel of jabbering traffickers were only the hair-brained captain and his astonished and silent crew. Mr. Mc- Kay, the partner on board, was very indignant when, on returning from a short trip ashore, he learned of the untimely cessation of trade. Ile assured Captain Thorn that he had not only spoiled their business but had endangered all their lives. Ile therefore urged making sail from the place at once. The Chehalis In- dian, Lamanse, also enforced Mckay's wish. asserting that further intercourse with the In- dians could result only in disaster. But the stubborn captain would listen to no advice. So long as he had a knife or a handspike they needn't try to scare him into running before a
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.