An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 10

Author: Hines, Harvey K., 1828-1902
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1056

USA > Washington > An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 10

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"I considered it as a great public acquisition, the commencement of a settlement in that part of the western coast of America, and looked for- ward with gratification to the time when its de- scendauts had spread themselves through the whole length of the coast, covering it with free and independent Americans, unconnected with us but by the ties of blood and interest, and enjoying like us the rights of self-government."

The pen is moved to draw the contrast between this forecast of this great American statesman and the fulfillments of history, but must forbear. In these influences and under such inspirations was the inception of Astoria.

Mr. Astor's plan for the organization of the Astoria Company --- or, as it was called, the Pa-

cific Fur Company- was broad and comprehen- sive. It contemplated both a land expedition to cross the continent, and the dispatch of a vessel around cape Horn, and the two were to meet at the mouth of the Columbia. Every con- tingency that money could provide for was an- ticipated. There was, however, an element of weakness introduced in the organization that, from an early date, seriously interfered with its work, and we think finally proved its overthrow. It was this:

Though this was an American enterprise Mr. Astor did not sufficiently appreciate the neces- sity of making the personnel of his company American. He himself was a German by birth, and, though he had achieved his great commer- cial success under the fostering freedom of American institutions, and was personally an American in the purpose and spirit of his life, hardly realized that all of foreign birth who are in America are not of America. Hence, in se- lecting his partners, though he chose men of great experience and ability in the kind of trade upon which he was adventnring, he selected for leading partnerships several who had belonged to the Northwest Campany, which was always distinctively British in purpose as well as in relation. While for trade alone they were ade- quate, to any patriotic American purposes they were alien in thought and sympathy. They were in the company of Mr. Astor for profit, not American patriotism. These men were Alexander McKay, who had accompanied Mac- kenzie on both his great journeys, Duncan McDougal, David Stuart, Robert Stuart and Donald Mckenzie. As a providence against future difficulties between the United States and Great Britain, in the regions whither they were bound, these gentlemen provided themselves with proofs of their British citizenship, while they trusted to their association with an Ameri- can enterprise to shelter them under the eagle's wings. Only one American, Wilson Price Hunt, of New Jersey, was an interested partner from the first; but to him was instructed the management of the enterprise. So far these

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details of the organization are necessary if we would understand the causes that produced re- sults to which we shall presently come.

In carrying forward his plans Mr. Astor pur- chased and equipped the ship Tonquin, com- manded by Captain Jonathan Thorn, a lieuten- ant of the American navy on furlough. She mounted ten guns, had a crew of twenty men, and was freighted with a large cargo of supplies for the company and of merchandise for trade with the people of the coast. She carried also the frame of a small schooner for use in the coastwise trade. As passengers she had McKay, MeDougal, the two Stuarts, twelve clerks, several citizens and thirteen Canadian voya- genrs. The Tonquin sailed from New York for the mouth of the Columbia river, on the 2d day of August, 1810. Nothing in her voyage is to be specially noted, except it may be some conflict of authority between Captain Thorn, a thorough American, and the Scotch Me's and Stuarts on board, whom he persisted in treating as mere passengers, while they claimed the con- sideration of owners and employers. In this there was a slight omen of the trouble that was to follow.

The Tonquin arrived off the bar of the Co- lumbia on the 22d day of March, 1811. The bar was rough and the breakers rolled high. Captain Thorn ordered Mr. Fox, the first mate of the ship, to take a boat's crew of one seaman and three Canadian voyageurs and explore the channel. The boat was launched and put forth, but soon disappeared and all on board were lost. The next day another boat was sent out on the same errand, but was swept out to sea and only one of its crew reached the shore. Just as the second night of gloom was settling down on the dreaded bar the Tonquin succeeded in crossing, and anchoring just within. But the night was an anxious and fearful one. The wind threatened every moment to sweep the vessel on the sands among the rolling breakers. But the night passed with the anchors of the ship still safely holding, and in the morning she passed safely in and again cast her anchors in a good harbor.

With the Tonquin safely moored in the Colum- bia river, we turn to trace the course of that part of the great expedition that had directed its course over the Rocky mountains for the same point.

This party was entrusted to Wilson Price Hunt. It was composed of Mckenzie and three new partners in the company, -Ramsay Crooks, Robert McClellan and Joseph Miller. Besides were John Day, a noted Kentucky hun- ter; Pierre Dorion, a French half-breed, who was taken as interpreter; and enough trappers and voyageurs to make up a complement of sixty men. They left the frontier settlements west of the Missouri in the spring of 1811, and pur- sued the usual course of travel up the Missouri river in canoes and barges to the Mandan coun- try, thence with horses across the Rocky mount- ains to the waters that flow toward the Pacific. To accomplish this required all the summer and part of the autumn, and the party reached Fort Henry, on Snake river, on the 8th of October, 1811. After detaching some small parties of hunters and trappers, who were to use Fort Henry as their base of supplies, the main party under Mr. Hunt, embarked in canoes, which they had constructed on the banks of the river, and continned their journey down that treach- erous and turbulent stream. Without much trouble, and cheered by the wild notes of their Canadian boatmen's song, they swept swiftly down the river between the willowed banks that channel its flow, for a few days, when their frail canoes were suddenly swept into the roar- ing rapids of what is now known as " American Falls," and their voyaging came to a quick and disastrous end. Just below them the river dropped into a great, black chasm, through which it roared and foamed for many miles, making leap after leap over the edge of basaltic precipices into the deeper depths that seemed ever opening below. In this one moment the expedition seemed to be hopelessly defeated, and all sat down for the time gloomy and dis- pirited. One of their best men had been lost in the roaring rapide, and some of their canoes

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hung broken wrecks upon the rocks in the midst of the Falls. But with such men in sueb enter- prises, despair soon gives place to new resoln- tion, and so Mr. Hunt was soon rallying his inen for new and more desperate effort.

They were now in a mnost inhospitable coun- try; a dreary desert without tree or fruit or game, and winter was settling rapidly down upon them. Nothing remained for them but to cache their baggage and merchandise, and, separating into smaller parties the better to obtain food in their journeyings, each make the best of its way toward the coast on foot. How far they were from the goal of their journey they did not know. It was a dark and desperate venture that they looked in the face, but it were better than to lie quiet where they were, for that were sure and speedy death by starvation. One party under Mckenzie struck off toward the north, hoping to reach the Columbia, which they believed must lay in that direction; one under Crooks pursued its way down the south bank of Snake river, and one under Hunt down its northern shore. The company of Mckenzie disappeared under the dim horizon of the great and terrible desert to the north and west of the dread "Cauldron Linn," as the shipwrecked party called the place where their canoe voyage so fatally ended. The mountain ranges crowded them to the west of their intended course, but put them on the are of a circle described by Snake river, and thus brought them to that stream again about 250 miles from their start- ing point. The other parties, by following the stream, described the circle, and hence MeKen- zie's party came out ahead, and after reaching the river in the vicinity of the Blue mountains, followed it down until they reached the Colum- bia. The parties of Hunt and Crooks toiled wearily down over the seamed and cinereous lava plains that border Snake river, in a great rent of which the river itself flows a thousand feet below the general surface of the plains, famishing for water and almost starving for food. The most of the way only this impassa- ble gorge was between them. Sometimes they

were in sight of each other, and when they reached the point where the river enters its iron gorge through the Blue mountains they encamped with only its turbulent current sep- arating them. Both parties were in a starving condition, but that of Mr. Hont had that day captured a horse that belonged to a small camp of Indians, who fled at their approach, and had killed and was cooking it for supper. After a canoe had been constructed ont of skins some of the meat was taken across to the other party. On its second voyage a man, rendered delirious by famine, upset the canoe, was swept away and drowned. This was on the 20th day of Decem- ber, 1811. On the 23d day Mr. Hunt's party crossed to the west side of the river, and the two parties, numbering thirty-six men in all, were again united, not far from where the Union Pacific Railroad now crosses Snake river, near the town of Huntington. Appalled by the apparently insuperable obstacles before them, three of the inen wished to remain where they were rather than venture the snowy passes of the mountain ranges that stood like battlements of ice before them. The remainder struggled wearily on, reaching the valley of Grande Ronde on the last day of 1811. In a forlorn way the company celebrated the festival of the new year in the beautiful valley of Grande Ronde-a paradise of green in the midst of a wilderness desert of ice and snow. With great difficulty and suffering the Blue mountains were passed, and on the 8th day of January they came down upon the Umatilla river, and found food and hospitable entertainment at an Indian village on its banks. The mountain barriers were now passed, and their route was now down the open way of the Umatilla and Columbia rivers to the ocean. They arrived at Astoria on the 15th day of February, 1814. The party of Mckenzie having gained some days on those of Hunt and Crooks by its shorter route and easier traveling, had passed down the Snake river to the Colum- bia, and down that to the ocean; and, having reached Astoria a month before those of Hunt and Crooks, stood on the banks of the river as

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the latter landed, the first to welcome their old companions to the rest and bounty of Astoria.

When we began to trace the journey of the land portion of Mr. Astor's great exposition, we left the good ship Tonquin at anchor in the bay at the mouth of the Columbia. It is snit- able that we return now and take up her thrill- ing story.

Early in April, 1811, the partners who had come out in the Tonquin began the erection of a fort on the south side of the river. Lieuten- ant Broughton, of Vancouver's expedition, with the usual British partiality to royal nomencla- ture, had given it the name of "Point George;" but this party, ostensibly representing the American spirit and purpose, called it "As- toria," in honor of the founder and chief pro- moter of the enterprise. This was the first real step in the actual possession of Oregon by the American people. Though there was much disagreement among the partners of the com- pany in regard to points of authority and etiquette, as well as between them and Captain Thorn, by the 1st of June a storehouse was built and the supplies landed. Captain Thorn was impatient to proceed up the northwest coast to open communication with the Russian settlements and engage in trade with the In- dians, and accordingly as soon as his vessel was cleared of her load, on the 5th day of June, even before the fort was completed, he got under weigh, sailed out of the month of the river, and turned the prow of the Tonquin to the north. With him was Mr. Mckay, one of Mr. Astor's partners, probably the most considerate and thoughtful of all those thus intimately and prominently associated with Mr. Astor in this great venture. The vessel proceeded on her voyage, and in a few days came to anchor in one of the numerous harbors on the west shore of Vancouver Island. Mr. Mckay went on shore. During his absence the vessel was sur- ronnded by a vast number of the savages. Soon the deck of the vessel was covered by the swarthy multitude. They were eager to trade, but demanded a higher price for their furs than

Captain Thorn was willing to pay. Their stubbornness provoked the irascible captain to to anger, and he refused to deal with them at all. Seizing the chief of the band who had been following the captain about the deck and taunting him with his stinginess, he rubbed an otter skin in his face, and then somewhat vio- lently ordered the whole band to leave the vessel, enforcing his command by blows. Dur- ing this misadventure Mr. Mckay was on shore -an ill-starred fact for the vessel and expedi- tion. What followed is related with such cir- cumstantial fidelity by Mr. Irving in his "Astoria," and it bears such an important, if not decisive, relation to the ultimate result of the whole enterprise, that we transcribe it for these pages. Mr. Irving says:

When Mr. McKay came on board, the inter- preter related what had passed, and begged him to prevail on the captain to make sail, as, from his knowledge of the temper and pride of the people of that place, he was sure that they wonld resent the indignity offered to one of their chiefs. Mr. McKay, who himself possessed some experience of Indian character, went to the captain, who was still pacing the deck in moody humor, represented the danger to which his hasty act had exposed the vessel, and urged upon him to weigh anchor. The captain made light of his counsels, and pointed to his cannon and firearms as a sufficient protection against naked savages. Further remonstrances only provoked taunting replies and sharp altercations. The day passed away withont any signs of hos- tility, and at night the captain retired, as usual, to his cabin, taking no more than usual precan- tions. On the following morning, at daybreak, while the captain and Mr. Mckay were yet asleep, a canoe caine alongside in which were twenty Indians, commanded by young Shewish. They were unarmed, their aspect and demeanor friendly, and they held up otter skins, and made signs indicative of a desire to trade. The can- tion of Mr. Astor in regard to admitting In- dians on board the ship had been neglected for some time past, and the officer of the watch,

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perceiving those in the eanoe to be without weapons, and having received no orders to the contrary, readily permitted them to mount the deck. Another canoe soon succeeded, the crew of which was also admitted. In a little while other canoes came off, and Indians were soon clambering into the vessel on all sides.

The officer of the watch now felt alarmed, and called to Captain Thorn and Mr. MeKay. By the time they came on deck it was thronged with Indians. The interpreter remarked to Mr. Mckay that many of the Indians wore short mantles of skins, and intimated a suspicion that they were secretly armed. Mr. McKay urged the captain to clear the ship and get under weigh. He again made light of the advice, but the augumented swarms of canoes about the ship, and the numbers still putting off from the shore, at length awakened his distrust, and he ordered some of the crew to weigh anchor, while some were sent aloft to make sail. The Indians now offered to trade with the captain on his own terms, prompted apparently by the approaching departure of the ship: accordingly a hurried trade was commenced. The main article sought by the Indians in barter were knives; as fast as some are supplied they moved off, and others sneceeded. By degrees they were thus dis- tribnted about the deck, and all with weapons. The anchor was now nearly up, the sails were loose, and the captain in a loud and peremptory voice ordered the ship to be eleared. In an in- stant a signal yell was given; it was echoed on every side, knives and war clubs were brand- ished in every direction, and the savages rushed upon their marked victims.

The first that fell was Mr. Lewis, the ship's clerk. He was leaning with folded arms on a bale of blankets, engaged in bargaining, when he received a deadly stab in the back, and fell down the companion-way. Mr. Mckay, who was seated on the taffrail, sprang to his feet, bnt was instantly knocked down with a war club and flung backward into the sea, when he was dispatched by the women in the canoes. In the meantime Captain Thorn made a desper-

ate fight against fearful odds. He was a pow- erful as well as a resolute man, but he came on deck without weapons. Shewish, the young chief, singled him out as his peculiar prey, and rushed upon him at the first outbreak. The captain had hardly time to draw a clasp-knife, with one blow of which he laid the young sav- age dead at his feet. Several of the stoutest followers of young Shewish now set upon him. He defended himself vigorously, dealing crip- pling blows right and left, strewing the quarter- deck with slain and wounded. His object was to fight his way to the cabin, where there were firearms, but he was hemmed in with foes, cov- ered with wounds and faint with loss of blood. For an instant he leaned upon the tiller wheel, when a blow from behind with a war club felled him to the deck, when he was dispatched with knives and thrown overboard.

While this was transacting upon the quarter- deck, a chance-medley was going on throughout the ship. The crew fought desperately with knives, handspikes, and whatever weapons they could seize upon in the moment of surprise. They were soon, however, overpowered by num- bers and mercilessly butchered. As to the seven who had been sent aloft to make sail, they con- templated with horror the carnage that was going on below. Being destitute of weapons they let themselves down by the running rig- ging, in hopes of getting between decks. One fell in the attempt and was immediately dis- patched; another received a death-blow in the back as he was descending; a third, Stephen Weeks, the armorer, was inortally wounded as he was getting down the hatchway. The re- maining few made good their retreat into the cabin, where they found Mr. Lewis still alive, though mortally wounded. Barricading the cabin door, they broke holes through the com- panion-way, and, with muskets and ammunition which were at hand, opened a brisk fire that soon cleared the deck. Thus far the Indian interpreter, from whom these particulars are derived, had been an eye-witness of the deadly conflict. He had taken no part in it and had

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been spared by the natives as being of their race. In the confusion of the moment he took refuge with the rest in the canoes. The survivors of the event now sallied forth and discharged some of the deck guns, which did great execution among the canoes and drove all the savages to the shore.

For the remainder of the day no one ventured to put off to the ship, deterred by the effects of the firearms. The night passed away without any further attempt on the part of the natives. When day dawned the Tonquin still lay at an- chor in the bay, her sails all loose and flapping in the wind, and no one apparently on board of her. After a time some of the savages ventured to reconnoiter, taking with them the interpre- ter. They huddled about her, keeping cautiously at a distance, but growing more and more em- boldened at seeing her quiet and lifeless. One man at length made his appearance on the deck and was recognized by the interpreter as Mr. Lewis. Ile made friendly signs and invited them on board. It was long before they ven- tured to comply. Those who mounted the deck were met with no opposition, for Mr. Lewis, after inviting them, had disappeared. Other canoes now passed forward to board the prize; the decks were soon crowded and the sides covered with clambering savages, all intent on plunder. In the midst of their eagerness and exultation, the ship blew up with a tremendous explosion. Arms, legs and mutilated bodies were blown into the air, and dreadful havoc was made in the surrounding canoes. The interpre- ter was in the main chains at the time of the explosion, and was thrown unhurt into the water, when he succeeded in getting into one of the canoes. According to his statement the bay presented an awful spectacle after the catastro- phe. The ship had disappeared, but the bay was covered with fragments of the wreck, with shattered canoes and Indians swimming for their lives and struggling in the agonies of death, while those who had escaped the danger remained aghast and stupefied, or made with frantic panic for the shore. Upward of 100

savages were destroyed by the explosion, many more were shockingly mutilated, and for days afterward the limbs and bodies of the slain were thrown upon the beach.

The inhabitants of Newectec were over- whelmed with consternation at the astounding calamity which had burst upon them at the very moment of triumph. The warriors sat mute and mournful, while the women filled the air with lond lamentations. Their weeping and wailing, however, were suddenly changed into yells of fury at the sight of four unfortunate white mnen brought captive into the village. They had been driven ashore in one of the ship's boats, and taken at some distance along the coast. The interpreter was permitted to converse with them. They proved to be the four brave fel- lows who had made such a desperate defense from the cabin. The interpreter gathered from them some of the particulars already related. They told him further, that, after they had beaten off the enemy and cleared the ship, Lewis advised that they should slip the cable and en- deavor to go to sea. They declined to take his advice, alleging that the wind set too strongly into the bay and would drive them on shore. They resolved, as soon as it was dark, to put off quietly in the ship's boat, which they would be able to do unperceived, and to coast along back to Astoria. They put their resolution into effect, but Lewis refused to accompany them, being disabled by his wound, hopeless of escape, and determined on a terrible revenge. On the voy- age he had frequently expressed a presentiment that he should die by his own hands, thinking it highly probable that he should be engaged in some contest with the natives, and being resolved in case of extremity to commit suicide rather than be made a prisoner. He now declared his intention to remain on the ship until daylight, to decoy as many of the savages on board the ship as possible, then set fire to the powder magazine and terminate his life by a simple act of vengeance. How well he succeeded has been shown. His companions bade him a melan- choly adieu and set off on their precarious ex-

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pedition. They strove with might and main to get out of the bay, but found it impossible to weather a point of land, and were at length compelled to take shelter in a small cove, where they hoped to remain concealed until the wind should be more favorable. Exhausted by fatigue and watching, they fell into a sound sleep, and in that state were surprised by the savages. Better had it been for these unfortunate men if they had remained with Lewis and shared his heroic death; as it was they perished in a more painful and protracted manner, being sacrificed by the natives to the manes of their friends, with all the lingering tortures of savage cruelty. Some time after their death, the interpreter, who had remained a kind of prisoner-at-large, effected his escape and brought the tragical tidings to Astoria.

Thus ended the career of the Tonquin and her able but obstinate and hot-headed Captain Thorn, and here too closed the career of Alex- ander Mckay, a man to whom Mr. Astor had justly looked as one most able to direct the vasts interests that he had committed to this commercial venture on the Pacific coast. Mr. McKay, however, left a representative in Ore- gon in the person of his son, who became cele- brated in the annals of adventure on the trails of the fur trader and in the campaigns of the Indian wars of Oregon. At a later period his descendants, in the persons of Dr. W. C. Mc- Kay, of Pendleton, Oregon, and Donald Mc- Kay, the celebrated scout in all the Indian wars of forty years, have won for his name continued distinction, and been of great service to the re- gion in the interests of whose foundations their forefather died.

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An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 10

Author: Hines, Harvey K., 1828-1902 Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1056

Author: Hines, Harvey K., 1828-1902
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1056