USA > Washington > Spokane County > Spokane > History of the city of Spokane and Spokane County, Washington : from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 5
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"Enorme, mon nes! T'il camus, sot camard, tête plate!"
As the Northwest company had established posts among these Indians, the Astor people decided to set up rival establishments, and elerk Pillet was dispatched with six men to locate a post among the Kootenais, and Farnam and Cox were sent from Spokane House to establish one among the Flatheads. Their mission achieved, the latter returned to the Spokane in time to share in the New Year's festivities, which were conducted on a seale of comparative magnifieenee. Clarke had built a snug and roomy dwelling house of four rooms and a kitchen; another commodious strueture for the men, and a capacious store for the furs and goods, "the whole surrounded by high paling and flanked by two bastions with loopholes for musketry." So the party were in a position to take their ease, and the gay and care-free Freneh- men enjoyed to their fullest zest the Christmas and New Year "regales." On such festive occasions flour and sugar were served out to the men for eakes, and a gener- ous allowanee of rum and wine to wash down the unwonted luxuries of the day.
"I passed the remainder of the winter at this place," run the Cox chronicles, "and between hunting, reading, fishing, etc., we contrived to spend the time agree- ably enough. We lived principally on deer, trout and earp (more probably suckers or whitefish), and occasionally killed a fat horse as a substitute for beef. Custom had now so far reeoneiled us to the flesh of this animal, that we often preferred it to what in Europe might be regarded as luxuries. Foals or eolts are not good, al- though a few of our men preferred them. A horse for the table should not be under three years nor above seven. The flesh of those which are tame, well fed and oeca- sionally worked, is tender and firm, and the fat hard and white; it is far superior to the wild horse. the flesh of which is loose and stringy, and the fat yellow and rather oily. We generally killed the former for our own table, and I can assure my readers that if they sat down to a fat rib, or a rump steak of a well fed four-year-old, with- out knowing the animal, they would imagine themselves regaling on a piece of prime ox beef. In February we took immense quantities of earp in Spokane river (the Little Spokane) above its junetion with the Pointed Heart, and in a few weeks after the trout eame in great abundanee.
"The Spokans we found to be a quiet. honest. inoffensive tribe; and although Vol. 1 -- 2
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
we had fortified our establishment in the manner above mentioned, we seldom closed the gates at night. Their country did not abound in furs, and they were rather indo- lent in hunting. Their chief. Humspokanee, or the Son of the Sun, was a harmless old man who spent a great portion of his time between us and Mr. McMillan. We entered into a contract with that gentleman to abstain from giving the Indians any spirituous liquors, to which both parties strictly adhered. Mr. Clarke, who was an old trader himself. had often witnessed the baneful effects of giving ardent spirits to Indians, while he was in the service of the Northwest company, at all whose es- tablishments on the east side of the Rocky mountains it was an almost invariable custom. . By this arrangement both parties saved themselves considerable trouble and expense, and kept the poor natives in a state of blissful ignorance. In other respects also we agreed very well with our opponent, and neither party evinced any of the turbulent or lawless spirit which gave so ferocious an aspect to the opposition of the rival companies on the east side of the mountains.
"The great object of every Indian was to obtain a gun. Now a good gun could not be had under twenty beaver skins; a few short ones we gave for fifteen; and some idea of the profit may be formed when I state that the wholesale price of the gun is about one pound seven shillings, while the average value of twenty beaver skins is about twenty-five pounds. Two yards of cloth, which originally cost twelve shillings, would generally bring six or eight beavers, value eight or ten pounds; and so on in proportion for other articles. But they were satisfied and we had no cause to complain.
"The Spokans are far superior to the Indians of the coast in cleanliness, but by no means equal in this respect to the Flatheads. The women are good wives and most affectionate mothers; the old, cheerful and complete slaves to their families; the young, lively and confiding; and whether married or single, free from the vice of incontinence.
"Their village was situated at the point formed by the junction of the two rivers. Some houses were oblong, others conical, and were covered with mats or skins ac- cording to the wealth of the proprietor. Their chief riches are their horses, which they generally obtain in barter from the Nez Perces, in return for the goods which they obtain from us for their furs. Each man is therefore the founder of his own fortune, and their riches or poverty are generally proportioned according to their activity or indolence. The vice of gambling, however, is prevalent among them, and some are such slaves to it that they frequently lose all their horses.
"The spot where 'the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep' is about midway be- tween the village and the fort. and has rather a picturesque effect at a distance. When a man dies several horses are killed, and the skins are attached to the ends of long poles, which are planted in the graves. The number of horses sacrificed is proportioned to the wealth of the individual. Besides the horseskins, deer and buffalo robes, leather shirts, blankets, pieces of blue, green and scarlet cloth, strips of calico, moccasins, provisions, warlike weapons, etc., are placed in and about the cemetery : all of which they imagine will be more or less necessary for the deceased in the world of spirits.
"As their lands are much infested by wolves, which destroy the foals, they can not rear horses in such numbers as the Nez Perces, from whom they are obliged to
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purchase them annually. They never kill any for their own use, but felt no re- pugnanee to eat the flesh at our place."
Affairs were not altogether harmonious between the rival establishments that first winter on the Spokane, for Pillet, a clerk of the Astor forees, fought a duel with pistols with Montour, a elerk of the Northwesters. They fired at six paces- "both hits; one in the collar of the coat, and the other in the leg of the trousers. Two of their men aeted as seconds, and the tailor speedily healed their wounds."
Spokane House was the popular rendezvous for the different posts and detached trading parties operating all over the Inland Empire. Many a gay gathering and many a lively social diversion could the sentinel pines and downlooking mountains narrate today if they but had the power of speech. The establishment boasted a ball-room, and there on wintry nights, to the strains of flute and fiddle, the vivacious French Canadians and more stolid young Seotch chaps trod a measure with the copper-tinted belles of the Spokanes, the Nez Perces and other neighboring tribes. Forgotten then, in the entraneement of Terpsichore. were their weary marehes by field and forest and mountain trail ; their dismal bivonaes in winter snows or summer's deluge. Loquacious Pierre, and mereurial Jean, and quick-tempered Louis cast away their memories of dreadful toil by perilous portage, or snapped their fingers at the thought of coming travail, when the breast-straps should eut the flesh as they tugged at the lines of deep-ladened bateanx dancing on the swift waters of the Columbia, the Spokane, the Flathead and the "Cootonai."
In fancy we may conjure baek the stirring seene: the deep ball-room, lighted by the great hearthfire and flaring flambeaux of pine knots: the Scoteh gentlemen, each in the tartan of his clan ; the Americans. deeked out in some treasured piece of bright colored raiment of the period, brought from distant New York, and the French Canadians in plume and sash and gaily colored capote.
And what a contrast without. where the winter moon spread her eold beams on a landscape of woody mountains and snowy plains, while the dark waters of the Spo- kane went tearing to the mighty Oregon, and the greater river ran sullen to the sea.
It was a hard. wild life, and few who embraced it survived to see again the pleasant landseapes of their boyhood homes, or hear on sunny Sabbath morning the deep-toned bells of worship calling across the smiling fields.
"It is worthy of remark." observes Parker, who traversed this country in 1835, 'that comparatively few of all those who engage in the fur business about and west of the Rocky mountains, ever return to their native land and their homes and friends. Mr. P. of Fort Walla Walla told me that to keep up their number of trappers and hunters in the country west of the mountains, they were under the necessity of send- ing out recruits annually, about one-third of the whole number. Captain W. has said that of more than 200 who had been in his employment in the course of three years. only between thirty and forty were known to be alive. From this data it may be seen that the life of hunters in these far western regions averages about three years. And with these known facts, still hundreds and hundreds are willing to engage in the hunter's life and expose themselves to hardships, famine and death. The estimate has been made from sources of correet information, that there are 9,000 white men in the north and in the great west, engaged in the various departments of trading, trapping and hunting. This number includes Americans, Britons. Freneh- men and Russians."
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Life at Okanogan offered none of the lively diversions that were the accompani- ment of a winter sojourn at Spokane House. In a letter by MeGillivray, a year later to a friend at Spokane, we find a graphie pen picture of that dreary outpost of the company :
"Oakinagan. Feb., 1814 .- This is a horribly dull place. Here I have been. since you parted from us, perfeetly solus. My men, half Canadians and half Sand- wich islanders. The library wretched, and no chance of my own books until next year, when the Athabasca men cross the mountains. If you or my friends at Spokan do not send me a few volumes I shall absolutely die of ennui.
"The Indians here are incontestably the most indolent rascals I ever met; and I assure you it requires no small degree of authority, with the few men I have, to keep them in order. Montignier left me on the twenty-third of December to proceed to Mr. McDonald at Kamloops. On his way he was attacked by the Indians at Okanogan lake, and robbed of a number of his horses. The natives in that quarter seem to entertain no great friendship for us, as this is not their first attempt to trespass on our good nature. My two Canadians were out hunting at the period of the robbery, and the whole of my household troops merely consisted of Bonaparte, Washington and Caesar (three natives of Hawaii). Great names, you will say; but I must confess, that much as I think of the two great moderns, and highly as I re- spect the memory of the immortal Julius, among these thieving seoundrels 'a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.' The snow is between two and three feet deep, and my trio of Owyhee generals find a sensible difference between such hyperborean weather and the pleasing sunshine of their own tropical paradise. Poor fellows! They are not adapted for these latitudes, and I heartily wish they were at home in their own sweet islands, and sporting in the 'blue summer ocean' that surrounds them.
"I have not as yet made a pack of beaver. The lazy Indians won't work ; and as for the emperor, president and dictator, they know as much about trapping as the monks of La Trappe. I have hitherto principally subsisted on horseflesh. 1 ean not say it agrees with me, for it nearly produced a dysentery. I have had plenty of pork, rice, arrowroot, flour, taroroot. tea and coffee; no sugar. With such a variety of bonnes choses you will say I ought not to complain : but want of society has de- stroyed my relish for luxuries, and the only articles I taste above par are souchong and molasses.
"What a contrast between the manner I spent last year and this. In the first with all the pride of a newly-created subaltern, occasionally fighting the Yankees, à la mode du pays; and anon, sporting my silver wings before some admiring paysanne along the frontiers. Then what a glorious winter in Montreal, with cap- tured Jonathans, triumphant Britons, astonished Indians, gaping habitants, agitated beanties. balls, routs, dinners, suppers ; parades, drums beating; colors flying, with all the other 'pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war.' But 'Othello's oceu- pation's gone,' and here I am, with a shivering guard of poor islanders, buried in snow, sipping molasses, smoking tobacco, and masticating horseflesh, But I am sick of the contrast !"
Certainly a vivid one, and made by a gentleman of evident culture and literary attainment.
CHAPTER III
BRITISH FLAG SUPPLANTS THE STARS AND STRIPES
TAKING THE FURS DOWN THE COLUMBIA- INDIAN THIEF HANGED AT MOUTH OF PALOUSE-GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA AT WAR-ASTOR BETRAYED BY HIS PART- NERS AT ASTORIA-HIS GREAT ENTERPRISE RUINED-BRITISH SEIZE ASTORIA-EXPE- DITION MASSACRED ON HEADWATERS OF THE SNAKE-REMARKABLE ESCAPE OF PIERRE DORION'S SQUAW.
Ay, tear her tattered ensign down! Long has it waved on high. And many an eve has daneed to see That banner in the sky. -Oliver Wendell Holmes.
W ITH the coming of spring, 1813, Spokane House became a seene of lively preparation for the springtime brigade down the Columbia to Astoria, or Fort George as it was soon to become by the fortunes of war, and the stars and stripes to be supplanted by the British flag. Leaving poor Pillet, who, between his aeeidental shooting at the Caseades, his duel on the Spokane and other minor untoward experienees was evidently in an unhappy frame of mind, to keep gnard on the Spokane with four assistants, the brigade set out on the 25th of May for the mouth of the Columbia. It had twenty-eight horses paeked heavy with the season's eateh, and reached Snake river at the month of the Palonse, or Pavilion river as it then was ealled by the French, on the thirtieth of May. Here the eanoes were found in safety, barring a few nails which the Indians had extraeted for their own needs, and while the brigade lay there to await repairs, a tragie incident occurred that was to lead, as we shall later learn, to a far more tragie dénouement.
During the night a thief or thieves had entered the tent in which Mr. Clarke slept, and stole from his garde-vin a valuable silver goblet. Hastily summoning the Indians of the village, Clarke told them that he had overlooked previous thefts on the oeeasion of his eoming into their country, believing that his indulgence then would win better treatment in future ; but that he was mistaken, for his lenience then had led to this bolder theft, and he saw that he must now deal with them in a more resolute manner. He accordingly announced that if the stolen property were re- turned he would pardon the offender, but if not. he should hang the thief if he could find him.
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The chief and others expressed a willingness to aid in the recovery of the stolen articles, but the day passed with no results. That night a watch was set, and an Indian detected in the act of entering one of the tents. When discovered he fled to a canoe, but was seized as he was stepping into it. An alarm was given, the whole camp was soon routed from their slumbers, and a search showed that several valuable articles were missing, most of which were found in the bottom of the canoe. The thief refused to give any account of the other missing articles, and as he had been remarkably well treated by the party, Clarke resolved. in view of this and the aggravated nature of the robbery, to put his threat into execution. A gallows was ordered erected, and the culprit's hands and feet having been hound, Clarke assem- bled all the Indians of the village and made a speech, declaring that the prisoner had violated his confidence, abused the rights of hospitality and committed an of- fense for which he ought to suffer death.
The Indians assented to this proposition and repudiated the prisoner, affirming that he did not belong to their tribe, but was an outlaw from another village, and they had all been afraid of him. The thief offered the most violent resistance to his execution, and screamed in a frightful manner as he was launched into eternity. An account of the subsequent appalling revenge taken by the relatives of this Indian will appear in another chapter.
Great news awaited the Spokane brigade on its arrival, June 11, 1813, at As- toria. "We found all our friends in good health," says Ross Cox, "but a total revolu- tion had taken place in the affairs of the company. Messrs. John George MeTavish and Joseph La Rocque of the Northwest company. with two canoes and sixteen men, had arrived a few days before us. From these gentlemen we learned, for the first time, that war had been declared the year before between Great Britain and the United States; and that in consequence of the strict blockade of the American ports by British cruisers, no vessel would venture to proceed to our remote establishment during the continuation of hostilities; added to which, a trading vessel which had touched at the Columbia in the early part of the spring, had informed our people that the ship Beaver was blocked up in Canton."
Himself a British subject, and holding friendly feelings towards the Northwest- ers, Cox states lightly and defends a transaction that at best was shameful enough -- a too ready betrayal by old Northwesters in Mr. Astor's service, of his interests and property into the hands of their former masters. We quote Cox's version: "These nulucky and unexpected circumstances, joined to the impossibility of sus- taining ourselves another year in the country without fresh supplies. induced our proprietory to enter into negotiations with Mr. MeTavish, who had been authorized by the Northwest company to treat with them. In a few weeks an amicable arrange- ment was made, by which Mr. MeTavish agreed to purchase all the furs, mer- chandise, provisions. cte., of our company at a certain valuation, stipulating to provide a safe passage back to the United States, either by sea or across the conti- nent, for such members of it as chose to return, and at the same time offering to those who should wish to join the Northwest company and remain in the country the same terms as if they had originally been members of that company. Messrs. Ross, MeLennon and I took advantage of these liberal proposals, and some time after Mr. Duncan MeDougal, one of the directors, also joined the Northwest.
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The Americans, of course, preferred returning to their own country, as also did Mr. Gabriel Franehere and a few other Canadian clerks."
The phrase, "to their own country," has now a half humorous ring, but there was no humor to the situation then. The Americans were down and out, their oeeu- pany of the Columbia River country had ended in failure, and it was known that a British war vessel was sailing to these shores to capture Astoria, pull down the American flag and take possession of the country for the British empire.
Gabriel Franehere, has left, in his "Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America," a harsher report of the perfidy of MeDougal and other agents of Mr. Astor. The Astorians were surprised one day, late in the autumn of 1812, by the appearance of two canoes, bearing the British flag, and having between them a third canoe flying the American colors. These British canoes brought J. G. Me- Tavish and Angus Bethune of the Northwest company, the vanguard to a flotilla of eight canoes loaded with furs under the conduet of John Stuart and McMillan. The American ennoe bore a small party of Astorians, who had met the Northwesters near the Caseades, and on learning the news brought by them, had returned to the mouth of the Columbia.
Melavish delivered to MeDougal a letter addressed to the latter by Angus Shaw, his unele, one of the partners of the Northwest company, advising him that the ship Isaac Todd, bearing letters of marque, had sailed from London in March under convoy of the British frigate Phoebe, with orders from the government to seize the American establishment at Astoria, which had been misrepresented to the admi- ralty as an important colony founded by the government of the United States.
A little later the eight canoes came into the offing and the Northwesters, to the number of seventy-five men, went into camp on the beach near the Astor fort. Here was a hostile expedition, with confessed designs against the Astoria enterprise, but McDougal, Mr. Astor's agent on the ground, and bound by every obligation of fidel- ity and deeeney to guard his great trust, received it in friendship and even benevo- lence, for the Northwesters were destitute of provisions and were supplied from Mr. Astor's stores while awaiting the expected arrival of a British war ship.
The upshot of the negotiations that followed was the sale of the vast Astor in- terests to the rival institution at a price not exceeding one-third of its true value.
"It was thus," lamented Franchere, "that after having passed the seas and suf- fered all sorts of fatigues and privations, I lost in a moment all my hopes of fortune. I could not help remarking that we had no right to expect such treatment on the part of the British government, after the assurances we had received from Mr. Jackson, his majesty's charge d'affaires, previously to our departure from New York. But as I have just intimated, the agents of the Northwest company had exaggerated the importance of the factory in the eyes of the British ministry; for if the latter had known what it really was -- a mere trading post-and that nothing but the rivalry of the fur traders of the Northwest company was interested in its destruction, they would never have taken umbrage at it, or at least would have never sent a maritime expedition to destroy it."
The frigate Phoebe failed to put in appearance, but in her stead the British sloop-of-war Raceoon arrived on November 30. When first sighted, the North- westers, now in possession of Astoria, were uncertain as to her nationality, and a fear arose that she might bear American arms. They met this danger, though, with
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
a very different spirit and resolution from that which had been exhibited by Me- Dougal when facing the possibility of an appearance of a British vessel. MeDougal went down the bay in a small boat, under instructions to ascertain the nationality of the newcomer, and to represent himself either as an American or a British subject, according to the flag that she might be found to fly. Meanwhile the precious furs stored at the fort were hastily loaded into canoes and hurried up the river to a hiding place in the thickets of a little entering stream.
"From the account given in this chapter," says Franchere, "the reader will sce with what facility the establishment of the Pacific Fur company could have escaped capture by the British force. It was only necessary to get rid of the land party of the Northwest company-who were completely in our power-then remove our cf- fects up the river on some small stream and await the result. The sloop-of-war ar- rived, it is true; but as, in the ease I suppose. she would have found nothing, she would have left after setting fire to our deserted houses. None of their boats would have dared follow us, even if the Indians had betrayed to them our lurking place. Those at the head of affairs had their own forties to seek, and thought it more for their interest, doubtless, to act as they did, but that will not clear them in the eyes of the world, and the charge of treason to Mr. Astor's interests will always be attached to their acts."
It seems improbable that the Indians would have betrayed the hiding place of the Astorians, if this expedient had been adopted. MeDougal had taken as wife a daughter of Chief Concomly, and the aged one-eyed chieftain seems to have been unable to fathom the quick shiftiness of his son-in-law; for when the Raccoon ap- peared in the bay, Concomly quickly assembled his warriors, marched them into the presence of his son-in-law. and never doubting that MeDougal was loyal to his trust, volunteered to aid him in battle against the invader. He proposed that he should station his warriors in the thickets on shore, and when the "King George men" at- tempted a landing he would open a hot fire on them from cover. When MeDougal declined this hostile alliance, the old chief shook his head in sadness and disgust, and the assurances of his son-in-law, that the war vessel was bringing friends, was too much for the simple intellect of the old father-in-law.
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