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 8
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"They procure their horses from the herds of these animals which are found in a wild state between the northern latitudes and the gulf of Mexico, and which some times count a thousand or fifteen hundred in a troop," says this informant. "These horses come from New Mexico and are of Spanish race. We even saw some which had been marked by a hot iron by Spaniards. Some of our men, who had been at the south, told me that they had seen among the Indians, bridles, the bits of which were of silver. The form of the saddles used by the females proves that they have taken their pattern from the Spanish ones destined for the same use."
When the first white men entered this country they found the Indians adept in the use of the lasso and the capturing of wild horses.
Those were, indeed, pleasant, languorous summer days in the valley of the Spokane. "the most pleasant and agreeable season I enjoyed in the Indian country." writes Cox. "Hunting, fishing, fowling. horse-racing and fruit-gathering occupied the day : while reading, music, backgammon, cte., formed the evening pleasures of our small but friendly mess."
We are further informed that the heat of the day was generally moderated by cooling breezes. "Towards the latter end of August. and during the month of Sep- tember, about noon. the thermometer generally stood at eighty-six, while in the morning and evening it fell to thirty-five or thirty-six ;" a weather record that might easily be duplicated now by one of the official reports of Weather Observer Stewart.
Lamentably these transitory delights could not continue indefinitely in the rough life of a fur trader. Winter was approaching. a winter of deep discontent and dire hardships and privations by frozen river and wind-swept plain.
The Spokane brigade was late that autumn (1815) in its descent of the Colum-
STEPTOE BUTTE
Most famous land mark in Palouse country. Formerly called Pyramid Butte
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bia to Fort George, as Astoria had now come to be known, and November was well advanced when Keith, Montour, Mackenzie and Cox, with fifty voyageurs and Rivet, the interpreter, started on the return trip to the interior. Winter set in carly, and at the mouth of the Snake much drift iee was encountered which threatened in- jury or destruction to the eedar bateaux and such of the eanocs as were constructed of bireh bark. Iee jams were soon met, and the work of portaging around them, in the severe temperature, exhausted the men. For three days they struggled at this dreadful toil, the spirits of the men falling to the lowest ebb.
After a cheerless breakfast a delegation presented itself before the tent occupied by the clerks and sent in word that they wished to speak to Mr. Keith, the com- mander, and when he appeared at the tent opening, Bazil Lucie, one of the best and most obedient men in the brigade respectfully asked leave to speak for his fellows. His comrades, he said, were reduced to the lowest degree of weakness by the unex- peeted hardships they had encountered, and had beeome convinced that they could not by any possibility overcome the long chain of rapids and iee jams that lay before them. At the same time they wished it to be understood that their protest was not expressed in a mutinous spirit ; they were willing and ready to make the last effort that lay within their strength, but felt themselves incapable of further endeavor.
Mr. Keith's first feeling was of anger and indignation. The protest was so at variance with the customary spirit of Canadian voyageurs that he feared, for a moment, that he would have to deal with a dangerous degree of insubordination ; but when he looked upon the dejected figures of his men, and read in their faithful eyes the sorrow which attended their relnetant remonstrance, he realized that his mo- mentary anger was unworthy of a being of humane principles, and addressed them in a sympathetic spirit, assuring them that he did not find fault with their action and regretted that he could not provide them with a more comfortable wintering ground.
For it had become apparent that the. brigade would be unable to aseend the Columbia to Okanogan, but would have to go into winter quarters on the bleak and wind-swept bank of the river and await the coming of spring and the breaking up of the iee blockade which now held them in its unrelenting grip.
Fortunately an abundance of driftwood was near at hand, and of this some of the men were set at work gathering a large store, while others were occupied in piling the trading goods in a safe position; and yet others, with the assistance of the canoes, tarpaulins and sails, constructed beds and shelter for the expedition.
This winter encampment was probably in the vicinity of Badger mountain, Douglas county, for the records state that about ten miles distant, in the midst of extensive plains there rose a high and conically shaped hill, which the traders named Mt. Nelson, and which, on having been elimbed by Keith and one of the clerks, afforded a commanding viewpoint from which they looked out over "a widely ex- tended prospect of the great plains in their wintry clothing; their undulations reminded us of the ocean, when the troubled waves begin to subside after a storm." Vainly they strained their eyes to catch a glimpse of animate nature. "Neither man, nor fowl, nor cattle, nor beasts, nor creeping thing met our longing and ex- peetant gaze. Silent desolation reigned all around."
We may readily believe that the time passed heavily enough. "Our traveling library." writes Cox, "was on too small a scale to afford much intellectual enjoy-
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ment. It only consisted of one book of hymns, two song-books, the latest edition of Joe Miller, and Darwin's Botanic Garden. The Canadians could not join us in the hymns, and we endeavored in vain to tune our pipes for profane harmony. 'Yankee Doodle,' the 'Frog's Courtship' and the 'Poker' were the only three that came within the scope of our vocal ability."
A few men who had been sent afoot to Fort Okanogan returned early in Janu- ary with sixteen lean and hungry cayuses and eight of these, after a few days' rest, were loaded with a part of the goods and supplies, and Mr. Keith, taking with him the greater number of the men, set off for the post at the month of the Okanogan.
"Mackenzie and I passed six more melancholy weeks in this spot," says Cox, "during which period we did not see an Indian. Our time would have passed heav- ily enough, only that we fortunately agreed on no single subject. Episcopacy and Presbyterianism, with all their offshoots formed a prolific source of polemic recrea- tion ; and when we became tired of the mitre and the kirk, we traveled back to Ossian and the Culdees. We argued on the immutability of the Magellanic clouds. We discussed the respective merits of every writer to whom the authorship of Junins has been attributed. We differed on the best mode of cooking a leg of mutton; and we could not agree as to the superiority of a haggis over a harico, or of Ferintosh over Inishowen. Plum pudding and rice each had its champion; and when he rose in all his strength and thought to destroy me with the plentiful variety of a Scotch breakfast. I at once floored him with the solid substantiality of an English dinner. Thus with empty stomachs and half-famished bodies, we argued on luxuries while we anticipated starvation.
"Poor Mackenzie." adds Cox in a footnote. "In 1828 I received a letter from the Columbia announcing the melancholy intelligence that he and four of his men had, the preceding year. been surprised by the savages on Fraser's river, who bar- baronsly murdered the entire party."
But spring came carly and released the party from the ice-grip, for about the middle of February, under the genial influence of a strong Chinook wind, the Colum- bia opened, and on the 16th they tried once more their fortunes by water, and after many narrow escapes arrived at Okanogan twelve days later, "with empty stomachs and exhausted bodies."
Neither Franchere nor Ross seems to have foreseen the building of a town, much less an imperial city, by the falls of the Spokane. The latter had his eye on the mouth of the Okanogan as the site of the future commercial depot of the vast interior. The situation there he thought "admirably adapted for a trading town. With a fertile soil, a healthy climate, horses in abundance for land carriage, an opening to the sea by the Columbia, and a communication to the interior by it and the Okanogan; the rivers well stocked with fish, and the natives quiet and friendly, it will, in my opinion, be selected as a spot preeminently calculated for a site of a town, when civilization (which is at present so rapidly migrating towards the west- ward ) crosses the Rocky mountains and reaches the Columbia."
But "man proposes and God disposes" and the traders of a hundred years ago, however keen-sighted and far visioned, could not foresee the revolution that was to come with the locomotive and the building of a vast and intricate system of railroads, whose masters were to wrest the growing tonnage of the future from the rivers and
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the seas and contribute to the building of cities by sites that could not be approached by the light canoe and the cedar bateau of the daring voyageur.
The brigade that came up from Fort George, spring of 1817, was the largest that had ever ascended the Columbia. It left that post under a salute of seven guns, and comprised five Scots, two Englishmen, one frishman, thirty-six Canadians, twenty Iroquois Indians, two Nipissings, one Cree and three half-breeds; nine na- tives of the Sandwich islands, and one boy, a servant, two women and two children. Two barges and nine large canoes were required for the transportation of this party and the average lading to each boat was nearly a ton exclusive of the weight of passengers and crews.
This expedition, on its way to Fort William, on lake Superior, arrived at the mouth of Canoe river, north of the Arrow lakes on the upper Columbia, without notable accident or incident. At that point, as seven of the men had become inva- lided, it was decided to return them to Spokane House rather than subject them to the hardships and dangers of the long voyage over the mountains and the vast plains of western Canada. Out of this action there was to develop one of the most horrible tragedies of which western annals contain a record.
The best canoe was assigned the party of six Canadians and Holmes, the English tailor, and although only two of the men were able to work, it was thought that the current would carry them in three days to Kettle Falls, from whence they could easily reach Spokane. As the stock of provisions was limited, barely sufficient was assigned them for this period. They separated from their companions with gloomy forebodings, and some of them predicted that they would nevermore see their fam- ilies and friends in distant Canada.
The current of the Columbia, now swollen by melting snow fields. carried them in ease and safety to the upper Dalles or narrows. Here they disembarked, but in an effort to lower the canoe through the foaming waters, the line broke or was torn from the grasp of the weakened men, and the little craft swept away to destruction. As they had lacked either the providence or the strength to remove their scanty supply of provisions, these together with their blankets and most of their clothing, were carried away with the canoe, leaving them stranded on a wild and inhospitable shore, ill, destitute and discouraged.
As no other course lay before them, they set out feebly on foot in an endeavor to follow the windings of the river to the Indian settlements far below. As the beaches were inundated, they had frequently to take to the wooded mountains, tear- ing their way along through the dense undergrowth, falling now and then from weariness or complete exhaustion, and one by one abandoning hope and yielding to the blackness of despair. Macon, a voyageur, was first to perish under these ordeals. and his famished and desperate comrades, driven now to the horrors of cannibalism. divided his remains equally among them, and this shocking subsistence maintained life for a few days. Owing to the torn and swollen state of their feet, they could not advance more than two or three miles daily. Holmes, the tailor, followed Ma- con ; and one by one the others lay down and died until there remained only La Pierre and Dubois. Later La Pierre was found on the shore of upper Arrow lake, by some Indians in a canoe, and by them was brought down the river to Kettle Falls. The sole survivor declared that in self-defense he had been driven to cut the throat of Dubois, who, as he contended, had risen in the night and first attempted to kill
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
him with a elasp-knife. He was brought to Spokane, where his conflicting stories created suspicion, which was later intensified by the statements made by the Indians who had picked him up, and he was subsequently sent to Canada for trial; but as the evidence against him was circumstantial, he was acquitted.
We have traced the manner and the methods whereby the interests of the Pacific Fur company (the Astor enterprise) were appropriated, through treachery and cowardice, by the Northwest company. It now remains to narrate the events which later led up to the acquisition of the Northwest company by the Hudson's Bay people.
At no time within the period covered by these narratives had the Hudson's Bay company obtained a foothold west of the Rocky mountains; but in the country east of the mountains the keenest and most unscrupulous rivalry had arisen between these conflicting adventurers. Under-handed methods were later succeeded by open war- fare-the taking of forts by armed attack, the besieging of others until their inmates perished of starvation, and other equally lawless and desperate methods. The spirit of that contest is well reflected in a letter, written in 1816 from a Northwest trader to a friend at Spokane:
"You already know the strong opposition that came into the country, the great- est part of which went to Athabasca and Slave lake. You must also have heard of their success at the former place, having been obliged from starvation to give themselves up to the Northwest, although your old friend (our Mr. Clarke of Spo- ane House, who had gone over to the Hudson's Bay people), swore he would rather die than come under any obligation to our people. He lost seventeen men by famine. At Slave lake they were more successful; but at the different establishments they had in other parts of the country, they lost thirteen more by starvation. Last June they received a mortal blow from the Cossacks of Red river (half-breeds), of which affair, as I was on the spot a few days later. I shall give you a detail. Yon of course know that two of our forts were taken, and all the property. and that Cap- tain Cameron (a proprietor of the Northwest company ) was made prisoner. The forts were subsequently burned.
"Mr. A. MeDonnell, who was stationed at Qu'appelle river. held his fort in de- fiance of them. He was threatened with destruction if he made any attempt to pass downward. His opponent, however, started with his men, and returns of furs and provisions, but those blackguard Brules (also half-breeds) fell in with them, took them all prisoners, and carried the property to Mr. McDonnell. No blood was shed on this occasion. Some time after, Mr. MeDonnell, being anxious for the arrival of the gentlemen from the northward, sent a party of five Canadians with two carts loaded with provisions for us by land ; and the above blackguards took upon them- selves to accompany them to the number of fifty. On passing by the colony, at the distance of two miles, they were stopped by the governor and twenty-six men well armed. The Brules were at that time but thirteen, including the Canadians. A few words arose between the governor and our men. The former ordered his men lo fire, when two only, with much reluctance, obeyed. The fire was immediately returned by the Brules, when seven instantly fell. A retreat was begun by the Hud- son's Bay people, but out of twenty-six only four escaped. The Brules had only one man killed and one wounded. They took the fort, with a great quantity of arms
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and ammunition, and have sworn vengeance against every description of Hudson's Bay men."
This was bad business-a degree of frenzied enterprise which comported but poorly with the British boast about law and order; but it needs to be remembered that there existed then in western Canada no law or authority beyond the rule of the fur traders and the authority which they maintained by foree of arms.
Such warfare was, of course expensive, and joined to the ruinous competition which had driven the rivals to a policy of bidding higher and higher for the produce of the traps. threatened, if indefinitely continued, to bankrupt one or the other, or possibly both of the contesting companies. Back in Montreal and London, where declining dividends impressed the stockholders with the reprehensible nature of the confliet, an agitation soon started in the interest of peace, and negotiations were entered into which culminated in the purchase by the Hudson's Bay people of all the interests of the Northwest company. including Spokane House and other posts in the interior and on the Columbia.
CHAPTER VI
AMUSING AND TRAGIC INCIDENTS
DANCING WITH SPOKANE NYMPHS- PETER SKENE OGDEN AND HIS INDIAN WIFE-FRENCH THIE PREVAILING LANGUAGE OF THE COUNTRY-LOUIS LA LIBERTE'S WOUNDED PRIDE . -THRILLING ADVENTURE WITHI A GRIZZLY BEAR-ROUGHI LIFE OF THE FREE TRADERS-KEEN COMPETITION-FORCED RIDE WITH A SUPPLY OF TOBACCO-SPO- KANE WOMEN GREAT SLAVES-SHOCKING DOUBLE ACT OF REVENGE.
R OSS, who came out on the Tonquin in 1811, and made frequent trips to the interior, has recorded a graphie pieture of Spokane House as it ap- peared a hundred years ago: "There all the wintering parties, with exception of the northern district, met. There they all fitted out; it was the great starting point. At Spokane House there were handsome buildings; there was a ballroom even, and no females in the land so fair to look upon as the nymphs of Spokane; no damsels could danee so gracefully as they, none were so attractive. But Spokane House was not celebrated for finc women only; there were fine horses also. The raee-ground was admired, and the pleasures of the ehase often yielded to the pleasures of the raee. Altogether Spokane House was a delightful place."
This breathes a spirit of badinage, but relatively, as rough conditions then went at this and other posts, it sketehes a picture that is fairly true.
Among the notable traders who yielded to the blandishments of the Spokane ladies of that dim and distant day was Peter Skene Ogden, who took for wife a remarkable woman of that tribe. She bore him several children, and carried into a serene old age a reputation as a faithful and dutiful spouse and a kind and attentive mother. She followed the fortunes of her white master to the lower Columbia. and dwelt for many years at Fort Vancouver and Oregon City. She died, at the age of 86, at Lae La Hache, British Columbia. Ogden failed to ratify the alliance with a formal marriage, even when pressed to do so as he lay upon his eouch of death. To the urgent solieitation of good old Dr. McLoughlin he made answer that if many years of public recognition of the relation and of his children did not constitute sufficient proof, no formal words of priest or magistrate could help the matter. Ogden left a valuable estate, and this irregularity invited a vigorous contest of his will by relatives in England, but the dispute was amicably compromised through the efforts of Sir George Simpson, the executor of the will.
Ogden. who came from an influential colonial family, revealed in his boyhood a daring and adventurous spirit which lured him, while yet a youth, into the west- ern wilds. He had been for a while, in the service of John Jacob Astor as a Vol. I-4
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clerk, presumably at Montreal, but a little later, in 181t. he attached himself, at the age of 17, to the Northwest company, and operated for several years in the wild country to the east of the Rocky mountains. He came upon the Columbia in 1818, and two years later, by his zeal, courage and indefatigable industry, was made a partner in the Northwest company, and later became chief factor of the Fludson's Bay company. Ogden was a frequent sojourner at Spokane House, and was here at intervals till the post was abandonet to the elements and the use of the Indians of the neighborhood.
From a manuscript in the Spokane city library. "Spokane House; History of an Old Trading Post." I am permitted by the author, William S. Lewis of this city, to make the following extracts:
"After spending several days in looking for a suitable site, for his trading post, Clarke finally decided upon a beautiful point of land at the juncture of the Spokane and Little Spokane rivers. . 'The site selected was one of considerable beauty as well as commercial advantage. The Little Spokane, emerging from a narrow, heavily wooded valley, flows along parallel to the main river for a mile or so before joining it. To the cast are high, bald granite hills; and to the west gravel benches rise, overgrown with bunch-grass and occasional pines. On the aluvial bottom, midway between the two rivers and a short distance from their juncture, the post known as Spokane House was established.
"A stout stockade, twelve feet high, was erceted; this was flanked with two square bastions, each armed with a light four-pounder of brass, and with loop- holes cut in the upper story for use of musketry. This defense proved unnecessary, as the local tribe of Indians was very honest and inoffensive, and the post gates were seldom closed at night. The only use the four-pounders were ever put to was that of making noise for local celebrations. Within the stockade thus built, to make the following extracts :
"The main trading building was an oblong structure, Imilt of peeled logs of uniform size, the greater length extending north and south, and the sides facing the two rivers.
"The framework of the roof, doors and windows was of hewn timbers, carefully fitted and fastened with wooden pegs, in place of nails, and the roof was shingled with shakes eut from cedars growing along the banks of the Little Spokane.
"In the middle of this trading building. on each side, an opening seven feet high and eight feet wide was cut, forming a passage-way. Each side of this was built up breast high, as a counter, to protect the wares of the traders from the thieving propensities of the Indians. Indians desiring to trade could come into the building from either side, up to the log railing, behind which some of the clerks and men were always stationed in care of the merchandise.
"Annexed to the trading building was a room in which the furs were stored for transportation to Astoria.
"Clarke was an old and experienced Indian trader. As soon as his buildings were completed. he assembled the neighboring Indians, made several speeches, displayed his fine buildings and his wealth, and then gave a grand ball in honor of his men and the Indians-the first big social event in the history of our section. . .
"By a separate agreement (at the time the Astor interests passed to the North-
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west company ) Spokane Honse and property was sold to the Canadians for a band of Indian horses, to be delivered the following spring.
"Under the management of the Northwest company, Spokane House was, for several years, an important trading center, though the post proved to be in a rather out of the way loeation, 150 miles from the better fur regions, furs being searee in the immediate neighborhood, and the local Indians being but indolent hunters. Gradually, as the local fur-bearing animals were destroyed, the busi- ness beeame less and less lucrative, yet the post continued to be retained, largely as a matter of sentiment and personal comfort. It was the Meeca for all the fur traders: the climate was delightful, the Indians friendly ; all the wintering par- ties of the distriet met at Spokane; all fitted out here-it was a great starting point. Trappers, after their months of solitary labor, were eager for the attrae- tions of the post. The buildings were unusually handsome and commodious; the post even boasted of a ballroom, and the graceful native dancers were in great demand as partners. There were many fine horses about the place, and many a man wagered the earnings of a year upon the raee-course. Deer were plentiful; trout and other fish filled the streams; and savory steaks of huneh-grass fed eayuses, a great delicaey at Spokane House, were famous throughout the Rocky moun- tains.
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