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We Here Close Our Picturings Of The Rocky Mountains And Their
Wild Inhabitants, And Of The Wild Life That Prevails
There; which
we have been anxious to fix on record, because we are aware that
this singular state of things
Is full of mutation, and must soon
undergo great changes, if not entirely pass away. The fur trade
itself, which has given life to all this portraiture, is
essentially evanescent. Rival parties of trappers soon exhaust
the streams, especially when competition renders them heedless
and wasteful of the beaver. The furbearing animals extinct, a
complete change will come over the scene; the gay free trapper
and his steed, decked out in wild array, and tinkling with bells
and trinketry; the savage war chief, plumed and painted and ever
on the prowl; the traders' cavalcade, winding through defiles or
over naked plains, with the stealthy war party lurking on its
trail; the buffalo chase, the hunting camp, the mad carouse in
the midst of danger, the night attack, the stampede, the scamper,
the fierce skirmish among rocks and cliffs - all this romance
of savage life, which yet exists among the mountains, will then
exist but in frontier story, and seem like the fictions of
chivalry or fairy tale.
Some new system of things, or rather some new modification, will
succeed among the roving people of this vast wilderness; but just
as opposite, perhaps, to the inhabitants of civilization. The
great Chippewyan chain of mountains, and the sandy and volcanic
plains which extend on either side, are represented as incapable
of cultivation. The pasturage which prevails there during a
certain portion of the year, soon withers under the aridity of
the atmosphere, and leaves nothing but dreary wastes. An immense
belt of rocky mountains and volcanic plains, several hundred
miles in width, must ever remain an irreclaimable wilderness,
intervening between the abodes of civilization, and affording a
last refuge to the Indian. Here roving tribes of hunters, living
in tents or lodges, and following the migrations of the game, may
lead a life of savage independence, where there is nothing to
tempt the cupidity of the white man. The amalgamation of various
tribes, and of white men of every nation, will in time produce
hybrid races like the mountain Tartars of the Caucasus.
Possessed as they are of immense droves of horses should they
continue their present predatory and warlike habits, they may in
time become a scourge to the civilized frontiers on either side
of the mountains, as they are at present a terror to the
traveller and trader.
The facts disclosed in the present work clearly manifest the
policy of establishing military posts and a mounted force to
protect our traders in their journeys across the great western
wilds, and of pushing the outposts into the very heart of the
singular wilderness we have laid open, so as to maintain some
degree of sway over the country, and to put an end to the kind of
"blackmail," levied on all occasions by the savage "chivalry of
the mountains."
Appendix
Nathaniel J. Wyeth, and the Trade of the Far West
WE HAVE BROUGHT Captain Bonneville to the end of his western
campaigning; yet we cannot close this work without subjoining
some particulars concerning the fortunes of his contemporary, Mr.
Wyeth; anecdotes of whose enterprise have, occasionally, been
interwoven in the party-colored web of our narrative. Wyeth
effected his intention of establishing a trading post on the
Portneuf, which he named Fort Hall. Here, for the first time, the
American flag was unfurled to the breeze that sweeps the great
naked wastes of the central wilderness. Leaving twelve men here,
with a stock of goods, to trade with the neighboring tribes, he
prosecuted his journey to the Columbia; where he established
another post, called Fort Williams, on Wappatoo Island, at the
mouth of the Wallamut. This was to be the head factory of his
company; whence they were to carry on their fishing and trapping
operations, and their trade with the interior; and where they
were to receive and dispatch their annual ship.
The plan of Mr. Wyeth appears to have been well concerted. He had
observed that the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, the bands of free
trappers, as well as the Indians west of the mountains, depended
for their supplies upon goods brought from St. Louis; which, in
consequence of the expenses and risks of a long land carriage,
were furnished them at an immense advance on first cost. He had
an idea that they might be much more cheaply supplied from the
Pacific side. Horses would cost much less on the borders of the
Columbia than at St. Louis: the transportation by land was much
shorter; and through a country much more safe from the hostility
of savage tribes; which, on the route from and to St. Louis,
annually cost the lives of many men. On this idea, he grounded
his plan. He combined the salmon fishery with the fur trade. A
fortified trading post was to be established on the Columbia, to
carry on a trade with the natives for salmon and peltries, and to
fish and trap on their own account. Once a year, a ship was to
come from the United States, to bring out goods for the interior
trade, and to take home the salmon and furs which had been
collected. Part of the goods, thus brought out, were to be
dispatched to the mountains, to supply the trapping companies and
the Indian tribes, in exchange for their furs; which were to be
brought down to the Columbia, to be sent home in the next annual
ship: and thus an annual round was to be kept up. The profits on
the salmon, it was expected, would cover all the expenses of the
ship; so that the goods brought out, and the furs carried home,
would cost nothing as to freight.
His enterprise was prosecuted with a spirit, intelligence, and
perseverance, that merited success. All the details that we have
met with, prove him to be no ordinary man.
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