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.
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