But
Knew Nothing Of Their Defiles, Nor How They Were To Be Penetrated
Or Traversed.
They launched themselves in frail canoes on rivers,
without knowing whither their swift currents would carry them, or
what rocks and shoals and rapids they might encounter in their
course.
They had to be continually on the alert, too, against the
mountain tribes, who beset every defile, laid ambuscades in their
path, or attacked them in their night encampments; so that, of
the hardy bands of trappers that first entered into these
regions, three-fifths are said to have fallen by the hands of
savage foes.
In this wild and warlike school a number of leaders have sprung
up, originally in the employ, subsequently partners of Ashley;
among these we may mention Smith, Fitzpatrick, Bridger, Robert
Campbell, and William Sublette; whose adventures and exploits
partake of the wildest spirit of romance. The association
commenced by General Ashley underwent various modifications. That
gentleman having acquired sufficient fortune, sold out his
interest and retired; and the leading spirit that succeeded him
was Captain William Sublette; a man worthy of note, as his name
has become renowned in frontier story. He is a native of
Kentucky, and of game descent; his maternal grandfather, Colonel
Wheatley, a companion of Boon, having been one of the pioneers of
the West, celebrated in Indian warfare, and killed in one of the
contests of the "Bloody Ground." We shall frequently have
occasion to speak of this Sublette, and always to the credit of
his game qualities. In 1830, the association took the name of the
Rocky Mountain Fur Company, of which Captain Sublette and Robert
Campbell were prominent members.
In the meantime, the success of this company attracted the
attention and excited the emulation of the American Fur Company,
and brought them once more into the field of their ancient
enterprise. Mr. Astor, the founder of the association, had
retired from busy life, and the concerns of the company were ably
managed by Mr. Ramsay Crooks, of Snake River renown, who still
officiates as its president. A competition immediately ensued
between the two companies for the trade with the mountain tribes
and the trapping of the head-waters of the Columbia and the other
great tributaries of the Pacific. Beside the regular operations
of these formidable rivals, there have been from time to time
desultory enterprises, or rather experiments, of minor
associations, or of adventurous individuals beside roving bands
of independent trappers, who either hunt for themselves, or
engage for a single season, in the service of one or other of the
main companies.
The consequence is that the Rocky Mountains and the ulterior
regions, from the Russian possessions in the north down to the
Spanish settlements of California, have been traversed and
ransacked in every direction by bands of hunters and Indian
traders; so that there is scarcely a mountain pass, or defile,
that is not known and threaded in their restless migrations, nor
a nameless stream that is not haunted by the lonely trapper.
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