His Promises Might, Perhaps, Have Prevailed; But His
Threats, Which Related To The Whiskey Debt, Only Served To Drive
Pierre Into The Opposite Ranks.
Still he took advantage of this
competition for his services to stand out with Mr. Hunt on the
most
Advantageous terms, and, after a negotiation of nearly two
weeks, capitulated to serve in the expedition, as hunter and
interpreter, at the rate of three hundred dollars a year, two
hundred of which were to be paid in advance.
When Mr. Hunt had got everything ready for leaving St. Louis, new
difficulties arose. Five of the American hunters from the
encampment at Nodowa, suddenly made their appearance. They
alleged that they had been ill treated by the partners at the
encampment, and had come off clandestinely, in consequence of a
dispute. It was useless at the present moment, and under present
circumstances, to attempt any compulsory measures with these
deserters. Two of them Mr. Hunt prevailed upon, by mild means, to
return with him. The rest refused; nay, what was worse, they
spread such reports of the hardships and dangers to be
apprehended in the course of the expedition, that they struck a
panic into those hunters who had recently engaged at St. Louis,
and, when the hour of departure arrived, all but one refused to
embark. It was in vain to plead or remonstrate; they shouldered
their rifles and turned their backs upon the expedition, and Mr.
Hunt was fain to put off from shore with the single hunter and a
number of voyageurs whom he had engaged. Even Pierre Dorion, at
the last moment, refused to enter the boat until Mr. Hunt
consented to take his squaw and two children on board also. But
the tissue of perplexities, on account of this worthy individual,
did not end here.
Among the various persons who were about to proceed up the
Missouri with Mr. Hunt, were two scientific gentlemen; one Mr.
John Bradbury, a man of mature age, but great enterprise and
personal activity, who had been sent out by Linnaean Society of
Liverpool to make a collection of American plants; the other, a
Mr. Nuttall, likewise an Englishman, younger in years, who has
since made himself known as the author of Travels in Arkansas,
and a work on the Genera of American Plants. Mr. Hunt had offered
them the protection and facilities of his party, in their
scientific research up the Missouri River. As they were not ready
to depart at the moment of embarkation, they put their trunks on
board of the boat, but remained at St. Louis until the next day,
for the arrival of the post, intending to join the expedition at
St. Charles, a short distance above the mouth of the Missouri.
The same evening, however, they learned that a writ had been
issued against Pierre Dorion for his whiskey debt, by Mr. Lisa,
as agent of the Missouri Company, and that it was the intention
to entrap the mongrel linguist on his arrival at St. Charles.
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