Is It Necessary To Know Much Of
Human Nature To Know How These Men Treated The Indians?
The trappers not
only began the lucrative fur trade of the West, that laid the foundation
for several vast
American fortunes, but they also laid the foundation for a
series of Indian wars that have cost the United States more lives and
treasure than all the furs ever gathered on earth were worth. And not only
did they take the furs from the animals they trapped. The agents of the Fur
Companies (whether British or American) took them from the Indians. Read
Jim Beckwourth's accounts of how he traded with the Indians, and listen to
his own comments upon his actions. As Dellenbaugh vividly says: "Roughshod
the trapper broke the wilderness, fathomed its secret places, traversed its
trails and passes, marking them with his own blood and more vividly with
that of the natives."
The Ashley Fur Camp Is Established. Early in the last century, the trappers
were operating on the head waters of the Colorado River. Green River Valley
was discovered, and in 1822 one of the most brilliant men of the West of
that period, General William Henry Ashley (born in Virginia in 1778, went
to Missouri in 1802, and in 1820 was its first governor), went into the fur
trade with Andrew Henry, an expert trapper. Two years later, with a band of
such men as Henry, Ashley established a camp in Green River Valley, and,
with his men, set out on expeditions for furs and pelts.
Inscription at Red Canyon. When in June, 1869, Powell and his party were
passing through the fourth canyon after leaving Green River, now known as
Red Canyon, they saw an inscription on one of the huge rocks above the
river, done in black letters, sheltered by a slight projection of the rock
which acted as a cornice, reading:
"Ashley 18...5"
The third figure was obscure and some of the party read in 1835, some 1855.
Ashley Expedition Unsuccessful. It should have been read 1825. Powell was
not familiar with the history of the fur traders. Ashley was an unknown
name to him, but as Chittenden has so vividly pointed out, he, in his way,
left his impress upon our Western civilization as strongly as did Powell.
Would that it had been as nobly, as grandly beneficent. Ashley fitted up a
trapping expedition to go down Green River, in spite of its known dangers,
and, expecting to find beaver in plenty, took but little provisions along
with them. At first they did fairly well. Then, as the canyons narrowed, to
their horror and distress, as well as surprise, - for they had kept none of
the meat of the beavers they had killed, - the animals ceased to appear, and
starvation stared them in the face. For six days they were without food.
The precipitous walls of the Canyon forbade escape, and at length they
became so demoralized that Beckwourth declares they actually proposed to
cast lots as to which should be killed to make food for the others. This
fearful proposition so horrified Ashley that he begged them to hold out a
while longer, and to their joy they soon emerged from the Canyon, possibly
at a place known as Brown's Hole; where Provo, an experienced trapper, had
his camp. From here they abandoned the Canyon expedition, and doubtless
returned with Provo to Salt Lake. Powell named the falls near where Ashley
left his name Ashley Falls.
There is every reason to assume that other trappers attempted the passage
of the Canyon, for Powell found a bake oven, several tin plates, and part
of a boot in Lodore Canyon, which he imagined were Ashley's; but, as we
have seen, Ashley never went down so far.
Other Unsuccessful Trappers. In his excellent Romance of the Colorado
River, Dellenbaugh recites at length, from their own narratives largely,
the adventures of several trappers and others, whose experiences are
connected with the Colorado River, - the Patties, Jedediah Smith,
Kit Carson, William Wolfskill, Farnham, Fremont, Lieutenant Derby, Captain
Johnson, and others, who, however, never came actually into the Grand
Canyon region. Hence I shall make no further reference to them here.
My reason for giving so much space to Ashley has been merely to offer a
sample of the kind of experiences the trappers of the early days met with,
in trying to solve the problem of the canyons of the Colorado River.
Lieutenant Ives' Expedition. Lieutenant Ives' expedition, however,
reached into the very heart of this country. He visited the Havasupais in
their canyon, also the Wallapais, and traversed the weary miles across the
desert to the villages of the Hopi. Steamboats had plied up and down the
Colorado River from the Gulf of California as far as Fort Yuma - near where
the present railroad bridge crosses the stream - but Ives was instructed by
the War Department to explore the river further up, in order to determine
whether the military posts of New Mexico and Utah could be reached, and
their supplies transported by the Colorado. Instead of calling upon Captain
Johnson and chartering his steamboat, the Colorado, Ives ordered his
steamer constructed in Philadelphia, and shipped in sections via the
Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco, and thence around Cape Lucas into the
Gulf of California, to the mouth of the Colorado River. Yet he was able to
report, doubtless with a clear conscience, that Johnson's company "was
unable to spare a boat, except for a compensation beyond the limits of the
appropriation."
Ives' Report and Accompanying Pictures. Ives' report is a most
interesting document, and the pictures that accompany it, made by
Mollhausen and Eggloffstein, especially those of the latter artist, are
wonderful in their imaginative qualities. They are no more like the Grand
Canyon than are the visions of Dore, yet they afford a good idea of the
impression its vastness and sublimity made upon an artistic mind.
Starts up the River. Ives ascended the river, passing Johnson on the way in
the Mohave Valley, a few miles above the Needles.
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