1834. The gossip at rendezvous was this year of an unusually exciting character. Of
the brigades which left for different parts of the country the previous summer, the
Monterey travelers were not the only ones who had met with adventures. Fitzpatrick,
who had led a party into the Crow country that autumn, had met with a characteristic
reception from that nation of cunning vagabonds.
Being with his party on Lougue River, in the early part of September, he discovered
that he was being dogged by a considerable band of Crows, and endeavored to elude
their spying; but all to no purpose. The Crow chief kept in his neighborhood, and finally
expressed a desire to bring his camp alongside that of Fitzpatrick, pretending to the
most friendly and honorable sentiments toward his white neighbors. But not feeling any
confidence in Crow friendship, Fitzpatrick declined, and moved camp a few miles away.
Not, however, wishing to offend the dignity of the apparently friendly chief, he took a
small escort, and went to pay a visit to his Crow neighbors, that they might see that he
was not afraid to trust them. Alas, vain subterfuge!
While he was exchanging civilities with the Crow chief, a party of the young braves
stole out of camp, and taking advantage of the leader's absence, made an attack on his
camp, so sudden and successful that not a horse, nor any thing else which they could
make booty of was left. Even Captain Stuart, who was traveling with Fitzpatrick, and
who was an active officer, was powerless to resist the attack, and had to consent to see
the camp rifled of everything valuable.
In the meantime Fitzpatrick, after concluding his visit in the most amicable manner, was
returning to camp, when he was met by the exultant braves, who added insult to injury
by robbing him of his horse, gun, and nearly all his clothes, leaving him to return to his
party in a deplorable condition, to the great amusement of the trappers, and his own
chagrin.
However, the next day a talk was held with the head chief of the Crows, to whom Fitzpatrick represented the infamy of such treacherous conduct in a very strong light. In answer to this reproof, the chief disowned all knowledge of the affair; saying that he could not always control the conduct of the young men, who would be a little wild now and then, in spite of the best Crow precepts: but that he would do what he could to have the property restored. Accordingly, after more talk, and much eloquence on the part of Fitzpatrick, the chief part of the plunder was returned to him, including the horses and rifles of the men, together with a little ammunition, and a few beaver traps.
Fitzpatrick understood the meaning of this apparent fairness, and hastened to get out
of the Crow country before another raid by the mischievous young braves, at a time
when their chief was not "honor bound," should deprive him of the recovered property.
That his conjecture was well founded, was proven by the numerous petty thefts which
were committed, and by the loss of several horses and mules, before he could remove
them beyond the limits of the Crow territory.
While the trappers exchanged accounts of their individual experiences, the leaders had
more important matters to gossip over. The rivalry between the several fur companies
was now at its climax. Through the energy and ability of Captain Sublette of the St.
Louis Company, and the experience and industry of the Rocky Mountain Company,
which Captain Sublette still continued to control in a measure, the power still remained
with them. The American Company had never been able to cope with them in the
Rocky Mountains; and the St. Louis Company were already invading their territory on
the Missouri River, by carrying goods up that river in boats, to trade with the Indians
under the very walls of the American Company's forts.
In August of the previous year, when Mr. Nathaniel Wyeth had started on his return to
the states, he was accompanied as far as the mouth of the Yellowstone by Milton
Sublette; and had engaged with that gentleman to furnish him with goods the following
year, as he believed he could do, cheaper than the St. Louis Company, who purchased
their goods in St. Louis at a great advance on Boston prices. But Milton Sublette fell in
with his brother the Captain, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, with a keel-boat loaded
with merchandise; and while Wyeth pursued his way eastward to purchase the Indian
goods which were intended to supply the wants of the fur-traders in the Rocky
Mountains, at a profit to him, and an advantage to them, the Captain was persuading
his brother not to encourage any interlopers in the Indian trade; but to continue to buy
goods from himself, as formerly. So potent were his arguments, that Milton yielded to
them, in spite of his engagement with Wyeth. Thus during the autumn of 1833, while
Bonneville was being wronged and robbed, as he afterwards became convinced, by his
men under Walker, and anticipated in the hunting ground selected for himself, in the
Crow country, by Fitzpatrick, as he had previously been in the Snake country by Milton
Sublette, Wyeth was proceeding to Boston in good faith, to execute what proved to be
a fool's errand. Bonneville also had gone on another, when after the trapping season
was over he left his camp to winter on the Snake River, and started with a small escort
to visit the Columbia, and select a spot for a trading-post on the lower portion of that
river. On arriving at Wallah-Wallah, after a hard journey over the Blue Mountains in the
winter, the agent at that post had refused to supply him with provisions to prosecute his
journey, and given him to understand that the Hudson's Bay Company might be polite
and hospitable to Captain Bonneville as the gentleman, but that it was against their
regulations to encourage the advent of other traders who would interfere with their
business, and unsettle the minds of the Indians in that region.
This reply so annoyed the Captain, that he refused the well meant advice of Mr.
Pambrun that he should not undertake to recross the Blue Mountains in March snows,
but travel under the escort of Mr. Payette, one of the Hudson's Bay Company's leaders,
who was about starting for the Nez Perce country by a safer if more circuitous route. He
therefore set out to return by the route he came, and only arrived at camp in May, 1831,
after many dangers and difficulties. From the Portneuf River, he then proceeded with
his camp to explore the Little Snake River, and Snake Lake; and it was while so doing
that he fell in with his men just returned from Monterey.
Such was the relative position of the several fur companies in the Rocky Mountains in
1834; and it was of such matters that the leaders talked in the lodge of the Booshways,
at rendezvous. In the meantime Wyeth arrived in the mountains with his goods, as he
had contracted with Milton Sublette in the previous year. But on his heels came Captain
Sublette, also with goods, and the Rocky Mountain Company violated their contract
with Wyeth, and purchased of their old leader.
Thus was Wyeth left, with his goods on his hands, in a country where it was impossible
to sell them, and useless to undertake an opposition to the already established fur
traders and trappers. His indignation was great, and certainly was just. In his interview
with the Rocky Mountain Company, in reply to their excuses for, and vindication of their
conduct, his answer was:
"Gentlemen, I will roll a stone into your garden that you will never be able to get out."
And he kept his promise; for that same autumn he moved on to the Snake River, and
built Fort Hall, storing his goods therein. The next year he sold out goods and fort to
the Hudson's Bay Company; and the stone was in the garden of the Rocky Mountain
Fur Company that they were never able to dislodge. When Wyeth had built his fort and
left it in charge of an agent, he dispatched a party of trappers to hunt in the Big
Blackfoot country, under Joseph Gale, who had previously been in the service of the
Rocky Mountain Company, and of whom we shall learn more hereafter, while he set out
for the Columbia to meet his vessel, and establish a salmon fishery. The fate of that
enterprise has already been recorded.
As for Bonneville, he made one more effort to reach the lower Columbia; failing,
however, a second time, for the same reason as before--he could not subsist himself
and company in a country where even every Indian refused to sell to him either furs or
provisions. After being reduced to horse-flesh, and finding no encouragement that his
condition would be improved farther down the river, he turned back once more from
about Wallah-Wallah, and returned to the mountains, and from there to the east in the
following year. A company of his trappers, however, continued to hunt for him east of
the mountains for two or three years longer.
The rivalry between the Rocky Mountain and American Companies was this year diminished by their mutually agreeing to confine themselves to certain parts of the country, which treaty continued for two years, when they united in one company. They were then, with the exception of a few lone traders, the only competitors of the Hudson's Bay Company, for the fur-trade of the West.