Farnham's Travels in the Great Western Prairies, etc., part 2, October 21-December 4, 1839 / and De Smet's Oregon Missions and Travels over the Rocky Mountains, 1845-1846

by Thomas Jefferson Farnham; Pierre-Jean de Smet

FOOTNOTES

[1] Chapter v of volume ii of the original edition.—Ed.

[2] For this island, now called Sauvie’s, see our volume xxi, p. 300, notes 85, 86. The root is described in our volume vi, p. 278, note 87.—Ed.

[3] The Clackamas River, for which see our volume xxi, p. 320, note 105.—Ed.

[4] The land at the Falls of the Willamette was a private possession of Dr. John McLoughlin, who took up the claim in 1829, making some improvements. His rights were first contested by members of the Methodist mission. Later, after he had become a naturalized American citizen, he was deprived thereof by legislative act—an injustice which was corrected in 1862, when the land was restored to the heirs of the estate. The town site at this place was platted as Oregon City (a name still retained), and for some years was the seat of government and metropolis of Oregon.—Ed.

[5] Tualatin River, draining the present Washington County, was a fertile valley early settled. About 1852 the river was by private enterprise made navigable for some distance.—Ed.

[6] William Johnson, an English sailor who had deserted to the Americans, and served on the “Constitution” in the fight with the “Guerrière.” He afterwards became a trapper in the Hudson’s Bay service, and came to Oregon (1839) to settle with his native wife and family. He served as sheriff in the first provisional government. He appears later to have removed his claim to the lower Willamette, in the neighborhood of South Portland. According to Dr. McLoughlin’s statement, Oregon Historical Society Quarterly i, p. 197, he “left by sea and never returned to Oregon.”—Ed.

[7] For Thomas McKay consult our volume xxi, p. 201, note 46. His father is noted in Franchère’s Narrative, our volume vi, p. 186, note 9.—Ed.

[8] Townsend was at Fort Vancouver when Bailey was brought in wounded, after his contest with the Rogue River Indians. See his Narrative in our volume xxi, pp. 328-330.

Mrs. Bailey was a Miss Margaret Smith, who came out in 1837 to reinforce the Methodist mission.—Ed.

[9] The blacksmith and tinker were apparently Thomas J. Hubbard and Calvin Tibbitts, who came to Oregon with Wyeth. See for the former, W. H. Gray, History of Oregon (Portland, Oregon, 1870), pp. 191, 198; for the latter our volume xxi, p. 73, note 50. Both were instrumental in laying the foundations of the Oregon provisional government.—Ed.

[10] This mission was under the care of Father Blanchet, and was founded the year of Farnham’s visit. It was located twelve miles above Champoeg, on the east bank of the river. See De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 320, note 164.—Ed.

[11] For the founding and site of this mission see our volume xxi, p. 299, note 84. The school was later (about 1842) removed to Salem, and the headquarters established there.—Ed.

[12] Dr. Elijah White, a native of New York state, came out as missionary physician in 1837. After serving about four years at the mission, he had some disagreement with its superintendent, and returned to the states. He then received the appointment at Washington of “sub-Indian agent for Oregon,” an office with indeterminate duties, anomalous in character. Once more in Oregon, Dr. White was zealous in execution of the business of his office as he conceived it, but antagonized many of the settlers thereby and found himself in disfavor; so that upon visiting Washington in 1845 he was not able to secure the renewal of his appointment. He returned to Oregon, however, and in 1861 was employed as special Indian agent. In later life he removed to San Francisco, where he died in March, 1879.—Ed.

[13] Rev. David (not Daniel) Leslie came to the Methodist mission with the second reinforcement of 1837. His ability was at once recognized, and during Jason Lee’s absence he acted as superintendent. In 1838 at the request of the American settlers he served them as justice of the peace. The first meeting for a provisional government was held under his presidency (1841). Upon the dissolution of the mission he became a Methodist preacher, making his home in and about Salem, where he was chaplain of the first territorial legislature, and for many years president of the board of trustees of Willamette University. With the exception of a few months in the Sandwich Islands (1842-43), his life was practically spent in Oregon, where he was highly respected for the probity and purity of his character.—Ed.

[14] J. L. Whitcomb came out in 1837 as a lay member of the mission. His duties were the superintendence of the farms. In 1842 he married the widow of Cyrus Shepard, and the same year, because of broken health, returned to the United States.

Alanson Beers, from Connecticut, also came (1837) as a lay member of the mission, and remained in Oregon until his death in 1853. He was one of the executive committee of three appointed by the provisional government, and treasurer of the board of trustees of Oregon Institute.—Ed.

[15] Farnham forwarded the petition to Congress from Honolulu, in January, 1840, accompanied by a letter of his own in which he sharply criticized the conduct of the Hudson’s Bay Company—see Senate Docs., 27 Cong., 3 sess., 102. The petition or memorial, which is largely the work of Farnham, was presented to the senate June 4, 1840, by Senator Lewis Linn of Missouri. It may be found in Senate Docs., 26 Cong., 1 sess., 514, signed “David Leslie and others;” Cong. Globe, 26 Cong., 1 sess., 440, reports seventy signers. The memorial requests Congress to establish a territorial government, notes that the British are, through the Hudson’s Bay Company, granting lands, surveying harbors, bays, and rivers, cutting and shipping timber, and preparing to hold all the territory north of the Columbia. It describes the country south of that river as “of unequalled beauty and fertility,” “a delightful and healthy climate,” and “one of the most favored portions of the globe;” and concludes by praying for the “civil institutions of the American Republic,” “the high privileges of American citizenship; the peaceful enjoyment of life; the right of acquiring, possessing, and using property; and the unrestrained pursuit of rational happiness.”—Ed.

[16] An act of parliament was passed (about 1837) at the instigation of Dr. McLoughlin, extending the jurisdiction and civil laws of Canada over the British subjects of Oregon territory. Under this law James Douglas was commissioned justice of the peace for criminal matters and for civil suits under £200 in value. Imprisonment was possible either in the forts of the Hudson’s Bay Company or the jails of Canada.—Ed.

[17] W. H. Wilson had in early life been a cooper on a whaling vessel. Having been converted to Methodism, he came out to Oregon in 1837 as a lay helper, and studied medicine with Dr. Elijah White. In 1840 he married Chloe A. Clark of the mission, who afterwards became first teacher of the Oregon Institute, of which her husband was for some time agent. They made their home in Salem, where he died suddenly of apoplexy. Wilson was the treasurer of the first provisional government of Oregon.—Ed.

[18] For Ewing Young see our volume xx, p. 23, note 2.—Ed.

[19] The reader will take notice that this is an ex-parte statement.—English Editor.

[20] For the origin of this northern boundary, see our volume xxviii, note 1.—Ed.

[21] For David Thompson, a former North West explorer, see Franchère’s Narrative in our volume vi, p. 253, note 61. Exclusive of the Alaskan mountains, there have been no peaks measured in the Rocky Mountain system exceeding 14,500 feet in height.—Ed.

[22] Mount Brown is in British Columbia, about latitude 52° 28′ north, not far from Athabasca Pass. It was formerly thought to be above 15,000 feet in height, but recent measurements have reduced it to less than 10,000.—Ed.

[23] This is Athabasca Pass, first discovered by David Thompson in 1811—see Elliott Coues, Henry-Thompson Journals (New York, 1897), ii, pp. 668, 669. Mount Hooker lay south of the pass, and Mount Brown to the north; the former is about 10,500 feet above sea level (once supposed to be more than 15,000 feet). For a description of the passage of this gap see Franchère’s Narrative in our volume vi, pp. 352-357.—Ed.

[24] The first of these passes is now known as Maria’s, and is that taken by the Great Northern Railway in crossing from Missouri waters to those of the Columbia. The second pass is probably intended to designate that taken by Lewis and Clark, who used not one, but several passes through the network of mountains in western Montana and eastern Idaho. The third is the pass from Henry’s Lake to Red Rock, the source of the Jefferson (not of the Big Horn), over which De Smet went with the Indians—see his Letters in our volume xxvii, pp. 252, 253, notes 128, 130. The last is South Pass, for which see Wyeth’s Oregon in our volume xxi, p. 58, note 37.—Ed.

[25] These spurs from the mountains are not definable. Farnham simply implies them from the watersheds. Upon many of the older maps the Kooskooskee (modern Clearwater) is also called Salmon—leaving to the modern Salmon River the name of Wapiacakoos (Waptacaca, Waptiacoos).—Ed.

[26] Mount St. Elias and Mount Fairweather belong to the Alaskan system, not to that of the Cascade or Presidents’ Range, which properly ends at Puget Sound. Mount St. Elias, the highest mountain save one in North America (18,090 feet) was discovered by Vitus Behring in 1741. Its ascent was accomplished in the summer of 1897 by the Italian explorer, the Duke of Abruzzi.

Mount Fairweather, so named by the whalers, who predicted fair weather when the summit of this peak was free from clouds, has an altitude of 15,050 feet; it is located near Sitka, on the Alaskan coast.—Ed.

[27] For Hall J. Kelley see our volume xxi, p. 24, note 6. In his “Memoir” to Congress, House Reports, 25 Cong., 3 sess., 101, he says: “The eastern section of the district referred to is bordered by a mountain range, running nearly parallel to the spine of the Rocky mountains and to the coast, and which, from the number of its elevated peaks, I am inclined to call the Presidents’ range.”—Ed.

[28] The reader will remember that our Author is an American.—English Ed.

[29] By Mount Tyler Farnham evidently intends Mount Baker, an extinct volcano in Whatcom County, Washington (altitude 10,827 feet), supposed to have shown symptoms of eruption as late as 1875. This peak was named by Vancouver (1792) for one of his officers. J. Q. Thornton, Oregon and California (New York, 1849), i, p. 256, calls this Mount Polk, and assigns the name of Tyler to “an elevation on the peninsula between Hood’s Canal and the ocean.”—Ed.

[30] Evidently Mount Rainier, although incorrectly located, its distance and direction being somewhat deceptive. It is southeast (not northeast) of Puget Sound in Pierce County, Washington, the highest of the Cascade Range (14,526 feet). It was first noted by Vancouver in 1792, and named for a rear-admiral in the British navy. Its Indian name was Ta-ko-man, the white peak, hence its alternate name of Mount Tacoma.—Ed.

[31] Mount Olympus, in Jefferson County, Washington (latitude 47° 50′ north, altitude 8,150 feet), was discovered originally by Perez (see our volume xxviii, p. 32, note 8), who named it Santa Rosalia. Captain John Meares (1785) bestowed its present appellation (see our volume vii, p. 112, note 17).—Ed.

[32] In re-naming the Presidents’ Range there appears to have been considerable confusion in assigning the name of the first executive. Kelley intended the name to be given to Mount St. Helens, which at first Farnham adopted (see ante, our volume xxviii, p. 353, note 221). C. G. Nicolay, Oregon Territory (London, 1846), p. 209, says that St. Helens was called Mount Washington. Nevertheless, Farnham here applies the name of Adams to Mount St. Helens, and that of Washington to Mount Hood, for which latter see Franchère’s Narrative in our volume vi, p. 248, note 54. Franchère applied the title Washington to Mount Jefferson; it has been finally attached to a peak south of Jefferson, in Linn County, Oregon.—Ed.

[33] Mount Jefferson, on the eastern borders of Linn County, a height crowned with perpetual snow, was first sighted by Lewis and Clark on March 30, 1806, from the mouth of Willamette River. In Original Journals, iv, p. 223, Clark says: “discovered a high mountain, S. E. covered with snow which we call Mt. Jefferson.”—Ed.

[34] Mount McLoughlin (Madison) is now called Diamond Peak; it is in the southeastern extremity of Lane County, and has an altitude of 8,807 feet.

The mountain named for Monroe cannot now be definitely determined, because of confusion of nomenclature. It would seem from the latitude given by Kelley to have been intended for the present Mount Scott. Mount John Quincy Adams is the present Mount Pitt, which name was first assigned by the English to Mount Shasta; this, according to Thornton (op. cit. in note 29, ante), was also the Mount Monroe of the Americans. The term Mount Pitt is now applied to a volcanic peak (altitude 9,760 feet) on the borders of Jackson County, Oregon, eight miles west of Klamath Lake.—Ed.

[35] Mount Shasta, of Siskiyou County, California, in latitude 41° 25′ north. Next to Rainier, Shasta is the highest peak of the Cascades, attaining 14,380 feet in altitude, and being perpetually capped with snow.—Ed.

[36] For Cape Disappointment see our volume vi, p. 233, note 36.—Ed.

[37] Boat Encampment, a noted place on the route to Canada, is described by Franchère in our volume vi, pp. 351, 352.—Ed.

[38] For a brief history of Fort Okanagan see our volume vi, p. 260, note 71. Alexander Ross had charge of this post for several years; see his descriptions in our volume vii, pp. 151-159, 198-207, 272-319. Afterward it became a Hudson’s Bay post (in 1821, not 1819). See De Smet’s visit to this region in our volume xxvii, p. 372, note 193.—Ed.

[39] For Spokane River, Lake Cœur d’Alène (Pointed Heart), and Spokane House, see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 366, note 185. See also Ross’s Oregon Settlers, our volume vii, pp. 207-222; also his Fur-Hunters of the Far West, i, pp. 137-139.—Ed.

[40] For H. H. Spaulding see our volume xxi, p. 352, note 125. Fort Colville is described in De Smet’s Letters, our volume xxvii, p. 330, note 166.—Ed.

[41] For Kettle Falls see our volume vi, p. 346, note 153.—Ed.

[42] For Archibald McDonald, see our volume xxi, p. 344, note 119.—Ed.

[43] Now known as Lower Arrow Lake, an expansion of the Columbia many miles in length, between 49° and 50° of north latitude.—Ed.

[44] For the Flathead River, as here intended (now known as Clark’s Fork of the Columbia), see our volume vi, p. 348, note 155. Its sources are near those of the Missouri, not the Saskatchewan.—Ed.

[45] For Lake Pend d’Oreille (Kalispel, Kullerspelm) see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 339, note 175.

Flathead House was built (November, 1809) by David Thompson, of the North West Company, and was maintained throughout the regime of the British fur-trade on the Northwest Coast. In 1824-25 Alexander Ross passed the winter there. It was a small fort tributary to Colville, and in charge usually of a trusted Canadian hunter or trapper. According to the report of 1854 it was situated east of Flathead Lake, on one of its smaller tributaries—Senate Docs., 33 Cong., 2 sess., vii, no. 37.—Ed.

[46] This is the stream now known as Kootenai River, for which see our volume vi, p. 348, note 156. For the post of that name see our volume vii, p. 210, note 71. The small post was maintained on Kootenai River for nearly half a century. In 1854 it was reported as an inferior station, in charge of a Canadian as trader and postmaster.—Ed.

[47] For the passage of these straits and Upper Arrow Lake, see Franchère’s Narrative in our volume vi, pp. 348, 349.—Ed.

[48] The Canadian Pacific Railway crosses the Columbia at Revelstoke just above the Lower Dalles of the river. The Upper or Little Dalles shut in the river for about a mile; these narrows are now navigated by local steamers.—Ed.

[49] The “few miles” is about one hundred and fifty, in which the river passes through an almost continuous cañon—navigable by canoes, however, save at Dalles des Morts (Narrows of the Dead), so named for the number of accidents occurring therein. The canoe voyage ended at the upper bend of the Columbia, where Canoe River enters from the north, the Columbia coming from the southeast.—Ed.

[50] The trail follows an affluent of the Columbia known as Little Canoe (or Portage) River, leading to Athabasca Pass. See Franchère’s description of the difficulties of the passage in our volume vi, pp. 352-354.—Ed.

[51] For these lakes see our volume vi, p. 353, note 163.—Ed.

[52] Fraser’s River, the largest stream wholly within the limits of British Columbia, rises near the source of the upper branch (Canoe River) of the Columbia, flows northwest for a hundred and ninety miles, and then turns abruptly south until at about latitude 49° 20′ north it bends west into the Strait of Georgia. Sir Alexander Mackenzie was upon its upper waters in 1793. The whole course of the river was explored by Simon Fraser (1808), who until he reached the river’s mouth supposed that he was upon the Columbia. See his “Journal” in L. R. Masson, Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord Ouest (Quebec, 1889), i, pp. 155-221.—Ed.

[53] Probably Joseph McGillivray, for whom see our volume vi, p. 346, note 152. Fort Alexandria, on Fraser River, was built (1821) on the east bank of the stream to serve as a supply post, transmitting goods from the Columbia country. It was placed at the point where Sir Alexander Mackenzie turned back (1793), and was named in his honor. In 1836 the fort was removed to the west bank of the river. With varying fortunes the post has ever since been maintained; in 1863 a wagon road was opened as far as Alexandria to accommodate the inrush of miners.—Ed.

[54] For the Similkameen River see our volume vii, p. 206, note 67.—Ed.

[55] For the Luhon (Lowhum, now Des Chutes) and John Day rivers see our volume vii, p. 133, notes 32, 33; for the Umatilla and Walla Walla, volume vi, p. 338, notes 141, 142.—Ed.

[56] Klamath River rises in southern Oregon, in the county of the same name, flows through Klamath lakes and breaks through the barrier of the Cascades about on the California boundary line. Thence flowing in a somewhat irregular course, it receives tributaries from Shasta and Siskiyou mountains, and enters the ocean in Del Norte County, California. It is about two hundred and seventy-five miles long, and navigable for about forty miles from its mouth. Gold and timber are found on its banks.—Ed.

[57] For the Cowlitz River see our volume vi, p. 245, note 49. For Juan de Fuca Strait, ibid., p. 256, note 64.—Ed.

[58] The Umpqua is noted in our volume vii, p. 231, note 82.—Ed.

[59] This appears extravagant, but the fact cannot be disputed. It may be observed, however, that the wood, from its rapid growth, has but little weight—half that of the common pine or deal.—English Ed.

[60] The Coquille River, which rises in several branches among the Coast Mountains and enters the ocean at Coos Bay, in the county of that name. It is navigable for small steamers for over thirty miles from its mouth.—Ed.

[61] Coal was first exported from Washington in 1854; no more was mined until 1870, when the Seattle shafts were opened. Washington is known as the “Pennsylvania of the West” for the number and extent of its coal fields.—Ed.

[62] On the organization and career of the North West Company see J. Long’s Voyages in our volume ii, preface, pp. 15, 16. The difficulties with the Hudson’s Bay Company are briefly recounted by Franchère in our volume vi, pp. 379-381, particularly notes 195, 199.—Ed.

[63] This lease was the result of a protest from Great Britain to the government of Russia for the attack by the latter upon a British brig entering the Stikeen River to found a fort. The Hudson’s Bay Company waived its claim for damages in virtue of this lease of the mainland of Russian America between Cape Spencer and 54° 40′ north latitude. After being several times renewed, the lease expired in 1868 upon the purchase of Alaska by the United States.—Ed.

[64] See our volume vi, p. 377, note 191, for a description of York Factory.—Ed.

[65] For further details of the system of the Hudson’s Bay Company see A. G. Morice, History of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, formerly New Caledonia (Toronto, 1904), pp. 99-116; also George Bryce, Remarkable History of Hudson’s Bay Company (Toronto, 1900).—Ed.

[66] Henry Bliss, The Colonial System: Statistics of the trade, industry and resources of Canada and other Plantations in British America (London, 1833, not 1831).—Ed.

[67] Andrew Henry, one of the partners of the Missouri Fur Company, in the autumn of 1818 built a post on the north fork of Lewis or Snake (Saptin) River. This was maintained only until the following spring, but is renowned for being the first American trading post on Columbian waters. The site was supposedly near Egin, Idaho, and the stream has since been known as Henry’s Fork.—Ed.

[68] The North West Company decided (1805) to explore the region west of the Rockies and commissioned Simon Fraser to undertake it. In 1805 he built Fort McLeod, the first post in British Columbia. The next summer saw the establishment of two posts—St. James on Stuart Lake, and Fraser on Lake Fraser. Fort Fraser was begun by John Stuart and has been maintained until the present time.—Ed.

[69] For the Astorian enterprise see our volumes v-vii.—Ed.

[70] David Thompson, for whose arrival at Astoria see Franchère’s Narrative in our volume vi, pp. 252-255.—Ed.

[71] See Ross’s Oregon Settlers in our volume vii, pp. 244-249.—Ed.

[72] See our volume xxviii, p. 38, note 18.—Ed.

[73] The joint occupancy of Oregon was not determined by the provisions of the Treaty of Ghent, but by a separate convention made (1818) at London. The renewal occurred as Farnham states, by the convention of 1827 signed at London by Albert Gallatin on the part of the United States, and Charles Grant and Henry U. Addington for Great Britain; see Treaties and Conventions between the United States and Other Powers (Washington, 1889), pp. 415-418, 426, 427.—Ed.

[74] For Fort Vancouver see our volume xxi, p. 297, note 82; the early history of Fort George is narrated in our volume vi, p. 241, note 42. After the headquarters of the fur company were withdrawn from Fort George, it was maintained chiefly as a post of observation to report incoming vessels; a single clerk lived at this place, raised vegetables and flowers in his garden, and welcomed travellers. The foundations of Fort George were visible at Astoria as late as 1870, but are now entirely built over.—Ed.

[75] For Fort Nisqually see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 386, note 203. Fort Langley was founded in 1827 upon the north bank of the Fraser, not far from the mouth; it was an important dépôt for supplying the interior posts. While James Yale was factor in charge the buildings were totally destroyed by fire (1840), but a new stockade was immediately erected. In 1858 Langley was the prospective capital of the newly-erected province of British Columbia, and a town site was surveyed about the fort; but being considered indefensible from a military point of view, and on the wrong side of the river, New Westminster was chosen instead and Fort Langley was abandoned.

Fort McLoughlin was erected upon the seacoast in 1833, and placed in charge of Dr. Tolmie; but the location was insecure because of the hostility of the neighboring Indians, and it was therefore abandoned in 1843, the effects being removed to the newly-established Fort Camosum at Victoria.—Ed.

[76] Fort Simpson, named in honor of Sir George, the Hudson’s Bay Company’s governor, was not upon Dundas Island, but on the mainland opposite. Its first site was six miles above the mouth of Nass River (1831). Three years later it was removed to the Chimsyan Peninsula, below Nass River—one of the finest harbors on the coast. It is still maintained as a Hudson’s Bay post, being known as Port Simpson; recent efforts have been made to make this a port of entry for Pacific Ocean traffic.—Ed.

[77] For Fort Fraser see ante, p. 56, note 68. Fort St. James, at the outlet of Stuart Lake (latitude 54° 26′ north), was built in 1806 by Simon Fraser amid a large population of Indians, and has been maintained continuously to the present. After the advent of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Fort St. James was made the emporium of New Caledonia, the residence of a chief factor. In 1828 it was visited by Sir George Simpson, who entered in proper state with buglers and bagpipers, the governor and his suite mounted, amid the welcoming discharge of cannon and musketry (A. McDonald, Peace River, pp. 24, 25). For two views of this post see Morice, Northern Interior of British Columbia, pp. 102, 110.

Fort McLeod is the oldest permanent post west of the Rocky Mountains. Founded in 1805 by Simon Fraser, it has maintained a continuous existence to the present. It was named for Archibald Norman McLeod, a colleague of its founder in the North West Company. Located on a lake of the same name, near the source of Finlay River, in latitude 55° north, it was chiefly useful as a supply post on the route from Canada via Peace River.

Chilcotin was founded (about 1828) on a river of the same name tributary to the upper Fraser, about latitude 52° as an outpost for Fort Alexandria (see ante, p. 44, note 53). Difficult of maintenance because of the troublesome character of the Chilcotin Indians, it was abandoned before 1850.

In addition to the posts mentioned, the Hudson’s Bay Company had in Farnham’s time within New Caledonia, Forts Babine, Connolly, and George—the latter on the upper Fraser, the two former on lakes of the same name in the far north.—Ed.

[78] All these posts have been before noted: Fort Thompson (Kamloops) in our volume vii, p. 199, note 64; Kootenay and Flathead in notes 45, 46, ante; Fort Hall in our volume xxi, p. 210, note 51; Fort Boise, in our volume xxviii, p. 321, note 199; Fort Colville in De Smet’s Letters, our volume xxvii, p. 330, note 166; Okanagan in our volume vi, p. 260, note 71; Walla Walla in our volume xxi, p. 278, note 73.—Ed.

[79] Usually known as Fort Umpqua, this post was founded in 1832 by John McLeod, being situated about forty miles up the Umpqua River, on the south bank, on a small prairie of about two hundred acres. It was usually in charge of a French Canadian clerk, who needed to be vigilant because of the treacherous nature of the savages. The post was attacked in 1840 by ten times the number of defenders, but the assault was repulsed. The stockade having been burned (1851), the Hudson’s Bay Company declined to rebuild, leasing the land to an American settler, W. W. Chapman.—Ed.

[80] The idea of a transcontinental railway had not yet dawned. Farnham’s plan shows, however, boldness of conception for these early days of railway building.—Ed.

[81] Alexander Simpson, a relation of Sir George, and brother of the Arctic explorer Thomas Simpson, whose early death was a loss to geographical science. Alexander Simpson was on his way to the Sandwich Islands, to investigate the trade conditions therein. See his Life and Travels of Thomas Simpson (London, 1845), pp. 345, 351.—Ed.

[82] For the history of Fort Vancouver see our volume xxi, p. 297, note 82.—Ed.

[83] The site of the present St. Helens, a small town, the seat of Columbia County, Oregon.—Ed.

[84] This epidemic began in 1829, and wrought great mortality among the natives. By 1832 it was particularly severe around Fort Vancouver. One village visited contained but two infants living—the remainder of the inhabitants having died of the plague. Various causes have been given, some regarding the disease as scarlet fever, others as some form of malaria due to putrid food, others thinking it attributable to immoral habits, etc. By its ravages nearly three-fourths of the native population was swept from the lower Columbia before the advent of American immigrants.—Ed.

[85] For Tongue Point see our volume vi, p. 242, note 44.—Ed.

[86] For James Birnie, the clerk in charge, see Townsend’s Narrative in our volume xxi, p. 361, note 130.—Ed.

[87] For Baker’s Bay see our volume vi, p. 234, note 38.—Ed.

[88] Charles Wilkes (1798-1877) entered the navy as a midshipman (1818). He rose to a lieutenancy, and in 1838 was placed in charge of an expedition composed of five vessels dispatched to explore Southern seas. After visiting the Pacific islands, the squadron (1841) explored the Northwest Coast, Wilkes personally visiting the Columbia and Willamette. Appointed to the rank of captain (1835), Wilkes was commander of the vessel that in the War of Secession stopped the steamer “Trent,” and took therefrom the Confederate envoys Mason and Slidell. During the remainder of the war he was in charge of the West India squadron. Retiring in 1864, two years later he attained the rank of rear-admiral. The report of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition was not published until 1845, when five volumes were issued; later, other editions brought the number up to eighteen. In 1842, however, a Synopsis of the Cruise of the United States Exploring Expedition during the years 1838, ’39, ’40, ’41 and ’42 was published at Washington. From this version Farnham evidently made his extracts.—Ed.

[89] What are now known as the Olympic Mountains, in northwest Washington. The term “Claset” was first employed by Vancouver (1792), who bestowed upon what Cook had called Cape Flattery, the name Point Classet, from an adjacent Indian village of that name; see George Vancouver, Voyage of Discovery (London, 1801), ii, pp. 46-48.—Ed.

[90] By the Klameth (Klamath) is intended the present Siskiyou Mountains, which branch off from Sierra Nevada toward the coast in about latitude 42°, the boundary between California and Oregon. The country between the Rockies and California had not then been explored, but there was an erroneous idea of a transverse chain of mountains which was confused with the Sierra Nevada; see our volume xxviii, p. 305, note 182.—Ed.

[91] Vancouver Island was long supposed to be a portion of the mainland. Its insularity was not proved until 1792, when both Vancouver and the Spanish ships circumnavigated it. At the request of the Spanish envoy, it received the name Quadra and Vancouver Island (see Vancouver, Voyage, ii, p. 357); but the length of the appellation has caused the first part to be dropped. See our volume xxviii, p. 33, note 10.

Queen Charlotte Islands (now proved to be two) were first visited by the Spaniards in 1774. Dixon, an English navigator, named the group in 1787, giving his own name to the channel north of the island. The Americans, in ignorance of Dixon’s prior discovery, named the island for Washington (1789); see our volume xxviii, p. 38, note 16.—Ed.

[92] Johnstone Straits, named for one of Vancouver’s lieutenants who first discovered the passage thence to Queen Charlotte Sound, are on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island, separating it from the mainland.—Ed.

[93] Gonsalez Lopez de Haro was pilot of two expeditions dispatched by the Spaniards (1788, 1789) to watch their interests on the Northwest Coast. An expedition of discovery passing from Juan de Fuca Straits into the Gulf of Georgia (1790), gave to the channel the name of Lopez de Haro. This appears on Vancouver’s map as “Canal de Arro.” During the boundary dispute (1858) between the United States and British Columbia concerning the islands at the entrance of Juan de Fuca Straits, the Canal de Haro acquired much prominence as a limit to the United States claim. The matter was submitted to the decision of the German emperor, who gave the award in favor of the United States (1872), hence Canal de Haro became an international boundary.—Ed.

[94] The three largest islands off the mainland east of Hecata Strait and Queen Charlotte are Princess Royal, Pitt, and Banks.—Ed.

[95] The fort upon Vancouver Island was founded at its southern extremity—not at Nootka, or at Clayoquot Sound just below. Built in 1843, the aboriginal name Camosun was soon changed to Victoria, in honor of the British sovereign. When Oregon passed to the United States, Victoria became the presumptive capital of British territory, and thither James Douglas, chief factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, removed. In 1849 the island of Vancouver was ceded to the fur company on condition that a colony of British subjects be established thereon. Accordingly Victoria was platted in 1851, and two years later had a population of three hundred. The place was incorporated in 1862, and is now the capital of British Columbia. It is a substantially built town, picturesquely situated by the seashore, and possesses a mild climate.—Ed.

[96] Probably Athabasca Pass, for which see ante, p. 30, note 23. McGillivray’s Portage is the route less than two miles in length between the headwaters of Kootenai River and those of the Columbia. See De Smet’s Oregon Missions, post, p. 209, note 109.—Ed.

[97] For the Yakima, Pisquow, and Entiatqua rivers see our volume vii, pp. 141, 147, 148, notes 40, 44, 45, respectively.—Ed.

[98] This is an error, for both the Kooskooske (Clearwater) and Salmon are eastern affluents of the Lewis. The former rises in the Bitter Root Mountains in several branches, which flowing westward unite in a large stream entering the Lewis at Lewiston. It was down this stream that Lewis and Clark made their way to Columbian waters; see Original Journals, iii, pp. 97-102.

For the Salmon see our volume xxi, p. 69, note 45.—Ed.

[99] Three of these rivers are alluded to in note 55, p. 45, ante. Wilkes reported them from hearsay information, for his own journey did not extend above Fort Vancouver. Quisnel’s (Quesnel) River, an affluent of the Fraser in New Caledonia, was named for Jules Maurice Quesnel, Fraser’s lieutenant on his voyage of 1808. As here placed, “Quisnel’s” would seem to denote a Columbia affluent between Umatilla and John Day’s; for such a branch see our volume vii, p. 135, note 34.

Cathlatate River is found on the map of Charles Preuss, drawn from the surveys of Frémont (published in 1848), as a northern affluent of the Columbia, between the Cascades and the Dalles; it would appear to correspond, therefore, either to Klickitat or White Salmon River.—Ed.

[100] See on these streams our volumes vi, p. 245, note 49; and xxi, p. 320, note 105.—Ed.

[101] Stuart River was discovered (1806) by Simon Fraser, who named it in honor of his companion, John Stuart. It rises near latitude 56° north, flowing southwest through several lakes, of which Stuart Lake is the largest, into Nechaco River. The latter comes from the west along the fifty-fourth parallel, and carries the waters of Stuart’s River into the Fraser, sixty-five miles farther east at the site of Fort George.—Ed.

[102] Chilcotin River, named for a turbulent Indian tribe, rises in several branches, and flows west not far from the fifty-second parallel, into Fraser River. By Pinkslitsa is probably intended the Puntataenkut, a small western affluent entering the Fraser at 53° north latitude, opposite the Quesnel, which comes from the east, having taken its rise in a large lake of the same name. For Thompson’s River see our volume vii, p. 159, note 51.—Ed.

[103] Chehalis River, the largest coastal stream of Washington, drains the western central part of that state, receiving many tributaries from the southern slope of the Olympic Mountains. It is navigable for steamers as far as Montesano, seat of a county of the same name as the river. The principal industry of the Chehalis River valley is lumbering, although agriculture is creeping into the cleared districts. Gray’s Harbor branch of the Northern Pacific Railway traverses the entire valley. For Gray’s Harbor see our volume vi, p. 256, note 64.—Ed.

[104] For the Umpqua see our volume vii, p. 231, note 82; for the Klamath, ante, p. 46, note 56. Rogue River in the southwestern portion of Oregon, is a rapid stream of considerable size, rising in many branches in the Cascade Range, its northernmost tributary heading near Crater Lake. Its general course is west and southwest, the chief tributary being Illinois River. The name Rogue was derived from a troublesome tribe of Indians who attacked parties of overland emigrants from California; see our volume xxi, pp. 328, 329.—Ed.

[105] For Lake Okanagan see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 372, note 193. Stuart and Quesnel are mentioned in notes 99, 101, ante; Lake Kamloops in our volume vii, p. 159, note 51.—Ed.

[106] Flat Bow is now known as Kootenai Lake, an enlargement of the river of that name in southeastern British Columbia, over sixty miles in length. For Cœur d’Alène Lake see our volume vii, p. 211, note 75; Kulluspelm (Kalispel) is the modern Pend d’Oreille Lake, for which see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 339, note 175.—Ed.

[107] Referring to the Lapwai mission, for which see our volume xxviii, p. 338, note 215.—Ed.

[108] Both of these names were assigned by Vancouver in the course of his exploration in 1792. Having entered the Straits of Juan de Fuca he anchored at Port Discovery, and then proceeding west sailed through the great inlet whose opening (passed in 1790) was called by the Spanish navigator Quimper, Canal de Caamano. Vancouver thoroughly explored this arm of the ocean, giving to its southwestern branch the name of Hood’s Inlet; and “to commemorate Mr Puget’s exertions (in exploring) the south extremity of it I named it Puget’s Sound.” (Vancouver’s Voyage, ii, p. 146.)—Ed.

[109] For the settlements at Nisqually and Cowlitz see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 386, note 203.—Ed.

[110] This information concerning Fort Boise was incorrect; see our volume xxviii, p. 321, note 199, and Palmer’s Journal in our volume xxx, which mentions this post in 1845.

Kamia was a mission established at the mouth of a stream of that name, now called Lawyer’s Cañon Creek. Here Rev. Asa B. Smith labored for two years (1839-41) among the upper Nez Percés, compiling with the help of the noted chief Lawyer a grammar and dictionary of the Nez Percé language. The hostility of the tribe did not, however, materially abate; the missionaries were denied the right of agriculture and the station was finally abandoned. Lewis and Clark camped near the site of this mission in 1806, on their return journey.—Ed.

[111] The Puget Sound Agricultural Company was organized in London (1838) at the instance of Dr. McLoughlin, who perceived the agricultural possibilities of the region and desired to turn them to account for British enterprise. It was a sub-corporation of the Hudson’s Bay Company, designed to supply the Russian contracts. Farms were opened at the points stated by Farnham, and large quantities of cattle imported from California. Dr. W. F. Tolmie, who made headquarters at Nisqually, was manager of the corporation. After the Oregon Treaty (1846) he withdrew the headquarters to Victoria. The farms in Oregon proper were gradually abandoned. Those in the present state of Washington, however, were retained, and were the cause of much friction between the company and the American settlers. In 1864 the commission appointed by the joint governments to settle claims, awarded the Puget Sound Agricultural Company $750,000 for their land and improvements in lieu of $5,000,000 claimed by the corporation. The company continued operations in British Columbia until about 1874, but never attained financial success. As a colonizing agency the association in successive years brought (after 1839) several companies of settlers from the Red River colony—a movement which is reported to have alarmed Dr. Marcus Whitman, and to have been one of the causes of his journey (1842-43) to the United States.—Ed.

[112] For these mission sites see De Smet’s Letters, our volume xxvii, pp. 367, 388, 389, notes 187, 208, 209.—Ed.

[113] The sale of spirituous liquors to Indians, during the days of the competition between the fur-companies (see preface to J. Long’s Voyages in our volume ii) was so ruinous and dangerous that early in the nineteenth century the North West Company, moved by the exertions of William Wilberforce and other English philanthropists, made strong efforts to discontinue the traffic, and upon its consolidation with the Hudson’s Bay Company (1821) the liquor-selling to natives was forbidden. Surreptitiously, however, this was continued, especially upon the seacoast and the Russian frontier. Upon the assassination of John McLoughlin, Jr., at his post at Stikeen, caused by a drunken frolic (1842), Sir George Simpson visited Sitka and entered into an agreement with the Russian governor Adolphus Etholin, to suppress the sale of liquor to the Indians in both Russian and British territory. Meanwhile Dr. McLoughlin at Vancouver, used his best endeavors to stamp out the traffic in Oregon. The vessel purchased (1841) as Farnham here narrates, was the “Thomas H. Perkins” from Salem, Mass. The Oregon provisional government made similar efforts, passing a prohibitory law (1844) under which two incipient distilleries were destroyed. Not until the rush of settlement coming with the gold seekers (1848-50) began, did the liquor traffic gain much foothold.—Ed.

[114] For a brief sketch of Father Nicolas Point see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 192, note 67.—Ed.

[115] On the boundaries of Oregon consult our volume xxviii, p. 29, note 1. By the Oregon Treaty (1846) the northern boundary was fixed at the parallel 49°; north of this was British, not Russian, territory. The writer of this introductory matter seems not to have been well informed.—Ed.

[116] For the early Spanish explorations of the Northwest Coast see Farnham’s Travels in our volume xxviii, pp. 30-32, including notes 3-9.—Ed.

[117] Compare with this Franchère’s Narrative in our volume vi, pp. 248, 249; see also H. S. Lyman, History of Oregon (New York, 1903), i, pp. 167-174, where the traditions of descendants from early castaways are collected. The Tillamook (Kilamuke) Indians are noted in our volume vi, p. 258, note 67.—Ed.

[118] For Cook’s discoveries (1778-79, not 1790) see our volume xxviii, p. 31 note 6; for Gray, Vancouver, and Mackenzie, our volume vi, pp. 183-185, notes 1, 2, 4.—Ed.

[119] For the Lewis and Clark expedition see Thwaites, Original Journals (New York, 1905). The Astorian enterprise is narrated in Franchère’s Narrative and Ross’s Oregon Settlers, volumes vi and vii of our series.—Ed.

[120] See Franchère’s Narrative in our volume vi, pp. 294-303; and Ross’s Oregon Settlers in our volume vii, pp. 244-250.—Ed.

[121] For McLoughlin see Townsend’s Narrative in our volume xxi, p. 296, note 81.—Ed.

[122] See, on the Willamette settlement, De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 386, note 203; on Provencher, ibid., p. 391, note 213.—Ed.

[123] The Methodist here mentioned was Jason Lee, who went out in 1833; see our volume xxi, p. 138, note 13. The Episcopalian clergyman was Rev. Herbert Beaver, who was sent as chaplain by the Hudson’s Bay Company on their vessel the “Nereid,” arriving at Vancouver in August, 1836. Although having formerly served in the West Indies, Beaver did not find it easy to adapt himself to frontier life, and for his officious criticisms incurred the dislike of the gentlemen at Fort Vancouver. After eighteen months of service he returned to England, and the company sent no more chaplains to the Northwest.—Ed.

[124] For these two priests see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, pp. 320, 369, notes 164, 189.—Ed.

[125] See our volume xxviii, p. 380, note 242, for account of Douglas.—Ed.

[126] The Catholic settlement was that known as French Prairie; the Methodist establishment is described in De Smet’s Letters, our volume xxvii, p. 388, note 208.—Ed.

[127] The Cowlitz and Nisqually settlements are noted in our volume xxvii, p. 386, note 203.

Whidbey (not Whitby) is a large island in Puget Sound, which was named (1792) in honor of Joseph Whidbey, one of Vancouver’s subordinates, who first circumnavigated it. The permanent American settlement thereon began in 1851, and prospered because of its fertile open prairie land.—Ed.

[128] For Fort Langley see note 75 (Farnham), ante, p. 58.—Ed.

[129] The site and founding of this mission is described in De Smet’s Letters, our volume xxvii, pp. 281-284.—Ed.

[130] Bear Lake, frequently called Lake Connolly, was the site of the Hudson’s Bay post of that name founded about 1826 among the Sekanais Indians. It is somewhat north of latitude 56° near the source of Stuart River.—Ed.

[131] Mt. St. Helena was measured by Captain Wilkes, and was made 9,550 feet.—Editor of Catholic Almanac.

Comment by Ed. For Mount St. Helens see our volume vi, p. 246, note 50.

[132] For the Klamath (Clamet) see note 56 (Farnham), ante, p. 46; the Umpqua is noted in our volume vii, p. 231, note 82; the Chehalis, note 103 (Farnham), ante, p. 81.—Ed.

[133] For this epidemic see note 84 (Farnham), ante, p. 68.—Ed.

[134] On the camas consult our volume xxi, p. 247, note 61.—Ed.

[135] The Chinook and Kilamuke tribes on the coast call their most powerful god by the name of Ikani, and to him they ascribe the creation of all things. The god who made the Columbia river and the fish in it they call Italupus.—Expl. Exp., vol. v., p. 119.—Ed. of Catholic Almanac.

[136] For the sites of the Methodist missions see De Smet’s Letters, in our volume xxvii, p. 388, note 208. Our author here refers to the Willamette and Dalles missions. For the Presbyterian missions consult our volume xxi, p. 352, note 125; De Smet’s Letters, our volume xxvii, p. 367, note 187; and Farnham’s Travels, in our volume xxviii, pp. 333, 338, notes 210, 215.—Ed.

[137] This was known as the “great re-inforcement,” and was secured by Jason Lee on his return to the United States in 1838-39. The bark “Lausanne” was chartered, and inducements held out not only to missionaries but to farmers and mechanics, to volunteer for this movement. The expense incurred was $42,000, and in addition thereto a sum was said to have been contributed by the federal government from the secret service fund. (H. H. Bancroft, History of Oregon, i, p. 171.) Fifty-two persons set sail from New York October 10, 1839, arriving in the Columbia the following May, and, as our author here indicates, soon scattering to various posts. This formed the nucleus of the American colony in Oregon.—Ed.

[138] For this symbolical catechism and its explanation see De Smet’s Letters, in our volume xxvii, pp. 403-411.—Ed.

[139] Speaking of the farm belonging to the Hudson Bay Company at Cowlitz, Capt. Wilkes says: “The grounds appear well prepared, and were covered with a luxuriant crop of wheat, (May, 1841). At the farther end of the prairie was to be seen a settlement, with its orchards, &c., and between the trees, the chapel and parsonage of the Catholic mission gave an air of civilization to the whole. The degree of progress resembles that of a settlement of several years’ standing in our western states,” &c.—Explor. Exped., vol. iv., p. 315.—Ed. of Catholic Almanac.

[140] For these Hudson’s Bay posts see respectively, De Smet’s Letters, our volume xxvii, p. 330, note 166; Franchère’s Narrative, in our volume vi, p. 260, note 71; and Townsend’s Narrative, in our volume xxi, p. 278, note 73.—Ed.

[141] For Fort George see note 74 (Farnham), ante, p. 57. The Chinook are described in our volume vi, p. 240, note 40.—Ed.

[142] Of the Catholic mission at Penn’s cove, between Whitby’s Island and the main, Mr. Wilkes says: “It (the island) is in possession of the Sacket tribe, who have here a permanent settlement, consisting of large and well-built lodges of timber and planks.... This whole tribe are Catholics, and have much affection and reverence for their instructors.” After speaking of the good feeling promoted among the Indians by the Catholic clergymen, he continues: “Besides inculcating good morals and peace, the priests are inducing the Indians to cultivate the soil, and there was an enclosure of some three or four acres, in which potatoes and beans were growing.”—Ed. of Catholic Almanac.

[143] Sir Edward Belcher (1799-1877) of the British navy was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, entered the navy in 1812, and was commissioned a lieutenant in 1818. He became an expert in surveying and charting, and was thus employed (1825-28) in the Pacific Ocean on H. M. S. “Blossom.” In 1836 he was appointed to the command of the man-of-war “Sulphur,” which was sent to the Pacific on a surveying expedition, and incidentally on account of the British difficulties with the Russian settlements of Alaska. In 1839 (not 1840) he surveyed the coast from San Francisco Bay to the Columbia, entering the latter with two men-of-war, “Sulphur” and “Starling,” and surveying as far as Fort Vancouver. Belcher’s relations with the Hudson’s Bay official in charge were not cordial, and he criticized both the unmilitary appearance of Fort Vancouver and Dr. McLoughlin’s attitude toward the American missionary colonists. On the return journey, Belcher’s ships were detained on the coast of China by the war in those parts. An account of the voyage was published in London (1843), and the same year Belcher was knighted. He cruised in Oriental waters from 1842-47. In 1852-54 he commanded an Arctic expedition searching for Sir John Franklin.—Ed.

[144] Sir George Simpson, born in Ross-shire, Scotland (1792), was in a merchant’s office in London, 1809-20. In the latter year he came to America, having charge during the winter of 1820-21 of a Hudson’s Bay post on Lake Athabasca. Upon the coalition of the rival fur-companies, the North West and Hudson’s Bay (1821), Simpson was chosen governor for the northern department, a position filled with acceptability until his death in 1860. He made two expeditions to the Northwest Coast, the first by canoe in 1828. In 1841-42 he journeyed entirely around the world. Leaving Liverpool in March, 1841, he reached Fort Garry in the Red River country (the modern Winnipeg), in May, whence the trip across the plains and mountains to Fort Colville was made by horses. Proceeding down the Columbia to Vancouver, Sir George visited California and Alaska, returning overland across Siberia, and reaching London after an absence of nineteen months. His adventures were published as A Narrative of a Journey around the World, 1841-42 (London, 1847). For a recent study of Simpson see George Bryce, Makers of Canada (Toronto, 1905), ix. Simpson met Wilkes at Vancouver, and speaks of the pleasure it gave him. See Farnham’s Travels, ante, p. 72, note 88.—Ed.

[145] “We stopped for a few hours at the Catholic mission,” says Capt. Wilkes, “to call upon the Rev. Mr. Bachelet (Blanchet), to whom I had a note of introduction from Dr. McLaughlin; he received me with great kindness. Mr. B. is here settled among his flock, and is doing great good to the settlers in ministering to their temporal as well as spiritual wants.... Mr. Drayton, Michael, and myself, dined with Mr. B. on oatmeal porridge, venison, strawberries and cream. His hospitality was tendered with good and kind feelings, and with a gentlemanly deportment that spoke much in his favor, and made us regret to leave his company so soon.” Mr. Wilkes represents the missions here and the farms of the Canadians, in a thriving state. He has incorrectly given the name Bachelet to Mr. Blanchet, superior of the Oregon mission, who was recently consecrated vicar-apostolic of that country.—Explor. Exp., vol. 4, p. 350.

Of the Methodist mission at Willamette, Mr. Wilkes says: “About all the premises of this mission there was an evident want of the attention required to keep things in repair, and an absence of neatness that I regretted much to witness. We had the expectation of getting a sight of the Indians on whom they were inculcating good habits, and teaching the word of God: but with the exception of four Indian servants, we saw none since leaving the Catholic mission.”—Ibid. p. 351, 2. At this latter mission he numbers four or five hundred natives. The Methodists had a school of twenty pupils at some distance.

Near Port Orchard the chapel of the Catholic mission is 172 feet long by 72 wide. “Many of the natives,” says Mr. Wilkes, “are capable of saying their prayers and telling their beads, and some were met with who could sing some Catholic hymns in their own language.”

Of the Protestant missions at Clatsop, Capt. Wilkes observes: “There appeared to me to be little opportunity for exercising their ministerial calling, though I understood afterwards that at particular seasons a number of Indians collected to hear them.”—Vol. iv., p. 322.—Ed. of Catholic Almanac.

[146] See our volume xxvii (De Smet), pp. 192, 193, notes 67, 69, 70.—Ed.

[147] Identical with De Smet’s Letters published in our volume xxvii.—Ed.

[148] These two missionaries were refused passage in the annual Hudson’s Bay Company’s brigade, and came to Oregon by sea, arriving in September, 1842. Langlois was placed in charge of the Willamette mission and the seminary of St. Joseph. Bolduc, who had formerly served in Polynesia, relates post his experiences in Vancouver Island and vicinity.—Ed.

[149] See De Smet’s account in his Letters, our volume xxvii, pp. 374-376.—Ed.

[150] H. M. Chittenden and A. T. Richardson, in Father De Smet’s Life and Travels (New York, 1905), give the following information with regard to these fathers: Peter De Vos was born in Ghent in 1797; coming to America in 1836 he went in 1842 to reinforce the mission of St. Mary’s in Montana. He served there and in the Willamette valley for eight years, when he was transferred to the College of Santa Clara, California, where he died April 17, 1859.

Father Adrian, younger brother of Father Christian Hoeken, was born in Holland in 1815. His mission service was connected with St. Ignatius at its first site in 1844-54, and at the present site in 1854-59. In the latter year he re-opened the abandoned Blackfeet mission, returning the following year (1860) to the East, where he spent his later life, dying at Marquette College, Milwaukee, April 19, 1897.—Ed.

[151] Michele Accolti was born at Bari, Italy, in 1806. Having been educated at Rome, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1832, and accompanying De Smet to Oregon remained there until 1851 in charge of various parishes both north and south of the Columbia. About 1851 Accolti removed to San Francisco, and in 1853 went to Rome for reinforcements for the newly-founded Jesuit college at Santa Clara. Returning thither in 1855 he served as pastor for ten years, when he was transferred to San Francisco, where he died November 6, 1878.

Giovanni Nobili was a native of Rome (1812). After six years in Oregon he was transferred to California, and died at Santa Clara, March 1, 1856. See post for the account of his journey to New Caledonia, where he was known as “Petit Père,” because of his small stature.

Antonio Ravalli was born in Ferrara in 1812. After entering the Jesuit order (1827) he taught for some years in Turin and neighboring cities, before coming to Oregon with Father de Smet. His first station was at St. Ignatius, whence he went to Fort Colville, removing shortly to St. Mary’s in the Bitterroot valley where so much of his life was spent. When St. Mary’s was abandoned (1854), Father Ravalli removed to the Sacred Heart mission, returning three years later to the Colville region. In 1860 he retired to Santa Clara, California, where for three years he was master of novices. But his heart was in the mountains, whither he returned and labored until his death, October 2, 1884. Father Ravalli was much beloved in Montana. For illustration of his monument see L. P. Palladino, Indian and White in the Northwest (Baltimore, 1894), p. 55.

Aloysius Vercruysse was born at Courträi, Belgium, in 1806. He served chiefly at St. Ignatius mission, being transferred to Santa Clara in 1863. Thence, because of failing health, he was sent home to Belgium, where he died July 17, 1866.

Brother Francis Huybrechts died at the Cœur d’Alène mission April 5, 1872, aged seventy-four years.—Ed.

[152] De Smet gives a detailed account of the voyage and the visit to Valparaiso and Lima, in the first letter in his Western Missions and Missionaries (New York, 1863). See also Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, ii, pp. 408-436.—Ed.

[153] On the bar of the Columbia River occurred the wreck of the Peacock, one of the vessels attached to the Exploring Expedition. A thrilling account of this event is given in Capt. Wilkes’ Narrative. Of the bar itself he says: “Mere description can give little idea of the terrors of the bar of the Columbia; all who have seen it have spoken of the wildness of the scene, and the incessant roar of the waters, representing it as one of the most fearful sights that can possibly meet the eye of the sailor. The difficulty of its channel, the distance of the leading sailing marks, their uncertainty to one unacquainted with them, the want of knowledge of the strength and direction of the currents, with the necessity of approaching close to unseen dangers, the transition from clear to turbid water, all cause doubt and mistrust. Under such feelings, I must confess that I felt myself laboring.”—Vol. iv., p. 293.—Ed. of Catholic Almanac.

[154] For this mission see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 365, note 184. The direction from St. Mary’s is northwest, not south.—Ed.

[155] These were Fathers Zerbinati and Joset, and Brother Magri, whom De Smet met in his journey eastward preparatory to sailing for Europe, and who had been sent as reinforcement by the Jesuit authorities abroad. They went forward to the frontier, arriving at the mission late in 1843.

Pietro Zerbinati remained at St. Mary’s mission, where he was accidentally drowned late in the summer of 1845.

Joseph Joset was of Swiss origin. He reinforced the Cœur d’Alène mission, where he resided for many years, serving both the government and the cause of the Indians in the war of 1858. He was frequently stationed at Colville, and for some years served a church in Spokane. In 1891 he returned to the Cœur d’Alène mission, dying at De Smet in 1900.

Brother Vincent Magri was a skilled mechanic, and had charge of milling operations at St. Ignatius. Later he was sent to the Cœur d’Alène mission, where he died June 18, 1869.—Ed.

[156] Augustine Magloire Alexander Blanchet, younger brother of Archbishop Blanchet, was born near Quebec in 1797, educated in that city, and consecrated to the priesthood in 1821. For some years he served as missionary on islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and at Cape Breton; then he returned to parish work, being arrested on a charge of participating in the Papineau revolt. No evidence to that effect being adduced, he was released, and was serving as canon of Montreal cathedral when called by his brother (1844) to be bishop of Walla Walla. After consecration as herein described, he set out for his diocese by way of St. Louis, first having declared his intention of becoming a citizen of the United States. Blanchet arrived on the Walla Walla September 5, 1847, shortly before the Whitman massacre. The Catholics were accused, doubtless unjustly, of having instigated that event, whose horrors they sought to mitigate. Blanchet was obliged to abandon the Cayuse mission, and in 1850 was made bishop of Nisqually, a diocese which later (1853) was co-extensive with Washington Territory. He established his headquarters at Vancouver, where was inaugurated a long litigation of the land claim of the church. Bishop Blanchet resigned in 1878, dying in retirement February 15, 1887.—Ed.

[157] Bolduc probably refers to the Spanish settlement at Nootka Sound; see Farnham’s Travels in our volume xxviii, pp. 32, 33, notes 8 and 10.—Ed.

[158] For Mounts Hood and St. Helens see our volume vi, pp. 246, 248, notes 50, 54; for Baker and Rainier, see notes 29, 30 (Farnham), ante, p. 33.—Ed.

[159] For the Cowlitz settlement see De Smet’s Letters, in our volume xxvii, p. 386, note 203. “Shwally” is a form for Nisqually, described in the same note.—Ed.

[160] Still known as Partridge (Perdrix) Point, on the west side of Whidbey Island, opposite Penn Cove.—Ed.

[161] The eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus), commonly known as the candlefish. It is of the smelt order, and has a delicious flavor. See a drawing by Capt. William Clark in Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, iv, frontispiece.—Ed.

[162] For the Clallam consult De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 387, note 207.—Ed.

[163] For Vancouver Island see Farnham’s Travels, ante, p. 75, note 91. The expedition landed in Camosun Bay. A manuscript journal of Sir James Douglas forms the basis of the account in H. H. Bancroft, History of British Columbia (San Francisco, 1887), pp. 92-116.—Ed.

[164] These were the Songhies, a tribe of Coast Salishan stock, inhabiting the region around Victoria. For a detailed description of this tribe see Franz Boas in Report of British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1890, pp. 563-582. Boas gives the proper tribal name as Lkuñgen, and says the term Songhies (Songish) is derived from one of their septs. As Bolduc reports, they lived in the long board houses with carved posts, and enclosed their village with palisades. There are about a hundred of this tribe extant under the charge of the Cowichan agency.—Ed.

[165] This was a band of Cowichan Indians, named for their chieftain Tsoughilam (Toungletats). The Cowichan are a large subdivision of the Coast Salishan tribe, occupying the east coast of Vancouver Island, and up the Fraser River as far as Yale; see Report of British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1894, pp. 454-463. See also an account of the attack of this tribe on the newly-erected Fort Camosun in H. H. Bancroft, British Columbia, pp. 106-110.—Ed.

[166] The former tribe was probably the Kwantlums, a branch of the Cowichan family, occupying the lower Fraser valley about Fort Langley and above.—Ed.

[167] For Kawitskins (Cowichan) and Klalams (Clallam), see ante, p. 148, note 49; for Isanisks (Songhies), p. 149, note 51.—Ed.

[168] For the founding of Sitka see our volume vi, p. 258, note 68.—Ed.

[169] Lopez Island, between Rosario Straits and Canal de Haro.—Ed.

[170] Bishop Blanchet had previously visited Whidbey Island; see ante, p. 120. The Skagit Indians were a tribe of Salishan origin inhabiting the territory in the neighborhood of Skagit Bay and on the river of that name. In 1855 they took part in the treaty of Point Elliott, and were assigned to the Swinomish Reservation at the mouth of Skagit River. The Indians on this reservation number about two hundred and fifty; they are partly civilized, wear civilized dress, speak English, hold allotted lands, and are largely members of the Roman Catholic church.—Ed.

[171] For the origin of this name see our volume vi, p. 233, note 36.—Ed.

[172] For the Clatsop see our volume vi, p. 239, note 39. The American with them was probably either Solomon H. Smith, or Calvin Tibbitts, who both lived at Clatsop Plains, having crossed the continent with Wyeth; see Wyeth’s Oregon, our volume xxi, p. 73, note 50.—Ed.

[173] James Birnie (Burney), for whom see Townsend’s Narrative in our volume xxi, p. 361, note 130.—Ed.

[174] See descriptions of this form of entombment in our volume xxi, p. 338; also in Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, iii, pp. 260, 326.—Ed.

[175] This was the building on the site of the present city of Salem, which was erected in 1842 by Jason Lee for the Indian mission school formerly conducted in a log house twelve miles below. The mission school had suffered reverses from illness and the loss of missionary leaders, and Rev. George Gary had arrived in Oregon May 1, 1844, to close up the affairs of the entire Methodist mission. The building for the school, which had with the surrounding land cost nearly $10,000 became the property of the Oregon Institute, which opened a school therein in the autumn of this year (1844). This subsequently became the nucleus of Willamette University, chartered in 1853.—Ed.

[176] The site was about three miles above Champoeg, not far from the residence of Etienne Lucier, one of the earliest settlers of French Prairie.—Ed.

[177] For a sketch of this missionary see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 193, note 69.—Ed.

[178] The mission or residence at this point was known as St. Francis Xavier. The convent was, however, entitled St. Mary’s or Notre Dame, from the convent at Namur, whence the sisters set forth.—Ed.

[179] Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, ii, p. 453, give “Oregon City” as the alternative of this native village. Consultation with Oregon historians, however, gives no support to this theory—the term “Cuhute” never having been applied to the locality of Oregon City during the residence, or within the knowledge of white settlers. George H. Himes of Portland, after interviewing several pioneers, writes us: “I conclude that the village referred to by De Smet was the name of a village belonging to a small sub-tribe of Indians in the vicinity of the present town of St. Paul, Marion County, which was annihilated by the disease already alluded to.”—Ed.

[180] This letter enclosed those following, numbered iv-xv, in the last of which De Smet says that he is sending a packet of letters by the Hudson’s Bay brigade from Columbia, which he has just encountered.—Ed.

[181] Addressed to Bishop (later Archbishop) John Hughes of New York. From the time of the descriptive letter number ii, written from Willamette valley October 9, 1844, to the beginning of this letter in February, 1845, Father de Smet had made a journey to his previously-founded missions in the interior. Leaving Vancouver, he ascended the river to Fort Walla Walla, thence crossed Spokane plains and the mountains to the camp of the Pend d’Oreille on Clark’s Fork, where he met Father Adrian Hoeken. There a deputation from the Cœur d’Alènes waited on the father to persuade him to visit their mission of Sacred Heart, where he was received November 11 by Father Nicolas Point. Setting forth thence, eight days later he found the road to the Flatheads impracticable because of floods and ice, so that he was obliged to pass the winter (1844-45) with the Pend d’Oreille in their winter quarters on Clark’s Fork.—Ed.

[182] For the location of Horse Plain see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 337, note 172. The location of the Bay of the Pend d’Oreille (Kalispels) is given post, note 73.—Ed.

[183] For these tribes and the former visit of De Smet, see his Letters in our volume xxvii, especially p. 141, note 8.—Ed.

[184] This stream, now known as St. Regis Borgia, is a tributary of the Missoula from the west. Rising in Bitterroot Mountains it flows slightly south of east through a fertile valley, which forms the present route of the Northern Pacific Railway. See De Smet’s Letters, in our volume xxvii, p. 362, note 183.—Ed.

[185] Stiettiedloodsho was surnamed “Bravest of the Brave;” for an account of his fight with the Crows, see post, letter xxiii. His baptismal name was Moses, and he was an adopted brother of Father de Smet, who relates several anecdotes of his piety; see Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, iv, pp. 1225, 1226. He was known to be living in 1857. Possibly Selpisto was the great chief baptized in 1840 as Peter. For Chalax see our volume xxvii, p. 284, note 148.—Ed.

[186] The site of the first mission of St. Ignatius, called by De Smet the Bay of the Kalispels, was on the east bank of Clark’s Fork, in latitude about 48° 20′ north, longitude 117° 10′ west, in the present Stevens County, Washington, not far from the town of Usk. The mission was maintained at this point until 1854, when, the spot proving unsuitable from frequent overflows, a site was chosen in western Montana on the present Flathead Reservation, whence the mission was transferred and where it has since been maintained. See L. B. Palladino, Indian and White in the Northwest, pp. 68-79.—Ed.

[187] Manresa is a town in the northeastern part of Spain, where Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, spent a year dwelling in a cave, and subjecting himself to severe austerities. It is now a place of pilgrimage for the pious followers of the saint.—Ed.

[188] Champoeg—an Indian name, signifying a kind of edible root—was an Indian camping and council ground, lying on the borders of Kalapuya territory. Among the earliest settlements in the Willamette valley were those made near this place.—Ed.

[189] Oregon City was laid out in lots (1843) by Dr. John McLoughlin, who had taken up the site as early as 1829 and by 1837 had made improvements there. The Methodist mission had built a store and a mill on the same site and later there was a prolonged dispute over the title. Meanwhile Oregon City (or Willamette Falls) grew, and was made the seat of the provisional government (1845-49). McLoughlin gave the site for the building of the church here mentioned, which was dedicated February 8, 1846.—Ed.

[190] The Kamloop and Atnah are Shushwap (Shoowhapamooh) clans of the great Salishan stock of Indians, inhabiting the region between the Rocky Mountains and Fraser River, north of the British American boundary line. The Kamloop lived in the Thompson River district, near a fort of that name (see Ross’s Oregon Settlers in our volume vii, p. 199, note 64). For the term “Atnah” see our volume vii, p. 159, note 52.

The Porteurs (Carriers) are described in De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 307, note 160. Consult G. M. Dawson “The Shuswap People,” in Royal Society of Canada Transactions, ix, part ii, pp. 3-44; A. G. Morice, “The Western Dénés” in Canadian Institute Proceedings, 3d series, vol. 7, pp. 109-120; and Franz Boas, in Report of British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1890, pp. 642-647.—Ed.

[191] The Stelatin dwelt on the western end of Fraser Lake; the Nashkutin (Nashkoten) on and about Blackwater River; the Chilcotin (Tchilkoten) on a river of that name [see note 102 (Farnham), ante, p. 81,] and the Nakasletin (Nazeteoten) on Stuart Lake.—Ed.

[192] Brother J. B. McGean (McGill) was an Irishman, who went to the mission field with Fathers Peter De Vos and Adrian Hoeken in 1843. In 1854 he was at St. Ignatius mission where he was farm superintendent.—Ed.

[193] Father de Smet and his Indians followed the aboriginal trail across the Cascades, which afterwards became the foundation of the Barlow Road. See “History of the Barlow Road,” in Oregon Historical Society Quarterly, iii, pp. 71-81. For Mount Hood see our volume vi, p. 248, note 54.—Ed.

[194] For Captain Nathaniel Wyeth and his expeditions to Oregon, see our volume xxi, preface, and p. 23, note 3. This quotation, which is not verbatim, is taken from Wyeth’s Memoir, published in Reports of Committees, 25 Cong., 3 sess., no. 101, p. 11.—Ed.

[195] For the Nez Percé Indians see our volume vi, p. 340, note 145. While closely related the Cayuse are thought by modern ethnologists to be a separate language stock, although they also spoke the Nez Percé tongue. See our volume vii, p. 137, note 37.—Ed.

[196] Now known as Kettle Falls; see our volume vi, p. 346, note 153.—Ed.

[197] For the first two tribes see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 319, notes 161, 162. The Zingomenes are the Spokan (see Father de Smet’s letter in Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, iii, p. 801), for whom see our volume vi, p. 341, note 146. Kalispel is an alternative for the Pend d’Oreille, noted in our volume xxvii, p. 141, note 8 (De Smet).—Ed.

[198] The salmon of the Pacific coast rivers comprises five species of one genus, Oncorhyncus: O. chavicha, the quinnat or King salmon; O. nerke, the blue-backed salmon; O. kisutch, the silver salmon; O. keta, the dog salmon; and O. gorbusha, the hump-backed salmon. The sixth variety noted may be the Salmo gairdneri, or steelhead salmon trout.—Ed.

[199] The residence or mission of St. Francis Regis is in the Colville valley, about seven and a half miles from the present town of Colville. On his next visit De Smet found settled in the vicinity about seventy Canadian métis, or half breeds. The station does not appear to have been continuous, but to have been re-established after the Indian wars (1847-56). Later it became a flourishing mission, with schools for boys and girls, and was frequently visited by Spokan and Colville Indians from the neighboring reservations. For the Cree see J. Long’s Voyages in our volume ii, p. 168, note 75.—Ed.

[200] The Flatbows (Arcs à plats), in the use made of the term by De Smet, signify that branch of the Kutenai stock that is now known as the Lower Kutenai; by “Kootenay” the author designates the Upper branch of the tribal stock. They differ slightly in customs and dialects, as well as in habitat, the Lower Kutenai being partly in the United States; the Upper almost wholly in British Columbia. For a scientific study of this stock see Dr. A. F. Chamberlain in Report of British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1892, pp. 549-614; see also De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 357, note 180.—Ed.

[201] Lake Pend d’Oreille, in northern Idaho; for which see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 339, note 175.—Ed.

[202] For a brief biographical sketch of Peter Skeen Ogden see Townsend’s Narrative in our volume xxi, p. 314, note 99. For an account of De Smet’s journey with Ogden in 1842, see the former’s Letters in our volume xxvii, pp. 373-377.—Ed.

[203] These officers were Captain Henry J. Warre, nephew and aide-de-camp of Sir R. Downer Jackson, commandant of British forces in North America, and Lieutenant M. Vavasour of the Royal Engineers. They had a commission from the government, perhaps not as extensive as is reported by De Smet, but doubtless ample in case of war. They were also secretly commissioned by the Hudson’s Bay Company to report on Dr. McLoughlin’s attitude in regard to the American settlers, and their adverse account was answered by him in detail, after his resignation (1846). The two officers left Montreal May 5, 1845, reporting at Fort Garry, whence they took the overland route followed by Sir George Simpson in 1841, arriving at Fort Colville August 12, three days after the meeting with De Smet in the Idaho forests. Their appearance at Fort Vancouver nearly coincided with that of the naval officers Park and Peel from the Pacific squadron. Warre and Vavasour examined the country thoroughly, and made estimates of the Indian tribes. See Robert M. Martin, Hudson’s Bay Territories (London, 1849), p. 80. They visited Vancouver Island and Puget Sound, the settlements on the Willamette and the mouth of the Columbia, making drawings and sketches of several places visited. They remained at Fort Vancouver during the winter of 1845-46 assisting at the festivities inaugurated by the officers of the “Modeste” (see Palmer’s Journal in our volume xxx, note 189), and left for England via the spring brigade. They mention meeting Father de Smet seven days from Boat Encampment on the return journey. Arriving in Liverpool August 12, 1846, Captain Warre prepared for the press Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory (London, 1849), a copy of which is in the Portland public library. Captain Warre had been in Canada since 1839; on his return to England he received the thanks of the colonial secretary, Earl Grey, for his arduous services during his journey to the West on “special duty.” Later he commanded the 57th regiment in the Crimean War and in New Zealand, 1861-66, becoming lieutenant general in 1877, and dying in 1898. He is the author of Sketches in the Crimea (London, 1856); he also wrote Historical Records of the 57 regiment of foot (London, 1878.)—Ed.

[204] Doubtless De Smet followed the well-known Indian trail which David Thompson called the “Great Road of the Flatheads,” reaching Kootenai River about on the border between Idaho and Montana, where was built a North West Company house, later abandoned. See Thompson’s description of the road in Elliott Coues (ed.) New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northwest (New York, 1897), ii, p. 673; also the accompanying map by Thompson.—Ed.

[205] The wappato (sagittaria latifolia) was an important article of food for the Northwest Indians. See descriptions of its gathering and preparation in Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, index. The flower of the bitterroot (Lewisia rediviva) has been chosen as the Montana state flower; it gives name both to the river and to a range of mountains in that state. The biscuit root was probably what is known as the white-apple or prairie potato (Psoralea esculenta), a food-root widely spread in North America. See our volume xxi, p. 248, note 62.—Ed.

[206] On the camas see our volume xxi, p. 247, note 61.—Ed.

[207] Evernia vulpina, still used for food by the Kutenai.—Ed.

[208] Kootenai Lake, in eastern British Columbia, is an enlargement of the river of the same name, seventy-five miles in length and with a width of from two to five miles. The river enters at the southern end, and leaves the lake about midway of its length opposite Pilot Bay.—Ed.

[209] Edward Berland, a Hudson’s Bay Company employe, aided Sir George Simpson on his voyage around the world in 1841. See his curious autograph reproduced in Simpson, Narrative, i, p. 125.—Ed.

[210] Known as Kootenai River Traverse, located in the neighborhood of the present Fort Steele. See Simpson’s description of its passage in his Narrative, pp. 137, 138.—Ed.

[211] De Smet is passing up the Kootenai River in its course through Montana, following the line of the present Great Northern Railway, which leaves Kootenai valley at Jennings, where the river coming from the north makes an abrupt turn to the west. A recently-built branch of this railway extends from Jennings along the upper Kootenai into British Columbia.—Ed.

[212] Probably the Yaac River, a considerable mountain tributary of the Kootenai, in northwestern Montana. De Smet may, however, refer to some small stream that enters the main river near Kootenai Falls, some ten or twelve miles above the embouchment of the Yaac. David Thompson called the Kootenai, McGillivray River, in honor of the Hon. William McGillivray, one of the North West Company partners.—Ed.

[213] De Smet was an observant traveller. The mineral wealth of Flathead County, Montana (through which he was passing), has not yet been developed; but galena ore bearing both lead and silver has been found, and considerable quantities of coal and oil are known to exist in that district. See Report of Great Northern Railway, 1902.—Ed.

[214] Tobacco Plains are situated on both sides of the international boundary, taking their name from Tobacco River, a Montana affluent of the Kootenai. This has for many years been the habitat of one division of the Upper Kutenai, known as Agkanegunik (people of the Tobacco Plains). David Thompson visited and traded there in 1808. A British Columbia branch of this tribe still has a reservation of 2,560 acres just north of the international boundary, where a band of fifty-seven was in 1902 employed in farming and cattle-raising. The Kutenai of to-day are all Roman Catholics.—Ed.

[215] For Flathead (Tête plat) Lake see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 359, note 181.—Ed.

[216] From Tobacco Plains De Smet advanced up the valley of the upper Kootenai, towards the portage near the headwaters of the Columbia. This valley runs between the main range of the Rockies and the Selkirks, among some of the most majestic scenery on the North American continent.—Ed.

[217] Taken from a composition of De Smet’s on his second journey to the Rocky Mountains (1841), and then applied to the heights around the sources of the Platte. See Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, iv, pp. 1353, 1354.—Ed.

[218] These are Upper Columbia and Windermere lakes, the former 2,700 feet above sea level, and the ultimate source of the Columbia River. The river is navigable from Lake Windermere as far as Golden, where the Canadian Pacific Railway crosses, and steamers ply the course of about 160 miles. The passage from one lake to the other is possible only for canoes. This region was first explored by David Thompson in 1807.—Ed.

[219] These are composed of gravelly flats, the great spawning beds of the Columbia salmon. At times steamboat navigation is impeded by the immense number of the fish.—Ed.

[220] The Hot Springs—one of a temperature of 120°, the other of 90° Fahrenheit—issue from natural basins of their own formation, on the side of a cliff just below Upper Columbia Lake.—Ed.

[221] Richard Chandler (1738-1810), an English antiquary, undertook an exploring expedition to Asia Minor and Greece (1765) under the auspices of the English Dilettanti Society. The results were published as Travels in Asia Minor (London, 1775), both sufficiently popular to run through several editions. The author particularly mentions the famous Hot Springs of the ancient Hierapolis, whose site is now known as Kambuk Kalessi, on the Mæander River in Phrygia, and describes their incrustations and stalactites. For the famous geographer Conrad Malte-Brun see our volume xviii, p. 345, note 136.—Ed.

[222] The portage from Kootenai River (Arcs-à-plats) to Upper Columbia Lake is but a mile and a half in length, over a level trail of rich black soil now known as Kootenai Flat. There is little doubt that the upper Columbia once drained this way into the Kootenai River, which now, however, is slightly higher than the source of the Columbia. A canal has been projected across the portage, but it is not yet completed.—Ed.

[223] For the Shushwap see our volume vii, p. 159, note 52.—Ed.

[224] Vermillion River, one of the headstreams of the Kootenai, rises in the great group of the Rockies, near the foot of Mount Biddle, west of Laggan, on the Canadian Pacific Railway, and flows southeasterly until uniting with the Beaverfoot to form the Kootenai. See “Sketch map of the Canadian Rocky Mountains” in James Outram, In the Heart of the Canadian Rockies (New York, 1905).—Ed.

[225] De Smet is not sufficiently precise in his topography to make it certain by which pass he crossed the Rocky Mountain divide. Probably it was that over which Sir George Simpson made his way to the westward in 1841, now known as Simpson Pass (elevation 6,884 feet). It comes out in the neighborhood of Banff on the Canadian Pacific Railway, in the valley of Bow River, a tributary of the South Saskatchewan. See Simpson, Narrative, i, pp. 118-121.—Ed.

[226] The Saskatchewan, with its two great branches, North and South, drains a large portion of the vast plain lying between the Rocky Mountains and the lake region of Manitoba, and enters Lake Winnipeg in latitude 53° 10′, longitude 99° 20′ west. Nelson River enters Hudson Bay near the fifty-seventh parallel of north latitude.—Ed.

[227] Bow River (des Arcs) is the northern branch of the South Saskatchewan. It rises in the Rocky Mountains above Laggan, flowing east and southeast until its junction with Belly River near longitude 111° 30′; these two then form the great South Saskatchewan. The name Rivière des Arcs is thought to have been given from its course, as it was first applied to the entire South Saskatchewan which takes a crescent course. More probably it arose from its frequent curves or “ox-bows,” especially in the upper reaches, above Banff. The earliest explorers of this stream were the French, who under Lieutenant de Niverville, sent out by Legardeur de St. Pierre (1752), erected Fort La Jonquière not far from the modern town of Calgary. David Thompson explored Bow River valley for the North West Company in 1800. The upper Bow is now the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway.—Ed.

[228] The Blackfeet are noted in our volume v, p. 225, note 120, and described in more detail by Maximilian in his Travels, our volume xxiii, pp. 95-122. They range into the northern part of Montana in the United States, but their usual habitat is the great plain of the Saskatchewan in the provinces of Alberta and Assiniboia.—Ed.

[229] For the Assiniboin see our volume ii, p. 168, note 75. The Assiniboin were wandering Indians grouped into many bands under separate chiefs. Early in the nineteenth century those of the woods and foothills of the Rockies became differentiated from the Assiniboin of the Plains, and were usually denominated Stoney Indians. These latter were in two bands, the Thickwood and Mountain Stoney, with dialects differing considerably from the Assiniboin of the Plains. Their characteristics were also different, they being more peaceable and inoffensive than their Eastern relatives. They were very poor, nevertheless were good hunters and energetic workers, many of them acting as guides especially in the explorations connected with the Canadian Pacific Railway surveys. First visited by Wesleyan missionaries as early as 1840, they now are largely members of that denomination. A band of about six hundred live on a reservation on Bow River near Morley, forty miles west of Calgary, not far from the region in which they were encountered by De Smet.—Ed.

[230] The Assiniboin of the Plains had been decimated by small-pox in 1838; while still a numerous tribe, they were reduced from 1,000 to 400 thinly-populated lodges. They had somewhat recovered, doubtless, before Father de Smet’s journey.—Ed.

[231] Red Deer River rises in the Sawback Range, nearly east of Laggan, and flowing east and southeast through the plains of Alberta empties into the South Saskatchewan in Assiniboia, just east of the hundred and tenth meridian.—Ed.

[232] Snake Country (Pays Serpent) was the term applied by the Hudson’s Bay Company to the area drained by Snake (or Lewis) River, the home of the Shoshoni (or Snake) Indians.—Ed.

[233] These tribes have all been previously noted—by “Kants” being meant the Kansa; by “Saucs” the Sac; and by “Ajouas” the Iowa.—Ed.

[234] See De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 391, note 213.—Ed.

[235] Jean Baptiste Thibault went as a missionary to the Red River country in 1833, and travelled widely in the great Northwest, visiting the Hudson’s Bay posts and founding missions for both half-breeds and Indians from Manitoba to New Caledonia. His colleague, Joseph Bourassa, was engaged in the same work from 1844 to 1856.—Ed.

[236] For these rivers see our volume vi, p. 354, with accompanying note. The mission at St. Ann, in Alberta about fifty miles west of Fort Edmonton, was later in charge of the Oblate Fathers, headed by Father La Combe.—Ed.

[237] The last four tribes belong to the great Athapascan, Déné, or Tinneh stock, whose northern division occupies the northernmost interior of the American continent. The names here given (probably translated from French) are intended for the Beaver, Dogrib, Slave and Hare (or Hare-skin) tribes. In general terms their habitat may be described as follows: the Beaver upon Peace River; the Dogrib between Great Slave and Great Bear lakes; the Slaves west of Great Slave Lake, upon Mackenzie and Liard rivers; the Hares on the Mackenzie, Hare, Indian, and Anderson rivers. See A. G. Morice, in Canadian Institute Proceedings, 1889, pp. 109-174. These Indians still rove the great northern lands, little affected by contact with whites.—Ed.

[238] These are all fur-trading posts, most of which De Smet had visited. They have been described in previous volumes of our series, as follows: Fort Corbeaux (Crow), or Alexander, our volume xxvii, p. 146, note 12 (De Smet); Laramie (La Ramee), xxi, p. 181, note 30; Union, xxii, p. 373, note 349; Mandan, or Clark (near Big Knife, not Little Missouri), xxii, p. 344, note 317; Pierre, xxii, p. 315, note 277; Lookout, xxii, p. 304, note 261; Vermillion, xxvii, p. 153, note 22 (De Smet); fort at Council Bluffs, xxii, p. 275, note 231; and Bellevue, xxii, p. 267, note 221. Fort Osage, originally a government post on the Missouri (not the Osage), was abandoned in 1827; see our volume v, p. 60, note 31. Probably De Smet here refers to the trading post at the Osage villages on Osage River, in what is now Kansas. Fort Pied-Noir (Blackfoot), or Lewis, was the successor of Fort Mackenzie (for which see our volume xxiii, p. 87, note 75), destroyed in 1844. Fort Lewis was built (1845) by Alexander Culbertson some distance above the old fort at the mouth of Maria’s River, on the south bank of the Missouri, eighteen miles above the present city of Fort Benton, Montana; see account of founding in Montana Historical Society Contributions, iii, pp. 241-243 (note, however, that the dates in these reminiscences are quite unreliable). Fort Lewis, named for the explorer, Captain Meriwether Lewis, was abandoned in 1846 for the site of Fort Benton—the new post, however, retaining the name Lewis until about 1850. Fort Berthold, in McLean County, North Dakota, on the Indian reservation of that name, one hundred and twenty-five miles above Bismarck, was built as an American Fur Company post in 1845, and named for Bartholomew Berthold, one of the partners of that corporation. An opposition post (erected in 1859) was bought out in 1862, and the effects and name transferred thither. This new stockade was nearly captured by the Sioux in December, 1862. Two years later it was converted into a military post, but the soldiers being withdrawn (1867) the fort was thereafter maintained as an Indian agency, until accidentally burned in 1874; all vestiges have now disappeared. See engraving of its former appearance in O. D. Wheeler, Trail of Lewis and Clark (New York, 1904), i, p. 276.—Ed.

[239] Right Reverend Mathias Loras was born in Lyons, France, in 1792. At the age of twenty-six he was ordained priest, and in 1829 came to the United States with Bishop Portier of Mobile. He served in the latter city until chosen (1839) first bishop of the newly-created see of Dubuque. Two years later he visited Europe for recruits, returning with two priests and four deacons. Bishop Loras died at Dubuque in 1858. In 1841 he sent Augustine Ravoux, one of the deacons who had reinforced his mission (ordained priest in 1840), to visit the traders in what is now Minnesota, and attempt the founding there of a Sioux mission; he was accompanied by Father Lucien Galtier. The latter built a chapel on the site of St. Paul, and gave the infant settlement its name, but in 1844 he was removed, dying in 1866 at Prairie du Chien. Father Ravoux made many missionary journeys over his wide territory—in 1845 to Fort Vermillion, in 1847 to Fort Pierre—and established an incipient Sioux mission. The withdrawal of Galtier made it imperative for Ravoux to devote himself to the care of the Catholic communicants of his wide diocese. See his Reminiscences and Memoirs (St. Paul, 1890). He was still living in 1904.—Ed.

[240] For the Potawatomi mission see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 156, note 26. Its first site in Kansas was as here stated; later (1848) it was removed to Kansas River, and during the early settlement was well known as St. Mary’s Mission—afterwards, simply St. Mary’s. The mission school was continued until 1869. A town of this name is in the southeastern corner of Pottawatomie County.—Ed.

[241] Several posts of the Hudson’s Bay Company were known as the Rocky Mountain House; but this one, upon the North Saskatchewan, had no other name. It was founded in 1802 by the North West Company, and David Thompson was in charge 1806-07, making thence his first expedition west of the mountains. It was located about a mile and a half above the mouth of the Clearwater, on the south bank of the Saskatchewan. See Explorations by Captain John Palliser (London, 1863), pp. 74-77, descriptive of the expedition sent by the government in 1857-59.—Ed.

[242] For the Sauteux see J. Long’s Voyages, in our volume ii, p. 79, note 38. The Chippewa are the most numerous tribe of the Algonquian stock, large numbers being still found in both Canada and the United States, with a range nearly as wide as De Smet here gives them. In the United States, however, their habitat never extended much beyond Minnesota, where they were met by their hereditary enemies, the Dakota (or Sioux). In Canada, their alliance with the Cree gave them a farther westward range, and they occasionally traded at Fort Edmonton on the upper Saskatchewan.—Ed.

[243] George A. de Belcourt arrived in the Red River country in 1831, and spent twenty-eight years as a missionary in this territory, officiating also at Pembina under commission from Bishop Loras of Dubuque. The Chippewa mission here mentioned was situated on Winnipeg River, at a place whose native name was Wabassimong. In 1846, the Oblate Father Aubert was placed in charge; but lack of success rendered it necessary to abandon the mission the following year. The log church which had been erected was used some years later by Protestant missionaries. See Alexandre Taché, Vingt Années de Missions dans le Nord-Ouest de l’Amérique (Montreal, 1866).—Ed.

[244] This was the half-breed known as Bird, whose treachery toward Antoine Godin at Fort Hall, Idaho, is narrated by Townsend in our volume xxi, pp. 353, 354; see also our volume xxiii, pp. 135, 145, 153.—Ed.

[245] This band of Blackfeet, which took its name from an important chief, was mentioned by George Catlin in 1832, being said to consist of two hundred and fifty lodges. Father de Smet says that they were almost entirely destroyed. Charles Larpenteur, however, mentions this band as on the war path against the Flatheads in 1848; see his Forty Years a Fur Trader (New York, 1898), ii, pp. 259-261.—Ed.

[246] John Rowand was born at Montreal and entered the North West Company as a clerk in 1800. He was in charge at Fort Augustus for many years and there was born his son who became widely known in Northwest annals. Educated at Montreal and Edinburgh, he travelled abroad before returning to the Northwest, where he was for many years a chief factor of the company. He accompanied Sir George Simpson on his journey of 1841, and in 1848 retired from active service, settling in Quebec, where he died in 1889. See Henry-Thompson Journals, ii, pp. 602, 603; and Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, iv. pp. 1559-1561.—Ed.

[247] For Fort Edmonton (or Fort Augustus) see our volume vi, p. 364, note 177. A nearly contemporary description may be found in Simpson, Narrative, i, pp. 101, 102.—Ed.

[248] For Fort Jasper see our volume vi, p. 357, note 167.

Assiniboine House was built in 1825 on the north side of Athabasca River, in northern Alberta; the place is now abandoned and ruined. See Alexander Ross, Fur Hunters of the Far West (London, 1855), ii, p. 204.

Lesser Slave Lake House, at the western end of the lake, was built by Alexander Stuart of the North West Company early in the nineteenth century.—Ed.

[249] For Fort des Montagnes see ante, p. 234, note 128.

Fort Pitt was established in 1831, not far below old Fort Vermillion, about half way between Carlton and Edmonton, on the south bank of the Saskatchewan, about a hundred yards from the river. See description of its appearance in 1859, in Earl of Southesk, Saskatchewan and the Rocky Mountains (Edinburgh, 1875), pp. 139-142, 285-292.

Fort Carlton (Carrollton) was the Hudson’s Bay post replacing the old Fort de la Montée, for which see our volume vi, p. 374, note 185. Sir George Simpson well describes its appearance in 1841 in his Narrative, i, p. 84. For Cumberland House see our volume vi, p. 376, note 188.—Ed.

[250] The Lake of the Black Eagle does not appear to be charted, but the entire country between Forts Edmonton and Assiniboine abounds in lakes. This route was followed by Ross in 1825; see his Fur Hunters, ii, pp. 205, 209.—Ed.

[251] For the Pembina see our volume vi, p. 364, note 177. It is not feasible to identify all these affluents of the upper Athabasca. Next to Pembina, the largest of those mentioned is McLeod (McCloud) River, a southern branch coming in some fifty miles above old Fort Assiniboine. The Baptiste (the additional word Berland has been dropped) flows from the west, entering the Athabasca where it bends to the east.—Ed.

[252] Of the two lakes at the headwaters of the Athabasca, both are sometimes called Jasper, but the lower one was more frequently known as Burnt (or Brulé) Lake. For these and Jasper House see our volume vi, p. 357, note 167.—Ed.

[253] The names of these streams appear to change frequently. The Violin is now known as Fiddle River; it debouches from the south, near the upper end of Brulé Lake. Medicine appears to be identical with the stream called Rocky River, coming from very near the source of the North Saskatchewan. The Assiniboine is now usually called Snake Indian River; it takes its name from a small tribe that frequented its banks, who were totally exterminated early in the nineteenth century by a fierce band of Assiniboin.—Ed.

[254] The Maligne is a large stream coming from the south, not far from the source of the Brazeau. Gens de Colets is now known as Snaring River; it enters the Athabasca some miles above Jasper Lake. The Miette comes from the west and joins the Athabasca at its abrupt turn from north to east. The trail to Yellowhead Pass follows up the Miette, while that to Athabasca Pass follows the main Athabasca River, to the Trou (or Hole), more frequently Whirlpool River.—Ed.

[255] The Boucane is now Smoky River, the largest southwest affluent of Peace (a la Paix) River.—Ed.

[256] For Fraser River see Farnham’s Travels, ante, p. 43, note 52.

A small branch of the Miette approaches within a few rods, on the summit of Yellowhead Pass of the upper source of the Fraser, running thence into Yellowhead, and sixteen miles lower down Moose Lake, whence issues the main Fraser.—Ed.

[257] For the Carrier Indians, see our volume xxvii, p. 307, note 160. They are the main branch of the Déné (Tinneh) stock, in British Columbia. See Rev. A. G. Morice, “Are the Carrier Sociology and Mythology exotic?” in Canadian Royal Society Transactions, x, part ii, pp. 109-120, with map giving location of the tribes of New Caledonia.

By the Achiganes, De Smet probably intends the Sekanais (Tsekenné), who inhabit the western slopes of the Rockies from latitude 54° to 60°. They are a nomadic people of the Déné stock, lacking houses, villages, or social organization. Despising fish, they subsist on game and roots. Numbering about two hundred souls, they now exist in two wandering bands in the Babine and Upper Skeena River agency, Hoquelget division, British Columbia.—Ed.

[258] The Montagnais are a branch of the great Athapascan (or Déné) stock of northern Indians. By some authorities they are identified with the Chippewyan; others consider them the western branch of the Chippewyan tribe—De Smet uses the term in the first sense. The Chippewyan still rove in their ancient habitat on Athabasca lake and river. The majority of the tribe has been christianized by Catholic missionaries.—Ed.

[259] Lake Athabasca, in the northern portion of the territory of that name, is the outlet of Athabasca River, and extends 190 miles in length and from five to fifty-five in width. It discharges by Slave River into Great Slave Lake, thence through the Mackenzie into the Arctic Ocean. Fort Chippewyan, upon the shore of Lake Athabasca, was one of the earliest trading posts erected by the English in the Northwest. Thence Sir Alexander Mackenzie made his famous explorations (1789-93).—Ed.

[260] The Oblate monk was Alexandre Antoine Taché, later archbishop of St. Boniface on the Red River, and the priest Father L. Laflèche. Father Thibault had visited all the Athabascan district in the summer of 1844, preparing the way for permanent mission stations. Reporting to Bishop Provencher at Winnipeg, the latter sent the two missionaries to found a central station at Ile à la Crosse (largely frequented by Crees), whence stations were later established at Cariboo Lake and Lake Athabasca.

Father Laflèche came to the Red River country in 1844, remaining at Ile à la Crosse until 1849, when infirmities led him to retire. Elected coadjutor for Bishop Provencher, he declined the responsibility, but served as vicar general until 1856.

Taché was Canadian born (1823); educated at Montreal, he joined the Oblate order, and (1845) volunteered for mission service on the frontier. Arrived at Red River, he was ordained priest, and sent (July, 1846) to found the mission at Ile à la Crosse, whence he made journeys to the distant tribes of the Northwest. Elected coadjutor bishop in 1849, he visited Europe, being two years later consecrated in France. Returning to Canada, he went back to his mission, whence he was summoned to Winnipeg by the death of Bishop Provencher (1853). Taché was an important figure in the Canadian Northwest, being profoundly interested for the material and spiritual welfare of the Indians and half-breeds. He interceded with the Dominion government for the latter’s grievances in 1869, and after the Riel rebellion was useful in restoring harmony. Raised to an archbishopric in 1871, he ably administered his diocese until his death in 1894.

See his own account of his early missionary experiences in Vingt Années de Missions dans le Nord-Ouest de l’Amérique.—Ed.

[261] Paul, son of Simon Fraser the explorer (for whom see Farnham’s Travels, ante, p. 43, note 52), was born in Glengarry, Ontario, in 1799. He entered the Hudson’s Bay Company as early as 1827, or before, and in the following year was chief clerk in charge at Fort Vermillion, when Sir George Simpson passed that way. In 1833 he was a senior clerk at Fort McLeod, giving his principal attention to New Caledonia where he was a chief trader before 1844. He built Fort Umpqua in Oregon, and was stationed there for some time. In 1850 he resigned from the Northern department and was sent to Fort Kamloops, where not long afterwards he was killed by the fall of a tree.—Ed.

[262] There is an Island Lake on the Sturgeon River chain, not far from Lake Ann, but De Smet’s topography is too indefinite to insure identification.—Ed.

[263] La Fourche du Trou (Fork of the Hole), better known as Whirlpool River, is that branch of the Athabasca that descends from the Committee’s Punch Bowl on the summit of Athabasca Pass. The first appellation is given because of a peculiar rock formation by which it enters the other branch of the Athabasca through a rocky channel or hole. See our volume vi, p. 353.—Ed.

[264] By reference to Letter iii, ante, pp. 170-172, it will be seen that all the succeeding letters to this point were enclosed with that accompanying them, and forwarded by the usual Columbia brigade, which De Smet met at this point of his journey.—Ed.

[265] For a brief sketch of York Factory see our volume vi, p. 377, note 191.—Ed.

[266] For Francis Ermatinger see our volume xxvii, p. 235, note 108.—Ed.

[267] This river has various names, by some called Portage, and by others Little Canoe, since it enters the Columbia at its great northern bend, just where the Canoe River coming from the north also joins it. This westward-flowing mountain torrent—first discovered by David Thompson in 1810-11—issues from a small lake at the summit of the pass, within a few rods of the Committee’s Punch Bowl.—Ed.

[268] So named from Thompson’s camp, where he stopped to build canoes to descend the Columbia. It became a noted site on the upper Columbia, where horses or snow-shoes were exchanged for canoes or vice versa.—Ed.

[269] For the two peaks here mentioned, see Farnham’s Travels, ante, pp. 29, 30, notes 22, 23.—Ed.

[270] The Dalles of the Dead was an especially dangerous place on the upper Columbia. Probably they took their name from the sad fate of a party who turned back from Boat Encampment in 1817. See Ross Cox, Adventures on the Columbia River (New York, 1832), p. 245.—Ed.

[271] Alexander Ross in his Fur Hunters, ii, pp. 165-175, speaks of paintings in red ochre upon a rock on Lower Arrow Lake, against which the passing Indians shot their arrows in defiance of the tribes beyond. By examining these arrows, the natives could tell what tribes have lately passed. Doubtless from this custom the lakes have received their name. They are wide spreads of the river, beautifully located, amid high cliffs and peaks. Upper Arrow Lake is about thirty-three miles long and three broad; the Lower is more tortuous, and slightly longer and narrower. The distance between them is more nearly sixteen than six miles.—Ed.

[272] For these two lakes see our volume xxvii, pp. 339, 359, notes 175, 181, respectively.—Ed.

[273] Roothan was at that time father general of the Jesuit order; see our volume xxvii, p. 155, note 25 (De Smet). The lake is now known as Priest Lake, and Blackrobe River as Priest River, occupying a forest reserve of that name in northwestern Idaho, with a like strip in northeastern Washington.—Ed.

[274] This portion of the river is fifteen miles south of the international boundary line, and twenty-six above Kettle Falls. It is known as the Little Dalles, the cañon being deep and narrow, without bottom lands. See Thomas W. Symons, Report of an Examination of the Upper Columbia River (Washington, 1882), pp. 11-13.—Ed.

[275] Lewes (according to H. H. Bancroft, John Lee; according to Father Morice, Thomas) was an old North West Company man, who was now chief factor in the Hudson’s Bay Company. He had been stationed both on Mackenzie River and in New Caledonia, and came to Colville about 1845. Offered chief command of the latter district the following year, he declined because of ill-health. Soon afterwards resigning, he retired to Australia, but ultimately returned and settled in the Red River country.—Ed.

[276] For Commodore Wilkes see Farnham’s Travels, ante, p. 72, note 88.—Ed.

[277] For Fort Okanagan see our volume vi, p. 260, note 71.—Ed.

[278] De Smet proceeded with his Indian guides up the valley of Okanagan River and lake, crossed to the upper waters of the South Thompson, and came out on Shuswap Lake, a large irregularly-formed body of water, a gathering place for the tribes of that stock. See our volume vii, p. 159, notes 51, 52.—Ed.

[279] “Fort of the Sioushwaps” is Fort Kamloops, for which see our volume vii, p. 199, note 64.—Ed.

[280] See Farnham’s Travels, ante, p. 44, note 53.—Ed.

[281] Fort George, situated at the confluence of the Nechaco with the Fraser, was built by Simon Fraser in the autumn of 1807, and named in honor of the reigning English monarch. Hugh Faries was the first officer in charge. The fort stood in the midst of a hunting country, and was noted for its fine furs. A Hudson’s Bay Company post is still maintained at this place.—Ed.

[282] Father de Smet ascended first the Nechaco to the embouchment of Stuart River, then up that stream—whose native name is Nakasley or Na’kaztle—to Stuart Lake, where is situated the capital of New Caledonia, Fort St. James. See Farnham’s Travels, ante, p. 58, note 77.—Ed.

[283] The mission at Fort St. James received no further visit after that of Father de Smet’s successor, Father Nobili (1847), for twenty-one years. In 1868 the order of Oblates sent two missioners thither who were at the fort in the early summer, and soon after founded a permanent mission thereat, of which Father Adrian G. Morice was for many years the head. See his History of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, pp. 326-336.—Ed.

[284] The Chilcotin are one of the four tribes of Western Déné, occupying the valley of the river bearing their name. They are nearly related to the Carrier in their customs and modes of life; but have always been more turbulent, and difficult to control. The Hudson’s Bay Company built a fort among them which was later abandoned because of the untrustworthy character of the native population; see Farnham’s Travels, ante, p. 58, note 77. In 1864 they attacked the miners of the region, and the consequent punitive expedition cost the Dominion government over $60,000. They are now on reservations in their valley, being Roman Catholic communicants and gradually becoming civilized.—Ed.

[285] For the forts upon these lakes and their location, see Farnham’s Travels, ante, pp. 56, 58, notes 68, 77.

Fort Babine—during the first years called Fort Kilmaurs—was built in 1822 on the north bank of the lake of that name. Pierre C. Pambrum and William Connolly were the first traders in charge. The Babine Indians, so named from the plug of wood worn by the women to enlarge the lower lip, were loyal Hudson’s Bay people, and good hunters. There are still three bands of this tribe dwelling near Babine Lake—one known as the Old Fort Babines have a village in the vicinity of the first post, fourteen miles from the foot of the lake, and accessible only by canoes.

The fort on Bear Lake was named Connolly, and established in 1826 for the benefit of the northern Sekanais. The earliest post was built on an island in the lake, and was the most northerly of the interior stations of New Caledonia.—Ed.

[286] The Shushwap (Atnahs) proper live on both branches of Thompson River; the Okanagan, on the lake and river of that name. Lake Superior (or the “Upper” Lake) is probably Upper Arrow Lake of the Columbia. The Fountain of Fraser River (not Lake) is an Indian village known as Hulilp, near the site of the modern Lillooet; probably the author intends by this the whole tribe of Lillooets, a western branch of the Shushwap. The Knife Indians are probably the Thompson (or Similkameen) branch of the Shushwap stock, inhabiting the valley of Similkameen River and ranging thence to the Thompson and Fraser. The six bands of Shushwap here named correspond in part with the divisions given by G. M. Dawson in “The Shuswaps of British Columbia,” in Canadian Royal Society Transactions, ix, part 2, pp. 3-43.—Ed.

[287] Peter H. Burnett was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1807. While still young he moved with his parents to Missouri, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits and began legal studies. Upon the introduction of Senator Linn’s bill in Congress providing land for bona fide Oregon settlers, Burnett determined to emigrate thither, and was chosen captain of a large company, which set forth in 1843. Arrived in Oregon, he settled first at Linnville, then at Tualatin Plains, where he took much interest in the provisional government and was a member of its first legislative committee (1844). The following year he was chosen judge of the supreme court, and upon the establishment of territorial government was appointed justice of the United States court. In 1848 he went to California, where in 1850 he was elected first governor of the new state, and later (1857-58) served as justice of the California supreme court. Embarking in the banking business in San Francisco, he won eminence as a financier, dying in his adopted home in 1894. He has related his experiences in Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer (New York, 1880). He therein details his conversion to Catholicism, due chiefly to conviction following the reading of controversial works. Going to Oregon City, he was received into the church by Father Devos (June, 1846).

Dr. John E. Long was a native of England, being educated for a physician. Emigrating to the United States in 1833, and to Oregon ten years later, he acted as recorder of the first legislature of the provisional government, but in 1846 was killed by an accident.—Ed.

[288] Donald Manson, born in Scotland in 1800, entered the Hudson’s Bay Company at the age of seventeen, and was sent out to York Factory. Three years later, at Winnipeg, he met Dr. McLoughlin and in 1823 accompanied him to the Pacific department. At first assigned to an exploring expedition under charge of Samuel Black, he reached Vancouver January 6, 1825, and aided in completing its works. Two years later he accompanied the expedition that founded Fort Langley, and was afterwards sent to restore the trading post of old Fort George, at the mouth of the Columbia. In 1829 Manson was placed in charge of Fort McLoughlin, on Millbank Sound, and there remained for ten years, after which a well-deserved furlough gave him the opportunity to revisit Scotland. Returning to the Pacific, he was sent (1841) to succeed Samuel Black at Kamloops, and to punish the latter’s murderers; the following year a like task was assigned him at Stikeen. In 1844 Manson was placed in command of New Caledonia, with headquarters at Fort St. James, a position ably filled for fourteen years, when he retired from the service and settled near Champoeg, in the Willamette valley, where he died January 7, 1880. He married (1828) the daughter of Etienne Lucier, first settler of French Prairie, and had a large family of children. See interview with his daughter in Oregon Historical Quarterly, iv, p. 263; also Oregon Pioneer Association Transactions, 1879, p. 56.—Ed.

[289] For Fort Walla Walla see our volume xxi, p. 278, note 73. The clerk in charge was William B. McBean (not McBride), an educated half-breed born in 1790 on the eastern side of the Rockies. In 1825 he was a subordinate at Fort Alexandria; from 1836 to 1842 in charge at Fort Babine. Thence he was sent to Fort Connolly (1842), and next (1845) succeeded Archibald McKinley at Walla Walla. He attained an unpleasant notoriety in connection with the Whitman massacre, because of his Catholic proclivities, and his tardiness in aiding the survivors; but most of the charges against him were unfounded. In New Caledonia he had a reputation for being despotic and wily, also somewhat fanatical in religious matters.—Ed.

[290] For the Lewis River see our volume vi, p. 277, note 86. The crossing must have been made not far from the boundary line between Walla Walla and Columbia counties on the south side of the river, and that between Franklin and Whitman counties on the northern bank.—Ed.

[291] The Paloos were a Shahaptian tribe, nearly related, as De Smet says, to the Nez Percés. Their habitat was the north bank of Lewis River, from the mouth of Palouse River to that of the Lewis. Lewis and Clark called them “Palleotepellows,” and credited them with 1,600 souls. In 1854 there were five hundred extant in three bands. They took part in the wars of 1855-58, but were thoroughly cowed by Colonel George Wright’s invasion of their territory. In 1860 their agent reported that the remnant of the tribe had intermarried and settled among the Nez Percés, on the Lapwai reservation in Idaho, and after that their separate tribal existence lapsed.—Ed.

[292] Now known as Palouse River, the largest northern tributary of the Lewis, below the Clearwater. Rising in eastern Idaho, it flows west and then south—through a considerable cañon in its lower course, forming falls over a hundred feet in height, about seven miles above its confluence with the Lewis.—Ed.

[293] For Spokane River, see our volume xxvii, p. 366, note 185. De Smet probably crossed the river not far from the present city of Spokane.—Ed.

[294] Of these two upper branches of the Cœur d’Alène, St. Joseph’s has retained its name. Rising in the Bitter Root (not now called Pointed Heart) Mountains it flows northwest into the southern arm of Cœur d’Alène Lake. The St. Ignatius is now known as the Cœur d’Alène River; and through its valley runs the Northern Pacific Railway. See our volume xxvii, p. 365, note 184.—Ed.

[295] Mrs. S. Parmentier of Brooklyn, a liberal donor to Father de Smet’s missions, to whom the following letter is addressed.—Ed.

[296] Apparently this was the present Blake’s Lake, in northern Spokane County, which discharges by the West Branch into Little Spokane River. No other lake north of Spokane River appears to answer to De Smet’s description. Blake’s is about three miles long and a half mile wide, and is in the forest region.—Ed.

[297] Probably Spokane Falls, the site of the modern city of that name.—Ed.

[298] For the mission of Sacred Heart see our volume xxvii, p. 365, note 184. A sketch of Father Point is given in the same volume, p. 192, note 67; those of Father Joset and Brother Magri, ante, p. 139, note 42. For a description and engraving of this mission as it appeared in 1853 see 35 Cong., 2 sess., Senate Docs., vol. 18, pp. 112-114.—Ed.

[299] The Bitterroot Mountains, which the travellers were approaching by way of Cœur d’Alène River, along which passed the Mullens road, and now the Northern Pacific Railway.—Ed.

[300] The river here called St. Francis Regis is the same as St. Regis Borgia, for which see note 71, ante, p. 174. De Smet advanced down that stream to its junction with the Missoula, up the Missoula to St. Mary’s (or Bitterroot) River thence to the mission, for which see our volume xxvii, p. 282, note 145.—Ed.

[301] For this Iroquois Indian see our volume xxvii, p. 230, note 104.—Ed.

[302] The erection of the flour mill—the first in Montana—was due to the mechanical skill of Father Antonio Ravalli, who arrived at St. Mary’s mission in the autumn of 1845. The grinding stones, fifteen inches in diameter, were brought from Europe, and are still preserved as curiosities in the museum of the present St. Ignatius mission on the Flathead reservation. See Palladino, Indian and White in the Northwest, p. 46. The sawmill was made from wagon-tires, hammered and filed into a saw and a crank.—Ed.

[303] For the Snake (Shoshoni) Indians see our volume v, p 227, note 122; the Bannock, xxi, p. 192, note 41; the Nez Percés, vi, p. 340, note 145; the Blackfeet, v, p. 225, note 120; also our volume xxiii, pp. 95-122.—Ed.

[304] For the Crows see our volume v., p. 226, note 121.—Ed.

[305] For Victor see our volume xxvii, p. 251, note 126. Governor Isaac Stevens said of him in 1853: “We have to-day seen a good deal of Victor in our camp, the Flathead chief, celebrated in the book of De Smet. He appears to be simple-minded, but rather wanting in energy, which might, however, be developed in an emergency.”—35 Cong., 2 sess., Senate Docs., vol. 18, p. 109.—Ed.

[306] The party were marching up the Yellowstone along its southern bank, to their left being the Snow Mountains, which extend just north of Yellowstone National Park.—Ed.

[307] For Hell Gate (Devil’s Gate) see our volume xxvii, p. 269, note 139.—Ed.

[308] The foot of the Blackfoot forks is the mouth of Big Blackfoot River, which rises in the main range of the Rockies and flows west for about seventy-five miles into Hellgate River, about five miles above the gorge called by that name. Up this stream is the “road that leads to the buffalo,” going over Lewis and Clark Pass—the route which Captain Lewis took on his return journey in 1806.—Ed.

[309] Leaving to the left the Big Blackfoot River, and its easy pass across the mountains, De Smet continued up Hellgate River and its upper waters, Deer Lodge River (called by him Cart River). See our volume xxvii, p. 253, note 130, which describes the journey made by De Smet in 1841.—Ed.

[310] No stream named “Arrowstone” is now charted. De Smet passed from the waters of the Columbia to those of the Missouri, by one of the numerous low and easy gaps between Mullen’s on the north and Deer Lodge on the south. Probably the party went over Cottonwood (or Peterson) Pass, leading from Deer Lodge County into Jefferson, coming out upon Boulder River, which empties into the Jefferson at Jefferson Island; or else they followed the Silverbow route past the present Butte, and proceeded by Big Pipestone Creek to the Jefferson—a route now used by the Montana railways. All these were well-worn Indian trails.—Ed.

[311] For a brief description of the Three Forks of the Missouri see our volume xxiii, p. 138, note 114.—Ed.

[312] See De Smet’s description of this route on his previous journey (1841), in his Letters, our volume xxvii, p. 177, note 50.—Ed.

[313] For the Wind River Mountains see our volume xxi, p. 134, note 35.—Ed.

[314] The route lay almost directly north from the Yellowstone, along the valley of what is now Shield’s River (named by Lewis and Clark for one of their party), toward the sources of the Musselshell, the largest—with the exception of the Yellowstone—southern tributary of the Missouri. See our volume xxiii, p. 58, note 33.—Ed.

[315] Probably the Elk Mountains, lying between the two forks of the Musselshell in Meagher County, Montana.—Ed.

[316] For the previous relations of De Smet with this chief see his Letters in our volume xxvii, pp. 317, 352.—Ed.

[317] For the Piegan, one division of the Blackfeet, see Maximilian’s Travels in our volume xxiii, pp. 95-97.—Ed.

[318] For this stream see our volume xxiii, p. 70, note 51. The camp was probably upon one of the western affluents of the Judith, on the eastern edge of the Little Belt Mountains.—Ed.

[319] For the Blood Indians, a branch of the Blackfoot tribe, consult our volume xxiii, pp. 95-97, especially note 84. The Grosventres of the Prairie, likewise called Fall Indians, are noted in our volume vi, p. 371, note 183; also our volume xxiii, pp. 75, 76. By the Blackfeet—his final category—De Smet intends that branch of the tribe known as Siksekai, or Blackfeet proper. See Maximilian’s description in our volume xxiii, pp 95, 96.—Ed.

[320] Probably the missionary here mentioned was J. B. Thibault from Red River, who travelled extensively in the Saskatchewan territory; see note 122, ante, p. 231.—Ed.

[321] The trader was Charles Larpenteur, then in the employ of the American Fur Company. He left Fort Union July 8, with one keel-boat and later made a Mackinac boat en route. See his journal in Elliott Coues, Forty Years a Fur-Trader on the Upper Missouri, ii, pp. 237-242.—Ed.

[322] These tribes formed the Blackfoot confederacy, but the Sarcee (Surcees) and Grosventres belonged to different stocks. For the former see our volume xxiii, p. 90, note 77.—Ed.

[323] Sata was at Fort Benton in 1847, and acted as guide to Larpenteur in the latter’s effort to reach the Flathead country. Larpenteur calls him a half-breed Blackfoot and Flathead; evidently his mother was of the latter tribe. See Forty Years a Fur-Trader, pp. 272, 274.—Ed.

[324] For the term “bourgeois” see our volume xxi, p. 183, note 33. Larpenteur’s journal in Forty Years a Fur-Trader, ii, pp. 236-243, explains why neither he nor Malcolm Clarke was at the fort when the missionary arrived.—Ed.

[325] For Maria’s River see our volume xxiii, p. 84, note 73. Little Sandy Creek, twenty-three miles below Maria’s, rises on the western slope of Bearpaw Mountain, and flows west and then south into the Missouri. For Maximilian’s description of the natural stone walls see our volume xxiii, pp. 71-83; also the representations in our atlas, volume xxv, Plates 18, 61, 68, and 74.—Ed.

[326] For Porcupine River see our volume xxiii, p. 33, note 19. The pyramid of elks’ horns is described in ibid., pp. 34, 35; and pictured in our atlas, volume xxv, Plate 21. De Smet describes its later destruction by a modern vandal, in Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, iv, p. 1372.—Ed.

[327] For Fort Union see our volume xxii, pp. 373-383. James Kipp, who had been at Fort Clark during Maximilian’s visit, was at this time in charge of Fort Union. See biographical sketch in our volume xxii, p. 345, note 319.—Ed.

[328] Not the Grosventres of note 206, ante, but the Minitaree, also called Grosventres (Big Bellies), for whom see our volume v, p. 113, note 76; also our volumes xxii, pp. 350, 359-363; xxiii, pp. 367-385. The Minitaree removed to Fort Berthold in 1845.—Ed.

[329] For Fort Berthold see ante, p. 233, note 125. The clerk in charge was probably Jacques Brugière, a nephew of James Kipp, who for many years was at Fort Union. In 1847-48 he entered into partnership with Charles Larpenteur for a trading venture to the Flatheads, which did not prove successful. Theophile Brugière was also an American Fur Company employe, who lived and married among the Yankton Sioux, becoming later the first settler on the site of Sioux City, Iowa.—Ed.

[330] For Knife River see our volume xxii, p. 357, note 333.—Ed.

[331] This post was evidently Fort Mandan (or Clark); see our volume xxii, p. 344, note 317, also xxiii, pp. 228-236. Des Autel (D’Isotille) was clerk at Fort Mackenzie in the early forties, and aided Chardon and Harvey in the massacre at this post, which led to its abandonment, whereupon all the principals concerned were sent to lower posts. Larpenteur reports Des Autel (Des Hôtel) as being in charge of Fort Clark in 1847.—Ed.

[332] For the Arikara at the old Mandan village see our volume xxvii, p. 150, note 19 (De Smet).—Ed.

[333] According to the translation from the French given in Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, ii, p. 607, the voyagers were delayed five days by adverse winds, reaching the camp, October 26, in the neighborhood of Butes au Grés (or Sandstone Buttes), not far from Bismarck, North Dakota. Henry Goulet (Goulé) afterwards resided at Sioux City, and during the Harney campaign (1856) obtained permission to construct ferries in that neighborhood. See South Dakota Department of History Collections, i, p. 417.—Ed.

[334] For Fort Pierre see our volume xxii, p. 315, note 277, also pp. 317-321. For Honoré Picotte see our volume xxiv, p. 16, note 10.—Ed.

[335] Fleury’s Island is now called Farm Island, about two and a half miles long, and the same distance below Fort Pierre. The post where De Smet tarried, known as Fort Bouis or Fort Defiance, was erected by Harvey, Primeau and Company who were acting in opposition to the American Fur Company. The trade was with the Brulé Sioux, and the post was located on the west bank of the Missouri at the mouth of Medicine Creek. It had been founded but a short time before De Smet’s visit, but was soon bought out by the American Fur Company, being then abandoned.

For the Grande Detour (Big Bend) of the Missouri see our volume xxii, pp. 312, 313.—Ed.

[336] For Fort Lookout see our volume xxii, p. 304, note 261. The bourgeois in charge was Colin Campbell, one of the best interpreters of the region, who had accompanied Joshua Pilcher on the Arikara expedition of 1823, and long served in the American Fur Company’s employ. Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, ii, pp. 609, 610, give the report of a council held with the Sioux at this post, concerning their conversion.—Ed.

[337] For Running Water (Eau qui Court) River see our volume xxii, p. 291, note 252.—Ed.

[338] Apparently Bon Homme Island, the largest in that vicinity, for which see our volume vi, p. 91, note 34.—Ed.

[339] For Fort Vermillion see our volume xxvii, p. 153, note 22 (De Smet).

Major Joseph V. Hamilton was Indian agent at Council Bluffs, 1839-41; in 1843 Audubon found him at Fort George, in temporary charge of the agency at that place.—Ed.

[340] For old Council Bluffs see our volume xxii, p. 275, note 231. See also De Smet’s letters on this locality in Nebraska Historical Society Transactions, i, pp. 42-44.—Ed.

[341] For Cabanné and the location of his post see our volume xxii, p. 271, note 226.

For the early history of the Mormons in Missouri and Illinois, see our volumes xx, pp. 94-99 with accompanying notes; xxiv, p. 119, note 99; and xxvi, pp. 334-338.

The charter of Nauvoo, their Illinois settlement, having been revoked early in 1846, the Mormon leaders organized an emigration, and moved west through Iowa to the Missouri River. Having held a council with the neighboring Indians, they established winter quarters at what is now Florence, Nebraska, where De Smet found them. Early in the spring of 1847 a delegation was dispatched to seek a permanent home. The valley of Salt Lake was chosen, and removals thither began in 1848. In a later letter Father de Smet intimates that his account to them of the Salt Lake basin had some influence in determining the site of their future home.—Ed.

[342] Brigham Young was born in Vermont in 1801; at the age of sixteen he removed to New York, where he became a convert to Mormonism, entering that church in 1832. Three years later he was chosen one of the twelve apostles, and in 1837 led a band of followers to Missouri. After the persecutions in that state, he aided in founding Nauvoo, Illinois, and in 1840 made a missionary trip to England. Upon the death of Joseph Smith, Young became the head of the church—a position maintained until his death in 1877. He guided the emigration to Salt Lake, and in 1850 was appointed governor of the territory of Utah.

De Smet’s early sympathy with the Mormons, as expressed at this time and in other letters, later suffered a considerable change. See his letter of 1858 in Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, iv, pp. 1407-1415.—Ed.

[343] The post at Bellevue, for which see our volume xxii, p. 267, note 221.

Pierre Labbadie Sarpy, better known as Colonel Peter, was born in St. Louis in 1805 of a prominent French Creole family. About 1822 he went to the frontier as a trader, and thereafter preferred the free life of the West to a conventional career in St. Louis. Upon the retirement of Cabanné, Sarpy became the American Fur Company’s agent at Bellevue, where he autocratically ruled for many years. His Indian wife Nekomi was a woman of influence with the neighboring tribes. Colonel Sarpy aided the Mormons on their emigration and assisted in building up the new territory of Nebraska, establishing ferries, and maintaining several trading posts. He removed from Bellevue to St. Mary’s, Iowa, later (1861) to Plattsmouth, where he died in 1865.—Ed.

[344] For Laforce Papin see our volume xv, p. 143, note 44.—Ed.

[345] For these streams see our volumes v, p. 72, note 40; and xiv, pp. 219, 221, notes 170, 173. Table Creek is a small run in Otoe County, Nebraska, at whose mouth is situated Nebraska City.—Ed.

[346] The site of St. Joseph was early known as Blacksnake Hills, where Joseph Robidoux had a trading post—see our volumes xxii, p. 257, note 210, and xxiv, p. 121, note 102. After the Platte purchase (1836) settlers began flocking in, and in 1843 the town was platted, being named St. Joseph for its founder. By the close of the year 1846, when De Smet passed, the place had a population of nearly a thousand.—Ed.

[347] For the early history of Westport (Kansas City) see De Smet’s Letters, our volume xxvii, p. 135, note 2.—Ed.

[348] For the Pawnee and their four great divisions see our volume xiv, p. 233, note 179. See illustration of interior of a Kansa lodge, built in a manner similar to the Pawnee, in ibid., p. 208.—Ed.

[349] See our volume xxvii, p. 208, note 82.—Ed.

[350] See on this subject of human sacrifice note 83 in De Smet’s Letters, our volume xxvii, p. 210.—Ed.

[351] A name which they give to the Great Spirit.—De Smet.

[352] This method of smoking is in great repute among all the savages of the West. It is of the same importance and equally as binding as an oath among civilized nations. If two savages, ready to kill each other, can be induced to accept the calumet, the dispute ceases, and the bond of their friendship becomes stronger than ever.—De Smet.

[353] The ashki is a cord, made of horse-hair or of the bark of the elm, which they prepare by boiling it in cold water. It varies from twenty-five to sixty feet in length, and, although it is but about one inch in thickness, it is strong enough to bind the most powerful man. This they adorn with the quills of the porcupine, and with little bells. The bells, besides for the sake of ornament, are intended to give notice in case the victim makes any efforts to escape.—De Smet.

[354] For the Sanpoil Indians see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, p. 319, note 161.—Ed.

[355] For different forms of the name of the Yellowstone see our volume xxii, p. 375, note 351.—Ed.

[356] Fort Augustus, the present Edmonton, Alberta.—Ed.

[357] For the former exploits of these two chiefs see De Smet’s Letters in our volume xxvii, pp. 285, 286.—Ed.