Jack the Young Canoeman: An Eastern Boy's Voyage in a Chinook Canoe

by George Bird Grinnell

"Do you know, Jack," said Mr. Sturgis, when their journey was just about over, "that this country that we have been passing through is historic ground?"

"No," said Jack, "I didn't know that."

"Well," said Mr. Sturgis, "you have heard of the old fur trade, haven't you, and Astoria, and how John Jacob Astor sent people out to found a trading station at the mouth of the Columbia River?"

"No," said Jack, "I don't believe I have."

"I have, though," said Hugh; "and I have known two or three men in my time that worked in that outfit. One man especially who went across the country with a man named Hunt."

"Yes," said Mr. Sturgis, "that's it. Mr. Astor sent ships around the Horn with supplies to found this station, and he also sent an expedition across the country. The cross country party had trouble with the Indians and starved, and generally had a hard time, and, after the post was established, while they got lots of furs they had considerable trouble with the Indians all the time. The British claimed the country, and the Hudson's Bay people said that Astoria was in their territory. Then came the war of 1812, and the fort at Astoria was surrendered to the Hudson's Bay people; and that was the end of that trading post, so far as the Americans were concerned. But all up and down this river that we have been travelling up, the Northwesters and the Hudson's Bay men used to go backward and forward portaging around these rapids that we have just been over, and working as hard as the old fur traders always worked. The story of these travels has been written by a good many of the people who took part in them, and some day it will be worth your while to hunt up these old books and read that story. It is a fascinating one."

"Yes," said Hugh, "it's sure an interesting story; though I have never seen the books, I have heard a good deal of it told. It used to be talked about a whole lot in early days."

"Well," said Mr. Sturgis, "a lot of those old Astorians, as Astor's employees at Astoria were called, wrote books giving their experiences, and it would be well worth your while to read them. I remember the names of some of them—Alexander Ross, Ross Cox, Franchere—and besides them some of the Hudson's Bay people, into whose hands the place passed later, wrote exceptionally interesting accounts of life at the fort, of their journeys up and down the river, and of their travels over the mountains.

"Sometime, when we get back, Jack, ask me about these books and I will make a list of them for you. Most of them are out of print now, and can only be had at the libraries; but they are books that will repay reading, and the same thing can be said of a great number of volumes dealing with the exploration of the western country. It is astonishing that we Americans know so little about matters which should be of so much interest to us. Do you realize how little is known about the work of these early explorers, traders, and trappers? Some few of us are familiar with it, but most of the people back East know nothing whatever about these men. Pretty nearly all of this work has been done within the past seventy-five years, some of it within fifty years, and none of it goes back a century."

"Here is Hugh," he went on; "he has knowledge of the western country back almost to the time of that early exploration, and he certainly has known many men who were of the early generation of the trappers. Isn't that so, Hugh?"