Mr. Tinkham, who came in a few days later, was directed to explore the Marias Pass from the west side, and, crossing the mountains by it, to proceed to Fort Benton, confer with and take letters of instruction to Lieutenant Grover and Mr. Doty, and return to the Bitter Root valley by one of the southerly passes. Thence he was to cross the Bitter Root Mountains by one of the Nez Perces trails, and proceed to Walla Walla valley and Olympia.
Thus by the establishment of the two stations at Fort Benton and in the Bitter Root valley, under Mr. Doty and Lieutenant Mullan, respectively, and by the explorations of the detached parties, Governor Stevens kept the whole mountain region under observation and solved the questions of climate and snows. Indeed, he had the range crossed at every month in the year by one or other of these parties.
Continues the personal narrative:—
Accordingly, on the 2d Mr. Lander went down the valley to make some examinations of Hell Gate, and on the 3d Lieutenant Donelson was under way with the main party. I left on the 4th and overtook and camped with the main party in my old camp of the 27th and 28th of September. Continuing on, on the 5th we both moved down the valley, and encamped on the Bitter Root, some three or four miles below the mouth of Hell Gate. Here I ascertained that Mr. Lander, instead of waiting for the arrival of Lieutenant Donelson to receive the instructions which I had directed to be issued to him, to go down the Bitter Root to its mouth and join the main party at the Horse Plain, had preceded him on the main trail, and must be somewhere near the divide between the Bitter Root and the Jocko. Accordingly instructions were sent directing him to return in order to proceed on the duty which had been assigned to him.
This same day I visited Victor at his camp on the Hell Gate, three miles above its junction with the Bitter Root, and in return was visited by him at our camp, where we had much interesting conversation in regard to the Indians, the character of the country, and the passes, particularly in the winter. I determined to remain here until Mr. Tinkham returned, who had not yet been heard from.
October 6. Lieutenant Donelson moved off this morning on the route of the Jocko River and Clark’s Fork. Mr. Lander, who had returned to my camp in compliance with instructions, moved down the Bitter Root this afternoon. I sent up to Fort Owen for Lieutenant Mullan, and we remained in camp, passing the time as pleasantly as we could, awaiting the arrival of Mr. Tinkham. Meanwhile a huge joint of beef was placed upon the spit, to be in readiness when the explorers should come in, and honest Sergeant Simpson undertook to act as cook. Bending over the fire, with huge drops of perspiration rolling from his glowing red face, a picture was presented which Mr. Stanley thought not unworthy a trial of his pencil, while Osgood jokingly told Simpson he was working then for “two dollars a day and roast beef.” The meat was cooked in the nicest manner, and at half past five o’clock we sat down to it, having as guests Mr. Tinkham and his party, the returned “lost sheep of the house of Israel,” also Lieutenant Mullan, who had arrived in season to join in our meal.
Having no guide, Mr. Tinkham had not succeeded in finding a direct route, but after a circuitous trip got through to the Jocko, and, moving back on Lieutenant Donelson’s trail, joined the governor, who now gave him the instructions to examine the Marias Pass, etc. The narrative continues:—
It is extraordinary how easy of passage the mountains are in this latitude. A favorite time of the return of the Flathead Indians from the buffalo hunt is between Christmas and New Year’s; it is only in winters of unusual severity that they are unable to cross during any month.
We have to-day seen at our camp a good deal of Victor, 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. I secured a Flathead guide to go with Mr. Tinkham through the Marias Pass, returning with him by the Flathead Pass. He was at first reluctant to go, but afterwards consented. In the course of the evening he came to me to decline going, and one or two of the men wished to back out. On tracing the cause to its source, I found they had been alarmed by some remarks of the guide Monroe, who told them he was afraid they would fall in with parties of Blackfoot young men. I will here remark that the Indian agent, Dr. Lansdale, in 1856 went over the route from the Jocko to the Big Blackfoot, sought by Mr. Tinkham in 1853. It is much used by the upper Pend Oreille Indians in going to hunt buffalo east of the mountains.
October 7. At 8.30 o’clock we were on the road, the party consisting of Mr. Stanley, Mr. Osgood, and four voyageurs, with Antoine Plante, the half-breed guide. Mr. Lander, who had preceded us, we overtook in twenty-seven miles, when continuing on eight miles over a rolling country, we came to a good camp on a small stream of water; wood and grass most excellent. The valley of the Bitter Root is generally a wide valley, with occasional spurs running sharp down to the banks of the stream, but having opposite to such spurs an open prairie on the other side of the river.