The dispatches fully corroborated Pearson’s information. Among them were letters from Acting-Governor Mason, Colonel Simmons, Major Tilton, and others, warning the governor on no account to attempt to return home by the direct route across the mountains, and urging him to descend the Missouri and return by way of the Isthmus. He was assured that there were scarcely any troops in the country, that it was impossible to succor him, and equally impossible for him to get through so many hostile Indians, and that his only way of safety lay down the Missouri River.
Governor Stevens’s decision was instant and unwavering. It was to force his way back to his Territory by the direct route through all opposition and obstacles. He fully appreciated the perils and difficulties of the attempt, but his determination was unalterably fixed sternly to confront them all, and by a bold, decided course and rapid movements to force a passage through the hostile country and hostile savages.
Doty was sent back to the fort the next morning for additional arms and ammunition. At noon the following day, October 31, leaving orders for Doty to follow with the train on his return from the fort, the governor, with Delaware Jim and Hugh Robie, his only companions, started for the Bitter Root valley, and reached Fort Owen in four and a half days, a distance of two hundred and thirty miles. Says the governor of this trip:—
“The first night we camped on Sun River, having made a distance of some twenty-nine miles from about noon to sundown. On the 1st of November we were in the saddle at early dawn, pushed towards Cadotte’s Pass, between the Crown Butte and Rattlers, passed by the Bird Tail Rock, crossed the Dearborn, and went into camp four miles before reaching the divide, at a point which was the camp of Lieutenant Grover and Mr. Robie in their winter trip of 1854. This evening a snow came on about an hour before sundown, or we should have crossed the divide that night. The weather in the morning was clear and beautiful, but as we had no tent, we built up a large fire in order to dry ourselves, and got breakfast before leaving camp, and at half past eight we were on the road. There were some six or seven inches of snow on the ground, but the weather was extremely mild, and the snow was rapidly passing away. I went up the divide on the ravine north of the usual trail, and was able to find a very good route for our animals. There was little or no snow on the western slope of the divide; continuing down the Blackfoot valley five and one half miles, the snow was only an inch or two deep, and entirely passed away before we reached Lander’s Fork. We halted on Lander’s Fork for a few minutes to rest our animals; then, moving very rapidly through the Belly prairie and cañon, we came out on the large prairie of the Blackfoot at a little after dark, camping where I had camped with Lieutenant Donelson in 1853. The next day we were in the saddle early, and, moving over this prairie at a very rapid rate, ate breakfast at a point some eighteen miles from our morning’s camp, and made our evening camp within about ten miles of the Hell Gate crossing to Fort Owen. The next day we reached Fort Owen, meeting at the crossing some Indians, by whom I was able to communicate with Dr. Lansdale. On our way to Fort Owen we met a Nez Perce delegation on their way home, and made arrangements to meet them at the crossing of Hell Gate, in order to confer about difficulties ahead. After waiting a day at Fort Owen, I moved down to and established my camp at Hell Gate, to await the arrival of Mr. Doty. Just before reaching the Dearborn River, Delaware Jim shot a deer, but on going up to it they were surprised to find a well-grown fawn lying dead beside it, killed by the same ballet as it stood beside and concealed by its mother.”
Many of the Flatheads came with Dr. Lansdale in response to the governor’s summons to confer with him at this camp, and the conference with them and also with the Nez Perce chiefs was most satisfactory. In response to the governor’s request to the latter that some of their number would accompany him, the whole delegation, fourteen in number, offered to do so, and declared their willingness to share any danger that might be encountered, and accordingly joined the party. Says the governor:—
“I was here able to gain no additional information of the condition of the Indian tribes between the Cascade Mountains and the Bitter Root, but the reports were that all were in arms except the Nez Perces, a large portion of whom were said to be disaffected, and some of them even hostile. I now purchased every good mule and horse I could get in this valley, for it was my determination to have my whole command in a position so that they could move rapidly and act promptly. The question was, What should be our route home? It was important, it seemed to me, to our success that we should be able to cross the mountains and throw ourselves into the nearest tribes without their having the slightest notice of our coming. I felt a strong assurance that, if I could bring this about, I could handle enough tribes, and conciliate the friendship of enough Indians, to be sufficiently strong to defy the rest. There would certainly be no difficulty from the snow down Clark’s Fork; but it was known that the upper and lower Pend Oreille Indians were along the road, and no party could travel over it without its approach being communicated to the Indians; whereas Indian report had it that the Cœur d’Alene Pass was blocked up with snow at this season of the year, and I felt satisfied that they would not expect us on this route, and therefore I determined to move over it. It was the shorter route of the two; it was a route where I wished to make additional examinations; it was a route which enabled me to creep up, as it were, to the first Indian tribe, and then, moving rapidly, to jump upon them without their having time for preparation. I knew that Kam-i-ah-kan and Pu-pu-mox-mox had sent a body of warriors to cut off my party, and that we had to guard against falling into an ambush; but an Indian has not patience to wait many days for such a purpose, and I thought, looking to all these things, that the line of safety was to move over the Cœur d’Alene Pass.”
Mr. Doty arrived with the train on the 11th. At the camp on the Teton occurred the only death that befell the party during the expedition, that of H. Palmer, who died of a lingering and incurable malady, and was laid at rest on the lonely prairie by his warm-hearted and sorrowing companions. Three days more were spent after the arrival of the train in making necessary arrangementswith Dr. Lansdale, who was placed in charge of the Flatheads as their agent, with Mr. Owen and the missionaries.
CROSSING THE BITTER ROOTS IN MIDWINTER