[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.