Boat Encampment on the Columbia, May 10th, 1846.
Very Rev. and Dear Father Provincial:—By my last letter to the distinguished Prelate of New-York, in which I gave my different missionary excursions during 1845-46 among several tribes of the Rocky Mountains, you have learned that I had arrived at the base of the Great Glacier, the source of the river du Trou, which is a tributary of the Athabaska, or Elk river. I will now give to your reverence the continuation of my arduous and difficult journey across the main chain of the Rocky Mountains, and down the Columbia, on my return to my dear brethren in Oregon.
Towards the evening of the 6th of May, we discovered, at the distance of about three miles, the approach of two men in snow shoes, who soon joined us. They proved to be the forerunners {204} of the English Company which, in the spring of each year, go from Fort Vancouver to York Factory, situated at the mouth of the river Nelson, near the fifty-eighth degree north latitude.[265] In the morning my little train was early ready; we proceeded, and after a march of eight miles we fell in with the gentlemen of the Hudson Bay Company. The time of our reunion was short, but interesting and joyful. The great melting of the snow had already begun, and we were obliged to be on the alert to cross in due time, the now swelling rapids and rivers. The news between travellers, who meet in the mountains is quickly conveyed to one another. The leaders of the company were my old friends, Mr. Ermatinger, of the Honorable Hudson Bay Company,[266] and two distinguished officers of the English army, Captains Ward and Vavasseur, whom I had the honor of entertaining last year at the Great Kalispel lake. Capt. Ward is the gentleman who had the kindness to take charge of my letters for the States and for Europe.
Fifteen Indians of the Kettle-Fall tribe accompanied him. Many of them had scaled the mountains with one hundred and fifty pounds weight upon their backs. The worthy Capt. {205} Ward spoke many things in praise of them. He admired their honesty and civility, and above all, their sincere piety and great regularity in their religious duties; every morning and evening, they were seen retiring a short distance from the camp, to sing one or two hymns, and join in common prayer. “I hope,” added the Captain, “I shall never forget the example, which these poor, but good savages, have given me. During the time that they were with me, I was much struck by their becoming deportment, and I have never seen more sincere piety than they exhibited.”
The gentlemen of the English Company were now at the end of their chief difficulties and troubles. They gladly threw away their snow shoes to take horses for four days; at Fort Jasper they were to enter skiffs, to go to Fort Assiniboine, on the river Athabasca. For myself, I had to try the snow shoes for the first time in my life; by means of them, I had to ascend those frightful ramparts, the barriers of snow, which separate the Atlantic world from the Pacific Ocean. I have, in my previous letters, already told you, that this is probably the most elevated point of the Rocky Mountains, where five great rivers derive their sources, {206} viz.: the north-branch of the Sascatshawin, flowing into Lake Winnepeg, the Athabasca and Peace rivers, uniting and flowing into Great Slave Lake, which is discharged into the Northern Ocean, by the Mackenzie, the most solitary of rivers. From the bosom of these mountains the Columbia and Frazer rivers derive water from a thousand fountains and streams.
We had now seventy miles to travel in snow shoes, in order to reach the boat encampment on the banks of the Columbia. We proposed to accomplish this in two days and a half. The most worthy and excellent Messrs. Rowan and Harriot, whose kindness at the Rocky Mountain House and Fort Augustus I shall ever acknowledge, were of opinion, that it was absolutely impossible for me to accomplish the journey, on account of my heavy mould, and they wished to dissuade me from attempting it. However, I thought I could remedy the inconvenience of my surplus stock, by a vigorous fast of thirty days, which I cheerfully underwent. I found myself much lighter indeed, and started off somewhat encouraged, over snow sixteen feet deep. We went in single file—alternately ascending and descending—sometimes across plains piled up with avalanches—sometimes {207} over lakes and rapids buried deeply under the snow—now, on the side of a deep mountain—then across a forest of cypress trees, of which we could only see the tops. I cannot tell you the number of my summersets. I continually found myself embarrassed by my snow shoes, or entangled in some branch of a tree. When falling, I spread my arms before me, as one naturally would do, to break the violence of the fall; and upon deep snow the danger is not great,—though I was often half buried, when I required the assistance of my companions, which was always tendered with great kindness and good humor.
We made thirty miles the first day, and then made preparations to encamp. Some pine trees were cut down and stripped of their branches, and these being laid on the snow, furnished us with a bed, whilst a fire was lighted on a floor of green logs. To sleep thus—under the beautiful canopy of the starry heavens—in the midst of lofty and steep mountains—among sweet murmuring rills and roaring torrents—may appear strange to you, and to all lovers of rooms, rendered comfortable by stoves and feathers; but you may think differently after having come and breathed the pure air of the {208} mountains, where in return, coughs and colds are unknown. Come and make the trial, and you will say that it is easy to forget the fatigues of a long march, and find contentment and joy even upon the spread branches of pines, on which, after the Indian fashion, we extended ourselves and slept, wrapped up in buffalo robes.
The next morning we commenced the descent of what is called the Great Western Slope. This took us five hours. The whole slope is covered with gigantic cedars, and with pine trees of different species. Wo to the man, who happens to have a heavy body, or to make a false step. I say this from experience; for many times I found myself twenty or thirty feet from the point of my departure—happy indeed if, in the fall, I did not violently strike my head against the trunk of some great tree.
At the foot of the mountain an obstacle of a new kind presented itself. All the barriers of snow, the innumerable banks, which had stopped the water of the streams, lakes, and torrents, were broken up during the night, and swelled considerably the Great Portage river.[267] It meanders so remarkably in this straight valley, down which we travelled for a day and a half, {209} that we were compelled to cross the said river not less than forty times, with the water frequently up to our shoulders. So great is its impetuosity, that we were obliged mutually to support ourselves, to prevent being carried away by the current. We marched in our wet clothes during the rest of our sad route. The long soaking, joined to my great fatigue, swelled my limbs. All the nails of my feet came off, and the blood stained my moccasins or Indian shoes. Four times I found my strength gone, and I should certainly have perished in that frightful region, if the courage and strength of my companions had not roused and aided me in my distress.
We saw May-poles all along the old encampments of the Portage. Each traveller who passes there for the first time, selects his own. A young Canadian, with much kindness, dedicated one to me, which was at least one hundred and twenty feet in height, and which reared its lofty head above all the neighboring trees. Did I deserve it? He stripped it of all its branches, only leaving at the top a little crown; at the bottom my name and the date of the transit were written. Moose, reindeer, and mountain goats are frequently found in this region.