by Don Berry
I am preparing to pack my mules & will depart therefrom tomorrow moming—My party is in fine condition & will in my opinion so remain, which is truly a fortunate circumstance as my verry bad health prevents much exertion on my part—Messrs Bruifee & Scott appears alive to our interest. The latter is entirely efficient & if properly supported by the former will keep all Things in their proper Channel—should my health continue as it is at present I shall proceed but a few days with them after leaving this place.
(Along with this expedition went a historic piece of artillery—a four-pounder, mounted on a mule-drawn carriage, the first wheeled vehicle to cross the continental divide over the newly found South Pass. The ruts it left would be followed by thousands of other wheels, the Conestoga wagons of the Oregon Trail.)
Bill Sublette caught up with the party a little later; he had been picking up his younger brother Pinckney, a boy of fourteen or fifteen, taking him to the mountains to learn the trade, and paying a visit to General Clark to secure the formal trading license. It authorized Smith Jackson & Sublette to trade for two years "on the waters of a river supposed to be the Bonaventure.—Horse Prairie, on Clarks river of the Columbia, and mouth of Lewis' Fork of the Columbia," (This license is interesting in that the area it covers is mostly in the disputed, "joint occupancy" territory. The "mouth of Lewis' Fork" is the confluence of the Snake with the Columbia, and in the direct scope of HBC’s Fort Nez Perces. Horse Prairie, too, was within a few miles of the British Flathead House. SJ&S were plunging into the British back yard.)
Rendezvous 1827 was set for the south end of Bear Lake (some lifteen miles into Mexican territory), and the scattered trappers began drifting in toward the latter part of June. The usual fringe of Snakes were there, together with a camp of "Utaws." In the early stages of the gathering, a war party of 120 Blackfeet descended on the camp and killed a Snake and his squaw. This precipitated a battle, with Snakes, Utes, and whites (though only six of these) besieging the Blackfeet where they'd holed up: a "small concavity thickly grown with small timber surrounded by open ground."
Total casualties were three Snakes killed and three wounded; one white wounded; no Ute casualties, "though they gained great applause for their bravery." They found six Blackfeet dead, and a number were carried off by their—compatriots. (Cf. James P. Beckwourth’s accounting: 'one hundred and seventy three (Blackfoot) scalps seven or eight (whites) wounded . . . eleven (of the Indian) allies killed in- battle.")
This was conversational material for the campfire when the rendezvous filled up, but the biggest news came from Jedediah Smith, whose party had been given up for lost. When the fall and winter passed without word, the natural assumption was that Smith had fallen victim to the hazards of the trade; Injuns, starvin’ times, and what not. Well, he’d had them, and more than that, when he pulled in on July 3. There were only two men with him, and he had no furs.
Jedediah, it seemed, had walked over to California. The rest of his men, plus the fall hunt’s pelts, were still there—and he was going back after them.
CHAPTER 10
"I was looked upon with suspicion”
IT HAS been stated that the Southwest Expedition of Jedediah Smith was principally one of exploration; purpose being, according to this interpretation, to determine whether or not the fabled Buenaventra River existed. But the mountain men knew by now that there was no such river flowing out of the northwest reaches of Great Salt Lake, and the "coasting" party had not been able to discover a genuine outlet anywhere around the periphery.
Jedediah himself has two different statements; however, he was making a rather special case each time. To the United States plenipotentiary in Mexico he later wrote that he started "for the purpose of hunting Ber"—but it was to Smith's interest that the Mexicans be convinced of this. To General Clark he wrote that he went "for— the purpose of exploring the country"—a motive which would have been the last thing he would admit to the Mexican govemment.
This is not mere quibbling; there is a real and rather important difference between hunting for beaver and exploring the country, though naturally the two were often entwined. To me, the most reasonable explanation for this incredible expedition lies in Smith's statement to the United States plenipotentiary; that he started for beaver, and 'not finding them plenty enough to justify me in Stopping, I pushed on."
This for two reasons. First, the tenuous situation of the new partnership; it was, according to the Articles of Agreement, "uncertain whether the situation of [the] business will justify the proposed purchase of merchandise" from Ashley. That being the case, it seems extremely unlikely that the major partner of the firm would be detached on a trip, primarily intended for exploration. They needed the beaver too badly; they could not spare the men for a possibly unprofitable fall season. Secondly, there is good reason to believe they had gotten reports (Indian?) of the existence of a rich beaver country to the southwest of Great Salt Lake. These rumors had reached as far as the HBC traders.1
(My view here contradicts Mr. Dale Morgan, Smith’s biographer, who inclines to the exploration-for-the-Bonavenetura theory. I must mention that disagreeing with Mr. Morgan regarding the fur trade is something a man should do only after long and careful thought, and then with some trepidation. I have found it necessary to differ with him at several points in this narrative; and have done so each time with a clear and present sense of contradicting my betters.)
Jedediah remained at Cache Valley a month after Rendezvous 1826 broke up, probably making meat and getting his party in order for the expedition. He was well aware from his spring hunt that he had a vast distance of gameless, beaverless country to go through. In consequence, he outfitted himself with 700 pounds of dried meats Probably hoping it would last until he reached the rumored richer ground, where his hunters could supply the party with fresh game.
The brigade got off around the 15th of August. It consisted of about fifteen men, including Smith himself and his clerk, Harrison Rogers.2 It was a journey of heat and hunger, dry holes and no game, and endless trudging across barren lands. Under the vicious sun of late summer this small party tracked south through the desert country of western Utah. The men were restive and quarrelsome, and the expedition soon took on the aspect of an ordeal. The 700 pounds of dried meat Jedediah had prudently carried gave out too soon, leaving them without provisions in this "Country of Starvation—Sandy plains and Rocky hills, once in 20 30 or 40 m a little pond or Spring of water with a little grass."
Smith traveled through this country and finally fell on the headwaters of the Virgin River, which he named the Adams, in honor of the President. (The name Virgin is probably from Thomas Virgin, one of the members of Smith’s second expedition.) On this river he met 'a nation of Indians who call themselves Pa-Utches, the Paiutes, who told him of a marvelous cave of salt. He took a sample of this to send to General Clark; salt was one of the principal concerns as this nation expanded to the west, and a discovery of a good source was of considerable significance.
He moved down the Virgin to its confluence with the Colorado. Somehow he was able to identify the Colorado with the river he called Seedskeeder, and found that his earlier conception of its destination was correct; this was indeed the "Spainish River" that emptied into the Gulf of California.
Four days he followed the Seedskeeder-Green-Colorado, and at the end of that time reached a tribe whose name he rendered as 'Ammuchabas": the Mojaves. Here he found a higher standard than among the Paiutes; the Indians were a handsome race, and, more to the point,
They cultivate the soil, and raise corn, beans, pumpkins, watermelons and muskmelons in abundance, and also a little wheat and cotton.
The Mojaves received Smith’s party with a reasonable hospitality; and the whites were much in need of something of the kind:
. . . coming through this coun of Starvation . . . I had lost so many horses that we were all on foot—my men & the remainder of my Horses were worn out with fatigue & hardships & emaciated with hunger..
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br /> Smith stayed with’the Mojaves for fifteen days, resting his men and deciding what to do. He knew by now the country he was in was nothing like beaver country—and, from what the Mojaves told him; there was none around. The rumors hadn’t panned out, and a more unlikely spot for mountain trappers than the Mojave country would be hard to find. He was able to trade off his starved horses and even buy a few more. These had come from the Spanish missions, stolen by runaway Indians. One of the Mojaves spoke a little Spanish; so did one of Smith’s men, and in this tongue they made what sketchy communication there was.
. . by this means I found that it was not far to some of the Missions of Califomia & I detirmined (as this was the only resort) to go to that place as soon as my men & horses should be able to travel.
He found two guides—runaways again, Indians from the missions who found the rule of Christ as practiced by the Mexicans a little too hard on their backs—and set out from the Mojaves on November 10, 1826.
On November 27 Harrison Rogers’ journal begins, and it records:
There came an old Ind. to us that speaks good Spanish, and took us with him to his mansion, which consisted of 2 rows of large and lengthy buildings, after the Spanish mode, thay remind me of the British Barracks.
This was the arrival of Smith and his party in the dead heart of Spanish territory, the San Gabriel Mission. They were nine miles from the Pueblo de Nuestra Sehora de Los Angeles (which consisted—at this time—of about eighty houses and seven hundred inhabitants; almost as many as a fair-sized Snake encampment).
II
They had passed from the Country of Starvation into the Land of Plenty. A cow was butchered immediately, and 'there was great feasting among the men as they were pretty hungry not having any good meat for some time."
Shortly after their arrival at the mission, they were greeted by the "2 commandants of the missionary establishment [who] had the appearance of gentlemen?
Smith went with these two gentlemen to the mission house, some four miles or so from their present location. Rogers and the rest of the company remained behind, savoring their
good fortune.
The principal part of that good fortune was to come upon the Mission San Gabriel near the peak of its prosperity. The genial, Padre José Sanchez was in charge here, and a more gracious host never set table. More than a thousand persons were employed at the mission in various capacities: "al1 kinds of macanicks," men to work the rich vineyards, and tend the lush orchards of apple and peach and orange and fig. Indian women wove 'blankets and sundry other articles." There was a whiskey distillery—brandy, more accurately—and a mill where the mission grain was ground into flour.
The situation is very handsome, pretty streams of water running through from all quarters, some thousands of acres of rich and fertile land . . . in view, and a part under cultivation, surround on the N. with a high and lofty mou., handsomely timbered with pine, and cedar.
Rogers said the mission had upwards of thirty thousand head of cattle, and slaughtered two to three thousand head at a time. The sale of the cattle was the chief source of monetary income for the mission, and they also sold great quantities of tallow and hides.
A little later, with the secularization of the missions, this great wealth would diminish; but for now Father Sanchez held sway over a rich community, ruling with the absolute authority of a medieval baron. Other aspects of the feudal age were present, of a harsher nature. The two guides who had brought Smith from the Mojaves were imprisoned—being runaways—and one of them died. The other was sentenced to death, and reprieved at the last moment.
Rogers several times records the beating of the Indians, and as to their general condition:
The Inds. appear to be much altered from the wild Indians in the Mou. that we have passed. They are kept in great fear; for the least offense they are corrected; they are compleat slaves in every sense of the word.
[On December 10] There was five Inds. brought to the mission . . . and sentenced to be whiped for not going to work when ordered.
Each received from 12 to 14 lashes on their bare posteriors; they were all old men, say from 50 to 60 years of age, the commandant standing by with his Sword to see that the Ind. who dogged them done his duty.
[And January 3] There was five or six Inds. brought to the Mission and whiped, and one of them being stubborn and did not like to submit to the lash was knocked down by the commandant, tied and severely whiped, then chained by the leg to another Ind who had been guilty of a similar offence.
But Smith and Rogers themselves were treated to the shiny side of the feudal coin: the feasting and good wine and a pleasant eomradeship. The day after Smith had gone to the mission houses to be interviewed by Father Sanchez—and politely disarmed—he wrote Rogers that he had been "received as a gentleman and treated as such." Rogers was to go back and look for a pistol that was lost, and join his captain at the 'mansion." The clerk arrived
late in the evening, was received very politely, and showed into a room and my arms taken from me. About 10 o’clock at night supper was served, and Mr. S. and myself sent for. I was introduced to the 2 priests over a glass of good old whiskey and found them to be very jovial friendly gentlemen, the supper consisted of a number of different dishes, served different from any table I was ever at. Plenty of good wine during supper, before the cloth was removed sigars was introduced.
And in the meantime an express had been sent to the governor of A1ta, California informing him`of the strange arrival of a party of ragged, starving Americans who claimed to have crossed the Great Basin for no better reason than hunting beaver.
The governor, to whom Smith also wrote, was José Maria de Echeandia, a suspicious martinet of a man, tall and gaunt.3 For some little time the govemor responded neither to Sanchez’ express nor Smith’s letter. The booshway and his clerk were treated to a procession of elaborate and luxurious meals,, accompanied with music. The men of the party, characteristically enough, were not treated so hospitably; they were on short rations until Smith mentioned the matter to the padre. Then the trappers were immediately moved into better quarters and given ample provision.
At the "ellegant dinner(s)," Rogers wrote:
Mr. S. and myself acted quite independent, knot understanding there language, nor they ours; we endeavored to appologise, being very dirty and not in a situation to shift our clothing, but no excuse would be taken, we must be present, and we have been served at there table ever since we arrived at this place; they treat [us] as gentlemen in every sense of the word, although our apparel is so indifferent, we not being in circumstances at this time to help ourselves.
After the new regulations regarding food went into effect, the trappers of the party settled down somewhat, though
Mr. S. informed me [Rogers] this morning that he had to give [James] Read a little floggin yesterday evening, on account of some of his impertinence.
On the lst of December, Smith and Abraham Laplant, one of his men, made a trip to the "pueblo" of Los Angeles, and returned the next day with news that a Mr. Francisco (prob-
ably Martinez) had promised him to supply all the horses and mules he needed.
For the next week nothing happened. Smith and Rogers idled about the mission, watching the Indians, trying to keep their own men out of mischief. Rogers’ journal in part:
[Dec.] 4th. Still at St. Gabriel; things much as usual. 5th. We are still remaining at the mansion of St. Gabriel, waiting the . . Governor’s answer to a letter. . .
6th. Things going on as they have been heretofore; no answer from the governor as yet; we are waiting with patience to hear from the governor. . .
7th. No answer as yet from the governor of the province.
Francisco Martinez came over from Los Angeles on the 7th; he spoke English, and was sympathetic with Smith’s impatience. His advice was to see the govemor in person if no reply was forthcoming, and Smith began to entertain the idea of riding to the presidio at San Diego. But on the next day, December
8, the governor’s reply came. It was short and to the point. Smith was to report before Senor Echeandia immediately.
The next day Smith departed for San Diego, in the company of one of his men and Captain William Cunningham of the ship Courier. Ctmningham was at San Gabriel to arrange for hides and tallow, and the Courier was lying in San Diego. This gentleman and Smith seemed to strike up a considerable friendship in their short acquaintance; It is probable that, without Captain Cunningham’s assistance, Smith’s difficulty would have been much more severe. In a letter written while being held at San Diego, Smith said, "I have found in Capt Cunningham of the Courier a friend which I stand much in need of as I am destitute of almost every thing."
If he had expected from Echeandia the kind of courtesy extended by Father Sanchez, Smith was disappointed. The governor—"who appears to be very much of a Gentleman but I very suspicious"—could not satisfy himself as to the truth of Smith's story. It seemed to him much more likely that he had a pack of spies on hand. He demanded Smith's journal (which was probably Rogers’), his license (why did Smith come with fourteen men when the license from General Clark listed fifty-seven? were the others hiding out,somewhere?), Smith's ideas of the country (and why, if she was merely a fur hunter, should he be making maps?), etc., etc.
Worst of all, Echeandia seemed reluctant to make a decision on this strange interloper by himself. It might be necessary to write to Mexico, saddle someone else with the problem. In four days Smith was:
Questioned & crossquestioned three different times by the Gov . . . I have applied to him for Horses & endeavored to convince him of the truth that I was only a hunter & that Dire necessity had driven me here I am to call next tuesday for to know whether I can pass, or be detained here 3 months, for an answer from Mexico . . . instead of thanking me for the information which I have given him & assisting me to pass on about my business he seems to be for detaing me untill he ascertains that I am no Spy—which will deprive me of making a valuable Spring hunt.