by Don Berry
And as for the good doctor, he cordially interviewed Wyeth (mistaking the name for "Dwight") on his joumey. Wyeth arrived at Fort Vancouver around noon; before the day was out McLoughlin had a letter on its way to the Governor and Committee:
He says he came to ascertain if possible to make a business of curing Salmon in this River, & at the same time to supply the American Trappers in the Rocky Mountains, but that from what he has seen on the way here, he thinks the latter wou1d not answer, & that if possible, he will endeavor to go to St. Francisp co, & return next Summer from thence across land to Salmon River, where the American Trappers are to assemble, & go home with the party that brings them their supplies .... It is impossible for us to say, in the short interview we have had with him, if these are his views or not; & though it may be as he states, still I would not be surprised to find that his views are in connexion with a plan which I see in a Boston paper of March 1831 to colonise the Willamette.
Once again the hospitable McLoughlin had more knowledge of his visitor than the visitor knew. Wyeth soon found himself in difficulty at Vancouver, however. Immediately on his arrival, his remaining eleven men wanted to desert. This was more or less expected, but the Honourable Company objected to the desertions; an interesting variation on this often-repeated theme. On a practical basis, McLoughlin virtually refused to permit Wyeth’s men to desert him; watching for HBC’s interest, as always, McLoughlin
[did] not wish to engage {them] no[r] to have them. in the country without being attached to some Co. able to protect them alledging that if any of them are killed they will be obliged to aveng it at an expense of money and amicable relations with the Indians.
Obviously, the losses incurred in redeeming Jedediah Smith still rankled at Fort Vancouver. The four-year-old memory of Smith was fresh in McLoughlin’s mind, and Wyeth came up against it again, a little later, when he was refused permission to accompany a party to the Umpqua. (Michel Laframbois—coureur du bois par excellence—had gone on another of his solitary trips and discovered that an HMC party had been cut off and a man killed.)
I requested to accompany him but the Gov. would not consent alledging the[y] would conceive that I came to avenge the death of Mr. Smiths party all which I interpreted into a jealousy of my motives.
It was a wrong interpretation; McLoughlin simply knew his people.
The problem of Wyeth’s men could not be deferred forever. By the middle of November McLoughlin had finally agreed to permit them to remain at Vancouver until they could get passage home. Accordingly, Wyeth released them from any obligation to his own expedition.
I have therefore now no men . . . they were good men and persevered as long as perseverance would do good I am now afloat on the great sea of life, without stay or support but in good hands i.e. myself and providence and a few of the H. B. Co. who are perfect gentlemen.
If Wyeth was afloat, it was more than could be said for his depended-upon supply ship, the Sultana (see Appendix B). She had broken up on a reef, and sinking, took with her the last of Wyeth’s hopes. Now he was completely destitute, without men, without supplies, without prospects, having "1ost largely from a capital at first small."
Being Nathaniel Wyeth, he immediately began devising plans for a second expedition to the Oregon country. The salmon business still looked good to him; the resources of the Willamette valley charmed him. The only problem was financing this second effort, and perhaps this might be done through the kindly gentlemen of HBC.
He wrote Governor Simpson his proposition. (This would have been with McLoughlin’s permission, possibly even his encouragement.)
Briefly, it amounted to the notion that HBC should provide Wyeth with goods—and, if possible, men—with which he could prosecute a trading business. The implied intent was to do his trading with the Rocky Mountain hunters; in effect, another supply train at rendezvous. These American furs he would then transport back to Fort Vancouver and sell to HBC. He bound himself "to deliver all Furs and skins of every description of which he may get possession to the Co." and offered to post bond for faithful performance.
But we have seen George Simpson’s reluctance to infringe on American territory through the medium of a citizen (in his refusal of Pilcher's proposal). It was probably on this basis that Wyeth’s idea was finally rejected. (On Wyeth's second trip, he did make an agreement with McLoughlin—though not the same—and McLoughlin’s action was disapproved by the Governor and Committee.)
The adventurer iceman spent the remainder of the winter of '32-'33 at Fort Vancouver, "eating and drinking the good things to be had there and enjoying much the gentlemanly society of the place." He explored most of the surrounding area, making trips to the coast and some distance down the Willamette valley (to present Salem).
When a nominal spring came—February 3, 1833—Wyeth set out with Francis Ermatinger, HBC partisan bound for the Flathead country. Ermatinger, who was by this time a good friend, had in charge three boats loaded with supplies for HBC’s mountain expeditions and twenty-one men. Wyeth himself had been able to hire only two men to accompany him back to the mountains.
By the 7th of April they reached the Flathead post. Ermatinger deposited his goods at the post and then embarked for the south on a trapping expedition toward the Snake country. Wyeth went along, and they were shortly in the area where Fitzpatrick and Bridger had played leapfrog with Henry Vanderburgh the previous fall.
Wyeth now lost one of his men—"he appeared to think that as I had but two he might take libertys under such circumstances I will never yield an inch"—paid him half his wage and kept moving.
They encountered a huge Flathead camp, and Wyeth recorded his impressions. (Since most of the mountain journals are concerned with hostilities, I give some of Wyeth’s observations here as a mild antidote.
. . . upward of 1000 souls with all of which I had to shake hands the Custom in meeting these indians is for the Coming party to fire their arms then the other does the same then dismount and form single file both sides and passing each other shake hands with men women and children a tedious job. [Indians invariably accentuated what they took from the white men, whether it be drunkenness or handshaking.
Nothing halfway.]
Theft is a thing almost unknown among them and is punished by flogging as I am told but have never known an instance . . . the least thing even to a bead or pin is brought you if found and things that we throw away this is sometimes troublesome I have never seen an Indian get in anger with each other or strangers. I think you would find among 20 whites as many scoundrels as among 1000 of these Indians they have a mild playful laughing disposition. . . .They are polite and unobtrusive and however poor
never beg except as pay for services.
While camped with these genial Flatheads, Wyeth observed a phenomenon that struck very close to home:
.. .there is a new great man no[w] getting up in the Camp and like the rest of the world covers his designs under the great cloak religion . . . when he gets enough followers he will branch off and be an independent chief he is getting up some new form of religion among the Indians more simple than himself like others of his class he works with the fools women and children first while . . . the men of sense thinking it too foolish to do harm stand by and laugh but they will soon find that women fools and children form so large a majority that with a bad grace they will have to yield. These things make me think of . . .New England.4
They were now in Blackfoot country, and Wyeth’s journal for May and June of 1833 is a running record of scares, skirmishes (reported), and thefts. Thus they worked south across the divide, and by the Erst of July were just east of Henry’s Fork. They found some of Bonneville’s men here, and a couple of days later moved over to join camps with the captain.
Now Wyeth’s always-flexible plans took another bend. He had received word of Bonneville’s presence in the Salmon River country as early as June 22. Wyeth had immediately dispatched an express, inviting Bonneville into a partnership to trap the
country south of the Columbia. The plan was—as he had mentioned to McLoughlin—to work as far south as San Francisco.
When he came up with Bonneville on the 4th of July, the latter apparently agreed to the proposition, for Wyeth immediately wrote a spate of letters to the East, giving rough details of the plan. But even before the letters had been dispatched something happened; for unknown reasons—Irving mentions this episode not at all—Bonneville backed out.
The three camps—HBC under Ermatinger, Bonneville, and Wyeth—remained together for four days. A batch of Bonneville’s men declined to accompany him any farther, and set out on a trapping expedition for the Nez Perce. Ermatinger and his brigade also departed on the occasions of their trade, leaving Wyeth and the captain to continue together.
They broke camp the 7th of July; down Henry’s Fork to Pierre‘s Hole, across Teton Pass into Jackson's Hole; reversing the route Bonneville had covered getting to the Salmon River country for his fall '32 hunt.
On the 15th of July they came down into the Green River valley to the original site of Bonneville’s Fort Nonsense.
Found here collected Capt. Walker, Bonneville, Cerry, of one Co. Dripps & Fontenelle of the Am. Fur Co. Mr. Campbell just from St. Louis, Mess. Fitzpatric, Gervais, Milton Sublette of the Rocky Mountain Fur Co. and in all the Cos. about 300 whites and a small village of Snakes . . .
gathered at Green River for Rendezvous 1833.
CHAPTER 21
'F1oat down and see what the world is made of there"
I WANT to recapitulate here, very brietly. There are now so many parties in the mountains—and the years so eventful—that it is difficult for a reader to hold a picture in his mind while following any of the separate movements. I hope a short synopsis of the year will make things a little more comprehensive.
After Rendezvous 1832 in Pierre’s Hole:
(1) Rocky Mountain Fur Co. Two main brigades. One, under Milton Sublette, pushed down into the barren, starving country between the Humboldt and Owyhee Rivers; turned back up into Idaho and completed the Fall '32 hunt on the waters of the Salmon River. Winter camp on the Salmon, Spring '33 hunt in southern Idaho, on the Malade, competing with Bonneville.
Second brigade under Fitzpatrick and Bridger. Into Three Forks area by way of Salmon River country, pursued all the way by Henry Vanderburgh of American Fur. After Vanderburgh’s death, down to winter quarters with Milton’s brigade on the Salmon. Winter camp moved, part of the RMF force going to the Portneuf in January, '33.
(2) American Fur Company. Vanderburgh and Drips pursued the RMF brigade of Bridger and Fitz during the fall. Vanderburgh killed. Drips and the remainder wintered near RMF in central Idaho, and made their Spring '33 hunt on Idaho and Montana streams. Small contingent looked over Flathead trade and found it good. McKenzie building forts to take Blackfoot and Crow trade.
(3) Wyeth. Accompanied Milton Sublette out of Pierre’s Hole, then separated and continued to Fort Vancouver. His ship had been wrecked and sunk, his men all left him. Returned to Rendezvous 1833 with an HBC brigade under Ermatinger, planning a second expedition.
(4) Bonneville. Not at Rendezvous 1832, but on Green River. Early fall, over into central Idaho land Salmon River country, where his party was split into many scattered brigades with varying degrees of catastrophe. Wintered on Salmon. Spring hunt in competition with RMF on the Malade, which was unsuccessful.
(5) Bill Sublette. Took over banking and supplying RMF on an official basis at Rendezvous 1832. Returned to the settlements with furs collected and began to prepare his assault on the American Fur Company.
It now remains to account in detail for the activities of Bill Sublette in fall of '32 and spring of '33.
***
The returning caravan reached Lexington by the 21st of September, 1832. Bill sat down and wrote an account to Ashley of the battle of Pierre’s Hole, which was later published in the Missouri Republican. Along with the story of the fight, the newspaper published a brief editorial comment: "We are gratified to learn that Mr. S. has determined to discontinue his mountain excursions, and locate himself in the immediate vicinity."
It is perhaps uncharitable to conclude that Bill was doing a bit of judicious misdirection; it may have been a rumor, or a misunderstanding of some other comment. Still, it would have been decidedly to his advantage to have it believed he was quitting the mountains.
On the way in, Sublette and Campbell met an august personage in western Missouri, Washington Irving, traveling with a government commission to inspect Indian Lands, and getting background for the two books he was to write about the trade.1 He described this brigade of Sublette’s:
We remember to have seen them with their band. . . . Their long cavalcade stretched in single file for nearly half a mile. Sublette still wore his arm iu a sling. The mountaineers in their rude hunting dresses, armed with rifles and roughly mounted, and leading their pack-horses down a hill of the forest, looked like banditti returning with plunder. On top of some of the packs were perched several half-breed children, perfect little imps, with wild black eyes glaring from among elf locks. These, I was told, were children of the trappers; pledges of love from their squaw spouses in the wildemess.
The late summer of 1832 had seen a cholera epidemic sweep down the Ohio. When Sublette arrived, the panic and hysteria of the plague were just diminishing.2
Sublette arrived in St. Louis on October 3. The next two months were taken up with small business—settling RMF’s accounts with their men, for example. The furs themselves he had turned over to Ashley, who in tum had them sold through his own brokers, Frederick Tracy & Company.
By the last part of November Bill and Robert Campbell must have hashed out at least the main outlines of their plan. They did not yet have a formal partnership, but there is no doubt it had been arranged. Together they set out from St. Louis on about the lst of December, bound for the East this time.
Their first business stop was Washington, D.C., and Congressman Ashley. The ambitious plans they had in mind would require credit; much credit, and Ashley was—as always—"a person of credit." With the moral backing of the congressman, Sublette and Campbell would have little difliculty in obtaining backing of a somewhat more substantial kind from commercial Hrms. Bob Campbell already had one good contact; brother Hugh, Philadelphia businessman, whose warm affection for his brother was exceeded only by his disapproval of his business "amongst those Black footed Black hearted & Blk headed Savages."
Brother Hugh was high on the list of visits to be made this winter, in spite of the fact that he, had written Robert as recently as November 14: "What you have done during your late expedition I neither know nor (in a certain point of view) do I care . . . I am disgusted with your late mode of life."
Washington, Philadelphia, Neyv York—with Ashley’s letters of introduction in hand, they found most of the firms approached amenable to their ideas. It was a confused and harrying winter for both men, back and forth from merchant to merchant, banker to banker; the only real respite being the genial hospitality of Hugh Campbell. Hugh was immediately taken with Bill Sublette and they became close friends.
Formal arrangements for the partnership had been delayed until they could see Ashley; get his reactions (and, not least important, get an estimate of the available credit). Ashley’s approval was wholehearted, and the Articles of Copartnership were drawn. up on December 20. Operating "under the name and style of Sublette & Campbell," the company was capitalized at $6,000, half from each of the partners. (This was only a fraction of the amount to be involved in this expedition; witness that Ashley was authorized to buy two fully rigged keelboats for Sublette & Campbell, to be at Pittsburgh by February 20, 1833.)
The keelboats were attached to a steamboat, and on the 22nd they moved out, down the Ohio to Louisville. Sublette stopped there to buy a ton of tobacco, and some alcohol. (While in Washington he had examined the new liquor law. Wine seemed to be permissible. Throw in a few grapes with the tobacco and call it wine inst
ead of whiskey, then. But let’s get on with it.)
By March 4, 1833, Sublette was back in St..Louis with his keelboats and ready to begin the great project.
There were two phases to the expedition, one overland and one upriver, with basically different ends. Bob Campbell was to conduct the supply? party to Rendezvous 1833 by the usual Platte-Sweetwater-South Pass route. Sublette himself was ascending the Missouri in one of the keelboats, his ultimate destination being the mouth of the Yellowstone and Fort Union.
On the way upriver Sublette would drop off a trader and crew to open a post beside every American Fur Company post on the Missouri. Snuggled up to their competition, these Sublette & Campbell posts would compete directly for the river trade. The Sioux, Mandans, Kiowas, Kanzas would all find themselves with a choice of posts.
And the principal fort of Sublette & Campbell was to be built at the mouth of the Yellowstone under Mr. Kenneth McKenzie’s nose.
It is unlikely that Sublette & Campbell expected any great returns from these posts. The Company traders had been established along the river for a long time, enjoying a virtual monopoly of trade, and they would doubtless be able to hold their own against the small newcomers. But as a tactic of annoyance Sublette’s notion was superb. And what he hoped for was to annoy John Jacob Astor into reaching for his wallet (as he had done before, with the Columbia Fur Company at the Mandans). A mosquito can’t kill a bear, but it might make him react; if Astor held to his usual position,) the reaction would be to buy out the opposition.
Campbell and his party went overland from St. Louis to Lexington and took up camp there around the 20th. Sublette, with the two keelboats towed behind the steamboat Otto, arrived there about a week later. Goods from one of the keelboats were transferred to Campbell’s overland party, completing the final outfitting, and they were ready to go by May 7.