The Brothers Robidoux and the Opening of the American West
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Louis Robidoux departed from Santa Fe, passing through Taos, in route back to Missouri on April 6, 1827. His name appeared on a list of foreigners, reported by Alcalde Manuel Martinez of Taos, dated April 7, 1827, identifying nineteen men, including Manuel Alvarez, nearly all Missouri merchants heading back to the United States. When they arrived at Franklin, Missouri, the group reportedly had $30,000 in gold and silver and several hundred mules. Louis did not make a quick turnaround in Missouri, for having transited the Santa Fe Trail, he most certainly had to collect and arrange shipment of trade goods, sell livestock, and renew personal contacts in St. Louis. He received a permit, along with thirty-two others, to return to Mexico later that summer. The superintendent of Indian Affairs in St. Louis, William Clark, issued the permit on July 23, 1827, but they did not leave right away. On August 25, 1827, Louis Robidoux sold a mule for $45 to an agent of the American Fur Company in St. Louis.69 In the same document, Francois is identified as the leader of a party of thirteen men, all of French heritage and name, departing Taos, for the purpose of retrieving caches of furs, “in the direction of the land of the Utes,” meaning west and central Colorado, in the vicinity of the Uncompaghre and Gunnison, already explored by Antoine. The information in the Martinez report indicates the Brothers Robidoux operated in more than one arena of the growing New Mexico trade, actively taking furs from the field and importing finished trade goods from the United States. Sometime during 1828 Louis made the decision to make Santa Fe his permanent home base, abandoning St. Louis, and Missouri in general. The fact that he and Guadalupe had started a family, which eventually produced eight children, no doubt weighed on his decision.70
CHAPTER 5
Trouble at Council Bluffs
Things came to a head in 1826 when Joseph Robidoux acquired a separate license from the government to trade on the Missouri between Bellevue and Niobrara, south of the Bluffs post. The veil of using Michel as the licensee dropped, and the permit issued by William Clark in St. Louis on August 16 named Joseph as the licensee and granted trade privileges at Bellevue, the mouth of the Papillion, the Dirt Village of the Omahas, Grand Loup and Republican River Panca Villages, a little above Roy's Grave, and the mouth of L'eau qui Cours. The posted bond amounted to $5,000 and capital of $5,564. Joseph Robidoux had clearly left the employ of Bernard Pratte & Company and gone into direct competition. Ironically, Bernard Pratte & Company had been granted a license for the same locale on July 26 by Clark. The recourse for Cabanné consisted of two options, either compete and win the Indian trade with better merchandise and prices or buy Robidoux out. The buyout, already known as a primary tool of Astor's American Fur Company, must have seemed to Cabanné as the best way of dealing with the wily Joseph Robidoux.1
It should be remembered that men like Robidoux, with long histories of Indian trading and the ability to post bond, raise capital, and deal effectively with the Native Americans, represented an exception rather than a rule among Indian traders. The entire issue of licensing traders, everywhere and not just on the Missouri, whether by the Indian superintendent or the various Indian agents, had come to be roundly criticized across the country and in the nation's capital. Writing in February 1826, Governor Lewis Cass complained openly to Secretary of War James Barbour about the whole process.
In the granting of licenses, a discretionary authority should be vested in the agent. Many persons obtain licenses that are utterly unfit to enter the Indian country. While there, they violate the laws, and produce the worst effects upon the morals of the Indians. From the nature of the trade, and the residence of the persons engaged in it, it is difficult and almost impossible to detect breaches of the laws committed in the Indian country. Offenders too often escape with impunity: and, although some restraint is imposed by the abundant security which is given by all the traders, still an irreproachable character in life is a better guaranty for the correct conduct of the applicant than any previous security or eventual fear of punishment. The traders exercise a paramount influence over the Indians and little can be done toward meliorating the condition of the later without the co-operation of the former.2
At the end of 1826, partner Bartholomew Berthold wrote Cabanné at the Bluffs from Fort Lookout, three hundred miles up the Missouri River. He mentioned a pending deal to cooperate with Ashley and the importance of securing the services of one of the company's key engagés. “I cannot give out anything about the project with Ashley, yet it seems to me a good idea to assure ourselves of Provot [Etienne Provost], who is the very soul of the hunters in the Mountains. He will do us harm, and, even if only to prevent his joining Robidoux, I'll say that it seems to me to be necessary to make sure of him, always save for your better ideas.” That he feared a business conjoining of Provost's field leadership and production and Joseph Robidoux's business savvy can only indicate the level to which Robidoux's standing in the Rocky Mountain fur trade had risen.3
Despite the perception of others, that Joseph might rise to rival Ashley or Sublette as a big time Rocky Mountain player, he continued his rather-modest-by-comparison operations on the lower Missouri. The far-flung beaver business of the mountains he left to the autonomy of his younger brothers. He secured the credit and supplied much of the merchandise they operated with, but indicative of Joseph's personal preference, his business continued on the Missouri where it had begun, and in 1827 he went into a separate partnership with a fellow trader of French stock, Baptiste Roy. They were issued a license on August 14 by William Clark to trade at Bellevue, the mouth of the Papillion, the Dirt Village of the Mahas, and the Grand Loup and Republican (River) Panis villages. The two posted a $5,000 bond and reported $4,706 in capital goods.4
The gloves came off and they traded in open competition with the company he worked for. Cabanné did not hide his furor against Joseph. Both competed for the trade with the Otoe, Omaha, and Ioway or Ayois, derived from the French Ayuhwa and frequently used in Robidoux's correspondence. In October, Cabanné informed Chouteau he had pumped $2,000 worth of goods and credits into the trade with those tribes in order to win them, but he had his doubts.
I am about to, and expect to, I say, lose much of the credits, but does there not at least remain to me the chance of retrieving my losses in the trade, and instead of having only calamity in trading, everything gives me reason to hope for good returns. I cannot nevertheless hide from myself that the surest means to ruin the hopes of Roy & Robidoux would have been not to do anything, but it is very possible to take such a desperate measure, especially since we have so much to pay in wages. They are hurrying on to their own destruction, and without suspecting the steps I am taking, which you should later support, they will make enough mistakes I hope to be expelled in the future. They give whisky; they cart it into the lands and I hope to accumulate enough proof to convict them of it.5
Like the outcry against licensing those unfit for the Indian trade, an even greater uproar in the country and in Washington swirled around the problem of whiskey. Military officers and Indian agents all along the frontier from the Gulf of Mexico to the northern reaches of Minnesota complained. Thomas L. McKenney, superintendent of Indian trade, reporting to his boss, Secretary of War James Barbour in 1826, stated, “It is believed that sound policy, no less than justice and humanity, requires that it should be made a capital offense for any person to furnish spirituous liquors to Indians, under any circumstances.” That said, McKenney admitted no such provision existed, but thought that if contact with the Indians could be set at fixed locations, the control of liquor might be better monitored. Even that might not be practical, McKenney admitted, because once the trader was beyond view of the agent or army, working from the back of a single pack-horse, nothing could be done to stop the evil practice. But as Cabanné saw it, the crime, real or imagined in Robidoux's case, might lead to his lose of license and expulsion from the Missouri trade.6
The question has to be posed, did Joseph Robidoux know what Cabanné was doing, and did the partners in St. Louis, chief among
them Chouteau, know how bad the relationship had deteriorated between the two agents? Cabanné assumed he had some allies against Robidoux, because Chouteau offered a sympathetic ear. Robidoux continued to act as if nothing was wrong with his relationship with Chouteau and the rest in St. Louis. Cabanné saw Robidoux the schemer and he planned to convict and execute him if he could.
A few days after my arrival he wrote me a letter, he Robidoux, asked me to consider that if I did not give any credits, the Indians would do nothing, absolutely nothing, that he himself had very little stuff and that he had sent the traps he had to the Panis [Pania Luup or Wolf Indians of northeast Kansas]. That makes me seem to have fallen into his trap and to be completely his dupe—let it be so. Let us leave him in this persuasion and let us make use of this double means to act against him. Because in fact he sent me the Indians so that I should be under the necessity of giving them credits, either voluntarily or by force, and reserving to himself the right to draw them away from me by means of drink. Francis was his sailing master and he was to unload whisky as needed at Fort Levinworth [sic], to take it up again above the said fort; that is at least what the officers suspected, having seen Mr. Robid. come and go many times. That is what they told me when I passed through there. This same Francis remained several days at his settlement and he must have seen that he was giving whiskey, with as little caution as if it were not prohibited. Try to make this man confess the truth; threaten to take him to account if he does not declare the truth. Sarpy knows him well and he will know perhaps better that anyone else, how to make him confess—General Clark should be informed—in a word, leave no stone unturned. For my part, I promise you to neglect nothing.7
Cabanné complained things were not getting up the Missouri fast enough. He saw Robidoux and others, like Baptiste Roy, constantly getting a jump on the company. As important as his ongoing feud with Robidoux, Cabanné had to manage the Upper Missouri Outfit, created from the buyout of the Columbia Fur Company, and see that important trade goods reached well above the Bluffs, continuing as far as the Yellowstone.
It will be easy for you, my friend, to judge how little headway we are making; perhaps we shall arrive this evening at Rocher Bel Cour. The Sioux barge is a day behind us although it goes better, but desertions have made it weaker, yet another one of the party day before yesterday. I keep at this distance because I have noticed that when the two barges are together it is easier for the men to idle; before yesterday I sent Mr. Lemonte another 3 men to help him and to warn him of the danger there is in rushing into the abrasive waters above Prairie du feu, where we almost perished. Baptiste Roy passed us two days ago and he ought to arrive at least ten days before us; which ought to suffice him to get his outfits from the open country and to appropriate the Indians who are not already faithful adherents. It is in vain that I have often pointed out the danger and inconveniences of such large barges.
Mr. Kip [James Kipp] passed yesterday on their way to meet Mr. Lemonte [Daniel Lamont], to get the permit of the Mandan barge which passed the new fort six days ago with great difficulty, and if the permit is not produced in time the barge will be stopped at the Bluffs. Mr. Kip, who comes from the Mandans tells me of at least 200 packs of robes and 4 to 5 packs of beaver. The Ricaras, he says, are very badly disposed toward us and, at the instigation of one of their principle men, have resolved to pillage the first barge that comes up, abandoning their village and fleeing to the prairie. We shall hardly reach the settlement by the first days of October, which will be at least three weeks too late. The result will be that the Panis will have left with their outfits if Rob. [Robidoux] himself arrives too late.
Messrs. Pilcher & Company were recently at Liberty to buy a large quantity of whiskey; it would be absurd to believe that all that liquor is destined for the Mountains, with all that Mr. R. has already sent by the first barge.8
As a postscript, Cabanné reported some information on Robidoux's whereabouts. “Today the 9th, I proceeded to Baronet Vasquez's. I learned there that Robidoux had been turned aside from his route, and had passed two days with him. This visit is not without interest and it may be possible that B. [the baronet] would furnish goods to R. [Robidoux] out of the annuities that are sent to him for the Cans.”9
Cabanné would not let his personal vendetta against Joseph Robidoux rest. Early in January 1828 he continued to push the issue and asked Chouteau and the other partners in St. Louis to, in effect, cut off Robidoux at the source. “Robidoux is always in competition with us: this is the first year in which he dares attempt it.” Cabanné's statement concludes that Robidoux no longer put forward any pretense of being an American Fur Company man nor did he attempt to hide his intent to completely freelance among the Missouri River Indians. “I do not know how he will come out of it without his outfits from the prairies. But the whiskey must have already given him a great advantage over us in the case of the Platte, and we must add to that the ineptness and lack of activity of our clerks. It is often very imprudent to rely on subordinates over whom we do not have complete control. I detailed [Pierre] Papin to compete with him and in all probability he should return in time: but still no news of him or the Sioux. This man Robidoux cherishes that most innervate hate against us, and if we ever have the weakness to employ him again it will be difficult to calculate where he will stop; for myself, I know that I shall undergo the greatest mortification.”10
Cabanné believed that Robidoux's remaining resources had been committed to his western operations and that by a combination of convicting him of illegal liquor traffic with the Indians and disrupting his supply line in St. Louis, he could be neutralized. “I have abstained from giving whiskey to the Indians; did I do well or not? If I can accomplish nothing against our opponent it is clear that I will have done badly. If I can assemble enough proofs, tell me what you would think of it. He—Robidoux—is sending to St. Louis for goods; try to find out what he will get and especially guard against someone's buying from you in some indirect way to accomplish this.”11
Joseph Robidoux's battle with Cabanné even garnered the attention of the head office of John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company in New York. Pierre Chouteau, writing a report to Ramsey Crooks in New York in February 1828, mentioned the situation, and seems to indicate he was getting a bit tired of hearing about it from his brother-in-law and chief factor at the Bluffs. He also hints at some kind of deal possibly being worked with Robidoux to settle the competition issue on the Missouri below the Bluffs. “Robidoux also sent to get merchandise and Tepon sent him 5 draft horses but I think it all amounted to very little; but the only harm this does is to be excessively annoying. I am writing Cabanne to try to buy up all the peltries up there, by furnishing to them merchandise for the next trade—at one of three exclusive posts—that is to say of our posts—Ottos, Mahas or Panis—but I think that if an arrangement is made Robidoux will insist on the Ottos. As there is great prejudice between Cabanne & Robidoux I am writing C. to inform me immediately if nothing can be done with R. because I am going myself by land. I am anxious to have the skins before they come down because otherwise they will cost a lot. Our friend up there is always on the alert.”12 Crooks replied to Chouteau, speaking in the context of the coming trade season, “Cabanne will do well since he wants more goods—I hope he will be able to effect the arrangement you desire with Robidoux & Roy but I fear they are not good enough friends—at all events C. should by all means get their peltries.”13
Cabanné acted on the directions from the head office, but his efforts to deal with his old nemesis, as reported to Chouteau, must have been both teeth grinding and a little tongue in cheek. “I have always acted with great moderation toward Robidoux, and you can judge of this after you have read his letters and mine. This man is truly wicked, cunning, cheating and a rogue, and I would not have answered his letter of the 9th of last March if your letters received two days earlier had not almost imposed on me an obligation to attempt an arrangement to try to buy his furs. He came here; I made him the
offer you suggested to me, and I went still further, but it was all useless: he figured his beaver as at least $4.50, his opossum at 33 37 ½, his robes from 3.50–4.00 etc. He then had 13 thousand opossum and 180 lbs. of beaver nearly all from the autumn. When he returned home he wrote me a letter which I answered. He returned here and, seeking to make me forget his bad behavior, he tries to make it seem that he lends himself to an arrangement about the Panis. The only kind of arrangement he needs make, I told him is to buy your merchandise. He still had left at that time about $1,300 worth, but he still expected some from Fort Leavenworth. I offered him 75% and seeking only a means of eluding, he answered that if Roy were there he would probably do it, and only my lack of goods made him not regret it!”14
Cabanné complained about the declining number of engagés to conduct the field operations, and pointed some blame in Robidoux's direction.
Laforce is good; he behaves well and has truly our interest at heart, but he lacks qualifications to be in charge and he is not liked by the other clerks nor interpreters. God forbid there be question of Robidoux. He would bleed us white; besides, Laforce, Dersin and others would not be willing to be subordinate to him. Only with difficulty will I be able to renew the engagements of our interpreters. They doubt that I will come up again and they are really attached to me, or rather, because they fear to be less well off with someone else than they are with me, for egoism is found in all classes. Yet it is true that they have always been deaf to the insinuations of Robidoux and he has never been able to entice a single man away from me except one. There is no sort of means he does not employ; he says to the Indians: “Your father will not return any more; I am he who will take his place and those who do not wish to give me their skins I will make objects to be pitied,” etc. If you intend to attack Robidoux I believe you will do well to await my arrival, to have more explanations on what took place before the present situation.15