David Thompson, the explorer

CHAPTER V

EIGHT YEARS OF TRADING

The report which Thompson made to his employers after his return to Grand Portage was of immense value to them. They now had a clear idea of the whole stretch of country from Sault Ste. Marie to the upper waters of the Missouri river, and were in a position to rearrange their trading houses to meet the needs of the time. Similar work remained to be done in the other regions to which the interests of the Company extended. But the same haste was not required, and the surveys could be pushed forward with less difficulty and expense in connection with what was the main object of the partners, that is the prosecution of the trade in furs. Thompson was therefore requested to undertake some of the actual work of trading, with freedom to make such journeys of exploration as he saw fit.

The eight years following therefore mark a new period in his service with the North West Company, during which his activities carried him far and wide along the great waterways of the interior. Throughout these years he exercised, to the full, the qualities of mind and character which made him such a unique surveyor. His bulky note books were crammed with memoranda gathered with painstaking accuracy and checked with minute care. From time to time, where a less hurried visit to one of the more comfortable trading houses made it possible, he added his newly acquired information to the map which he had in hand. With each report that he made to Headquarters, the picture of the Great West gradually took shape. Its physical features were delineated; its wild life was noted and classified; its native populations, their numbers, their racial affinities and languages, their manners and customs were as far as possible described. This was indeed wizardry, as his ignorant French-Canadian and Indian followers imagined; but it was the wizardry of science, which, by the slow accumulation of ascertained facts, lays the whole world of nature at the feet of civilized man.

In the summer of 1798, the attention of traders was largely directed to the western forest country, which lies beyond the divide separating the waters of the upper Saskatchewan from the basin of the Peace and Athabaska rivers. Twenty years before, Peter Pond had penetrated into this region as far as Lake Athabaska, and there established a post. At Lake Athabaska, ten years later, Roderick Mackenzie had built Fort Chippewyan, from which Sir Alexander had set out on his two famous voyages, the one down the Mackenzie to the Arctic, the other up the Peace to its headwaters and from thence across British Columbia to the Pacific. Apart, however, from the activity centred in Lake Athabaska, little had been done as yet to explore the possibilities of trade in what is now northern Alberta.

Thompson was therefore instructed to proceed to Lake la Biche or Red Deer lake, whose waters fall into the Athabaska river about fifty miles below Athabaska Landing. On the 14th of July, he set forth from Grand Portage with the Churchill river brigade. By the middle of August they had reached Cumberland House, and a week later they had crossed over Frog Portage to the main stream of the Churchill.

From this point west the route lay through a region as yet new to Thompson. As he ascended the river to Isle à la Crosse, he found that the country was still composed of the denuded rock with which he was familiar on the lower stretches of the river. Ridges of this rock, crossing the valley of the stream from point to point, gave it the character of an irregular chain of lakes with many portages and falls. Like the rest of the stony country, it was somewhat poor in game and fur-bearing animals, although many of the lakes teemed with fish.

From Isle à la Crosse to the valley of the Athabaska there were two possible routes. To the north there was Turnor's old course by way of Methy Portage and Clearwater river. To the south, the Beaver river led through a district of plain and forest to its headwaters at Beaver lake, from which there was an easy portage over the height of land to Lake la Biche. Thompson followed the Beaver river, and arrived at Lake la Biche in time to build a post before the beginning of winter.

He was now at the southern end of that vast stretch of country which he calls the Great Western Forest, and almost in the same latitude as that of Reed lake in the Muskrat country where he had spent the winter of 1794-5. He was thus in a position to compare the climate and soil of this region with that of his old home on the eastern or "Siberian" side of North America. Throughout the long winter months, he kept as usual a careful record of the temperatures registered from day to day by his thermometer. At Reed lake, the temperature for December had varied from 31° to -45° with a mean of -10° F. For January it had varied from 11° to -47° with a mean of -21.3°, and for February from 39° to -31° with a mean of 6°. At Lake la Biche he found that although in each of the three winter months, the mercury sank as low as 48° below zero, it rose at times as high as 43° above, and that the mean for December, the coldest month, was not lower than -6.5°. Then, too, while Reed lake was hardly above the level of Hudson Bay, the country about Lake la Biche was high and dry, and the snow did not lie so thick on the ground at the end of winter. Accordingly, the rays of the sun had a chance to exert their power on the face of the land much earlier in the year, and spring burst at Lake la Biche long before winter had loosened his iron grip on the region about Reed lake.

The forests with their wild life responded generously to the less rigorous climate. In the Muskrat region, the wretched traders and Indians were forced to scour the country for fish and game in quantities sufficient to keep them alive. At Lake la Biche the waters yielded an abundant supply of fish; and during the five months that he spent at the post, Thompson saw no less than forty-nine moose and several buffalo brought in, all of which had been shot within twenty miles of the house. There also all the animals, including the precious beaver, attained their full size and development.

Thompson wished to get an idea of the extent and general character of this western forest land, and the quickest way to do so was to survey the Athabaskan waters from their sources. Accordingly, when spring opened, he rode across country southwest to Fort Augustus and from thence westward to the headwaters of the Pembina, which at this point was divided from the valley of the Saskatchewan by a narrow neck of land. Embarking on the Pembina, he followed it down till it merged with the main stream of the Athabaska river. A short excursion up the Slave Lake river enabled him to explore the shore line of Lesser Slave lake. Returning to the Athabaska, he continued along its broad stream past Athabaska Landing to the mouth of the Clearwater river, and from thence he made his way along the well-known track by Methy Portage and the Churchill to Grand Portage. Throughout the region embraced in his survey, he found little exposed rock and therefore few lakes, but what was better for the beaver many small brooks and streams which they could dam for their ponds. The country thus promised a steady yield of furs from year to year, and this, with the generous supply of game which the forest offered to trader and trapper, was enough to justify the name which it bore, "The fur-traders' paradise."

In the mad competition for pelts, the different companies could not rest content with the trade of regions already within their grasp. Each of them sought always to push further afield; for he, who could anticipate his rivals in opening new country, might plant his trading houses on the most advantageous sites and bind the Indians to himself with ties which later comers could not break. In 1790, Peter Pangman for the North-Westers had pressed along the course of the North Saskatchewan to a point five miles above its junction with the Clearwater. There from a hill top he had gazed along the line of snow-capped Rockies, and his eyes had travelled up the winding course of the river to the gap through which it issued from the mountains. From that time the partners had never ceased to dream of the wealth that lay beyond the Great Divide. In a decade the line of their trading posts had been extended to a point but three miles short of "Pangman's Pine." There, in a wide plain not far from the forks of the river, rose the walls and blockhouses of Rocky Mountain House, destined to serve as a point of departure for the invasion of the last great area as yet unknown.

But much tedious work remained to be done before it would be possible to hazard the passage of the Rocky Mountains. Besides the North Saskatchewan, there were two main branches of the South river, the Red Deer and the Bow rivers, and these had to be surveyed to their sources in the foothills in order to determine the best routes for trade. The Blackfoot, Blood, and Piegan Indians, whose encampments lay along the courses of these streams, were suspicious and hostile. They held these regions by right of conquest from the Kootenays and Snakes whom they had driven to the mountains; and these needed only to procure the muskets and ammunition which the white men could supply in order to sweep down through the rugged passes and revenge themselves for the defeats of many years. The Indians therefore steadily opposed any movement of the traders toward the Rockies, and even the stoutly fortified trading posts were hardly secure against a sudden assault.

In these circumstances, the partners at Grand Portage could think of no one better qualified than David Thompson to accomplish the objects of the company. They remembered the early connections which he had made among the Piegans during his service with the English, and they had complete confidence in his skill and daring. Thompson was accordingly taken away from his work in the Athabaska country, almost before it was well begun, and despatched up the Saskatchewan to Fort George, in order that he might draw the maps of his recent surveys and complete his preparations for the work that was now in hand.

In the spring he took horse and rode overland to Fort Augustus, and thence south along the Edmonton-Calgary line to a point just short of the present town of Lacombe. Turning west, he struck the Clearwater near its mouth and found himself at Rocky Mountain House. While he himself descended the North Saskatchewan to the elbow, making a survey as he went, he sent four French Canadians south to the Red Deer river, with orders to follow it to its junction with the main stream of the South Saskatchewan. A short distance below Rocky Mountain House, he found a party of Hudson's Bay men encamped for building. The English, as well as the Canadians, were bent on crossing the Great Divide; and it would be a serious blow if they were allowed to anticipate the North-Westers in so doing.

Accordingly, on his return to Rocky Mountain House, Thompson brought with him Duncan McGillivray from down the river, in order that he might have assistance in pressing forward his explorations. Along with McGillivray, he rode across to the Red Deer river, where he found a camp of Piegans. A short stay among them was enough to lull their suspicions; and Thompson was then able to ride twenty-two miles west to the foot of the mountains, where he expected to meet a band of Kootenays. These he found, twenty-six strong. With their women and children they had crossed the divide to meet the white traders. These Kootenays were the first of the British Columbia Indians whom Thompson had encountered. He warned them of the presence of the Piegans only a few miles east, and sent them back across the mountains. In order to avoid the Piegans, they travelled by way of the North Saskatchewan and succeeded in reaching their homes unobserved.

Meanwhile, with McGillivray and four men on horseback, Thompson crossed the Red Deer river and rode still further south to the banks of the Bow, not far from Calgary. This stream he surveyed as far east as the bend and westward to Exshaw at the foot of the mountains. McGillivray then made a traverse across from the north fork of the Saskatchewan to the valley of the Athabaska, the results of which were carefully incorporated in Thompson's notes. Thompson himself spent the rest of the winter at Rocky Mountain House, trading with the natives and taking observations to fix the location of the post.

When spring opened, he resolved to attempt a journey into the mountains by land. With a party of eight men and an Indian guide, he started westward from Rocky Mountain House. In the narrow valley of the Sheep river, the horses could go no further; and as the guide knew of no other route, they returned to the post. A second attempt, this time by canoe up the Saskatchewan, was equally unsuccessful because of the floods on the river. When Thompson returned to eastern headquarters in the spring of 1802, he was not yet able to report that he had opened a practicable route to the west of the Rockies.

What was the effect of this news upon the minds of the partners? From Thompson's subsequent movements, it is possible to surmise. The attempt to pierce the mountains from the headwaters of the Saskatchewan was for the time being abandoned, and attention was once more transferred to the north. According to the surveys already made by Thompson, the west end of Lesser Slave lake could not be more than fifty or seventy-five miles from the valley of the Peace river, up which Alexander Mackenzie had travelled ten years before. Thither Thompson was sent, with instructions to explore a route across the watershed.

From the upper end of Lesser Slave lake, he pushed his way west through a wide valley until he came to the banks of the Smoky river. On the different branches of the Saskatchewan, he had noted the seams of coal exposed along the banks. At Smoky river, the coal beds, ignited by spontaneous combustion, had been burning from beyond the memory of the oldest Indians on the river, and the dark clouds of smoke which they sent forth gave the river its name. Smoky river was a tributary of the Peace. A short journey down stream brought him to the Forks where now stands Peace River Landing.

Thompson spent the winters of 1803 and 1804 developing trade from the old posts built by Mackenzie at the Forks of the river, and westward beyond the frontiers of British Columbia. Here, as at the headwaters of the Saskatchewan, he found rivals. No sooner was he settled at the Forks than a party of XY traders from Montreal landed a few yards from the post and made preparations for the erection of a house. Thompson prosecuted his work with his accustomed vigour. In the winter of 1805, when Simon Fraser set forth on the journey that was to make him famous, he found that a base for his exploration of the Fraser river had been soundly established on the Peace by his friend and colleague David Thompson. He honoured him accordingly when he gave the name of Thompson to the greatest tributary of the Fraser river.

By the summer of 1804 Thompson was once more back at headquarters, no longer at Grand Portage (for that had been surrendered to the Americans), but at Fort William on Thunder Bay, where the dépôt of the company had now been established. In that year, the trade war with the XY Company had reached an acute stage. The Hudson's Bay Company had also reorganized their enterprises, and between them these rivals had almost succeeded in wresting from the North-Westers the trade of the Muskrat country. Thompson was therefore withdrawn from the fields of his recent activity, his chance of crossing the mountains was indefinitely postponed, and he was sent into the Muskrat country to restore the trade of that region to the Canadians.

With a heavy heart he turned his back on the far west, and entered the cold and dismal forest which he knew only to loathe. But loyalty was one of the deepest instincts of his nature, and so, with indefatigable energy, he proceeded to build new posts and explore new routes in the region north-east of Lake Winnipeg. In the course of his efforts, he carried the flag of the North-Westers to a point on South Indian lake not more than two hundred and fifty miles distant from Churchill itself. In his relations with rival traders, he exhibited a friendliness and courtesy that stands in marked contrast with the cut-throat methods too frequently adopted at critical moments of competition. The surveys begun years before, when he was working under Joseph Colen, were now triumphantly finished. Of them, a member of the Canadian Geological Survey says, "After Thompson had completed his surveys of this muskrat country, no further information was obtained about it for nearly a century, and when in 1896, I travelled through it, the only map of any service which was available was that drawn by David Thompson in 1813 from surveys made at this time."

It is sometimes imagined that the Indians a century ago existed in vast numbers; and that they were universally of a warlike and bloodthirsty disposition. This is a complete mistake. It was only in especially favourable localities that conditions were such as to promote the evolution of large bands, and generally speaking the Indian was a poor and humble creature. Lacking the power of invention, he was often satisfied to make use of utensils of the most primitive character, and he was almost, if not quite, unarmed.

Throughout the whole of the Muskrat country Thompson was able to count but ninety-two widely scattered families, each of them numbering perhaps seven souls. This gave to every human being from two to three hundred square miles of hunting country. Yet so poor was the region and so great the improvidence of its inhabitants that, in unfavourable seasons, the population was often reduced to the verge of starvation, and it was only by means of the greatest efforts that they wrested a livelihood from their gloomy land of rock and forest.

All of Thompson's efforts therefore did not avail to bring satisfactory returns from a region so poor in furs, and inhabited by such a sparse and wretched population. It was with joy in his heart that he handed over the district to a partner in the early summer of 1806, and once more wended his way back to Fort William.

Two events of personal interest in the life of Thompson occurred during these eight years. The first was his marriage to Charlotte Small, the half-breed daughter of Patrick Small, an early trader in the West. Small was a member of a famous Irish family, which had given generals and admirals to the service of the Empire. He had, however, followed the custom of the country and taken a native woman to wife. Thompson's marriage took place at Isle à la Crosse in the summer of 1799. The other event took place on November 8, 1804, although the news of it did not reach Thompson until some time later. On that date the North West Company and the XY Company agreed to cease their ruinous competition and join forces for the expansion of their trade. In the terms of agreement, the name of David Thompson appears as a partner of the United Company. This was good news in itself; but better still was the prospect that loomed up before his eyes. With the wounds of competition healed, and the Canadian trading interests now presenting a united front, the last obstacle to an aggressive forward movement was removed, and the conquest of the Rockies might finally be achieved.

CHAPTER VI

ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE

There are long stretches in human life when the contest with fate seems endless and the result uncertain, but it is such periods that test the mettle of a man. In the life of David Thompson, the eight years just past had been marked by no striking achievement. Yet with unflagging patience and zeal he had discharged his routine duties, constantly adding to his equipment the knowledge and judgment that come from maturer years and wider experience. When therefore his hour at last struck, he was not unready. Expert surveyor, skilled trader, he was now to crown his life-work by a piece of original discovery and exploration on a scale grand enough to place him in the foremost rank among the builders of British North America.

It was summer of the year 1806 when Thompson returned from the Muskrat country to headquarters at Fort William. There he found a new excitement and a new enthusiasm in the air. During the preceding year the American officers, Lewis and Clark, had crossed from the upper Missouri to the valley of the Snake river, and followed that stream to its junction with the lower Columbia, down which they had made their way to the Pacific ocean. John Jacob Astor, the great American merchant, was exerting all his strength to build up a fur trading empire on the Pacific slope under the flag of the Republic; and the full extent of his ambitions was now disclosed. For some years the Hudson's Bay Company had been knocking at the barrier of the Rockies, and, spurred by competition, they might at any moment burst through. Fraser for the North-Westers had already advanced from the Forks of the Peace, and accomplished the difficult and dangerous feat of descending the Fraser river. But between the Fraser river on the north and the Snake on the south was a vast region on which the feet of white men had never trod; and the North West Company, no longer crippled by their civil war with the XY traders, were resolved to claim this region for themselves. Thompson was at once despatched to Rocky Mountain House, with definite instructions to cross the mountains, this time as senior officer at the post and in full charge of the operations.

The winter of 1806-7 was spent in preparation; and John McDonald of Garth, trader of the Company, together with Quesnel and Finan McDonald, clerks, lent a hand in the work. The route selected was by way of the North Saskatchewan, which Thompson knew must be practicable, because it was along this road that the Kootenay Indians had returned, when he sent them back to their homes some years before. He therefore despatched one of his men, a half-breed called Jaco Finlay, up this road into the mountains, with instructions to spy out the land. Everything was done with the utmost quietness. The Piegan Indians suspected nothing, although they were at all times visiting the fort. Even the Hudson's Bay people, encamped on the river just below the North-Westers, had not an inkling of Thompson's plans.

In the spring Jaco Finlay returned to the post with his report. He had penetrated through the gap in the mountains to a large valley near the head of the river, where he had built a small outpost and got in touch with the Kootenays. From this valley he had crossed the watershed to a small stream which flowed south-westward and emptied into a mighty river. At the mouth of this stream he had built a canoe, which he had carefully "cached" for Thompson's use.

At this moment an incident occurred in distant Montana, which, tragic in itself, was not without advantage for Thompson. Captain Lewis, the American officer, had became embroiled with the Blackfeet. They attacked his camp and two of their warriors were killed. Suddenly all the allied tribes were inflamed with the passion for revenge. War parties gathered throughout the plains, and the Piegans in the neighborhood of Rocky Mountain House were drawn off to the south. Perceiving the passes unguarded, Thompson gathered his equipment and made an immediate start. With his wife and children, Finan McDonald and a party of half-breeds to help him, he moved up the river by horse and canoe and entered the mountains.

As he advanced, the country became rougher and wilder. The grassy hills were left behind, and the mountains raised their heads in mad confusion height on height, bald and precipitous masses of solid rock, except for the patches of pinewood that clung here and there to their slopes. At times, the crags came together compressing the river to the width of a few yards, through which the current rushed against them. Again, when the valley widened, the stream would divide into many channels dotted with rugged islets and marked by shoals of rock and sand. Finally they reached the valley in which Jaco Finlay had built his house—a low and level plain to the north side of the river, about five miles long and not less than a mile in width. On every hand were to be seen the remains of old tepees erected by the Kootenays, who frequented the spot to make dried provisions from the buffalo and mountain goat. For this reason Thompson gave the valley the name of Kootenay plains.

Above Kootenay plains, the river contracted to a width of barely fifteen yards, and so continued to the forks, at which point the canoes had to be laid up. From the forks, there was a splendid view of the mountains still ahead, their peaks more elevated and craggy than they had so far seen, for they were in fact the main range of the Rockies. Taking the left branch of the stream they followed it to within a mile of its end in Glacier lake. At this point, between Mount Balfour on the right and Mount Forbes on the left, was a gap opening to the west. Into this gap they turned. A march of two miles through heavy pinewood brought them to a rivulet whose waters flowed to the west. "May God in his mercy," says the pious explorer, "give me to see where its waters flow into the ocean and return in safety." Thus he marked out his programme for the next four years.

This rivulet (Blaeberry creek) descended sharply through a narrow, winding valley between the heights; and it was necessary for the party to force their way through the thick woods along the steep and rugged slopes, and to cross and recross the stream through water knee-deep, in order to reach the mouth. A full day's travel, however, brought them to the valley of the Columbia. The weather had done its work on the canoe built by Jaco Finlay; and it was quite unseaworthy. They had to halt while they scoured the woods for materials and built new canoes. Finally they embarked and paddled south up the Columbia until they came to its headwaters. There, a short distance from Lake Windermere, they hewed logs of heavy fir and built a cabin which they strongly stockaded on three sides, the fourth resting on the steep bank of the river. This was Old Kootenay House, the first trading post erected by white men on the waters of the Columbia.

In this remote spot, the safety of all depended upon the courage and resource of the leader. Additional supplies were needed from Rocky Mountain House, and Finan McDonald was sent back across the mountains to fetch them. Until the end of autumn, provisions were scarce, for the red deer and antelope had not yet descended from the higher levels, and the mountain goat was hard to shoot as he leapt from crag to crag. The party therefore relied on fish and the flesh of wild horses whose feeding grounds were not more than two miles from the house. For the purpose of trade, it was necessary to get in touch with the natives and to examine the country as well as possible. The season was late, but Thompson was able to make one short excursion with a chief of the Flatbow Indians.

When Finan McDonald rejoined his chief, he brought with him alarming intelligence. In the course of the summer, the brother of Old White Swan, a Blackfoot chief, had with his band assaulted and pillaged Fort Augustus, possessing himself of many guns, much ammunition and tobacco and various other articles. Whether or not he had murdered the traders at the Fort, McDonald could not say; but it was clear that the spirit of unrest and resentment against the whites which had for some time pervaded the whole Blackfeet confederacy was now coming to a head; and Thompson could hardly hope that he himself would escape serious trouble.

Trouble came rather sooner than he expected. The fort was not yet finished when twelve Piegan Indians appeared on foot from across the mountains. A month later twenty-three more arrived. These set up their tents along with the others just outside the gates. For over two months they hung about the stockade, making themselves very objectionable, and forcing the garrison to remain together within the walls. But Thompson had a small stock of dried provisions on hand, and he put his men on short rations, so that there might be no need to scatter over the country for hunting. For water, he let down two large kettles nightly from the steep river bank and this was enough for the daily needs of the post. Towards the end of October, two of the Indians disappeared from the group, and the garrison feared a general attack. Nothing, however, materialized, and before winter set in, the savages drifted quietly away.

Yet their peril was not yet over. One morning, two more Piegans presented themselves at the fort. Thompson was anxious, but he did not flinch. He showed them the strength of his stockades and bastions, the walls bored with loopholes for his muskets. "I know," he said, "that you are come as spies and intend to destroy us, but many of you will die before you succeed. Go back to your countrymen and tell them this." At the same time, he loaded them with presents of tobacco for their friends. A fortunate circumstance hastened their departure. Two of the Kootenay Indians came to the fort while they were there, and when they saw the Piegans, they glared at them like tigers. Meanwhile the little garrison watched and waited, six hardy voyageurs ready to die if necessary in order to make good the words of their chief. And while they waited, winter came on, covering the mountains with snow and placing them in safety.

It was some time before Thompson learned the details of his escape. The two Piegans were, as he guessed, the advanced guard of a large war party that was being formed at the instigation of the civil chief to crush the white men and the natives to the west side of the mountains before they became well armed. The war chief (Thompson's old friend Kootanae Appee) had opposed this venture. How, he urged, could they smoke to the Great Spirit for success, if without warning they invaded the lands of a people with whom for ten summers they had been at peace? Such, however, was the influence of the wilder spirits, that the old war chief was compelled to yield to their will.

In fifteen days about three hundred warriors under three chiefs assembled at the rendezvous named by Kootanae Appee, and under his leadership marched through the mountains to within twenty miles of the post. There they awaited the return of their scouts. It was not long before the latter arrived. The Kootenays, they said, were gathering under the white man to fight for the protection of their post. At the same time they presented the chiefs with Thompson's gifts, six feet of tobacco for Kootenae Appee, eighteen inches for each of the lesser chiefs, and a fine pipe of red porphyry with an ornamental stem in which to smoke it.

Thompson's knowledge of the Indians was thorough, and in this case, his guess as to their intentions had hit the mark. When the war chiefs heard his message of defiance, they were dumbfounded. "What can we do with this man," they exclaimed, "our women cannot mend a pair of shoes but he sees them" (alluding, of course, to Thompson's astronomical observations). Then the eldest of the three war chiefs, wistfully eyeing the tobacco, of which they had none, observed: "I have attacked tents, my knife could cut through them and our enemies had no defence against us. I am ready to do so again. But to go and fight against logs of wood that a ball cannot pierce, and with people we cannot see and with whom we are at peace, is what I am averse to. I go no further!" So saying, he slowly fitted the pipe to the stem and handed it to Kootenae Appee. Led by Kootenae Appee, they all smoked; and, having accepted Thompson's present, were unable to go further against him. Thus by his own resource and by the support of an old friend won in the days of his service for the Hudson's Bay Company, David Thompson prevented the destruction of the first trading post on the Columbia.

With the coming of spring began the work of exploring the country. Leaving McDonald in charge of Kootenay House, Thompson embarked with four voyageurs on the 20th of April, 1807, and paddled through Lake Windermere to the source of the Columbia. From thence, an easy portage of two miles across a grassy plain brought him to a fine stream flowing south, the Kootenay river of today. Launching his canoe, he proceeded to search for Indians.

The river flowed swiftly along between high and steep banks of rock, their slopes clothed with magnificent timber of all kinds. From time to time the stream narrowed so that the travellers were forced to paddle briskly in order to keep ahead of the current. As they approached Kootenay Falls, in Lincoln county, Montana, the river entered a cañon no less than a mile in length, terminating in a gorge where the trail left the river side and meandered along the dizzy slope of steep bed rock, three hundred feet above the level of the stream. An hour and a quarter was necessary for the carry; and they cut their shoes to pieces. The least slip would have meant sure destruction; and they struggled along over the jagged rocks without a grain of earth or sand on them to relieve their crippled feet. On the 14th of May, having followed the winding course of the stream southward across the present international boundary and northward again as far as Kootenay lake, they at length came upon ten tepees of Indians.

During all this time, they had shot nothing except for a few antelope and they were nearly famished. Once they came upon the carcase of an antelope, on which an eagle was feeding. Chasing the bird, they seized the meat, but it was tainted and made them all sick. The day following, they encountered the Indians. These, however, had nothing to offer the white men except a few dried carp and some bitter black bread, made of the moss collected from the bark of the resinous fir and the larch.

The snows of the mountains were now melting, and the water of the river had risen six feet, overflowing the wide meadows. Owing to the floods, none of the Kootenays were willing to come to the house to trade. To paddle home against the current was impossible. Thompson therefore laid up his canoe, bought horses from the Indians and engaged a guide who undertook to lead him overland by a well-known native trail northeast along the valley of the Grand Quête river to Kootenay House.

A day's travel brought them to a large brook, so deep and rapid that the horses could not cross. Thompson selected a large cedar growing by the bank. This he felled so that it lay across the stream and served as a bridge over which they carried their luggage. The horses were taken separately, and by means of a heavy strap of rawhide, dragged kicking and struggling to the further bank. The guide then went hunting, but returned empty handed, and the party went supperless to bed. Early next morning, he killed a small antelope, which was eagerly devoured. But the faint-hearted guide had already had enough. Without warning, he decamped and returned to his people, leaving the white men stranded among the hills, without provisions and utterly ignorant of the country.

For two days they waited with faint hopes of his return. Thompson then sent two of his men back to the tepees to ask for another guide. In the presence of these men, Ugly Head, one of the chiefs, made a bitter attack upon his followers. He reproached them for their lack of spirit, contrasting their conduct with that of the white men who braved every danger and hardship to bring them arms, ammunition and other things which they needed. "How many of you," he said, "will volunteer to accompany the strangers back to their home?" Not a man answered the call. They knew too well the dangers of mountain travel at that season of the year. In this crisis Ugly Head himself announced that he would act as guide; and, with the voyageurs to lead him, made his way to Thompson's camp.

The noble and manly conduct of the Indian inspired the little party with great confidence and hope. Under his leadership, they made their way among the rugged hills, avoiding the inundated meadows. The raging torrents they passed by throwing bridges of trees across them. Finally they reached the Kootenay river not far below the portage; and here, after building a canoe to complete their journey, they took leave of their guide. In a short time they were safe at Kootenay House.

Thompson had now to conduct the winter's hunt all the way east to Rainy River House, and bring back supplies for the following year. Among these supplies were two kegs of alcohol, which his partners insisted that he should take with him. Thompson was well aware of the deplorable results that had followed the introduction of spirits among the Indians, but he was overruled. When he came to the defiles of the Saskatchewan, he caused the two kegs to be loaded on the back of a vicious horse. By noon the kegs were empty and broken to pieces. He wrote to his partners, telling them what he had done, and vowing that so long as he was in charge of the fur trade across the mountains, he would do the same with every keg of alcohol which was sent to him. He was as good as his word; and thus for a few years at least succeeded in keeping the curse of spirits from the Indians of the Pacific slope.

When Thompson reached Kootenay House, the season was too far advanced to allow of further exploration. He therefore sent Finan McDonald to open a trading house at Kootenay Falls, while he himself remained for the winter at the post, taking observations and trading with the Indians. In the following spring, he had once more to cross the mountains with the furs, but by midsummer he was back at his house ready to prosecute his discoveries further to the south.

In the neighborhood of the Falls, Thompson had found that the Kootenay river bent sharply to the west and north. In this direction, he had traced its course to Kootenay lake, before the floods came on, compelling him to cross overland to his home under the guidance of the chief Ugly Head. To the south of the Kootenay was a ridge of mountainous country, intersected however, by well-marked Indian trails running north and south. These trails, he was told, led to another great river, parallel with the Kootenay and, like it, flowing mainly to the west. This river (now known as Clark's Fork) he made up his mind to explore.

His point of departure was from Ugly Head's encampment, near the present site of Bonner's Ferry, Idaho. There he laid up his canoes, and borrowed horses from the Kootenays for the journey across country. A two day's ride brought him to Clark's Fork at the point where it expands to form Lake Pend d'Oreille. Here he was met by a large deputation of Salish Indians, who welcomed him with presents and gave him every assistance in finding a site suitable for the erection of a post. Their joy was easy to understand, for they were armed merely with a few rude lances and flint-headed arrows, utterly useless in warfare against the Indians of the plains. Thompson had guns, ammunition, and iron arrow-heads for trade, but he warned them that in order to procure these advantages, they must learn to be industrious in hunting for beaver and other furs, and cease spending their days and nights in gambling—the pet vice of the savage. This they eagerly promised to do.

It was the end of September before he had finished the construction of his new post (Kullyspell House), and he followed it up, by constructing a second post, Salish House, sixty miles further east along the river. From Salish House, he had only to ride out to the great camp of the Salish Indians near Flathead lake in order to secure the promise of their trade. He was now thoroughly established along the whole course of Clark's Fork river.

From information he had gathered, Thompson judged that both the Kootenay river and Clark's Fork were tributaries of the Columbia, and that if he followed them westward to their mouths he would strike that mighty river. From the unwelcome visitations he had experienced at the hands of the Piegans, he realized that the line of approach from the defiles of the Saskatchewan to his new trading post was exposed throughout its length to raids of the plainsmen through the easy passes of the mountains. He therefore attempted to explore Clark's Fork to its junction with the Columbia, hoping that from thence he might discover a route further west and less accessible to his foes.

For some time he followed the course of the river westward through a country of extensive meadows and forests, enriched by innumerable streams of pure water, and already in March responding to the generous rays of the sun, and the warm breezes from the ocean. But as he approached the mouth, the appearance of the land was changed. Rude blocks of basalt made the country difficult for horses; the stream, tumbling in countless rapids and falls, was unnavigable for canoes. He was forced to turn back; and as the winter's furs were waiting for his arrival, he made his way to Kootenay House and thence, to the dépôt on Rainy river.

In the course of the winter the Salish Indians had traded upwards of twenty muskets and several hundreds of iron arrow-heads, and by dint of constant practice had become so proficient in their use that they felt themselves a match for the Indians of the plains. In the month of July, when the bison bulls were getting fat, they formed a camp of not less than 150 men to hunt and make dried provisions as Thompson had asked them to do. With Finan McDonald, Michel Bourdeaux and Baptiste Buché to help and encourage them, they crossed the mountains by an easy defile to the east of Flathead lake, and boldly preceded to hunt for the buffalo.

It was not long before the Piegans got wind of their presence. One morning, the scouts came riding into camp at breakneck speed with the cry, "The enemy is upon us." Down went the tents, and tent poles and baggage were quickly formed into a rude rampart. This was barely ready, when the enemy's horsemen came dashing at the rampart with wild shouts of rage. The Salish stood their ground; and neither a second nor a third charge was able to shake them. The battle was now to be of infantry. The Salish lay quietly behind their ramparts awaiting the assault; while all day long the enemy advanced in parties of thirty or forty, shouting insulting cries and doing their best to lure them from their cover. As often as they came within gunshot, they were met with a fusilade of bullets. At nightfall they retired discomfited, leaving the Salish in possession of the field.

This was the first occasion on which the Salish had ventured to face the Piegans in the open field, and although no scalps were taken on either side, they counted it a victory to have stood their ground. As for the Piegans, their hearts were full of bitterness; and they swore an oath to wreak vengeance on the white men who had crossed the mountains to the west, and furnished arms and ammunition to their age-long foes.

CHAPTER VII

THE RACE TO THE SEA

By the middle of October, 1810, Thompson was once more at the foot of the Rockies en route for the Columbia with four canoe loads of supplies. At Rainy River House, he had learned that a vessel chartered by J. J. Astor and loaded with goods in charge of two former North West traders was on her way around Cape Horn, bound for the Columbia; and his orders were to anticipate this ship in reaching the mouth of the river. He was therefore anxious to get through the passes without delay, and at all costs to avoid a conflict with the Piegans.

Since the 24th of September the brigade had been held up in the neighborhood of Rocky Mountain House. The post was thronged by noisy bands of Piegan, Sarcee, Blood, and Fall Indians, who had come ostensibly to trade, but really to head off any movement of the white man toward the mountains. Alexander Henry, the trader in charge, endeavoured to get rid of these unwelcome visitors, but all in vain. In such a crisis, the time-honoured expedient was rum. While some of the Indians were drunk, however, others were sober, and for some weeks it was impossible to get the canoes away without observation, either by day or night. Finally, however, Henry got the frightened voyageurs under way, and by the 13th of October, the brigade was already within twenty miles of the mountains.

Thompson himself with a partner, William Henry, and two Indian hunters had ridden ahead to the gap, scouring the country for game and keeping a sharp watch for possible enemies. The party had killed three red deer, made a scaffold, and placed the meat on it for safety against wild animals. Days passed, and the canoes did not put in an appearance. On the 17th the oldest hunter, rising as usual very early in the morning, looked at the scaffold and remarked, "I have had bad dreams; this meat will never be eaten." So saying, he saddled his horse and rode away.

Thompson could no longer conceal his anxiety. He ordered Henry and the other Indian to proceed down the river in search of the canoes; with positive orders not to fire a shot except in self-defence. At eight in the evening they returned, and he heard their story. Some miles down the river, they had seen a number of Piegans encamped on the bank. A short distance below this camp, they had descended the slope to the river, where they found the marks of canoes and near them in the bottom a rude rampart of stones on which there were traces of blood. Proceeding further down stream, they had fired a shot as a signal to the lost canoemen, but it was not returned.

Thoroughly alarmed by their rashness and folly, Thompson prepared to fly for his life, for he knew that the Piegans would be on them in the morning. At dawn of day, they took horse and made their way east by a wide detour through the forest. Fallen trees and undergrowth interrupted their progress, and their horses' hoofs made their track easy to follow. Fortunately the afternoon brought with it a light fall of snow, giving them some hope of shaking off their pursuers, and late in the evening they ventured to halt and kindle a small fire.

Racked with fear for his own safety and anxiety for the fate of his men, Thompson passed a sleepless night. His first care was to find the brigade. Avoiding Rocky Mountain House, he continued east for sixty miles along the river, and there, on the second afternoon, he came upon his men, safe and sound, encamped in an abandoned trading-post known as Boggy Hall.

All hope was now abandoned of passing in safety by the defiles of the Saskatchewan, and Thompson determined to blaze a new trail across the Rockies by way of the Athabaska river. The route projected lay over an old path of the Assiniboine Indians to a point on the Athabaska not far from the present line of the Canadian National Railways; and from thence along the valley of the river past the mouth of Yellowhead Pass to its headwaters some miles further south. From this point a pass led across the height of land to the Wood river, a small tributary of the Columbia. In later years this pass (known as the Athabaska Pass) was the regular route for traders of the Hudson's Bay Company on their journeys to British Columbia.

Horses and dogs were rapidly collected for the trip over land. The men were detailed to their several duties, four to hunt, two to clear a path through the woods, and the remainder to look after the animals and perform the labour of the camp. By the 28th of October all was in readiness; and the little party set off with Thomas, an Iroquois Indian, to act as guide.

It was a full month before they had crossed the belt that lay between them and the Athabaska. The road ran through a wretched country, over mountains and across muskegs. Here and there the fires of the forest had cut wide swathes through the woods, leaving in their wake a tangled mass of fallen timber, through which they had to hack their way. In the bogs the horses lost their footing, shifting their packs and bruising their knees, until in a short while they were almost useless. To complete the misery of the travellers, there was the difficulty of securing food. Their dried provisions were soon exhausted. Game was scarce; and the hunters often returned empty-handed after a long day's chase.

By the first of December they had reached the Athabaska. Four days later they had come to a point on the river a little above Brulé lake, where the guide informed Thompson that owing to the lateness of the season, all thought of crossing the mountains with horses had to be given up. The greater number of the beasts were therefore sent back to Rocky Mountain House; four only were retained to ease the burden of the dogs.

The thermometer now registered 32° below zero; and the party threw themselves into the work of building a rough shelter of logs to serve while they prepared sleds and snow shoes with which to complete their journey. At the end of the month they made a fresh start. Urged by the shouts and lashings of the voyageurs, the dogs with their burdens scurried along the ice of the river. In five days they came to the grassy ponds that marked its headwaters—the last possible pasturage for horses. Here, therefore, the poor animals were turned loose to survive the winter as best they could.

Four days more brought the party to the height of land. The landscape, as far as the eye could reach, was clothed with a heavy mantle of gleaming snow. Round about towered the lofty peaks, their sides scarred by avalanches which had swept the slopes bare of trees and rocks in their descent. To the right lay an enormous glacier, a mass of blue-green ice, the eastern face of which was not less than two thousand feet in height. The night was fine, and the stars shone with such brilliance that one of the men told Thompson that he felt he could almost touch them with his hands.

Early next morning they began the descent to the valley of the Columbia. On the eastern face of the mountains, the approach to the height of land had been a long and steady climb. To the west, the ground fell away in a series of abrupt slopes, so steep in places that it required sure footing to avoid a tumble. A short advance therefore was enough to produce an amazing difference in the climate. The snow which to the east of the mountains was thin and dry, here lay heavy and wet upon the ground; and they entered a forest of clean grown pine of gigantic height and girth. So heavy were the loads and so steep the slope that the dogs were unable to guide the sleds, and from time to time they came against the base of a pine tree with considerable force, dog on one side, sled on the other, so that they were disentangled with difficulty. To relieve the animals, Thompson had a portion of the loads removed from the sleds. The men grumbled as they were forced to lug these packs forward through the heavy snow. Finally after fifteen days' travel they arrived at the banks of the Columbia.

Mutterings of discontent were now openly heard among the French Canadians. They had had enough, and would follow the madman no further. Four of them suited the action to the word and deserted. Two of the others Thompson despatched with letters to William Henry, describing the route he had discovered, and ordering Henry to follow him along it with an additional supply of goods. With the remainder, Thompson set forth on the journey up the Columbia. They had gone but one day when they, too, balked at the restless energy of their leader. Faced with incipient mutiny, Thompson had no choice except to return to the mouth of the Wood river, and there pass the rest of the winter.

The place of his enforced residence was the famous "Boat Encampment" of later days. At this point, the Columbia, after having pursued a north-westerly course for upwards of two hundred miles from its sources, bent sharply around the head of the Selkirk Mountains, and flowed off to the south. At the bend, the stream was joined by two tributaries, the Wood and Canoe rivers, coming in from the north, and forming at their mouths a wide meadow of rich alluvial soil. There in the midst of a forest of giant pine and larch, the party cleared a site, and built themselves a rough cabin. Thompson, never idle, spent his time exploring the neighbourhood, and constructing a boat for the remainder of the journey. As there was no birch bark available, he built it clinker-fashion of cedar boards split thin; and these, in default of nails, he sewed together with the fine roots of the pine.

The snow was not yet off the ground when he was once more on his way. He had counted on reaching the mouth of the Columbia not later than the first of August, and would gladly have made the descent by way of the river itself, which here lay clear before him. Of his canoemen, however, three only had the courage to risk the chances of the voyage. With so few men it would have been madness to venture a long journey on unknown waters and in the midst of possible enemies; so he determined to make his way past his old trading posts to the Salish country. There he knew he could find plenty of free hunters to help him in accomplishing the voyage to the sea.

It was six weeks before he had reached Salish House, where he hoped to find Finan McDonald. But neither McDonald nor Jaco Finlay was at the post, and, as they had left no letter to indicate their whereabouts, Thompson prepared to descend Clark's Fork by himself. The river presented an appearance vastly different from that of the autumn of 1809, when he had passed down it before. The spring floods were now at their height, and the water was rising at the rate of two feet each day, inundating the meadows to the foot of the hills, and dashing along with such violence that every island became a water-fall, with a strong eddy at the lower end. Down this raging torrent they paddled, keeping in midstream, and thankful as they passed each danger spot in safety. The antelopes had retired to the hills, and they lived on the meat of horses which they traded from the Indians.

On the 8th of June they arrived at the point where the river entered the Box cañon and became utterly unnavigable. There Thompson found a small camp of Kullyspell Indians, who informed him that Finan McDonald was now at a post which he had built on the banks of the Spokane river further south. Thompson engaged two of these Indians to inform McDonald of his presence; while he himself waited until the latter should join him with horses to carry his goods overland to the new post. Four days later McDonald, with thirteen horses, arrived; and Thompson with all his possessions was transported overland to Spokane House, about ten miles northwest of the present city of Spokane.

The Spokane river, like Clark's Fork, was a tributary of the Columbia, and, like it, unnavigable toward the mouth. Thompson therefore left a small assortment of goods with McDonald, and proceeded northwest along a well-beaten Indian trail to a point on the Columbia, just below Ilthkoyape or Kettle Falls. Here the stream dropped several feet in two magnificent cataracts, the roar of which could be heard for many miles around.

Just below the falls was an Indian village, the first of its kind that Thompson had seen. It was composed of a number of huts, each from thirty to sixty feet in length, roughly built of large cedar logs which had drifted down the river, and roofed with mats of woven fibre stout enough to withstand the rain. The Indians who dwelt here subsisted mainly on fish. Each spring, as the spawning season drew near, they propitiated the manito of the salmon with elaborate dances and ceremonies. Thus purified, they took their stand just beneath the falls and speared or netted the fish, which they smoked in quantities sufficient to last them through the year.

Thompson enquired of these people regarding the course of the river both up and down. From them he learned that the village at Kettle Falls was the highest along the stream that had survived the incursions of the Piegans. Below them there was a journey of ninety miles of rapids, at the end of which stood another village of salmon fishers. Beyond this they could tell him nothing. Meanwhile the canoemen were busy preparing a boat. In this region timber was very scarce. They had to journey seven miles from the river before they found a clump of cedar from which they could hew the planking of a canoe; and it was not until the third day of July that the boat was finished.

With five French Canadians, two Iroquois Indians, and a couple of the natives for interpreters, Thompson now embarked on the last stage of his journey to the sea. He remembered how, following the settlement of the international boundary west of Lake Superior, the traders of the North West Company had been driven from a country which they had made their own. By that settlement, the forty-ninth parallel had been accepted as the line from the Lake of the Woods to the watershed of the Rocky Mountains. West of the Rockies however, all was still debatable land; and in that vast region, with its timbered mountains and rich valleys, the wealth of fish in its rivers and of minerals hidden in its bosom, he claimed the right of a discoverer. At the stern of his little craft, the Union Jack floated proudly in the breeze; and at each halting place, Thompson posted a written notice in the name of the North West Company of merchants from Canada, formally taking possession of the country for His Majesty, King George the Third.

Down the river sped the canoe, the paddlers with long swinging strokes easily keeping abreast of the stream. Most of the rapids they were able to shoot; and before nightfall they had completed the ninety miles to the village of which they had heard above. Tents were pitched and Thompson summoned the chiefs to smoke with him.

In a short while the chief arrived, followed by his men in single file. All sat down in a circle about the tent, and the chief made a brief speech, welcoming the strangers and offering them presents of dried salmon and native herbs. Pipes were then lighted and solemnly passed round. Following this the chief delivered a long harangue, in which he expressed the hope that the white men would provide his people with guns, ammunition, axes, knives, awls, not to mention steels and flints and many other articles of which they stood sadly in need. They were, he said, able and willing to hunt, and would pay for everything they got. At present, however, they had only their hands with which to procure food and clothing.

Thompson explained that his object was to explore the course of the river to the sea. If it proved navigable, very large canoes would come from over the ocean with goods of all kinds, and industrious hunters would be supplied with everything they required.

The colloquy finished, permission was given for the women of the tribe to approach. A dance of welcome followed, at the end of which the weary travellers were left to their repose. In this way Thompson made friends with the natives wherever he found them along the river.

As he advanced, Thompson passed out of the forest country, and entered the arid plain that lies about the confluence of the Snake river with the Columbia. Occasional willows and cottonwoods were to be seen, growing in the neighbourhood of streams; but over the greater part of this region, the only shrub capable of finding a lodging was the hardy sage. The natives he now encountered were of the unhappy Snake family, who had been driven for refuge to this barren country by the relentless pressure of their foes. Some of them fled in terror at his approach. Others, less timid, gazed with admiring eyes upon the guns, kettles, axes, and other paraphernalia of his camp. Their eagerness to obtain such wonders was in proportion to their need; for they did not appear to possess even bows and arrows or the stone axes and knives that were common among the Eskimos of the far north.