Brackenridge, Henry M.; Schermerhorn, John F.; Humboldt, Alexander; Missouri Gazette; Sibly; Mills; Perry. Views of Louisiana; Together With a Journal of a Voyage up the Missouri River, in 1811 . Pittsburgh: Cramer, Spear and Eichbaum, 1814. [format: book], [genre: memoir; narrative; travelogue]. Permission: Schingoethe Center for Native American Cultures, Aurora University
Persistent link to this document: http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/file.php?file=brackenridge.html

WE last week promised our readers an account of the journey of the gentlemen attached to the New York Fur Company, from the Pacific Ocean to this place — We now lay it before our readers, as collected from the gentlemen themselves.

On the 28th June 1812, Mr. Robert Steuart, one of the partners of the Pacific Fur Company, with two Frenchmen, Messrs. RamseyCrooks and Robt. M'Clellan, left the Pacific Ocean with dispatches for New York.

After ascending the Columbia river 90 miles, John Day, one of the hunters, became perfectly insane, and was sent back to the main establishment, under the charge of some Indians; the remaining six pursued their voyage upwards of 600 miles, when they happily met with Mr. Joseph Miller, on his way to the mouth of the Columbia; he had been considerably to the south and east, among the nations called Blackarms and Arapahays, by the latter of whom he was robbed; in consequence of which, he suffered almost every privation human nature is capable of, and was in a state of starvation and almost nudity when the party met him.

They now had fifteen horses, and pursued their journey for the Atlantic world, without any uncommon accident, until within about 200 miles of the Rocky mountains, where they unfortunately met with a party of the Crow Indians, who behaved with the most unbounded insolence, and were solely prevented from, cutting off the party, by observing them well armed and constantly on their guard. They however pursued on their track six days, and finally stole every horse belonging to the party.

Some idea of the situation of those men may be conceived when we take into consideration, that they were now on foot, and had a journey of 2000 miles before them, 1500 of which was entirely unknown, as they intended and prosecuted it considerably south of Messrs. Lewis and Clark's route; the impossibility of carrying any quantity of provisions on their backs, in addition to their ammunition, and bedding, will occur at first view;

The danger to be apprehended from starvation was imminent. They however put the best face upon their prospects, and pursued their route towards the Rocky mountains at the head waters of the Colorado, or Spanish river, and stood their course E. S. E. until they struck the head waters of the great river Platte, which they undeviatingly followed to its mouth. It may here be observed, that this river for about 200 miles, is navigable for a barge; from thence to the Otto village, within 45 miles of its entrance into the Missouri, it is a mere bed of sand, without water sufficient to float a skin canoe.

From the Otto village to St. Louis, the party performed their voyage in a canoe, furnished them by the natives, and arrived here in perfect health on the 30th of last month, (May).

Our travellers did not hear of the war with England until they came to the Ottoes; these people told them that the Shawnoe Prophet had sent them a wampum, inviting them to join in the war against the Americans; that they answered the messenger, that they could make more by trapping beaver than making war against the Americans.

After crossing the hills (Rocky mountains) they happily fell in with a small party of Snake Indians, from whom they purchased a horse, who relieved them from any further carriage of food, and this faithful four-footed companion performed that service to the Otto village. They wintered on the river Platte, 600 miles from its mouth.

By information received from these gentlemen, it appears that a journey across the continent of N. America, might be performed with a wagon, there being no obstruction in the whole route that any person would dare to call a mountain, in addition to its being much the most direct and short one to go from this place to the mouth of the Columbia river. Any future party who may undertake this journey, and are tolerably acquainted with the different places where it would be necessary to lay up a small stock of provisions, would not be impeded, as in all probability they would not meet with an Indian to interrupt their progress — although on the other route more north, there are almost insurmountable barriers.

Messrs. Hunt, Crooks, Miller, M'Clelland, M'Kenzie, and about 60 men who left St. Louis in the beginning of March,

1811, for the Pacific ocean, reached the Arikara village on the 13th day of June, where meeting with some American hunters who had been the preceding year on the waters of the Columbia with Mr. Henry, and who, giving such an account of the route by which they passed, as being far preferable in point of procuring with facility an abundant supply of food at all times, as well as avoiding even the probability of seeing their enemies the Black Feet, than by the track of captains Lewis & Clark; the gentlemen of the expedition at once abandoned their former ideas of passing by the falls of the Missouri, and made the necessary arrangements for commencing their journey over land from this place.

Eighty horses were purchased and equipped by the 17th of July, and on the day following they departed from the Arikaras, 60 persons in number, all on foot except the partners of the company. In this situation they proceeded for five days, having crossed in that time two considerable streams which joined the Missouri below the Arikaras, when finding an inland tribe of Indians calling themselves Shawhays, but known among the whites by the appellations of Chiennes, we procured from these people an accession of 40 horses, which enabled the gentlemen to furnish a horse for every two men. Steering about. W. S. W. they passed the small branches of Big river, the Little Missouri above its forks, and several of the tributary streams of Powder river, one of which they followed up, they found a band of the Absaroka or Crow nation, encamped on its banks, at the foot of the Big Horn mountain.

For ammunition and some small articles, they exchanged all their lame for sound horses with these savages; but although that this band has been allowed by every one who knew them, to be by far the best behaved of their tribe, it was only by that unalterable determination of the gentlemen to avoid jeopardizing the safety of the party without at the same moment submitting to intentional insults, that they left this camp (not possessing a greater force than the whites) without coming to blows.

The distance from the Arikaras to this mountain, is about 450 miles over an extremely rugged tract, by no means furnishing a sufficient supply of water; but during the 28 days they

were getting to the base of the mountain, they were only in a few instances without abundance of buffaloe meat.

Three days took them over to the plains of Mad river, (the name given the Big Horn above this mountain) which following for a number of days, they left it where it was reduced to 80 yards in width, and the same evening reached the banks of the Colorado or Spanish river. Finding flocks of buffaloe at the end of the third day's travel on this stream, the party passed a week in drying buffaloe meat for the residue of the voyage, as in all probability those were the last animals of the kind they would meet with. From this camp, in one day, they crossed the dividing mountain, and pitched their tents on Hoback's fork of Mad river, where it was near 150 feet broad, and in eight days more having passed several stupendous ridges, they encamped in the vicinity of the establishment made by Mr. Henry, in the fall of 1810, on a fork about 70 yards wide, bearing the name of that gentleman; having travelled from the main Missouri about 900 miles in 54 days.

Here abandoning their horses, the party constructed canoes and descended the Snake or Ky-eye-nem river, (made by the junction of Mad river, south of Henry's fork) 400 miles, in the course of which they were obliged by the intervention of impassable rapids to make a number of portages, till at length they found the river confined between gloomy precipices at least 200 feet perpendicular, whose banks for the most part were washed by this turbulent stream, which for 30 miles was a continual succession of falls, cascades and rapids. Mr. Cook's canoe had split and upset in the middle of a rapid, by which one man was drowned, named Antonie Clappin, and that gentleman saved himself only by extreme exertion in swimming. From the repeated losses by the upsetting of canoes, our stock of provisions were now reduced to a bare sufficiency for five days, totally ignorant of the country where they were, and unsuccessful in meeting any of the natives from whom they could hope for information.

Unable to proceed by water, Messrs. M'Kenzie, M'Clelland and Reed, set out in different directions, inclining down the river, for the purpose of finding Indians and buying horses.

Mr. Crooks with a few men returned to Henry's fork for those they had left, while Mr. Hunt remained with the main body of the men, in trapping beaver for their support. Mr. Crooks finding the distance much greater by land than he had contemplated, returned at the end of three days, where waiting five more, expecting relief from below — the near approach of winter made them determine on depositing all superfluous articles, and proceed on foot. Accordingly, on the 10th of Nov. Messrs. Hunt & Crooks set out, each with 18 men, one party on the S. side of the river.

Mr. Hunt was fortunate in finding Indians with abundance of salmon and some horses, but Mr. Crooks saw but few and in general too miserably poor to afford his party assistance; thirteen days travel brought the latter to a high range of mountains through which the river forced a passage, and the banks being their only guide, they still by climbing over points of rocky ridges projecting into the stream, kept as near it as possible, till in the evening of the 3d Dec. impassible precipices of immense height put an end to all hopes of following the margin of this water course, which here was no more than 40 yards wide, ran with incredible velocity and was withal so foamingly tumultuous, that even had the opposite bank been fit for their purpose, attempt at rafting would have been perfect madness, as they could only have the inducement of ending in a watery grave a series of hardships and privations, to which the most hardy and determined of the human race, must have found himself inadequate. They attempted to climb the mountains, still bent on pushing on, but after ascending for half a day, they discovered to their sorrow that they were not halfway to the summit, and the snow already too deep for men in their emaciated state to proceed further.

Regaining the river bank, they returned up, and on the third day met with Mr. Hunt and party, with one horse proceeding downwards; a canoe was soon made of a horse hide and in it transported some meat, what they could spare to Mr. Crooks's starving followers, who for the first 18 days after leaving the place of deposite, had subsisted on half a meal in 24 hours, and in the last nine days had eat only one beaver, a dog, a few wild cherries, and old moccasin soals, having travelled during these 27 days at least 550 miles. For the next four days, both parties continued on up the river, without any other support than what little rosebuds and cherries they could find, but here they luckily fell in with some Snake Indians, from whom they got five horses, giving them three guns and some other articles for the same. Starvation had bereft J. B. Provost of his senses entirely, and on seeing the horse flesh on the opposite side of the river, was so agitated in crossing in a skin canoe, that he upset it and was unfortunately drowned. From hence Mr. Hunt went on to a camp of Shoshonies about 90 miles above, where

procuring a few horses and a guide, he set out for the main Columbia, across the mountains to the south west, leaving the river where it entered the range, and on it Mr. Crooks and five men unable to travel.

Mr. H lost a Canadian named Carrier, by starvation, before he met the Shy-eye-to-ga Indians in the Columbia plains; from whom getting a supply of provisions he soon reached the main river, which he descended in canoes and arrived without any further loss at Astoria, in the month of February.

Messrs. M'Kenzie, M'Clelland and Reed, had united their parties on the Snake river mountains, through which they travelled twenty one days, to the Mulpot river, subsisting on an allowance by no means adequate to the toils they underwent daily; and to the smallness of their number (which was in all eleven) they attribute their success in getting with life to where they found some wild horses; they soon after reached the torks called by captains Lewis and Clark, Koolkooske; went down Lewis's party, and the Columbia wholly by water, without any misfortune except the upsetting in a rapid of Mr. M'Clelland's canoe, and although it happened on the first day of the year, yet by great exertion they clung to the canoe till the others came to their assistance, making their escape with the loss of some rifles, they reached Astoria early in January.

Three of the five men who remained with Mr. Crooks, afraid of perishing by want, left him in February on a small river on the road by which Mr. Hunt had passed in quest of Indians, and have not since been heard of. Mr. C. had followed Mr. H's track in the snow for seven days, but coming to a low prairie he lost every appearance of a trace and was compelled to pass the remaining part of winter in mountains, subsisting sometimes on beaver and horse meat, and their skins, and at others, on their success in finding roots. Finally on the last of March the other only Canadian being unable to proceed was left with a lodge of Shoshonies, and Mr. C. with John Day, finding the snow sufficiently diminished, undertook from Indian information to cross the last ridge, which they happily effected and reached the banks of the Columbia in the middle of April, where, in the beginning of May they fell in with Messrs, Steuart and company, having been a few days before stripped of every thing they possessed by a band of villains near the falls. On the 10th of May, they arrived safe at Astoria, the principal establishment of the Pacific Fur Company, within 14 miles of Cape Disappointment.

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