Part 3 (1/2)

Six months later (1817), when ice had closed the rivers, he sent Captain d'Orsennens overland ard to Red River, where Fort Douglas was captured back one stor a heavy snowfall The conflict had been just as ruthless on the Saskatchewan Nor' Westers were captured as they disembarked to pass Grand Rapids and shi+pped down to York Factory, where Franklin the explorer saw four Nor' Westers e MacTavish who had helped to capture Astoria; another, Frobisher, a partner, was ultimately done to death by the abuse The Deschamps ht terrible vengeance fro the line, the Hudson's Bay Co in the courts to ruin both companies; and for the most natural reason in the world, neither Hudson Bay nor Nor' Wester could afford to have the truth told and the crimes probed There was only one way out of the dileamated under the old title of Hudson's Bay In April, 1822, a new fort was built half-way between the sites of Gibraltar and Fort Douglas, and given the new naovernor, to re of resentment The thousand men thrown out of employment by the union at once crossed the line and enlisted with A with the strength that co, indeed, that it not only held the Canadian field, but in spite of the A British traders in the United States, reached as far south as Utah and the Missouri, where it once more had a sharp brush with lusty rivals

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 21: Some say seventy-four]

[Footnote 22: The enorely of the Astoria capture The unusually large guard was no doubt owing to the War of 1812]

[Footnote 23: An antecedent of the late Sir Roderick Caeurs'_ ro across the lake as _voyageurs_ entered the valley--said to be the spirit of an Indian girl calling her lover, though prosaic sense explains it was the echo of the _voyageurs'_ song a the hills]

[Footnote 25: Continental soldiers disbanded after the Napoleonic wars]

[Footnote 26: A law that could not, of course, be enforced, except as to the building of perions beyond the reach of law's enforcement]

CHAPTER V

MR ASTOR'S COMPANY ENCOUNTERS NEW OPPONENTS

That Andrew Henry whoht when he pursued the Astorians up the Missouri continued to be dogged by misfortune on the west side of thefolloere scattered, some to the British posts in the north, soraves of the mountains Henry forced his way back over the divide and met Lisa in the Aricara country

The British war broke out and the Missouri Coerous territory of the Blackfeet, who could purchase arms from the British traders, raid the Americans, and scurry back to Canada

When Lisa died in 1820 ain in the mountains; but they suffered the same ill luck Jones and Immel's party were annihilated by the Blackfeet; and Pilcher, who succeeded to Lisa's position and dauntlessly crossed over to the Colu the Hudson's Bay post, Fort Colville, almost destitute The British rivals received him with that hospitality for which they were renohen trade was not involved, and gave him escort up the Columbia, down the Athabasca and Saskatchewan to Red River, thence overland to the Mandan country and St Louis

These two disasters marked the wane of the Missouri Company

But like the shi+pwrecked sailor, no sooner safe on land than he ain, the indomitable Andrew Henry linked his fortunes with General Ashley of St Louis Gathering to the new standard Caer, Fitzpatrick, Beckworth, Smith, and the Sublettes--men who made the Rocky Mountain trade famous--Ashley and Henry led one hundred men to the mountains the first year and two hundred the next In that ti Aricaras and Blackfeet Few pelts were obtained and the expeditions were a loss

But in 1824 cae Smith met Hudson's Bay trappers loaded with beaver pelts in the Columbia basin, west of the Rockies They had become separated from their leader, Alexander Ross, an old Astorian Details of this bargain will never be known; but when Smith came east he had the Hudson's Bay furs This was the first brush between Rocky Mountain men and the Hudson's Bay, and the mountain trappers scored

Henceforth, to save time, the active trappers met their supplies annually at a _rendezvous_ in the mountains, in Pierre's Hole, a broad valley below the Tetons, or Jackson's Hole, east of the forden's Hole at Salt Lake Seventeen Rocky Mountain men had been massacred by the Snake Indians in the Columbia basin; but that did not deter General Ashley hi up the Platte, across the divide to Salt Lake Here he found Peter Ogden, a Hudson's Bay trapper, with an enormous prize of beaver pelts When the Hudson's Bay man left Salt Lake, he had no furs; and when General Ashley came away, his packers were laden with a quarter of a million dollars worth of pelts This was the second brush between Rocky Mountain and Hudson's Bay, and again the mountaineers scored

The third encounter was more to the credit of both cos, Smith found himself stranded and destitute at the British post of Fort Vancouver Fifteen of his men had been killed, his horses taken and peltries stolen The Hudson's Bay sent a punitive force to recover his property, gave him a 20,000 draft for the full value of the recovered furs, and sent him up the Columbia Thenceforth Rocky Mountain trappers and Hudson's Bay respected each other's rights in the valley of the Columbia, but southward the old code prevailed

Fitzpatrick, a Rocky Mountain trader, ca with the Indians, and at once plied the argument of whisky so actively that the furs destined for Red River went over the mountains to St Louis

The trapper probably never heard of a Nemesis; but a curious retribution seee

Lisa had tried to balk the Astorians, and the Missouri Company went down before Indian hostility The Nor' Westers jockeyed the Astorians out of their possessions and were in league with murderers at the massacre of Seven Oaks; but the Nor' Westers were jockeyed out of existence by the Hudson's Bay under Lord Selkirk The Hudson's Bay had been guilty of rank outrage--particularly on the Saskatchehere North-West partners were seized, manacled, and sent to a wilderness--and now the Hudson's Bay were cheated, cajoled, overreached by the Rocky Mountain trappers And the Rocky Mountain trappers, in their turn, met a rival that could outcheat their cheatery

In 1831 the mountains were overrun with trappers from all parts of America Men from every State in the Union, those restless spirits who have pioneered every great movement of the race, turned their faces to the wilderness for furs as a later generation was to scraold