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.