Page:A History of the Pacific Northwest.djvu/101

 History of the Pacific Northwest

son. In the preceding year, before the fort had been completed at the mouth of the river, a party of men prepared to ascend the Columbia for exploration and trade; but just as they were setting out (July 15), to the astonishment of the Americans, a canoe floating the British flag drew in to the shore at Astoria. A gentleman stepped ashore, and introduced himself as Mr. David Thompson, geographer of the Northwest Company. He said that he had expected to reach the mouth of the river during the preceding fall, and had actually wintered west of the Rockies, but that owing to the desertion of some of his men it was impossible to carry out his plans. The Astorians believed it was his intention to plant a fort for his company near the spot where their own establishment was rising, and in this they were doubtless correct. We now know, from Thompson's journal and other sources, that this indomitable British "pathfinder "had been on the Pacific slope several times prior to 181 1, the first time as early as June, 1807. In 1809 he founded a Northwest Company fort at Lake Pend d'Oreille, and another in the Flathead country, on Clark's Fork. A still earlier establishment was that on the Kootenai, and now there was also one on the Spokane River. The Americans saw at once that here was a formidable rival for the up-river trade; but they knew their advantage as the occupants of the lower Columbia, and determined if possible to drive their Montreal competitors across the Rockies. Fort Okanogan founded, 181 1. The delayed