Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/16

 4 Joseph J. Hill One of the difficulties of the situation is the Spanish method of handling foreign names. To illustrate, Ewing Young's name is rendered Joachin Joon, Joachm Yon, etc. ; St. Vrain occurs in Spanish documents as Sambrano ; Jonathan Trumbull Warner's name was changed to Juan Jose Warner; James Kirker is rendered into Spanish as Santiago Querque; Don Juan Gid possibly refers to Mr. Heath; Don Marcellin may be recognized as Marcellm St. Vrain. Thus we might continue indefinitely, but not always with absolute certainty in our identifications. Summary of American fur trade in the Far South- west. The story of the American fur trade in the Far Southwest may be outlined regionally and chronologically as follows : 1. The years 1815-1821 comprise the period of only partially successful attempts on the part of the American trappers to break into the Far Southwest. II From 1821 to 1823 was the period of the exploita- tion of the basin of the Rio del Norte. Practically all the tributaries of the Rio del Norte were visited by American trappers during these two years. In all there were upwards of a hundred men engaged in the trade during this period. III. The years 1824-1826 mark the advance into the Colorado basin. A number of parties entered this basin in 1824, both by way of the San Juan and its tributaries and also by way of the Gila and its tributaries. By the end of 1826 practically every stream in the basin had been trapped and re-trapped so many times that the beaver were becoming scarce. The number of American trappers engaged in the business during this period reached into the hundreds, and the beaver fur that was caught brought the trappers more than a hundred thou- sand dollars. . IV. From 1826 to 1832 may be characterized as the period of the opening of the trappers' trails to California. During this period trappers made their way to California