Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 14.djvu/292



252 JOURNAL OF E. WILLARD SMITH

country and Santa Fe, and the east and west route up the Arkansas and into the mountains, found this their most natural trading point."

Bent and St. Vrain, the firm owning Bent's Fort and St. Vrain's to the north, is mentioned by Chittenden as the chief competitor of the American Fur Company at this time. But of Vasquez and Subletted operations his sources seem to have afforded him no information as he is certain only of the mere fact of the existence of their fort.

Turning now to the contents of the journal, we are givon a very clear picture of the face of the country traversed on this northward stretch and of the Indians encountered and game found. After tarrying only three days near the middle of September at the Vasquez and Sublette fort the expedition was on its way westward across the Rocky Mountains. Its route crossed the Cache a la Poudre and the upper North Fork of the Platte and traversed the new or North Park of the northwestern portion of the present state of Colorado and the northeastern corner of Utah. The pass used is some two hundred miles southeast of South Pass.

The ultimate destination of the expedition and proposed winter quarters was Brown's Hole. This is an amphitheater- shaped basin where the Green River emerges from the Wind River Mountains. The "Snake River" mentioned is a small tributary of the Green.

The narrative indicates that horse-stealing by both renegade whites and by the Sioux Indians, and the retaliations, developed a veritable reign of terror in the early winter of 1839-40 in this Rocky Mountain fastness. At any rate the fear of attempted retaliation by the whole force of the Sioux nation caused a change of plans and the Vasquez-Sublette party instead of re- maining at Brown's Hole all winter essayed a mid-winter return across the mountains to its fort on the South Fork of the Platte. After all but two of their horses had perished and they had been compelled to scaffold their collection of beaver skins, they reached the upper North Fork of the Platte, still one hundred and fifty miles from the shelter of their fort and a