Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 15.djvu/13



OLD FORT OKANOGAN AND OKANOGAN TRAIL 5

flag, manned by five French-Canadians and two Iroquois In- dians, and bearing Mr. David Thompson, a partner in the Northwest Company.

This famous termination of Thompson's "dash" or "race" down the Columbia from its headwaters in the interests of his company, has been the theme of much historical mention, and we have quite generally been led to believe, that ever since the previous autumn, when he left the Saskatchewan for the Columbia, he had been striving and straining every nerve within him for the sole object and purpose of getting through to the mouth of the great river in advance of the Astorians. History appears to have accepted it as a fact, that Thompson came racing down the Columbia bent on the sole and exclusive purpose of forestalling the Astorians in the mouth, and arrived there only to find himself beaten in the attempt and the purpose of his efforts thwarted by the American company's previous arrival. But a careful reading and consideration of his journals now available, together with other contemporaneous writings, has lately caused students of Thompsonian history to doubt if there is anything to substantiate or justify any such positive statements. The frequent stops to confer with Indians, examine the country along the way, take observations, repair boats, recruit the men, catch fish, etc., make it appear to the reader of his original journal that the most of the time he was not hurrying along at all, but had more in mind, the gathering of all possible information about the country and the tribes occupy- ing it.

The record that Thompson wrote on the ground from day to day in 1811, makes it very clearly appear that he was seeking to open out a trade route to the sea at the mouth of the Colum- bia, and the amount of time he spent in stopping to visit and get acquainted with the Indians along the way, and also to inquire about the fur and food producing possibilities of the various sections, shows that the establishment of trade rela- tions with the tribes occupied an important position in his mind, and that he certainly was not sacrificing it in order to rush down the Columbia to seize a strategic point in advance