Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 15.djvu/15



OLD FORT OKANOGAN AND OKANOGAN TRAIL 7

stood that when the "Tonquin" stopped at the Hawaiian Islands on the way out, quite a number of the natives from those islands were employed and brought along- on the ship. These proved very efficient boatmen and packers, especially during hot weather. Alexander Ross in his "Adventures" gives us a very full and complete account of the trip up the river, of the establishment of the post at the mouth of the Okanogan, and the course of events there during the first two years of its existence; and in, a subsequent book entitled "Fur Hunters of the Far West," he gives us a history quite complete of Fort Okanogan and surrounding country up till about 1816, for Ross was in charge of the post off and on pretty much all the time between 1811 and 1816, when he was transferred, first down to Fort George as staff clerk, afterwards to Kamloops and still later to the establishment on the Walla Walla. For our narrative of the first trip of the Astorians up the Columbia in July and August, 1811, we will very briefly follow the chron- icle left by Ross in his "Adventures."

The joint parties of Stuart and Thompson did not continue far together. The Thompson party was traveling light. Their canoe was not loaded with any merchandise for trade. On the other hand Stuart and his men were not only laden, but they did not have canoes suitable for up-river work. They had merely obtained from the Indians at the mouth of the Columbia, two ordinary big dug-outs, such as were commonly used by the natives of that quarter. Ross says that the Stuart party traveled in "two clumsy chinook canoes, each laden with fif- teen or twenty packages of goods of ninety pounds weight." By July 24th the combined parties had reached the mouth of the Willamette. On the 28th they reached and passed the cascades of the Columbia. On the 31st, Mr. Thompson's party finding themselves able to travel faster than the canoes of Mr. Stuart, proceeded on by themselves. On August 6, Thompson reached the mouth of the Snake river (he called it Chapaton river). From this point he dispatched a letter to the Spokane establishment, directing that horses be sent to meet him, as he proposed to return across country instead of going around up the Columbia on his way back.