Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 37.djvu/15

Rh furs for the return journey. To this lively, festive and hilarious occasion the Indians above mentioned were attracted and welcomed, and among them in 1831 were the four who journeyed to Saint Louis.

Rendezvous! What a scene for an artist in either words or colors. A replica of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, during the days of early fur trade on the Mississippi, sixty years before, from Michillimacinac as a base when Saint Louis was just beginning to exist. Rendezvous in Green River valley has been described by Mrs. Victor, in The River of the West, and the reader is referred to her for the picture. But it may be safely said that there were no prayer meetings or Sunday services at rendezvous to offer inspiration to anyone. There were horse racing, gambling, shooting and drinking along with the trading, but religious functions were not a part of the life of the fur hunter or trader, American or Canadian. Individually, many of those men were from sturdy pioneer families and of moral integrity. This will be discussed later in this study.

Our inquiry now turns to the records of the remarkable Hudson's Bay Company. Governor George Simpson of that company came to the Columbia late in the fall of 1824, bringing with him Doctor John McLoughlin to be chief factor in charge of the district. Fort Vancouver was built that winter. Simpson returned up the river the following spring and his copious journal affords very interesting reading. At Fort Walla Walla a council was held with a group of chiefs of the Cayuse and Walla Walla tribes, and over two hundred Indians. Later, when camped at the mouth of Spokane River, April 9, he recorded as follows: "Two Nez Perces Chiefs arrived to see me from a distance of between 2 & 300 miles; my fame has spread far and Wide and my speeches are handed from Camp to Camp throughout the Country; some of them have it that I am one of the 'Master of Life's Sons' sent to see 'if their hearts are good' and others that I am his 'War Chief' with bad Medicine if their hearts are bad.” This bit of the record is quoted to show