Page:Voyages in the Northern Pacific - 1896.djvu/21

Rh how far they are desirous of profiting by their possessions: "Military Expedition to the Upper Missouri—The 6th regiment of infantry left Bell Fountain on the 4th October. Colonel Atkins commands the expedition. Thus the public have at length the satisfaction to see fairly embarked, this interesting expedition, on the security of which depends the accomplishment of such mighty objects of the American people, viz:—the transfer of the fur trade from the English to the Americans; the extinction of British influence among American Indians, and the opening a direct intercourse with India by the Columbia and Missouri rivers."

For several years past it has been a favorite object of the American government to open an easy communication from their western settlements to the Pacific Ocean, and the above paragraph indicates the steps which have been taken to realize this vast project. The most western settlements which the Americans have are on the Missouri, and from the mouth of the Columbia on the Pacific Ocean they are distant about 3,000 miles. This immense space of desert territory, inhabited by Indian tribes, some of whom are hostile, presents obstacles of no ordinary kind to this scheme; while, at the same time, it is this very circumstance of the country being a wilderness, over which the Indian, and the wild beasts of the forest range undisturbed, that offers such peculiar inducement to the American design, not of colonizing the country, though this consequence would undoubtedly follow; but of making