north latitude to the Pacific Ocean. This was certainly the plan of Sieur de la Verendrye, which was attempted more than thirty years before Carver's time.

It is a great misfortune that the full records of the Sieur de la Verendrye's exploration party were not preserved, and I was in hopes of being able to secure additional facts regarding the De la Verendryes and their expedition from the private libraries of old French families in Montreal, but the effort resulted in procuring very little more than was known before. What is here given is reliable, and yet all reports are confined to the meagre facts. Of the expedition, it may be said that it was a grand undertaking and entirely feasible even at that day. Had the second expedition not been interfered with by the death of De la Verendrye there would have been no doubt of its success, for the reason that Chevalier de la Verendrye had already found the one easy pass through the Rocky Mountains. He was almost within sight of South Pass, the natural gateway to the Pacific. The government expeditions which reached the base of the Rocky Mountains in 1752, as I have heretofore explained, fell by the weight of boodlers who were hanging on and using it for their own selfish purposes. A scandal was finally

raised and the king did the only thing he could do-withdrew government aid, and this brought the expedition to an end. The war between France and England soon followed and Canada became the theatre of military events, which resulted in the defeat of the French and the ceding of Canada to the English by the treaty of Paris in 1763.

Before closing this chapter I will relate what followed the British occupation of Canada as relates to the fur trade. In consequence of the acquisition, the fur trade received a severe check. English merchants located in Montreal and at once attempted to control all lines of trade, and the fur business with the others. They organized with large aggregations of capital and sent men out with a full complement of trappers, but it was found difficult to win the confidence of the Indians and for some years the business

languished. Finally the trade fell into the hands of Scotch merchants, and these recruited their kinsmen. The descendants of feudal lords who had reigned over Scottish clans took kindly to the occupation and they built up at the trading posts a sort of imitation of the baronial halls of their ancestors. The French, the half-breeds and the Indians were at last induced to co-operate in the development of a traffic that was highly profitable to all concerned. The business was managed by securing government conces. sions and the organization of a system which gave promo. tion to faithful employes. Great fortunes were built up and the Northwestern Fur Company became one of the great corporations of the world. Hardy Scotchmen pene. trated the wilds and with the assistance of the French Canadians traversed every stream north as far as the Arctic Circle. Under the protection of the British government this company became aggressive and insolent. Montreal was the great gathering point of rich peltries and London was the distributing center from which these goods were supplied to the world. At Montreal there grew up an aristocracy composed of personages connected with the fur trade. The Northwest Company from that center excercised lordly sway over a vast extent of country throughout which their operations were conducted. Their numerous posts were distributed far and wide, on interior lakes and rivers, and at great distances from each other, and employed from 2,000 to 2,500 men. An annual meeting was held at Fort William, on Lake Superior, the central trading post of the company. At this annual gathering appeared representatives from all the other trading posts and the occasion was the signal for banquets and jollity. The banqueting was conducted after the manner of those in Scotland in feudal times. The voyageurs and Indians did not appear in the banquet hall, but were generously fed for a season at the expense of the company. Liquors of all kinds, including costly wines, were served at these banquets and many of these distinguished representatives were found under the table at the close of each of the daily festivities. This was at a period when hard

drinking was the rule and when Bacchanalian songs were sung, toasts given and speeches made. Every man at the table drank until he convinced himself that he was indeed a British noble or a Scottish lord, or at least the chieftain of a Highland clan. These were the golden days of the fur trade. But all this show had its effect on other enterprising men with capital. As has been explained, the Northwest Company confined its operations largely to northern latitudes. A new British company was organized to operate further south and west. Accordingly the Mackinaw Company took possession of the territory around Green Bay, Fox River, Wisconsin River and some of the tributaries of the Mississippi, and an occasional party of trappers operated along a portion of the Missouri River. The government of the United States saw with anxiety the encroachments of these companies and an effort was made in 1796 to induce American merchants to enter the fur trade and, as it were, head off Great Britain in her invasion of the West, but nothing immediately came of it. About this time another powerful British fur company, the Hudson Bay, which had been organized in the year 1670, pushed its operations into American territory. These rival companies all secured business, but there was often great loss through competition, and sometimes personal encounters between the trappers of rival organizations.

The war between England and America was destined to bring about great changes in this lucrative trade. John Jacob Astor, who shortly after the revolution became a large shipper of furs, which he purchased in Montreal, saw an opportunity, which I explain in another chapter, of diverting this trade into American channels. The agitation of the subject by Mr. Astor induced a number of Americans to organize expeditions to enter the far west and claim the territory and the business within the American borders. This business was carried on and developed by fearless Americans, and St. Louis and New York became centers for the encouragement of the fur trade. The American trapper won renown by his fearless exploits in the great

West. Then came another era in the traffic which resulted in the developing of American leaders who won fortunes as well as fame by their exploits in the mountains. But all this is explained further on in the early history of Wyoming.

CHAPTER IV.

THE FIRST AMERICAN EXPLORERS.

HISTORY OF THE WESTERN COURSE OF EMPIRE-THOMAS JEFFERSON BECOMES THE LEADER AND FINALLY SUCCEEDS IN HIS Cherished SCHEME OF SENDING AN EXPEDITION UP THE HEADWATERS OF THE MISSOURI TO SEARCH FOR A GATEWAY THROUGH THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION-THEY WINTER AT THE MANDAN VILLAGE ON THE UPPER MISSOURI IN 1804-IN 1805 SPEND THE WINTER AT THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA-RETURN to St. LOUIS IN 1806.

The departure of Lewis and Clark in 1804 to explore the headwaters of the Missouri and mark out a highway across the Rocky Mountains, down the Columbia, begins a new era in the civilization of the great Northwest. There were plenty of enterprising Americans ready to undertake the trip but up to that time our government had felt too poor to pay the expense incident to such an expedition. Thomas Jefferson, in 1786, while minister to France, had become interested in the subject of exploring the West, and when he returned to America in 1789 his mind was filled to the utmost limit with the importance of pushing exploration up the Missouri and beyond. The dark continent lay to the west and northwest and its mountains were alike unknown to the geographer of that day. This subject became almost a hobby with this broad-minded American statesman. In 1792, the record shows that Mr. Jefferson urged the American Philosophical Society to find some competent person to ascend the Missouri, cross the great mountains, and follow the nearest river to the sea. As such an undertaking would be expensive, the future president suggested that a subscription be taken up among such

people as might be interested in what he believed to be an important subject. This proposition was discussed at the time in the newspapers of the country and was talked over by the scientific men of that period. It was not a new idea, for in 1763 Capt. Jonathan Carver, who had been in the British provincial army, proposed a journey across the continent somewhere between the 43rd and 46th degrees of north latitude to the Pacific Ocean. His was a grand plan and he urged it with spirit and determination. He had studied the fur trade in all its bearings and in his mind he saw clearly that new scources of wealth would be opened up and that in the natural course of events a great city would spring up on the Pacific coast. He had in his mind a northwest passage between Hudson's Bay and the Pacific Ocean, also a more direct route to China and the English settlements in the East Indies. Capt. Carver was a man of ability and influence and notwithstanding the fact that his undertaking was one that required great capital he succeeded in inducing Richward Whitworth, a member of the British Parliament and a man of great wealth, to join him in the enterprise. Their plans were made on a most liberal scale and worked ont in every detail. They were to go up the Missouri with sixty men, cross the backbone of the continent and discover some navigable stream that flowed to the west. Here they were to build boats and accomplish all and more than was done by Lewis and Clark, thirty years later. They were to build a fort at the mouth of the unknown river which they expected to find, and construct sailing vessels in which to make voyages of discovery along the Pacific coast. Capt. Carver having secured the necessary capital and the plan having the sanction of the British government and the promise of grants and franchises in the new country to be discovered, all things were in readiness for sending out the expedition when the war of the revolution interfered and put a stop to the undertaking. Thomas Jefferson was aware of this projected expedition, as he had talked it over with John Ledyard of Connecticut, who was a member of Capt. Cook's company when he made his cele