CHAPTER VI.

EZEKIEL WILLIAMS' PARTY IN WYOMING.

THEY FOLLOW UP THE Yellowstone and are AttaCKED BY BLACKFEET -CROSS OVER TO THE BIG HORN AND GO SOUTH-REACH THE SWEETWATER-ANOTHER ATTACK BY INDIANS-RETREAT SOUTH ACROSS THE LARAMIE PLAINS AND REACH THE HEADWATERS of the SOUTH PLATte-ComancHES ATTACK THE PARTY AND KILL ALL BUT THREE-WILLIAMS RETURNS TO ST. LOUIS AND THE TWO OTHERS GO TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA-THE LEADER AGAIN VISITS THE SWEETWATER IN 1809.

Captain Lewis, when ready to leave Fort Mandan on his return trip, invited the chief of the Mandan tribe, Big White, to accompany him to Washington. The chief promised to do so, and to take his wife and son with him, provided he was assured of an escort up the river on his return. He feared warlike tribes who lived lower down on the river. Captain Lewis readily promised that the government would send a sufficient escort to guarantee their safety past the dangerous tribes who infested the Missouri lower down the river. The president made good Captain Lewis' promises. Twenty hardy Missourians who had all seen service were selected to form the escort. The command of the expedition was given to Ezekiel Williams, a man of large frontier experience a hunter of renown who had the reputation of being an excellent rifleman, cool, determined and brave. The party left St. Louis on April 25, 1807. They were outfitted for two years' stay in the mountains, it being understood that they were first to return the Mandan chief and his family to their native village, after which they were at liberty to trap as long as they saw fit. The party was not only well selected but well equipped, and they entered upon their journey with enthusiasm, feeling satisfied that they would bring home many thousand dollars' worth of rich peltries. It was their intention to trap for a time on the

headwaters of the Missouri and then cross the mountains and try their luck on the other side. The party, after leaving St. Louis, passed up the Missouri river without incident until they reached the mouth of the Platte, when William Hamilton, one of their number, was taken violently ill with a fever. In his delirium, he raved about home and loved ones. His associates gave him the tenderest care and administered such remedies as a well-selected medicine chest contained, but all to no purpose. He died and was buried by his comrades on the west bank of the Missouri, just below the Platte. The party proceeded on up the river and by the good management of Williams successfully passed the warlike Sioux country and finally landed the chieftain at his village. The Mandan people were greatly rejoiced when they saw that their chief had been returned to them according to the promise of Captain Lewis. They were loud in their praises of Captain Lewis and the white people generally because they would not lie. They had pledged their word and had kept it. Williams and his party remained a week at the village, resting from their toilsome journey against the current of the Missouri. From here they went on up the river to the mouth of the Yellowstone, and turning up that stream, trapped in all its tributaries. The party was well organized and well armed. Williams was a good commander and possessed the confidence of his men. The whole party, however, seemed to have entered the Indian country with altogther a mistaken idea of the natives. They were trappers, and did not expect to fight their way through the country. They trapped successfully and finally reached a locality which they considered an ideal one for the trapper and hunter. All the streams were filled with beaver, and on the plains were thousands of buffalo. A camp was formed and the business of trapping was carried on without intermission. One day ten of the party went out buffalo hunting, some distance from the camp, and were attacked by a band of Indians whom they believed to be Blackfeet. The appearance of Indians was entirely unexpected, and the hunters being spread out over the prairie were unable

to defend themselves. They killed one Indian, but five of the white men were slain, and the remaining five only saved themselves by fleeing to the camp. The Indians being in overwhelming numbers, Williams broke up his camp and made a rapid march to the south to escape from the country of the Blackfeet. They finally fell in with a band of Crows, and as these Indians treated them in a most friendly manner, they were loath to leave the Crow country. One of their number, Edward Rose, decided to remain with the tribe. This man was the first American to take up a permanent residence in the Big Horn country. He, in 1810, went to St. Louis to market furs, but returned to the Crow tribe in the spring of 1811 in company with Wilson P. Hunt and party, whom he served as interpreter until they reached the Crow nation. Rose, it has been claimed in St. Louis, was an outlaw before he joined the Williams party, but that explorer knew nothing of this part of his history previous to engaging him. I might as well say here that Rose remained with the tribe, which adopted him, until 1823. After that date he was guide to Thomas Fitzpatrick and William Sublette. Many harsh things have been said of him; he being called unprincipled, treacherous, and a brawler. He is mentioned by many writers as being of unsavory character, and in fact I have been unable to find but one person who speaks well of him, and that is Jim Beckwourth, and as his character is about the same as that of Rose, his testimony will hardly be taken.

After Rose left the Williams party, there remained but thirteen men, and these took a southerly course, presumably up the Big Horn River, and must have crossed the Wind River Valley, as they went to South Pass. On reaching what they called the headwaters of the North Platte (the Sweetwater), they encountered, as they supposed, another band of Crows. These freebooters first ran off all the horses belonging to the party, and in an unsuccessful attempt to recover them Williams lost five more of his men, but succeeded in killing twenty of the Indians. The trappers were now reduced to eight men-these on foot and con

sequently in a deplorable condition, as they were in a hostile country. They had a considerable amount of valuable furs which they cached, together with such other property which they could not carry, and moving rapidly south they in due course of time reached the headwaters of the South Platte and were out of Wyoming. They must have passed over the Laramie Plains and made their way to the South Platte at a point near where Denver now stands. Fate seemed to follow them, for they were next attacked by Comanches and in a short time their number was reduced to three, these being Ezekiel Williams, James Workman and Samuel Spencer. The three lone wanderers now resolved to get out of the country and return to St. Louis, but another misfortune soon happened them. They quarreled and finally separated, Williams going down the Arkansas and after many adventures finally reaching St. Louis. He returned to the Sweetwater in 1809 with a party of trappers and recovered the furs cached in that locality. Workman and Spencer on leaving Williams also bent their steps toward the Arkansas, which they mistook for the Red River. They went up this stream, expecting to discover a practical route to Santa Fe, but they wandered many months in the mountains, and after a time joined a Mexican caravan bound for California. The following year they returned with the same caravan to Santa Fe, where they remained until 1824. I am indebted for these facts to a little volume published by David H. Cozner in 1847 under the title of "The Lost Trappers." From other sources I learn that Williams served as a volunteer in the war of 1812, but what fate finally befell him I do not know.

CHAPTER VII.

THE ASTORIA EXPEDITION.

THE TONQUIN SAILS FOR THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA-WILSON P. HUNT ORGANIZES A LAND EXPEDITION and Goes Up the Missouri— THE PARTY REACHES THE COUNTRY WHICH Is Now WYOMINGNUMEROUS Attempts Made to CROSS THE BIG HORN MOUNTAINSFINALLY ASCEND THE MIDDLE FORK OF THE POWDER RIVER AND REACH THE NO WOOD-JOURNEY UP THE BIG HORN AND BIG WIND RIVERS-CROSS SHERIDAN PASS TO THE HEADWATERS OF GREEN RIVER-FIRST VIEW OF THE GRAND Tetons-CROSSING THE Green RIVER VALLEY. THEY REACH THE HEADWATERS OF THE COLUMBIA.

The expedition of Wilson P. Hunt was organized in 1810 by John Jacob Astor, native of Waldorf, Germany, who came to America in 1783 and on his arrival entered the fur trade. Mr. Astor was a clear-headed business man, and he early saw an opportunity to compete successfully with the Northwestern Fur Company for the profitable trade in furs in the Rocky Mountain country. Mr. Astor in 1809 procured from the New York Legislature a charter for a company to be known as "The American Fur Company," with a capital of $1,000,000, with the privilege of increasing it to two millions. This company had a board of directors, but these gentlemen were mere figure-heads. Mr. Astor furnished the money and conducted the business. His only object in using the name of a company was to place his operations on a par with the great Northwest Company, whose domain he was about to enter, and secure for himself at least a part of the profitable trade. This shrewd business man sought an interview with the representatives of the United States government and laid before them a plan whereby a large share of the fur trade within the boundaries of the United States should come into the hands of American citizens, and he offered, providing he could receive the protection of the government, to turn the whole