Episode 4

In this wild and warlike school a number of leaders have sprung up, originally in theemploy, subsequently partners of Ashley; among these we may mention Smith,Fitzpatrick, Bridger, Robert Campbell, and William Sublette; whose adventures andexploits partake of the wildest spirit of romance. The association commenced byGeneral Ashley underwent various modifications. That gentleman having acquiredsufficient fortune, sold out his interest and retired; and the leading spirit that succeededhim was Captain William Sublette; a man worthy of note, as his name has becomerenowned in frontier story. He is a native of Kentucky, and of game descent; hismaternal grandfather, Colonel Wheatley, a companion of Boon, having been one of thepioneers of the West, celebrated in Indian warfare, and killed in one of the contests ofthe "Bloody Ground." We shall frequently have occasion to speak of this Sublette, andalways to the credit of his game qualities. In 1830, the association took the name of theRocky Mountain Fur Company, of which Captain Sublette and Robert Campbell wereprominent members.

In the meantime, the success of this company attracted the attention and excited theemulation of the American Fur Company, and brought them once more into the field oftheir ancient enterprise. Mr. Astor, the founder of the association, had retired from busylife, and the concerns of the company were ably managed by Mr. Ramsay Crooks, ofSnake River renown, who still officiates as its president. A competition immediatelyensued between the two companies for the trade with the mountain tribes and thetrapping of the head-waters of the Columbia and the other great tributaries of thePacific. Beside the regular operations of these formidable rivals, there have been fromtime to time desultory enterprises, or rather experiments, of minor associations, or ofadventurous individuals beside roving bands of independent trappers, who either huntfor themselves, or engage for a single season, in the service of one or other of the maincompanies.

The consequence is that the Rocky Mountains and the ulterior regions, from theRussian possessions in the north down to the Spanish settlements of California, havebeen traversed and ransacked in every direction by bands of hunters and Indiantraders; so that there is scarcely a mountain pass, or defile, that is not known andthreaded in their restless migrations, nor a nameless stream that is not haunted by thelonely trapper.

The American fur companies keep no established posts beyond the mountains.

Everything there is regulated by resident partners; that is to say, partners who reside inthe tramontane country, but who move about from place to place, either with Indiantribes, whose traffic they wish to monopolize, or with main bodies of their own men,whom they employ in trading and trapping. In the meantime, they detach bands, or"brigades" as they are termed, of trappers in various directions, assigning to each aportion of country as a hunting or trapping ground. In the months of June and July,when there is an interval between the hunting seasons, a general rendezvous is held, atsome designated place in the mountains, where the affairs of the past year are settledby the resident partners, and the plans for the following year arranged.

To this rendezvous repair the various brigades of trappers from their widely separatedhunting grounds, bringing in the products of their year's campaign. Hither also repair theIndian tribes accustomed to traffic their peltries with the company. Bands of freetrappers resort hither also, to sell the furs they have collected; or to engage theirservices for the next hunting season.

To this rendezvous the company sends annually a convoy of supplies from itsestablishment on the Atlantic frontier, under the guidance of some experienced partneror officer. On the arrival of this convoy, the resident partner at the rendezvous dependsto set all his next year's machinery in motion.

Now as the rival companies keep a vigilant eye upon each other, and are anxious todiscover each other's plans and movements, they generally contrive to hold their annualassemblages at no great distance apart. An eager competition exists also between theirrespective convoys of supplies, which shall first reach its place of rendezvous. For thispurpose, they set off with the first appearance of grass on the Atlantic frontier and pushwith all diligence for the mountains. The company that can first open its temptingsupplies of coffee, tobacco, ammunition, scarlet cloth, blankets, bright shawls, andglittering trinkets has the greatest chance to get all the peltries and furs of the Indiansand free trappers, and to engage their services for the next season. It is able, also, to fitout and dispatch its own trappers the soonest, so as to get the start of its competitors,and to have the first dash into the hunting and trapping grounds.

A new species of strategy has sprung out of this hunting and trapping competition. Theconstant study of the rival bands is to forestall and outwit each other; to supplant eachother in the good will and custom of the Indian tribes; to cross each other's plans; tomislead each other as to routes; in a word, next to his own advantage, the study of theIndian trader is the disadvantage of his competitor.