To Fort Vancouver
Henry Jame Warre, “The Columbia River above Sioux Island Rapid, Washington, LAC Mikan 2834204 C-117072). This section of the Columbia River is north and east of Fort Okanagan.
In 1841, Governor Simpson made his way overland, from Red River to the Columbia River headquarters of Fort Vancouver, arriving at that place on August 25. We are beginning this section of his journey at Fort Colvile. He’s almost at the Pacific Coast headquarters of Fort Vancouver, but he’s not there yet.
In my most recent post in this series, I finished with the quote from An Overland Journey Round the World, of which this journey is only a part:
As soon as we had finished our morning’s meal, we set out for the fort, having an hour’s good ride before us. On reaching the summit of a hill, we obtained a fine view of the pretty little valley in which Colvile is situated. In a prairie of three or four miles in length, with the Columbia River at one end and a small lake in the centre, we descried the now novel scene of a large farm — barns, stables, &c, and herds of cattle grazing at will beyond the fences. By the time that we reached the establishment we found about eight men, whites and savages, all ready in their Sunday’s best, to receive us at the gate.
Our clothes were the only sufferers; and in fact, we made our appearance among the men who waited at the gate to do us honor, with tattered garments and crownless hats, such as many of them would not have deigned to pick up at their feet.
As we know from the last post in this series, Simpson and his party met Archibald McDonald about a half day’s ride from the fort itself. So I wondered what McDonald had to say of Simpson’s expected arrival at Fort Colvile, and took a look in the book edited by Jean Murray Cole, This Blessed Wilderness: Archibald McDonald’s Letters from the Columbia, 1833-44 [UBC Press, 2001]. It seems that McDonald was not exactly pleased by Simpson’s plans. In a letter written to Edward Ermatinger, March 5, 1841, he said:
It is said the great man himself is coming in this season to put all to rights; he will have much to do if he calculates on satisfying all the expectants without ousting from their bed of down all the old favourite Senators, worse still than the ‘Famiy Compact.’ With palaver & empty complements in abundance he may however after all do a great deal. In course of the winter I had a packet from [John] Rowand saying the [that] he (the gov) would come in by the plains & ordering guides, men, horses, provisions &c &c from here to meet the cavalcade on Bow River. How all this can be accomplished with due attention to all the troubles that threaten ourselves is more than I can forsee…
And as we know, it didn’t happen, although the Fort Colvile men did their best. In a letter to John Rowand, April 8, 1841:
As to the governor’s order of march, the doctor [Dr. McLoughlin] writes me ‘In regards to the governor’s route I write him & recommended his coming up by the plains & send 30 horses to you, & as you have more correct sourecs of information about the country through which the gov is to come you will take the necessary measures & write to the governor what you intend to do.’ Now my most correct source of information, Berland, is not yet here, but will I hope be before the Express starts & then my arrangements on the subject communicated to his Excellency [Sir George Simpson].. you may rely on meeting horses either at the Tobacco plain, Riviere la Biche, or Thomp Lake…to make that route however our future line of communication with east side is, I fancy, a hopeless business.
The outgoing York Factory Express generally left Fort Colvile sometime in April: sometimes early in the month, and sometimes mid-April. This is when these two letters would leave Fort Colvile on their journey over the mountains. And it does sound as if Governor Simpson is thinking of making this mountainous route the York Factory Express route across the mountains!
But later letters give us another date for the outgoing York Factory Express’s departure from the fort this year. To Governor Simpson, McDonald wrote on April 15: “(Regarding) the project of getting you in by the plains…I told Mr. Rowand, so far as we are concerned, his route would be adopted and preparations made to the extent he suggested.” By April 24 Edouard Berland had arrived at Fort Colvile “and has furnished all the necessary information on the subject of the land route to this place…The round by the Tobacco plain and Flatheads he condemns in toto as you will see by the enclosed sketch of the country, he proposes to leave the Kootenais River at McDonald’s stream & cut straight through the country until you again fall upon that river at the Traverse. There is a regular Indian track…[Berland] will be at the aforesaid little stream, end of June with 25 horses, and at Thompson’s House on the Columbia Lakes 10th July…he will meet you at the Bow River traverse a day’s ride above the old fort on or before 25th…From Bow River old fort/four days from Edmonton to Colvile have marked out 14 encampments & have no doubt in the 15 days the distance can be performed…Berland himself you will find very useful & intelligent on all points connected with the route &c &c…The Columbia, after consulting the most experienced watermen in this country, I entirely disapprove of.” The York Factory Express almost certainly left Fort Colvile on April 25, 1841.
There were more than a few incidents of notes that occured at this time in the district west of the Rocky Mountains. The Chief Trader in charge of Kamloops, Sam Black had been shot and killed and the murderer chased through the Kamloops district, and probably by this time killed. And Pierre Chryslogue Pambrun had died because of an accident with his horse at Fort Nez Perces. The United States Exploring Expedition had arrived at Fort Nisqually, and Lieutenant Robert E. Johnson, explored his way to Fort Colvile. ‘The Commodore’ of the Expedition [that is, Wilkes’ himself] travelled to Fort Vancouver from Fort Nisqually.
Then in August, 1841, McDonald wrote to Governor Simpson, who was en route to the west side of the Mountains. How was this letter forwarded. to the Governor?
Yesterday forenoon I thought the best arrangements I could make were made, but before the day was over entered the Indian that guided Wacon with word that on joining Berland at the Lakes…they found him seriously disabled in one of his legs & totally incapable of continuing the route with the other lad to Bow River as contemplated in the spring…I now dispatched William Pion with another Indian to go on without pulling bridle till he meets you.
William Pion would have carried this letter with him, and given it to Governor Simpson when they met. Then, on August 17, Simpson arrived at Fort Colvile. Two days later, McDonald wrote a letter to Dr. McLoughlin at Fort Vancouver. The Governor himself may have carried the letter down the river, but I think it is more likely that they had a Paper Box in the boat, in which the letter would have been carried. Here is McDonald’s August 19th letter to John McLoughlin:
It is now 1/2 past ten & Sir George Simpson having just retired I avail myself of a moment’s relaxation…to address you a few lines, as he proposes to start with the peep of day tomorrow. By a very happy conjunction of good arrangements we were the night before last advertised of his approach: the plan suggested to him in my last communication…succeeded to admiration & the Boat accordingly was back to me on the evening of 17th with his Excellency’s note of 11th dated ‘Grand Quoit Lac’ [now Moyie Lake, BC] in the heart of the Kootenais country. The Boat, as promised, they found on Coeur d’Alenes Lake & horses in abundance at the Pend-d’Oreilles Bay.
So the August 17 date of arrival at Fort Colvile is confirmed, both in Simpson’s journal, and Archibald McDonald’s letter. And another tidbit relevant to this story: On September 19, McDonald wrote to Simpson, who was at Fort Vancouver by this time:
On return of our two men from Vancouver four days ago…happy I was to hear that the trip down was as agreeable as it was prompt, being I believe in this latter respect the quickest in in our Columbia Log.
So keep this last tidbit in mind as we talk about the downriver journey to Fort Vancouver.
So we are back to the “Rough Notes,” wherein the author now wrote: “Fort Colvile — a wooden fort of large size with pickets and bastions. Houses of cedar neatly built a mile from the Columbia. 2 miles from Chaudiere [Kettle] Falls where salmon is so abundant. Soil sandy, climate hot & dry. Farm production of cattle thrives well — wheat 65 k per bushel. Winter many degrees milder than on the east side of the Mountains. Lat. 48.37 North, 18 August.” So Simpson was shown around Fort Colvile on August 18, and as we see below, he departed Fort Colvile on August 20. Once again, McDonald’s letters, and Simpson’s journal, agree on the dates of departure from Fort Colvile. So, more on Fort Colvile, from Simpson’s book, An Overland Journey.
Colvile is a wooden fort of large size, closed with pickets and bastions. The houses are of cedar, neatly built and well finished; and the whole place bears a cleaner and more comfortable aspect than any establishment between itself and Red River. It stands about a mile from the nearest point of the Columbia, and about two miles from the Chaudiere Falls, where salmon are so abundant, that as many as a thousand, some of them weighing upwards of forty pounds, have been caught in one day with a single basket.
This is where the dates begin to fall apart. We all know that Governor Simpson arrived at Fort Vancouver on August 25, 1841.
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From the “Rough Notes:” “20 August. Embarked on the Columbia in canoe with six oars and glided quickly down 100 miles in 15 hours. 1/2 mile wide… & mountainous.” From the book, An Overland Journey:
As the canoe, in which we were to descend the river, was waiting us below the Chaudiere [Kettle] Falls, we set out on horseback, on the morning of the twentieth for the place of embarkation. These falls might more properly be called a rapid, inasmuch as the highest of the three leaps appeared to be barely ten feet, while the whole length of the broken water was about a furlong. The name, which is to be found over the whole country, is derived not from any supposed resemblance to the boiling of a kettle, but from the shape into which the perpetual eddy of the torrent moulds the stones. In the Chaudiere Falls, on the Ottawa, for instance, there is a countless number of these water-worn cauldrons.
Our canoe was worked by six oars, besides the bowsman and steersman, being of the same construction as that in which we had descended the Pend’d-Oreile River. As the water was high and the current strong, we glided quickly down the stream. We were soon obliged to lighten our craft, to enable her to run a rapid; and thence we proceeded without any interruptions, save that of dining ashore near the Spokane River, till half-past-nine, having accomplished more than a hundred miles in fifteen hours.
So the second paragraph tells us that the boat that Simpson and others descended the Pend-d’Oreille River in was a Columbia boat. To continue: From the “Rough Notes,” “21 August. Glided 120 miles down the rapids. Rocks and no timbers.” From his book, An Overland Journey,
Next day we accomplished upwards of a hundred and twenty miles without any interruption whatever. Among our rapids, down which we glided very pleasantly, the most important was Les Petities Dalles. For about two miles the river was penned up between rocky shores with many stones in the stream; and so impetuous was the torrent, that it carried us down the whole distance in six or eight minutes. The scenery was pretty much the same as yesterday, alternately rock and sand, with little or no timber, and with the pasturage withered.
(August 21 is correct: it is their second day out of Fort Colvile.) There are a number of Little Dalles on this river: this will be the Little Dalles in Nespelem Canyon — a place that was clogged with rapids and dalles. From “Rough Notes:” “22 August. Called at the Company’s post Okanagan. Wood scarce.” From the book, An Overland Journey:
About eleven in the forenoon, we called at the company’s post of Okanagan situated at the mouth of the stream of the same name and maintained merely as an entrepot [warehouse] for the district of Thompson’s River [Kamloops]. We found the fort garrisoned by half a dozen women and children, the person in charge being absent at the farm which on account of the sterility of the immediate neighbourhood, proved to be a few miles distant. We remained only long enough to rifle some pans of milk.
At Okanagan we were concerned to learn, that the Indians of the interior, as far back as New Caledonia, principally the Schoushwaps [Secwepemc], were in a state of considerable excitement. The cause was as follows. In the month of February last, a chief of the name of Kordepate visited Mr. [Samuel] Black, the gentleman in charge of Thompson’s River, at his post of Kamloops when a trivial dispute took place between them. Immediately on returning to his camp at a place called the Pavilion, Kordepate sickened and died, enjoining his people with his last breath to keep on good terms with the whites…
Its interesting to see that Kordepate, or Cortipatte, was involved in the killing of Black, as our stories have it as being Tranquile: but that, of course, was his nickname. Now I see what some people say that they were the same man: but when Governor Simpson visited Kamloops in 1828, there was a First Nations man named Cortepatte, and another named Tranquile, present. So, who knows?
At this time, the man in charge of Fort Okanogan was Jean Gringras. The name is familiar but I don’t know why, and I have no information on him. Also, why do I keep thinking that Donald Manson is travelling in this expedition? Is he? I will have to find out.
Onward! From “Rough Notes:” “23 August. Mouth of the Snake River.” From Simpson’s book: An Overland Journey:
A few miles of our next day’s work brought us to the Snake River known also as the South Branch, Lewis and Clarke’s, &c &c. Though at the point of confluence, it was equal in size to the Columbia, yet the stream below did not appear to be larger than either of the united floods. About eight or ten miles farther down, the Walla Walla poured its tribute into the Columbia; and here we halted for breakfast at the company’s establishment.
The author of this piece loses a day or two on his journey downriver, and I think this is where he lost one of those days. Above, he stops for breakfast at Fort Nez Perces. But the next entry in his “Rough Notes” says this: “24 August. Walla Walla falls into Columbia. Company’s establishment a distant spot in a sandy desert, climate dry & hot. Subject to high winds. Missionary looked upon as imposters.” By the way, this last sentence is another way to date the Rough Notes: the nearby Waillatpu Mission was attacked and its missionaries murdered in late November 1847. This expedition cannot have happened after late 1847. So, from the book, An Overland Journey:
A more dismal situation than that of this post, can hardly be imagined. The fort is surrounded by a sandy desert, which produces nothing but wormwood, excepting that the horses and cattle find a little pasturage on the hills. As not a single tree grows within several miles in any direction, the buildings are constructed entirely of driftwood, about which many a skirmish has taken place with the Indians, just as anxious, perhaps, to secure the treasure as ourselves. The district of country is subject to very high winds, which sweeping over the sands, raise such a cloud of dust as renders it dangerous, or even impossible to leave the house during the continuance of the gale. The climate is dry and hot, very little rain falling at any season.
Shortly before our arrival, Mr. Pambrun, who was in charge, had met a melacholy death by being injured by the raised pommel of his Spanish saddle, leaving a wife and a large family of young children to bewail his untimely fate. This event, of course, threw a gloom over our visit.
Caravans come from St. Louis.
The caravans from St. Louis came in over the Oregon Trail. We all know that Pierre Pambrun died in 1841. Fort Nez Perces was built of driftwood, and the fort burned down a short time after Governor Simpson’s visit. From the article, “Red River Metis: The First Large Settler Group in Oregon Territory. Sinclair Expedition to the Oregon Territory,” we have the following information: the Sinclair Expedition “passed by Lake Pend d’Oreille and reached Fort Walla Walla on the Columbia River on 4 October; that night the fort burned down, but ‘these emigrants assisted in moving the stock and effects and by their opportune presence most of the property was saved.'” And it is true that the Missionaries at Waiilatpu were looked upon as imposters by the Cayuse Indians who later attacked the mission house and killed the missionaries. All the HBC men knew that.
The “Rough Notes” continues: “25 August. Dry plains. Snake Indians a miserable race.” And, “26 August. Banks of the river completely change. Amphitheatre bays. Cayuses. Les Chutes 400 miles.” From the book, An Overland Journey:
The Chutes vary very much in appearance according to the height of the waters. At one season may be seen cascades of twenty or thirty feet in height, while, at another, the current swells itself up in to little more than a rapid, so as even to be navigable for boats. At present the highest fall was scarcely ten feet; and as the stream besides being confined within a narrow channel was interrupted by rocks and islets, its foaming and roaring present a striking emblem of the former disposition of the neighbouring tribes. At the lower end of the portage we intended to dine on salmon, which we had procured from the Indians, but after cooking it, we felt so incommoded by the crowd, that we pushed off to eat our dinner as we should be drifting down the river.
From “Rough Notes,” “27 August. American Mission of Whaspicam where we saw growing timbers, the first since leaving Okanagan.” The Wascopam Mission was built at the Dalles in 1838, and abandoned in 1847, after the massacre at Waillatpu Mission. I used this information to establish the dates wherein this document could have been written. So here’s what Simpson’s book, An Overland Journey, says:
At a distance of two or three miles below the rapids, we reached the American Mission of Whaspicum, remarkable to us as the place where we saw growing timber for the first time since leaving Okanagan. On visiting the establishment, we were much pleased with the progress that had been made in three years. Two comfortable houses in which five families resided, had been erected; a field of wheat had this year yielded about ten returns; and the gardens had produced abundance of melons, potatoes, and other vegetables, while the dairy gave an adequate supply of milk and butter. The missionaries said that they were as happy in their new home as they could expect to be in such a wilderness, admitting at the same time that they had not found the land of promise which they came to seek.
From “Rough Notes,” “Vancouver, Mouth of the Columbia River.” Notice, no date is mentioned here. That is because he did not arrive on the day that his journal indicates (or doesn’t indicate, as it happens.) Somewhere along the way, he lost track of the dates — and as we see it happened in the downriver journey from Fort Colvile to Fort Vancouver. So this is what the book, An Overland Journey, has to say of his arrival at Fort Vancouver:
About sunset we called at the company’s saw and grist mills, distant six miles from the fort, while the company’s schooner, Cadboro that was lying there, honored us with a salute, which served also as a signal of our arrival to the good folks of Vancouver. Being anxious to approach headquarters in proper style, our men here exchanged the oar for the paddle, which besides being more orthodox in itself, was better adapted to the quick notes of the voyageurs’ song. In less than an hour afterwards we landed on the beach, having thus crossed the continent of North America at its widest point, by a route of about five thousand miles, in the space of twelve weeks of actual traveling. We were received by Mr. [James] Douglas, as Mr. [John] McLoughlin, the gentleman in charge, was absent at Puget Sound.
According to the HBRS book, The Letters of John McLoughlin from Fort Vancouver to the Governor and Committee, Second Series, 1839-44, edited by E.E. Rich, Governor Simpson arrived at Fort Vancouver on August 25, 1841. With him travelled Mr. Edward M Hopkins, his secretary; Dr. A. Rowand; John Rowand of Fort Edmonton; and Mr. Nicolas Von Freymann, a Russian officer that Simpson had agreed to deliver to the Russian American Company’s headquarters at Sitka. Dr. A Rowand is also a part of this expedition: he is, I believe, John Rowand’s son who was trained as a doctor (some sources have him as Rowand’s brother, but I think they are wrong.) Donald Manson was also part of the party, but whether he came all the way down to Fort Vancouver and then returned to Kamloops, I am unclear at the moment. As you see, I’m even unclear as to whether he was a part of this expedition. Peter Warren Dease and and Mr Alexander Christie joined Simpson in London and travelled with him as far as Montreal: did they come further? I will figure that out in the next post — maybe.
This post posted here is an outline of what happened when McLoughlin met Governor Simpson at Fort Vancouver in 1841. You can see how important a journey this one would prove to be. https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/john-mcloughlin/
Anyway, Governor Simpson and his party arrived at Fort Vancouver on August 25, and on September 1, 1841, Simpson left Fort Vancouver for Fort Nisqually, via the Cowlitz Portage. From that place, he went on the tour the Northwest coast posts, travelling in the Steamer Beaver. He returned to Fort Vancouver late in October, when all hell broke loose, as we know. When I write the next blogpost, it will appear here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/simpson-at-fort-vancouver/
To go to the first post in this series, go here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/simpsons-rough-notes/
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