Warre’s York Factory Express Journal

This is a painting by Henry James Warre, Courtesy American Antiquarian Society. It is highly likely that this is Athabasca Pass, as seen from the top of the Grand Cote, and so looking from the west.

The two British spies, Henry James Warre and Mervin Vavasour, left the Columbia district in the outgoing York Factory Express of March, 1846. We have Henry Warre’s York Factory Express journal, and it is an interesting read. HBC men would not make the observations he made, because they already knew and understood the whys and wherefores of the outgoing York Factory Express. But English visitors often made the best journal keepers, because they wrote down what they observed, leaving it for posterity, while the HBC men did not. In every journal written by an Englishman, we learn something new.

So, here goes: Henry Warre’s York Factory Express Journal:

The passage of the Rocky Mountains was not considered practicable till the beginning of May, on account of the depth of the snow in the country lying at their base, which would render it impossible to transport the baggage, provisions, &c., sufficient for our party, for so great a distance over the frozen surfaces. We were, therefore, obliged to delay our departure on our homeward journey till the end of March, which would allow time for the ascent of the Columbia River, and enable us to reach the Boat Encampment, from whence we were to commence the ascent of the mountains at the proper season.

The festive seasons at Christmas and New Year were not unregarded in this distant land. The officers of H.M.S. Modeste contributed largely to promote feelings of friendship between the settlers from the United States and the subjects of Great Britain; and they were ably supported by the agents of the Hudson’s Bay Company, whose families joined in the merry dance, and reciprocated the dinners which were given on board the ship. The deck was fitted up as a theatre, and many plays and farces were most inimitably performed by the sailors, among whom were some capital actors.

The Modeste had arrived on its second visit to Fort Vancouver on November 29, 1845, and she spent a year or so anchored across the river from the fort. In his journal, Thomas Lowe talked a lot about the parties that its crew members threw. In his own York Factory Express Journal, Henry James Warre went on to explain what other entertainments he, and the Modeste crew-members, found at Fort Vancouver. I don’t actually know if the HBC gentlemen approved of this cowboying, but it happened anyway. Perhaps this is the only way that anyone could catch these wild cattle:

Hunting with the “lasso” the wild cattle, which are very numerous on many of the adjoining plains, was a constant amusement, and not unattended with personal danger; these animals are extremely fierce, and often became the attacking party, in which case we were obliged to trust to the speed and activity of our horses.

The wild fowl and snipe shooting was also very good. The number of swans, geese, ducks, widgeons of every variety, were incredible; but the lakes, on which these birds congregated, are very large, rendering them difficult to approach. 

So, in his York Factory Express journal, Warre finally writes about the outgoing York Factory Express journey that would carry him away from Fort Vancouver:

On the 25th March [1846] we took leave of our many kind and hospitable friends, and commenced our homeward journey. Several of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s servants, whose term of servitude had expired, and who were desirous of returning to their native land, increased our party to about thirty; we were distributed in two large boats, laden with every variety of store for the Indian trade of the interior country, which we deposited at the different forts or trading posts we passed, in the ascent of the river. 

So, Warre’s York Factory Express Journal does say that the outgoing boats did carry goods upriver, at least at this time (1846). From the express journals I have, one does not really get the impression the boats were heavily laden with supplies for the upriver forts. But once again, Warre tells stories that the HBC men did not.  

The ascent of the rapid courses of the Columbia was very tedious; we could seldom average more than 25 or 30 miles a day; and often, when the river was more than usually impeded with falls and rapids, we could not even accomplish this distance.

We reached “Les Dalles” on the 29th, a distance of 80 miles from Fort Vancouver, having made the “portage” of the beautiful falls 49 miles below, call[ed] the “Cascades.” At the point called “Les Dalles,” the river has been obstructed in its approach to the sea, by a broad stretch of basaltic rock, rising nearly 100 feet feet above the usual level of the ground, through which the water has found a narrow passage of nearly a mile in length, and not more than 100 feet in breadth. During the spring season, when the snow melting on the mountains increases the quantity of the water, this magnificent river is kept back till it is said to rise above 60 feet, forming itself into a large lake above the barrier, and forcing itself through the narrow gorge with a terrific force. The view of Mount Hood from this point is very beautiful, rising to a height of nearly 18,000 feet, and covered with its dazzling mantle of perpetual snow.

Is that true, that the water on the east side of the mountains formed this enormous lake because the narrow passage through the Dalles backed up the river? It must have been a pretty spectacular sight — and one that none of the writers of the outgoing York Factory Express journals mentioned!

We arrived at Fort Walla Walla, a distance of 200 miles, on the 3rd April, and here obtained horses to ride across the country to Fort Colville [Colvile], leaving the boats to continue their more circuitous course by the river to the same point, about 450 miles. The direct route to Fort Colvile is about 250 miles, 200 of which are through a barren, sandy desert, comparable only with the Great Sahara in Africa, during the passage of which we could hardly find sufficient wood or water to supply our most ordinary wants, or sufficient nourishment to afford a scanty meal to our half famished horses. The country is intersected by deep ravines, scarped with perpendicular basaltic rock, which obliged us to make very long detours before we could find a point that afforded even a dangerous crossing. In many instances these ravines formed the bed of a rapid river, which only increased our desire for water, which, within view, was the more tempting, from being unattainable. 

I don’t think Warre was impressed with this country. The road he was travelling over was, by the way, David Thompson’s Shawpatin Trail. So, more from Warre’s York Factory Express Journal:

The whole region presents most interesting and peculiar features to a geologist; has evidently been subjected to extraordinary volcanic action, and great convulsions of nature, by which the channel of the Columbia river has been diverted from its course, the original bed remaining barricaded by rocks, which have been thrown across the entrance, and have converted it into a dry level ravine, called “La Grande Coulée.”

That’s interesting. It almost sounds as if they are not travelling by the Shawpatin Trail, but through the Grande Coulee. This is a route the HBC Brigades often took, but the York Factory Express men used only in an emergency. Thomas Lowe went out by the Grand Coulee in 1848, when the Cayuse War on the Columbia River made travelling by the Shawpatin Trail dangerous. 

The Peloos [Pelouse] River has an early subterranean course through one of these deep ravines, leaping from one surface of the land to another, till it gains the level of the Columbia by a perpendicular fall of 200 feet, into a circular basin of basaltic rock, forming one of the most perfect and beautiful expanses of the basaltic formation I have ever seen.

So it now, once again, sounds as if they took the Shawpatin Trail to Fort Colvile. Perhaps the valley of the Pelouse River was also called the Grand Coulee? It makes sense; where the falls of the Pelouse River fell into its gorge could easily have taken the name, “Grande Coulee.” So, more from Warre’s York Factory Express Journal:

At Fort Colvile, we again embarked in boats to ascend the Upper Columbia River to the Boat Encampment, a distance of 250 miles. We abandoned the boats of this post, and commenced on foot the ascent of the Rocky Mountains.

We had for many days been surrounded by magnificent mountains, and had passed through such a beautiful country, that the effect of this grand and solitary scene was partially destroyed by the sublimity of that which had preceded it. The mountains are about 10,000 feet in height, unequalled in any part of Switzerland for the ruggedness of their peaks and beauty of form, capped and dazzling in their white mantle of snow. 

Our pedestrian labours now commenced. For three days we continued the ascent of the valley of the Oregon [Wood] river, wading twenty times in the course of each day through this mountain torrent, landing on the snow, which covered the whole country, and over the half thawed surface of which we dragged the heavy lumbering, but well adapted, [snow] shoes, that prevented our being submerged at every step; at night we formed our couch on the snow, without an opportunity being afforded to us of drying our saturated garments, or being able to pitch our feet to guard against the cold. On the 4th day we ascended the “Grande Cote,” to the height of land on which are situated two small lakes, from whence flow two rivers, the waters of which fall into different oceans — the Columbia into the Pacific, and the Athabasca into the Frozen ocean. The fatigue of mounting nearly 50,000 feet on the soft snow [yep, that’s what he says] which sank, even with the snow shoes, nearly to the knees with every step, can hardly be conceived. We were obliged to follow one another in file, and relieve the leading file every ten minutes, by which means the road was formed for the carriers, whose endurance, under their heavy bundles, was wonderful.  

The Canadiens and Métis always carried the goods up the mountains; but the First Nations men, who often helped with the incoming York Factory Express, refused to carry the HBC men’s loads. When Robert Clouston and John Jeffrey came into the territory with the incoming Fall Express of 1850, they carried their own goods across the mountains: something that infuriated Clouston!

We were now in the very heart of the mountains, which rose several thousand feet on every side of us. “Avalanches”of snow and rock were detached under the influence of the mid-day sun, and rolled across our path into the valley beneath, threatening to engulf us in their overwhelming course. 

At the Boat Encampment, the provisions of dried meat had been divided; each man carried his own share in addition to his regular burden. From want of forethought, and dislike to additional weight, they had not taken sufficient, and their provisions began to fail. We were not fortunate enough to kill a mountain sheep or goat, or even an elk, whose traces were very apparent in the snow, and some of which usually fall victim to the skill of the hunter. On this the men relied; and we found ourselves in the unenviable position of being obliged to share our last meal with the hungry men, whose strength also began to fail under the excessive exertion, without sufficient nourishment. On the 7th day our provisions were completely exhausted; having divided our last mouthful, I started forward with two men, to make our way to Jasper’s House, a small station of the Hudson’s Bay Company on the Athabasca River, distant about 60 miles. We had, however, scarcely walked 10 miles, when the joyful sound of human voices assured us of more immediate relief, and we soon encountered a party of men who had been sent to meet us with provisions, accompanied by La Pére de Smet, a Jesuit priest from Belgium, and chief of the Roman Catholic missionaries in the Columbia district, who was on his return to that part of Oregon. He had attempted during the winter to visit the Blackfoot Indians, but had failed, and very nearly fallen a victim to his temerity and zeal. The horses had been left some distance below, not being able to get through the snow, but several sledges drawn by dogs were laden with pemican and other provisions, on which our men made a most abundant meal.

In information I have on White Man Pass — which is the pass by which Warre and Vavasour entered the Columbia District — it is written that in 1846, Pierre-Jean De Smet met them near the summit of White Man Pass, when Warre and Vavasour were on their way out of the Columbia District. As you can see, above, they did meet, but not in White Man Pass. 

Henry James Warre’s journal is found on the website, Peel’s Prairie Provinces, University of Alberta, file number 239, titled Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory [London: Dickinson & Co, 1849].

I am on Bluesky now: margueritehbc.bsky.social — I am pretty impressed with it. It is growing at about one million new members a day, all abandoning Twitter after the American election. Its pretty interesting to watch.

Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2024. All rights reserved.

• ← Otter skins
• The Similkameen Post →