Douglas now cheers the traveler, their feet had become sore by coming in contact with the hard crust which had formed on the snow and through which they broke at every step. Soon the whole party became dispirited and the opinion was held by the majority that they might better have remained in their comfortable camp and run the risk of being killed by Indians than to drag on thus painfully with a probability of perishing by the way. Their poor old horse was loaded down with meat, but they had nothing wherewith to feed him except willow twigs and cottonwood bark. The leader of the party cheered them on, assuring them that they were constantly shortening the distance to that point on the river where it would be navigable for canoes. They passed cottonwood groves and at last reached a place where the river ran between rocky hills and promontories covered with cedar and pitch pines, and peopled as they said with big-horn sheep and deer. This was the Platte River Canon. They kept on and finally passed the point where twenty-two years later Captain William Sublette and Robert Campbell built their trading post, which was to become the historic Fort Laramie.

If Robert Stuart could have looked forward and realized that he was blazing the way for a new road across the continent,and that thirty-one years later Marcus Whitman was to pass over it with a train of a thousand people, it would have cheered him in his lonely wanderings. But notwithstanding his lack of knowledge of the future, he will ever be known as the pioneer explorer of the Overland Trail. This journey across the continent surpassed all others in adventure, in heroism and in results. He it was who discovered a practical route across the mountains which possessed great advantages over every other.

After this digression, let us again proceed on the toilsome journey with these weary travelers. They pushed on, the weather became colder, and the swift current of the river was frozen over. The snow was now fifteen inches deep, and yet they pressed forward and soon came to where the face of the country was level and the timber had disap

peared. They looked out over the great plain, where nothing but desolation met their eyes, and here they came to a halt, sensible of the fact that they could not safely pursue their journey farther east until the snow and rigors of winter were past, nor could they remain where they were. It will be recognized that they were now in Nebraska. They retraced their steps seventy-seven miles and again went into winter quarters in a cottonwood grove on the margin of the river, where the trees were large enough for canoes. Here again they erected a house, but before it was completed New Year's Day of 1813 came, and they ceased from their labors, resolved to make it a holiday. It was indeed a happy new year to them, for they saw that it was now simply a question of waiting until spring arrived. On the second day of January they went manfully to work again on their new house and in a few days completed it. Buffalo and other game was plentiful in the neighborhood and they soon had an abundance of provisions, and here they remained for the balance of the winter. During the time spent at this encampment they built canoes, intending to launch them early in the spring. By this time they were pretty well convinced that they were on the Platte River. The location of this camp was on the border of Wyoming, where the State of Nebraska joins. Some claim that the identical spot is Gering, and if so it would be just over the line in Nebraska.

In their second encampment they were not troubled with Indian visitors, and nothing occurred to mar their happiness. They built two canoes, and on the 8th of March placed them on the turbulent waters and departed from their encampment. Soon they encountered innumerable sand-bars and snags, and after vainly attempting to go for ward with the canoes they were obliged to give them up and make their way on foot. They finally reached Grand Island and three days later met an Otto Indian. This friendly savage conducted them to his village, which was near, and there they met two Indian traders, white men, Dornin and Roi, who were direct from St. Louis. These men informed them of the war which was then going on between the United

States and England. Mr. Dornin furnished them with a boat made of elkskin stretched over a pole frame. With this boat they entered on their journey down the Platte and soon reached the Missouri, and on the 30th of April they arrived at St. Louis and brought the first intelligence of Mr. Hunt's party, which had left St. Louis more than a year and a half before. Thus terminated one of the most remarkable expeditions that ever crossed the Rocky Mountains.*

To sum up the character of Robert Stuart, it can be said of him that he was resolute, absolutely void of fear, and yet withal endowed with great caution. He led his followers through a wilderness during the most inclement season of the year and in spite of fate or fortune preserved their lives and afterward safely delivered his dispatches to Mr. Astor, the promoter of the great enterprise of which he, himself, was a partner. Citizens of our state, as they study the map of Wyoming and follow his route, must not forget that his party were the first Americans to traverse the valley of the Sweetwater. It is a great oversight that this stream does not bear the name of Stuart. The members of this party were also the first explorers of the North Platte. The wanderings, sufferings and explorations of these men forever associates their names with the early history of our state.

The Stuart party were not the last Astorians to cross Wyoming. On the 4th of April, 1813, David Stuart, Donald McKenzie, Mr. Clark and such other Americans who had not entered into the service of the Northwest Fur Company left Astoria on their way across the Rocky Mountains. John

*Many people have tried to discover the trail of the Stuart party across Wyoming. Governor William A. Richards, who from his profession as surveyor has become familiar with the topography of the country, says that the Stuart party entered Wyoming through the Teton Pass, crossed Snake River somewhere near the mouth of the Hoback, proceeded up that stream to its head and went down Lead Creek to Green River; continued down Green River a short distance, then took a southeasterly course, crossing two branches of New Fork and some other minor streams, then the Big Sandy and some of its tributaries; crossed the Continental Divide in the vicinity of the South Pass, then crossed the streams forming the headwaters of the Sweetwater, traveling in a northeasterly direction. They left the valley of the Sweetwater, thinking it ran south, and continuing northeast ascended the Beaver Divide. From this elevation, seeing the western end of the Rattlesnake Range, they shaped their course toward it, going nearly east, passing across the Muskrat country, where the party suffered greatly for want of water. Reaching the Rattlesnake Range, they went down a small stream to the Sweetwater, which they followed east. They failed to notice its junction with the North Platte, but continued down that stream through the canon and made their first winter camp just below where the river emerges from the canon, probably two or three miles below Bessemer and near where Fort Caspar was subsequently located. Leaving this camp through fear of Indians, they proceeded down the North Platte, making their second winter camp in Nebraska.

Hoback, Pierre Dorion, Pierre Delaunay, the veteran Kentuckians, Robinson and Rezner, all perished in the wilderness. Those who returned reached civilization at different periods and told their stories of the fate of the great expeditions that went by sea and land to establish a trading post at the mouth of the Columbia.

CHAPTER XI.

ASHLEY'S TRAPPERS IN WYOMING.

TRAPPING ON THE YELLOWSTONE, BIG HORN, BIG WIND AND OTHER SOURCES OF THE MISSOURI-NAMES THE SWEETWATER AND CHANGES THE NAME SPANISH RIVER TO GREEN RIVER-EMPLOYS OVER 300 TRAPPERS-HIS EXPEDITION TO SALT LAKE-MARVELOUS SUCCESS AS A FUR TRADER-MAKES A FORTUNE AND SELLS OUT TO SUBlette, CAMPBELL, BRIDGER AND OTHERS-HIS SPEECH TO THE MOUNTAIN MEN CHANGES THE CHARACTER OF THE TRAPPER BY MOUNTING HIM ON HORSEBACK-A LIFE-LONG PERSONAL FRIEND OF EVERY TRAPPER WHO SHARED WITH HIM THE DANGERS OF THE MOUNTAINS-AUTHOR'S TRIBUTE TO THE AMERICAN TRAPPER.

After the expedition of Lewis and Clark, the fur trade was greatly stimulated among Americans. Not only did rich men, like John Jacob Astor, send out expeditions, but men with small capital made excursions up the Missouri, entered the mountain country and pursued the perilous task of fur trapping. St. Louis at that time was a frontier town and it became the outfitting point of the fur trade. There was a motley population of French and Indian half-breeds, and Spaniards with Indian blood, and other mixed races. Manuel Lisa was the pioneer fur trader, and it was to his enterprise that St. Louis was indebted for turning the trade in that channel. Lisa was born in Spain but came to this country at an early age and on his arrival at St. Louis from New Orleans, he early became known as a bold partisan and at the same time as a man possessed of good business

qualifications. He had made money in merchandising and was reputed wealthy. There had grown up Spanish and French establishments in New Orleans, and these had established branches from time to time in the new city of St. Louis. The Frenchmen and Spaniards had worked together, consequently when Lisa determined to organize a fur company he readily got the assistance of both the Spanish and French merchants. He induced eleven of the leading business men of St. Louis to join him in fur trapping and trading with a view of controlling the Indian trade and fur business on the upper branches of the Missouri. Among these were Pierre Chouteau, Sr., William Clark, Sylvester Labadie, Pierre Menard and Auguste P. Chouteau. These gentlemen organized the Missouri Fur Company, with a paid-up capital of $40,000. Lisa was the leading partner in the company and had charge of all the expeditions sent into the widerness. He recruited trappers and voyageurs, the former of Kentucky and Tennessee and the latter half-breed French and Spanish who had been boatmen along the Ohio and Mississippi. The Kentucky and Tennessee hunters readily took to trapping. They were unerring shots with the rifle and therefore had little fear of the wild Indians. The Missouri Fur Company sent its first expedition up the Missouri about the time Lewis and Clark returned from the Columbia, and by the time the season of 1808 arrived they had two hundred and fifty men in their employ and several trading posts in successful operation in the mountain country. Lisa's principal lieutenant was an Alexander Henry, who built several of these posts and in 1810 established a post on Henry's Fork of the Snake River, called Post Henry. This latter was found to be too far in the wilderness and was abandoned a year after it was established. It will be remembered that Mr. Hunt and his party visited Post Henry on October 8, 1811 and found it deserted.

I will here mention that Alexander Henry, on leaving the employ of the Missouri Fur Company in 1812, engaged with the Northwest Company and some years later was on the Columbia River. The Missouri Fur Company was very