lect compares with the best developed white men of the times. They may be called warriors, but they are often statesmen. One of the most remarkable of these characters was an American Indian-a native of the Mississippi Valley belonging to the Yazoo tribe of Indians. He was called by the French L'Interprete, because he spoke many languages. He had for years, it is said, wondered from whence he came, and spent much time in trying to solve the problem of life. He visited neighboring tribes in search of knowledge. He found the shores of the Atlantic and then turned to the westward in 1745, and in due time crossed the mountains at or about the place Lewis and Clark followed more than sixty years later. He finally reached the sea, and when he beheld it his astonishment knew no bounds. In telling the story to M. Le Page du Pratz, a French savant, he said: "When I saw it I was so delighted that I could not speak. My eyes were too small for my soul's ease. The wind so disturbed the great water that I thought the blows it gave would beat the land in pieces." The waves of the ocean were his great puzzle, and when the tide rose and the water approached his camping place he believed that the world would be engulfed, but when the tide began to recede he stood for hours watching the water until his companions felt sure that he had lost his mind. He told his story, when he returned, of the long river beyond the mountains that flowed into the ocean.

CHAPTER V.

THE FAMOUS JOHN COLTER.

THE FIRST AMERICAN TO ENTER WYOMING-A MEMBER OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION-REMAINS IN THE VICINITY OF THE YELLOWSTONE FROM 1806 TO 1810-HE TRAPS ALONG THE BIG HORN, BIG WIND RIVER, AND CROSSES THE RANGE TO THE PACIFIC SLOPE IN 1807-RETURNS BY WAY OF THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, OF WHICH HE WAS THE DISCOVERER HIS ADVENTURE WITH THE BLACKFEET-A RACE FOR LIFE-RELATES HIS STORY TO CAPT. CLARK, BRADBURY AND Others.

In the previous chapter I mentioned the name of John Colter and his discharge from the Lewis and Clark expedition at Fort Mandan. From that date this member of the exploring party has been identified with the country which in later years became Wyoming. Colter while with Lewis and Clark won the respect of the explorers and was often called upon to perform important service where bravery and cool-headedness were required. I regret that so little is known of his early history and that nothing is chronicled of his old age and death. No braver man ever entered the Rocky Mountain country. All that is known of his early life is that he was a hunter and woodsman and in his line had won renown before he joined Lewis and Clark. Nothing is to be learned of his education, but the chances are that like most hunters of his day, he was unlettered. It is with satisfaction that we read in the journal of the expedition, under date of August 14th and 15th, 1806, the following:

"In the evening we were applied to by one of our men, Colter, who was desirous of joining the two trappers who had accompanied us, and who now proposed an expedition up the river, in which they were to find traps and give him a share of the profits. The offer was a very advantageous one, and, as he had always performed his duty, and his services might be dispensed with, we agreed that he might go provided none of the rest would ask or expect a similar indulgence. To this they cheerfully answered that they

wished Colter every success and would not apply for liberty to separate before we reached St. Louis. We therefore supplied him, as did his comrades also, with powder, lead and a variety of articles which might be useful to him, and he left us the next day."

This request on the part of Colter evidently produced a profound sensation at Fort Mandan; the incident was so remarkable that it was not passed over without further comment; the journal makes this additional reference to the subject:

"The example of this man shows us how easily men may be weaned from the habits of civilized life to the ruder but scarcely less fascinating manners of the woods. This hunter has now been absent for many years from the frontier, and might naturally be presumed to have some anxiety, or some curiosity at least, to return to his friends and his country; yet just at the moment when he is approaching the frontier, he is tempted by a hunting scheme to give up those delightful prospects, and go back without the least reluctance to the solitude of the woods."

The names of the two trappers with whom Colter went into partnership do not appear in the Lewis and Clark journal but I learn from other sources that they were Dixon and Hancock, whose homes were on the Illinois River. They were trappers, and in 1804 made a trip up the Missouri and trapped on the headwaters of that stream until 1806. It so happened that they met the Lewis and Clark expedition on its return that year and persuaded Colter to join them. The newly organized trapping outfit followed up the Missouri and trapped on the Yellowstone and its branches. Thus passed the balance of the season of 1806. The following spring he and his companions started down the Missouri river with the intention of going to St. Louis. When they arrived at the mouth of the Platte, they met Manuel Lisa, sometimes called de Lisa, and that enterprising trader persuaded Colter to return with him to the Yellowstone country, where he had reported an abundance of beaver. The fur expedition went up to the mouth of the Big Horn, where Lisa erected a fort. A small party was organized and with Colter at its head was sent out to trap and

trade among the Crows. In this expedition he was evidently successful. His party trapped in all the tributaries of the Big Horn, including Stinking Water, where he discovered a boiling spring with a strong odor of sulphur and tar, which gives rise to the name Stinking Water. Colter is in no wise responsible for the name however, as it is of Indian origin, being thus interpreted by explorers. They trapped on the Grey Bull, Shell Creek, No Wood, Kirby Creek, Owl Creek, Little Wind River, Beaver Creek and all the forks of the Popo Agie. The party then went up Big Wind River to its source and crossed over one of the low passes to the Pacific slope. Capt. H. M. Chittenden in his work on the Yellowstone National Park, follows Colter closely in his meanderings on the west side of the Wind River Range. He says:

"From the summit of the mountains he descended to the westward; crossed the Snake River and Teton Pass to Pierre's Hole, and then turned north, recrossing the Teton Range by the Indian trail in the valley of what is now Conant Creek, just north of Jackson Lake. Thence he continved his course until he reached Yellowstone Lake, at some point along its southwestern shore. He passed around the west to the northernmost point of the Thumb, and then resumed his northerly course over the hills, arriving at the Yellowstone River in the valley of Alum Creek. He followed the left bank of the river to the ford just above Tower Falls, where the great Bannock trail used to cross, and then followed this trail to its junction with his outward route on Clark's Fork. From this point he recrossed the Stinking Water, possibly in order to revisit the strange phenomena there, but more probably to explore new trapping territory on his way back. He descended the Stinking Water until about south of Pryor's Gap, when he turned north and shortly after arrived at his starting point."

Capt. Chittenden, in his work, assumes that Colter, on this expedition, was alone or possibly with Indians. I think this an error. We must come to the conclusion that Colter did not make this trip as an explorer but as a trapper. There is evidence to show that he was engaged by Lisa when these two met at the mouth of the Platte to go back into the country from whence he had just come and there to trap for the benefit of Lisa. When we study the character

of this fur trader we must naturally infer that his engagement with Colter was strictly a matter of business and that he fitted him out for a trapping expedition. Lisa was one of the most enterprising fur traders ever in the Rocky Mountain country. From first to last he pushed his trappers up all the principal streams and covered the territory thoroughly; he sought new fields of enterprise and by his superior diplomacy captured the Indian trade. Colter was simply the agent of this enterprising Spaniard. Two circumstances occurred in the life of Colter which resulted in handing his name down in a sort of half-hearted way to posterity. First, when on a trip to St. Louis he met one of his old commanders, Capt Clark, and told him of his explorations and that gentleman traced his route on a map which was soon to appear in connection with the Lewis and Clark expedition. Capt. Clark evidently received Colter's story with great allowance and he accordingly avoided saying anything about it in his publication. It is quite certain that Colter's story of hot springs, boiling lakes, geysers, etc., was regarded by his old commander as beyond belief; therefore he contented himself with tracing on his map what he denoted as the Colter route of 1807. At this day we feel thankful for even this slight recognition of the services of John Colter. Besides Capt. Clark, Colter told his story to John Bradbury, a scientific gentleman, who accompanied Wilson P. Hunt's expedition a part of the way up the Missouri in 1811. To this latter gentleman we are indebted for a story of surprising bravery and thrilling adventure that deserves a place in the history of pioneering by white men in the Rocky Mountains. This incident in Colter's life will be told further on.

While Colter had been on his expedition, Manuel Lisa had returned to St. Louis and organized, or re-organized, I am not certain which, the Missouri Fur Company. At any rate he had secured additional capital, with the idea of monopolizing the fur trade of the tributary waters of the Missouri River. This time he brought with him from St. Louis a large number of recruits for his trapping service and among