298 MARCH OF HUNT, MACLELLAN, AND CROOKS. [1812. 



Kootanie tribes, on the head-waters or main branch of the Columbia, 

 and were gradually extending them down the principal stream of 

 that river ; thus giving to Great Britain in this particular, as in the 

 discovery of the mouth of the river, a title of parity at least, if not 

 of priority of discovery, as opposed to the United States. It was 

 from these posts that, having heard of the American establishment 

 forming in 1811 at the mouth of the river, Mr. Thompson hastened 

 thither, descending the river to ascertain the nature of that estab- 

 lishment." The expression " if not before, at least in the same and 

 following years" used here, is rather indefinite. In order to show 

 how it should be understood conformably with truth, it will be 

 proper to repeat — that Lewis and Clarke descended the Columbia 

 and reached its mouth before the middle of November, 1805 -— 

 that the North- West Company made their first establishment beyond 

 the Rocky Mountains, at some distance north of any part of the Co- 

 lumbia, in 1806 — that American establishments were formed on 

 the Columbia in 1809, 1810, and 1811 — and, finally, that Thompson 

 did not arrive among the Kootanie and Flat-head tribes until the 

 spring of 1811, after the foundation of Astoria. 



Mr. Thompson and his people were accompanied, on their return, 

 by a party from the factory, under Mr. David Stuart, who established 

 a post at the confluence of a stream, called the Okinagan, with the 

 north branch of the Columbia, about six hundred miles above the 

 mouth of the latter river, and remained there during the winter. 

 The situation of those left at Astoria was, in the mean time, very un- 

 pleasant, and their spirits were depressed by various circumstances. 

 Their supplies of provisions were scanty and uncertain, and nothing 

 was heard, for some months, of the party who were to come over land 

 from the United States ; the Tonquin, which was expected to return 

 to the river in September, did not appear, and rumors were brought 

 by the Indians of the destruction of a ship, and the massacre of her 

 crew, by the natives near the Strait of Fuca. Nothing, however, 

 occurred at the factory, worthy of note, until the 18th of January, 

 1812, when a portion of the detachment sent across the continent 

 arrived there in the most wretched condition. 



This detachment, consisting of about sixty men, under the chief 

 agent, Hunt, and the partners, Crooks, Mackenzie, and Maclellan, 

 ascended the Missouri River in boats, from its mouth to the country 

 of the Arickara Indians, distant about fourteen hundred miles higher ; 

 during which voyage they were constantly annoyed by their rivals 

 of the Missouri Company ; and, there quitting the river, they took a 



