THE 



AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL. 



Term«,Fonr Dollars a Year. I 

 Ten Cents a Copy. ( 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 1878- 



/ Volm 

 »N». Ill 



Volume 9.— No 

 Fallon S 



THE JOYS OF THE FIELD. 



'T'HEY sing of the dashing dragoon, 

 -*- The soldier so gallant to see, 

 Of jolly Jack Tar in his uniform blue, 



But the life of the hunter for me. 

 His jacket of canvas so trim, 



His step so elastic aud free, 

 With gun on his shoulder and dogs by his side ;— 



The joys of the neld for me. 



With pockets all over his coat, 



Each furnished with provident skill ; 

 A bold joyous eye and a confident heart, 



He's sportsman or soldier at will. 

 Then "hie boys ! go on 1" is the word, 



It quickens the pulses to see 

 His trusty companions in eager career ;— 



The joys of the field for me. 



Ho ! steady ! he has them ! old Staunch ; 



How rigid the pup backs his sire ; 

 Head up and half turned, with a whirr np they spring. 



Now ! right and left give them your fire ; 

 A double and odd to the score. 



"Down, charge," load and gather the three, 

 Then, on to the covert with footsteps alert ;— 



The joys of the field for me. 



And when the sun sinks in the west, 



With purple and gold all aflame, 

 The sportsman exults in the glorious scene, 



But most he exults in his game. 

 With pockets well filled for his toll, 



And step still elastic and free, 

 He trolls a stout ditty and marches for home ;— 



The joys of the field for me. 



Behold, at the bountiful board, 



St. Hubert, what havoc he makes ; 

 Charging gallantly into a phalanx of meats, 



And scaling a tower of cakes ! 

 Then a pipe, and perhaps something hot 



Before bed, is the thing, don't you see, 

 With slumbers far sweeter than poppies can bring ;— 



The joys of the field for me. 



Ye Sybarites, worshiping ease, 



Who droop at the scent of a rose ; 

 How little ye reck what a treasure of joy 



Old Pan on the sportsman bestow*. 

 From the clusters the rarest we'll press, 



Libations, Great Patron, to thee ! 

 Success to the sportsman and health to his dogs ;— 



The joys of the field for me. 



— Germantown Telegraph. 



For Forest and Stream and Rod and Gun. 



fagagitig an il\e j§pper ^wfouri 



By Ebnest Ingbesoll.. 

 NO. II. 



ORIGIN OF THE NORTHWESTEEN FUE TRADE — FORT BENTON — 

 SYSTEM OF TEARING— BATTLES WITH THE BLACKFEET — AN- 

 ECDOTES OF THE VOYA.GEUR3 — PROSPERITY OF THE MODERN 

 TOWN. 



THIRTY-FIVE miles below the Falls of the Missouri 

 stands Fort Benton, the ultima thule of my boyish 

 imagination — a spot containing more adventurous romance, I 

 thought, than any other place on the globe. And it is pleas- 

 ant to add that, when unexpectedly I found myself at this 

 Mecca of my Northwestern pilgrimage, I was not more dis- 

 appointed than my later experience had prepared me for. 



When, in 1642, Charles II. granted to the " Hudson's Bay 

 Fur Company '' a monopoly of the fur trade of all North 

 America, he set np a monarchy on this continent far more 

 powerful in actual arbitrary control of its subjects than was 

 his own rule in England, and one which was sure to engen- 

 der rivalry and opposition, even though it was 200 years in 

 rising. Thu operations of this company were chiefly confined 

 to what is now called British xVmerica, and, although its tra- 

 ders made excursions southward, it had no posts established 

 on the Missouri. In the early part of the present century 

 the Northwestern Fur Company, consisting of New York and 

 Canadian merchants, was started to trade with the Indians of 

 this region, but was soon replaced by the American Fur 

 Company— as the firm of Pierre Choteau & Co., of St. Louis, 

 was called— which pushed its trading posts further and fur- 



ther up the Missouri. An intense competition, of course, 

 sprang up between the old and the young company, several 

 times leading to bloodshed. Fort Union having been estab- 

 lished at the mouth of the Yellowstone in 1829 as a basis of 

 supplies, exploring and trading expeditions were sent up the 

 river," building stockades at various points, mainly of a tem- 

 porary character, until, in 1846, a very substantial fort was 

 erected by Major Alexander Culbertson on the north bank of 

 the Missouri, at the head of navigation, 667 miles above Fort 

 Union and 2,663 miles from St. Louis by river. The new 

 fort was named in honor of Governor and Senator Thos. H. 

 Benton, of Missouri, who, some years before, had rescued 

 the company from a ruinous litigation. 



Fort Benton was 250 feet square, and, except the front, 

 wholly built of sun-dried bricks. The picturesque structure 

 is still standing, although long since disused. The wall of 

 gray adobes are of great thickness, able to resist any mode of 

 attack likely to be brought against them, while at opposite 

 corners two square bastion towers surmount the walls, from 

 which an enfilading fire could be poured upon besiegers. 

 Built against the wail inside are the ware-rooms and the bar- 

 racks of the score or so of men employed, while the log dwel- 

 lings and offices of the agents and officers constitute the front 

 of the quadrangle. The roofs of all the buildings are covered 

 with earth as a protection against fire. There is but one en- 

 trance — a massive, doubled leaved gate. At one side of this 

 entrance, within the wall, stands the store, and at the other 

 side a warehouse, the inner corners of these buildings being 

 connected by a stockade and second gate similar to the outer 

 portal, enclosing a strong room without any roof. In the side 

 of the store, about five feet from the ground, was a hole 

 eighteen inches square, with a strong shutter-fastening in- 

 side. When the Indians wanted to trade, the .inner gate was 

 closed ; a man would stand at the outer gate until as many 

 Indians as the space between the gates would contain had 

 passed in ; then he would lock the outer gate and go through 

 the trading hole into the store. The Indians would then pass 

 whatever articles each one had to trade through the hole and 

 the trader would throw out whatever the Indian wanted, to 

 the value in trade of the article received. When the party 

 were done trading, they were turned out and another party 

 admitted. In that way the Indians were entirely at the mercy 

 of the traders, for they could all be killed through loop-holes 

 in the store. The articles brought by the Indians for trade 

 were buffalo- robes, elk, deer, antelope, bear, wolf, beaver, ot- 

 ter, fox, mink, martin, wild-cat, skunk and badger skins. 

 The sale of whiskey had been interdicted by Congress, and 

 for fear of danger to themselves the traders did not sell them 

 guns ; but when an Indian proved to be a good hunter and a 

 good friend to the traders by his actions and talk, he could 

 occasionally borrow a gun and a few loads of ammunition to 

 make a hunt. The principal articles of trade were alcohol, 

 blankets, blue and scarlet cloth, sheeting (domestics), ticking, 

 tobacco, knives, fire-steels, arrow points, files, brass wire 

 (different sizes), beads, brass tacks, leather belts (from four to 

 ten inches wide), silver ornaments for hair, shells, axes, 

 hatchets, etc. 



The system pursued kept all the subordinate employees of 

 the company in actual bondage. The men were paid only 

 $200 to $250 a year, and were charged outrageous prices for 

 the necessaries of life. A cup of ammuuition, coffee, sugar, 

 flour or lard cost a dollar ; an ordinary flannel shirt from ten 

 to twenty dollars, and so on. The men consequently dressed 

 entirely in buckskin, and lived for months together solely on 

 meat without any salt, and little green stuff. Everything 

 (except the flesh and skins of wild animals) had to be brought 

 from Fort Union— and at first from St. Louis— in keel-boats, 

 which, much of the way, it was impossible to row against 

 the current, the only means of progress being by walking 

 along the bank and dragging the boat by a towing-rope held 

 across the shoulder. This was termed " cordelling," and 

 some of the old Frenchmen yet alive point to their bent 

 backs and knotted hands as evidence of the terribly hard 

 work it was. The result was that the laborers were in a per- 

 petual bondage of debt to the company, and their only hope 

 of escape, or chauce of "getting ahead," was to run away 

 and roam through the mountains as independent trappers, 

 which many of them did, passing lives of the most startling 

 adventure. 



Several trading stations had preceded Fort Benton — one of 



which— Fort McKenzie— on the Brule bottoms, a short dis- 

 tance below, had been occupied by Major Culbertson for 

 eleven years, and was the scene of the defeat of the Crow 

 chief, Botten Belly, whose fame is preserved in the name of 

 a prominent butte and canyon near by. 



This celebrated chief, urged- on by his people, had previ- 

 ously beleaguered Fort McKenzie, capturing all the animals 

 of the fort. The place was in charge of Mr. Culbertson, and 

 there were but nineteen men to defend it. For a month this 

 little force baffled all the attempts of the crows to get posses- 

 sion. Being, however, in a starving condition, and it being 

 apparent that they could not hold out much longer, resort was 

 had to stratagem. Twenty-nine squaws in the garrison were 

 dressed in men's clothes, and, with arms in their hands, were 

 distributed around the fort in sight of the Crows, who, thus 

 deceived in reference to the force defending the place, became 

 disheartened, drew off and separated. Rotten Belly, with a 

 portion, mortified at his failure, declared he would go north 

 and seek death in battle. On reaching the rocks and seeing 

 the Gros Ventres, he said : " Here I will die to-day ; you 

 have brought me to this," and rushing upon his enemies he 

 killed two, and then received his death wound. Before his 

 death he advised his people to be the friends of the whites, 

 saying it was their only chance to escape defeat and utter 

 ruin. 



In 1842, the Blackfeet Indians having become troublesome, 

 F. A. Chardon, then in charge of the fort, concluded to pun- 

 ish them. He waited until a trading party came in, and when 

 they were assembled in front of the gate, he suddenly opened 

 it and fired upon them with a small canon loaded with mus- 

 ket balls, afterward killing all the wounded with knives. 

 Thirty were thus massacred. The result was such a deter- 

 mined war by the outraged tribe that the fort had to be aban- 

 doned and another (Fort F. A. Chardon) built at the mouth 

 of the Judith River. 



Fort Benton was commanded by various officers after Ma- 

 jor Culbertson, but none of them is so well remembered as 

 "Old Man Dawson." He was a pompous, dignified, strict 

 man— something of a tyrant, but very well liked on the 

 whole. Many anecdotes are preserved of him. One winter 

 when everybody was nearly starving, an old wyageur named 

 Viall killed one of Mr. Dawson's precious pigs and divided 

 it among the garrison. The commandant, finally discovering 

 the thief, ordered the value of the porker to be charged 

 against him. Viall could do nothing but bide his time. 

 Soon after that Dawson had occasion to go to a neighboring 

 post and took Viall with him. On the way his horse stum- 

 bled, pitching his rider into a coulee, whence he called Viall 

 to extricate him. The old Frenchman paid no attention, and 

 not until the irate factor's language grew strong did Vi a 

 condescend to hear his cries and turn back. 



"Want me to help ye, eh?" he sneered. "Wall you 

 scratch ze pig in ze big book ?" 



" No, I won't," replied the testy factor. So Viall rode off. 

 But soon his struggling chief called him back. 



" Oh ! Viall, give me a lift." 



" Wall ye scratch the pig ?" Viall was inexorable. 



"No, d- me if I will!" Dawson shouted in boiling 



wrath, and Viall turned his horse's head again, while the fac- 

 tor floundered in vain, and a third time called the old trapper 

 back. 



"Wall ye scratch it now 'f I gi' ye a hand?" he asked 

 cautiously, before dismounting. 



"Yes ; pull me out." 



"And will ye gi' me squaw a new dress ?"added Viall. 



"Yes— here! take hold!" 



" And will ye gi' me a new suit of clothes ?" 



' ' Yes, yes— any thing— only pull me out of this coulee 1 



So Viall rescued his employer, and Dawson kept his prom- 

 ises. 



Another story of Viall is as follows : 



He was once sent to guide some Catholic priests across the 

 Saskatchewan country. On the way they saw a war party 

 of Indians approachmg. 



" Come on !" cried Viall instantly, "follow me as hard as 

 you can ride." 



" Oh, no," replied the missionaries placidly. " Keep quiet ; 

 trust in the Lord, and they won't harm us." 



But the old voyageur preferred to trust to his horse, and 

 made off at the top of his speed, while the Indians robbed 



