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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1886)
134 THE WEST SHORE. kind. The Chinook wu not doliborafoly invented or concocted by the Hudson's Bay Company, as has been often asserted, but wu a growth, requiring many years for iU evolution to the stago in which the Oregon pio neers found it in the " forties." The first traders at the mouth of the Columbia, nearly twenty years before the founding of Astoria, were English and American skip pers, m lias been related in a previous article. In bar tering with the natives they naturally evolved a special trade lauguage, consisting of both English and Indian words, the latter applying chiefly to articles with which the natives were familiar, and tho former to thoso which were now to them, such as " musket" Tho Indian words, and English words mispronounced or combined with Indian words, naturally predominated. After As toria was founded and became the headquarters of the Northwest Company, this jargon rapidly increased in site and flexibility, and was carried inland by the traders, who found it much easier for the Indians to learn than English. In the course of its evolution, a great many French words were incorporated into it, as the majority of the company's servants were descendants of tho French settlors in Canada, and sjxiko a jkioi'h of the language of their mother country, which, indeed, many of those still living in the older Provinces of Canada, as well as the halfbrood desoendauU of the rotrucuri and traders along the Hod, Assiuiboiuo and Saskatchewan rivers, continue to do to the present day. The Indians, among whom this trada language had its birth, were the Chinook, living on tho north bank of the Columbia, near iU moutli. From this fact it is known as the " Chinook," though, as has leen stated, it is purely of a composite nature, and is by no means the mother tongue of ilia Chinook Indians. This jargon is spokon by every Indian trile throughout the wholo region tow and formerly dominated by the Hudson's liny Company. The early pioneers of this region became familiar with the jargon, and even now frequently rattle it off as glib ly as a Greek professor his Anabasis. It is related of the Ute Senator Noamith, that whilo making a political speech in the East, he dumbfounded his audience by shouting in a drauiatio manner a few disjointed frag. msnU of Chinook, receiving credit for having made au eitremuly claasio quotation from the Latin. Boon afar the consolidation of the two English com panies, American trader entered the field in oomwti tion with them. The base of these operations was SL Louis, between which city and Santa FA there existed a large trade in furs, Uie latter being headquarters for trap)ora in New Mexioo, then a Province of Mexico. The two leading organisations were the American Fur Company, and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. The former had been founded by Mr. Astor, a third of a century before, and now, under the management of Ramsey Crooks, transferred it base of ojiorations from Mackinac to St. Louis, The latter was organised by General William IL Ashley. There were many changos of copartnership in these companies, and numerous pri Tata far etorprisa, U detail of which have little interest, save to show how unsystematic was the Ameri can method of conducting the business, and how little hope there was for them to successfully compete with tho Rreat Hudson's Bay Company. The most promi nent names in the list of American traders are John Jacob Astor, Ramsey Crooks, W. H. Ashley, William Sublette, Milton Sublette, Jedediah S. Smith, David Jackson, Ewing Young, Major Piloher, Captain B. L. E. Bonneville, James Bridger, Robert Campbell, Thos. Fitpatrick, and Nathaniel J. Wyetk, These men were proprietors of laige enterprises. Second to them was a host of trappers and hunters, those reckless and in trepid mountaineers, whose doeds have been often re corded in border talos, and have served aa the inspira tion for hundreds of dime novels and tales in the sensa tional serial papers. Such names as Pegleg Smith, Joe Walker, Joe and Stephen Meek, Kit Carson and Jim Bockwith suggost the general character of them alL The first invasion of the Columbia River region by those Americans (except those early enterprises pre viously mentioned), was by Jedediah S. Smith, a part ner in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, who crossed the mountains to California in 1825, and again the fol lowing year, proceeding up the coast to Oregon in the spring of 1828. His party was attacked by Indians near the mouth of the Umpqua, and only Smith and two of his men succeeded in escaping to Vancouver. From this time on the competition between the Americans and the English company was intense, until, after some fif teen years, the latter, having driven the former from the field, was itself compelled to withdraw north of the forty-ninth parallol, which was, in 1840, agreed upon as the boundary between the United States and Great Britain's possessions in America. The details of this competition would be tedious, but not so a statement of the distinctive features of the contest The chief difficulty in the pathway of American trailers, was a lack of unity of purpose and combination of capital and effort. They were independent traders, operating alone or in transient and shifting partner ships. Separately they had not sufficient capital to carry on business in the systematic and comprehensive manner in which the Hudson's Bay Company operated. The trado was not fostered for future advantage, since none of thorn cared to build up a business for some one else to enjoy. As each sought to make all the immedi ate profit possible, the competition among them was ruinous to all, and in a few years the whole trade, so far as the Americans were concerned, was destroyed. In their conflict with the English monopoly they were at a fatal disadvantage One unsuccessful season with them was often financially disastrous, while to the great cor poration, covering so vast a eoope of country, dealing with so many tribes of Indians, and handling snch varied classes of furs, such a thing as a completely nn suocesHful season was impossible. Gains in one section compensated for losses in another. For thia reason, '' 1 1 "- n --t ii i II lU.1i I ' ' t C 1. st U Sip im lillh tlm Om iimUw KiiIiiii