The voyage of Wyeth shows the regular and unobstructed flow of the rivers, on the east side of the Rocky Mountains, in contrast to those of the western side; where rocks and rapids continually menace and obstruct the voyager.  We find him in a frail bark of skins, launching himself in a stream at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and floating down from river to river, as they empty themselves into each other; and so he might have kept on upward of two thousand miles, until his little bark should drift into the ocean.  At present we shall stop with him at Cantonment Leavenworth, the frontier post of the United States; where he arrived on the 27th of September.

Here his first care was to have his Nez Perce Indian, and his half-breed boy, Baptiste, vaccinated.  As they approached the fort, they were hailed by the sentinel.  The sight of a soldier in full array, with what appeared to be a long knife glittering on the end of a musket, struck Baptiste with such affright that he took to his heels, bawling for mercy at the top of his voice.  The Nez Perce would have followed him, had not Wyeth assured him of his safety.  When they underwent the operation of the lancet, the doctor’s wife and another lady were present; both beautiful women.  They were the first white women that they had seen, and they could not keep their eyes off of them.  On returning to the boat, they recounted to their companions all that they had observed at the fort; but were especially eloquent about the white squaws, who, they said, were white as snow, and more beautiful than any human being they had ever beheld.

We shall not accompany the captain any further in his Voyage; but will simply state that he made his way to Boston, where he succeeded in organizing an association under the name of “The Columbia River Fishing and Trading Company,” for his original objects of a salmon fishery and a trade in furs.  A brig, the May Dacres, had been dispatched for the Columbia with supplies; and he was now on his way to the same point, at the head of sixty men, whom he had enlisted at St. Louis; some of whom were experienced hunters, and all more habituated to the life of the wilderness than his first band of “down-easters.”

We will now return to Captain Bonneville and his party, whom we left, making up their packs and saddling their horses, in Bear River Valley.

42.

Departure of Captain Bonneville for the Columbia—­Advance of Wyeth—­Efforts to keep the lead—­Hudson’s Bay party—­A junketing—­A delectable beverage—­Honey and alcohol—­High carousing—­The Canadian “bon vivant”—­A cache—­A rapid move Wyeth and his plans—­His travelling companions—­Buffalo hunting More conviviality—­An interruption.

It was the 3d of July that Captain Bonneville set out on his second visit to the banks of the Columbia, at the head of twenty-three men.  He travelled leisurely, to keep his horses fresh, until on the 10th of July a scout brought word that Wyeth, with his