year around the settlement of St. Louis for defense, killing from fifteen to twenty persons, and then attacked the village, but were repulsed. Spain held possession of the territory until 1800, when it was retroceded to France, as related in Part I, and was ceded to the United States in 1803. On June 2, 1819, the first steamboat reached St. Louis, direct from New Orleans. She was named the Harriet. The first steamboat built in St. Louis was not launched until twenty-three years after. The Mississippi Company was reorganized in 1832, and during their occupation trading posts were established in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, and lead mines were discovered in Northern Louisiana extending from the 33d degree north latitude to the Canadian territory. CHAPTER XI THE CONQUEST OF THE MISSOURI --- YELLOWSTONE TRAPPERS EARLY TRADING POSTS ON THE YELLOWSTONE RIVER TRADERS ROCKY MOUNTAIN FUR COMPANY-INDIAN TREATIES OF 1825-THE COLTER AND FINK, CHARACTER SKETCHES. "Careless seems the great Avenger; History's pages but record EARLY TRADING POSTS ON THE YELLOWSTONE There were several posts at the mouth of the Big Horn, where it joins the Yellowstone River in Montana, not far from the Custer Battlefield; the first built in 1807, by Manuel Lisa, the noted Indian trader-as previously mentioned -and abandoned the next year. One, called Fort Benton, was built at this point in 1822, and abandoned in 1823. In 1822 Gen. William H. Ashley and Andrew Henry built a post at this point, but gave it up after the first winter. In 1825, it will be seen, it was visited by the Atkinson Commission and the site described. Fort Cass was three miles above the mouth of the Big Horn, built by the American Fur Company in 1832, sometimes known as Tulloch's Fort, and abandoned in 1835. YELLOWSTONE TRAPPERS AMBUSHED During the winter of 1822-23, the Missouri Fur Company had maintained a force of hunters and trappers on the Yellowstone and its branches. The party originally consisting of forty-three men, who wintered at the mouth of the Big Horn River, were reduced to thirty by desertion. They had abandoned their winter quarters and were returning to their station with their catch of furs, when, on May 31st, they were ambushed by the Blackfeet. Robert Jones, who joined the Missouri Fur Company in 1818, and Michael Immel, the leaders of the party, and five others were killed, and four wounded. They lost their entire outfit of horses and equipment, and from $15,000 to $20,000 THE STEAMER "YELLOWSTONE" ASCENDING THE MISSOURI RIVER IN 1833 From a painting by Charles Bodmer from "Travels to the Interior of North America in 1832-3-4," by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 1843. SNAGS, SUNKEN TREES, ON THE MISSOURI From a painting by Charles Bodmer from "Travels to the Interior of North America in 1832-3-4," by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, 1843. worth of furs, some of which were recovered through the good offices of the Hudson's Bay Company officials. ATTACKED BY THE ARIKARAS General Ashley, from his trading post at the mouth of the Yellowstone River, in 1823 planned an expedition for trading and trapping on that stream and its tributaries, intending to extend his operations to the Columbia River. He organized a party of ninety men in the spring of that year, which he concentrated at the mouth of the Cheyenne River, with the intention of sending forty men across the plains with horses, the remainder to go on by boat. On the morning of May 30th, he reached the Arikara villages, and spent three days there, purchasing about fifty horses for his Yellowstone expedition, but on June 2d he was attacked by the Indians, and of his men fourteen were killed, eleven wounded, and one died of his wounds. Practically all of his horses were killed, and much of his property was stolen or destroyed. The Indians numbered about six hundred, and the attack was without the slightest provocation or warning. General Ashley gave his loss as follows: Killed, John Mathews, John Collins, Aaron Stevens, James McDaniel, Westley Piper, George Flage, Benjamin F. Sweed, James Penn, Jr., John Miller, John S. Gardner, Ellis Ogle, David Howard. Wounded, Reece Gibson (died of wounds), Joseph Monse, John Lawson, Abraham Ricketts, Robert Tucker, Joseph Thompson, Jacob Miller, Daniel McClain, Hugh Glass, August Duffer, and Willis, a colored man This company was succeeded by Smith, Jackson & Sublette, in 1826. They had great success, though they met with numerous mishaps. Or one of their expeditions, nineteen of a party of twenty-two men were killed by the Indians, and their property taken, but through the Hudson's Bay Company, in this instance also, most of the property was recovered. Later the firm became Fitzpatrick, Sublette & Bridger. PUNISHING THE ARIKARAS June 18, 1823, Col. Henry Leavenworth left Fort Atkinson (Nebraska, near Council Bluffs, Iowa) with Companies A, B, D, E, F, and G, Sixth United States Infantry, for the purpose of punishing the Arikaras. He took with him several pieces of light artillery, manned by details from his command, and was accompanied by eighty volunteers, armed and equipped by the fur companies, and from 600 to 800 Sioux, organized by Joshua Pilcher, of the Missouri Fur Company; the Sioux expecting a free hand in the matter of scalps and spoils. The roster of officers of this expedition included Col. Henry Leavenworth, Maj. Adam R. Wooley, Brevet Maj. Daniel Ketchum, Captains Bennett Riley and William Armstrong, Lieutenants John Bradley, Nicholas John Cruger, William N. Wickliffe, William Walton Morris, Thomas Noel, and Surgeon John Gale. The officers of the volunteer command and the Sioux Indian contingent were Gen. William H. Ashley, Captains Jedediah Smith and Horace Scott, Lieutenants Hiram Allen and David Jackson, Ensigns Charles Cunningham and Edward Rose, Surgeon Fleming, Quartermaster Thomas Fitzpatrick, and Serg.-Maj. Wil |