The Story of the Trapper 1902

330 Pages·1902·5.93 MB·English

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The Story of the West Series.

Edited by Ripley Hitchcock.

Each, illuitrated, lamo, Cloth.

The Story
of
the
Railroad.

By Cy Warman, Author of "The Express Mes-

senger."
I1.50.

The
Story
of
the Cowboy.
By E. Hough.
Illustrated by WiUiam L. WeUs
and C. M. Russell.
ti.50-

The
Story
of
the
Mine.

Illustrated by the Great Comstock Lode of Nevada.
By Charles Howard Shinn.
$1.50.

The Story
of
the
Indian.

By George Bird Grinnell, Author of " Pawnee
Hero Stories," " Blackfoot Lodge Tales," etc.
$1.50.

The Story
of
the
Soldier.
By Brevet Brigadier-General George A. Forsyth,
U.
S. A.
(retired).
Illustrated by R.
F. Zogbaum.

ti.So.

The
Story
of
the Trapper.
By A. C. Laut, Author of " Heralds of Empire."
Illustrated
by Hemment.
ti.25
net
;
postage,
12
cents additional.

Ik Preparation.
The Story ol the Explorer.
By Riplkv Hitchcock.

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.

With eye and ear
alert the man paddles
silently on.

(See page
105.)

THE STORY
OF THE TRAPPER

BY

A.
C. LAUT

AUTHOR OF HERALDS OF EMPIRE
AND LORDS OF THE NORTH

ILLUSTRATED BY ARTHUR HEMING
AND OTHERS

NEW YORK

D, APPLETON AND COMPANY

1902

COPTRIOHT} 1902

By
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

PubUsTied Jiovember, 1909

TO ALL WHO KNOW
THE GIPSY YEARNING FOR THE WILDS

EDITOR'S PEEFAOE

The picturesque figure of the trapper follows close

behind the Indian in the unfolding of the panorama

of the West.
There
is the explorer, but the trapper

himself preceded the
explorers—^witness
Lewis's and

Clark's meetings with trappers on their journey.
The

trapper's
hard-earned knowledge
of
the
vast
empire

lying beyond the Missouri was utilized by later com-

ers, or in a large part died with him, leaving occa-

sional records in the documents of fur companies,
o-r

reports of military expeditions, or here and there in

the name of a pass, a stream, a mountain, or a
fort.

His adventurous warfare upon the wild things of the

woods and streams was the expression of a primitive

instinct old as the history of mankind.
The develop-

ment of the motives which led the
first pioneer trap-

pers
afield from the days of the
first Eastern
settle-

ments, the industrial organizations which followed, the

commanding
commercial
results which were
evolved

from the trafScking of Badisson and Groseilliers in the

vii

yiii
THE STORY OF THE TRAPPEE

North, the rise of the great Hudson's Bay Company,

and the American enterprise which led, among other

results, to the foundation of the Astor fortunes, would

form no
inconsiderable
part
of
a
history
of North

America.
The
present volume aims simply to show

the type-character of the Western trapper, and to sketch

in a series of pictures the checkered life of this adven-

turer of the wilderness.

The trapper of the early West was a composite fig-

ure.
Prom the Northeast came a splendid succession of

Erench explorers like La Verendrye, with coureurs des

hois, and a multitude of daring trappers and traders

pushing west and south.
From the south the Spaniard,

illustrated
in
figures
like
Garces
and
others,
held

out hands which rarely grasped the waiting commerce.
Prom the north and northeast there was the steady

advance of the sturdy Scotch and English, typified in

the deeds of the Henrys, Thompson, MacKenzie, and the

leaders of the organized fur trade, explorers, traders,

captains of industry, carrying the flags of the Hudson's
Bay and North-West Pur companies
across Northern

America to the Pacific.
On the far Northwestern coast

the Eussian appeared as fur trader in the middle of

the eighteenth century, and the
close
of the century
saw the merchants of Boston claiming their share of

the fur
traffic of that
coast.
The American trapper

becomes a conspicuous figure in the early years of the

nineteenth century.
The emporium of his
traffic was

EDITOR'S PREFACE
ir

St. Louis, and the period of
its greatest importance

and prosperity began soon after the Louisiana Purchase

and continued for forty years.
The complete history

of the American fur trade of the far West has been

written by Captain H. M. Chittenden in volumes which

will be included among the
classics of early Western

history.
Although
his
history
is
a
publication
de-

signed for limited circulation, no student or specialist

in this field can fail to appreciate the value of his faith-

ful and comprehensive work.

In The Story of the Trapper there is presented for

the general reader a vivid picture of an adventurous

figure, which is painted with a singleness
of purpose

and a distinctness impossible of realization in the large

and detailed histories of the American fur trade and

the Hudson's Bay and North-West companies, or the

various special
relations and Journals and narratives.

The author's wilderness lore and her knowledge of the

life, added to her acquaintance with its literature, have

borne
fruit in a
personification
of the Western and

Korthem trappers who live in her pages.
It is the man
whom we follow not merely in the evolution of the West-

ern fur traffic, but also in the course of his strange life

in the wilds, his adventures, and the contest of his craft

against the cunning of his quarry.
It
is a most pic-

turesque figure which
is sketched in these pages with

the
etcher's
art
that
selects
essentials
while
boldly

disregarding details.
This figure as it is outlined here