jealousy and opposition on the part of the Missouri
Company. Mr. Hunt proceeded to strengthen himself against all
competition. For this purpose, he secured to the interests of the
association another of those enterprising men, who had been engaged
in individual traffic with the tribes of the Missouri. This was a Mr.
Joseph Miller, a gentleman well educated and well informed, and of a
respectable family of Baltimore. He had been an officer in the army
of the United States, but had resigned in disgust, on being refused
a furlough, and had taken to trapping beaver and trading among the
Indians. He was easily induced by Mr. Hunt to join as a partner, and was
considered by him, on account of his education and acquirements, and his
experience in Indian trade, a valuable addition to the company.

Several additional men were likewise enlisted at St. Louis, some as
boatmen, and others as hunters. These last were engaged, not merely to
kill game for provisions, but also, and indeed chiefly, to trap beaver
and other animals of rich furs, valuable in the trade. They enlisted
on different terms. Some were to have a fixed salary of three hundred
dollars; others were to be fitted out and maintained at the expense of
the company, and were to hunt and trap on shares.

As Mr. Hunt met with much opposition on the part of rival traders,
especially the Missouri Fur Company, it took him some weeks to complete
his preparations. The delays which he had previously experienced at
Montreal, Mackinaw, and on the way, added to those at St. Louis, had
thrown him much behind his original calculations, so that it would be
impossible to effect his voyage up the Missouri in the present year.
This river, flowing from high and cold latitudes, and through wide and
open plains, exposed to chilling blasts, freezes early. The winter
may be dated from the first of November; there was every prospect,
therefore, that it would be closed with ice long before Mr. Hunt could
reach its upper waters. To avoid, however, the expense of wintering at
St. Louis, he determined to push up the river as far as possible, to
some point above the settlements, where game was plenty, and where his
whole party could be subsisted by hunting, until the breaking up of the
ice in the spring should permit them to resume their voyage.

Accordingly on the twenty-first of October he took his departure from
St. Louis. His party was distributed in three boats. One was the barge
which he ha