rged with this by Crooks
and MacLellan.[16] Perhaps that was his reason for pushing ahead at all
speed to overtake Hunt before either party had reached Sioux territory.

Hunt got wind of the pursuit. The faster Lisa came, the harder Hunt
fled. This curious race lasted for a thousand miles and ended in Lisa
coming up with the Astorians on June 2d. For a second time the Spaniard
tampered with Dorion. Had not two English travellers intervened, Hunt
and Lisa would have settled their quarrel with pistols for two.
Thereafter the rival parties proceeded in friendly fashion, Lisa helping
to gather horses for Hunt's party to cross the mountains.

That overland journey was one of the most pitiful, fatuous, mismanaged
expeditions in the fur trade. Why a party of sixty-four well-armed,
well-provisioned men failed in doing what any two _voyageurs_ or
trappers were doing every day, can only be explained by comparison to a
bronco in a blizzard. Give the half-wild prairie creature the bit, and
it will carry its rider through any storm. Jerk it to right, to left,
east, and west till it loses its confidence, and the bronco is as
helpless as the rider. So with the _voyageur_. Crossing the mountains
alone in his own way, he could evade famine and danger and attack by
lifting a brother trader's cache--hidden provisions--or tarrying in
Indian lodges till game crossed his path, or marrying the daughter of a
hostile chief, or creeping so quietly through the woods neither game
nor Indian scout could detect his presence. With a noisy cavalcade of
sixty-four all this was impossible. Broken into detachments, weak,
emaciated, stripped naked, on the verge of dementia and cannibalism, now
shouting to each other across a roaring canon, now sinking in despair
before a blind wall, the overlanders finally reached Astoria after
nearly a year's wanderings.

Mr. Astor's second ship, the Beaver, arrived with re-enforcements of men
and provisions. More posts were established inland. After several futile
attempts, despatches were sent overland to St. Louis. Under direction of
Mr. Hunt, the Beaver sailed for Alaska to trade with the Russians. Word
came from the North-West forts on the Upper Columbia of war with
England. Mr. Astor's third ship, the Lark, was wrecked. Astoria was now
altogether in the hands of men who had been Nor' Westers.

And what was the alert North-West Company doing?[17]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 8: Of the Lewis and Clark expedition.]