Sources of the River by Jack Nisbet

Author:Jack Nisbet [Nisbet, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-07-21T04:00:00+00:00

SCRUBBING UP was a luxury that occasionally occupied David Thompson’s mind as well—his supply order for the previous season had included twenty pounds of soap, “for without soap, there is no effective cleanliness; this we know very well, who too often experience the want of it.” One of the things that impressed him about the tribes he had met on the west side was that they were “as neat in their persons as circumstances will allow.” He found the ones around Kullyspel House industrious as well. When he and Beaulieu got back to their new post on October 6, Finan McDonald had just finished trading with a band of Coeur d’Alenes (Pointed Hearts) for three horses and almost two hundred pounds of good furs.

By the end of October, Thompson had met James McMillan coming from Fort William with trade goods and led him back to Kullyspel House. The surveyor had decided that the Flatheads to the east (whom he also called the Saleesh) needed a post of their own, and that it would be a good idea to reach them before the Bay Company or the Americans did. Leaving Finan McDonald in charge at Kullyspel House, he and McMillan led a pack train up the Clark Fork River along the “Saleesh Road to the Buffalo” to a location near the modern town of Thompson Falls, Montana. There, opposite the mouth of a fine creek, they built Saleesh House. The surrounding open country promised plenty of game, but during that first week in November nobody could find any food. The weather was rainy, and when McMillan and Thompson did get out, they didn’t do much to improve their situation.

November 12th Sunday. A fine mild day–As we are all quite hungry and much in want, Mr. McMillan, Forcier and myself went a hunting but without Success. By the accidental going off of his Gun Mr. McMillan had both the forefingers of his Hands shot through by a Ball & much lacerated with the Powder, both of his Fingers are broke & seemingly will with difficulty be kept from falling off–I dressed them the best I could.

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