Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1901-02-28
BISMARCK DAILY TRIBUNE: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY %; 1901
the business, but their work ended 10
failure, and is of interest only from, .
historical point OF view. Il,

the business, but their work ended 10
failure, and is of interest only from a
historical point of view.
TRADING WITH SANTA FE.
There was another field of trade of
great Importance in these early times,
though quite unlike that connected with
the trappers. This was the overland
commerce with Santa Fe. That remote
and benighted village on the very con-
fines Of Spanish civilization was some
LEGO miles distant from Vera Cruz, the
nearest seaport whence fabrics from the
outside world could be procured. 1t was
a matter of enormous difficulty and ex-
pense to secure in the far west even
those common necessities of life which
could not be produced by the people
themselves. The enterprising American
discovering this, and knowing enough
about the geography of the west to show
him that the Missouri river was not half
as far from Santa Fe as was Vera Cruz.
rightly concluded that here was a prom
Using business opening.
HE tried the experiment; and al
though it was not at first successful he
saw that this was due to the Jealous
suspicious of the Spanish authorities
rather than to any fault of the business
itself. When Spanish authority in Mex
leo was rvarthroup +ho +r,l,
sprang into a hourishing business, which
was not only profitable to the American,
but was an unqualified blessing to the
isolated community of Santa Fe. The
merchandise was carried southwest
mostly in wagons, and it was in this
trade that the word caravan found a
true application for che traders banded
together IN a compact organization for
safety and protection in the long journey
of U miles to the Missouri. The only
great drawback to the business was the
customs regulations of the Mexican gov
eminent; and these the shrewd trader
and the corrupt official generally man
aged to get over to their mutual salts
faction. The most approved method was
to give one-third Of the duty to the gov
eminent, one-third to the official, while
the trader retained the other third him
self. This commerce of the prairles con
tinued down to the outbreak of the war
with Mexico and was of inestimable
service in that conflict, for the reason
that it had practically won the inhabit-
ants of northern Mexico to the American
cause, or at least had made them not
unwilling beneticiaries. of the change
produced by the war.
INTERNATIONAL QUESTIONS.
I'm those days international questions
were of serious Importance in this west
ern country, where now we scarcely ever
have occasion to realize that there is
foreign territory both north and south of
our own. The trader had to contend
with the jealousy and intrigue of the
Spaniard on the west and the Briton on
the north. Three years after the pur-
chase of Louisiana an armed expedition
from Santa Fe penetrated to within $50
miles of where Sioux City now stands,
and sought an alliance with the power
full tribe of the Pawnees, in the valley of
the Platte. To the north the intrigue of
the British traders and their seditious
influence upon the Indians were a more
formidable menace than even the armed
forces of Spain. It was the trader who
effectively drove both beyond the border
by his persistent and resolute determin-
alton to enjoy the rights to which he
was entitled upon his own soil. Along
this portion of the northern boundary
the government experienced none of
those embarrassments which gave it so
much trouble for many years along the
great lakes.
In the history of the fur trade there
were some events of deep national sig
~niticance. Ninety years ago next May a
remarkable iotilla passed what is now
Sioux City on its slow and toilsome way
up the Missouri. There were several
boats and some sixty men in the expedi-
ton. At the rate of from twelve te if
teen miles a day it worked it's weary
course along, en- route from the mouth of
the Columbian river on the northern Pa
cific coast. This was the ever to be re-
membered Historian expedition under
Wilson Price Hunt. 1t succeeded in
planting the American flag in peaceful
occupation OF the Columbian valley,
while that entire region was yet an I'M
disturbed wilderness. 1t furnished to
the government a golden opportunity,
which unfortunately our statesmen were
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