e established a post
on the banks of the Yellowstone River in 1822, and in the following year
pushed a resolute band of trappers across the mountains to the banks of
the Green River or Colorado of the West, often known by the Indian name
of the Seeds-ke-dee Agie. This attempt was followed up and sustained by
others, until in 1825 a footing was secured, and a complete system of
trapping organized beyond the mountains.

It is difficult to do justice to the courage, fortitude, and
perseverance of the pioneers of the fur trade, who conducted these
early expeditions, and first broke their way through a wilderness where
everything was calculated to deter and dismay them. They had to traverse
the most dreary and desolate mountains, and barren and trackless wastes,
uninhabited by man, or occasionally infested by predatory and cruel
savages. They knew nothing of the country beyond the verge of their
horizon, and had to gather information as they wandered. They beheld
volcanic plains stretching around them, and ranges of mountains piled
up to the clouds, and glistening with eternal frost: but knew nothing
of their defiles, nor how they were to be penetrated or traversed. They
launched themselves in frail canoes on rivers, without knowing whither
their swift currents would carry them, or what rocks and shoals and
rapids they might encounter in their course. They had to be continually
on the alert, too, against the mountain tribes, who beset every
defile, laid ambuscades in their path, or attacked them in their night
encampments; so that, of the hardy bands of trappers that first entered
into these regions, three-fifths are said to have fallen by the hands of
savage foes.

In this wild and warlike school a number of leaders have sprung up,
originally in the employ, subsequently partners of Ashley; among these
we may mention Smith, Fitzpatrick, Bridger, Robert Campbell, and William
Sublette; whose adventures and exploits partake of the wildest spirit of
romance. The association commenced by General Ashley underwent various
modifications. That gentleman having acquired sufficient fortune, sold
out his interest and retired; and the leading spirit that succeeded
him was Captain William Sublette; a man worthy of note, as his name has
become renowned in frontier story. He is a native of Kentucky, and of
game descent; his maternal grandfather, Colonel Wheatley, a companion of
Boon, having been one of the pioneers of the West, celebrated