Pioneers of the Pioneers ill
they made the trip to the Rocky Mountains by means of a pack train. Here some of the men turned back discouraged, so that the last portion of the trip was made with only eleven men. This little party reached Vancouver, October 24, 1832. The ship had not arrived, and they soon learned that she had been wrecked at the Society Islands. Wyeth therefore returned to Boston in 1833, leaving a few of his men, who were among the first agricultural settlers of Oregon. The business part of the enterprise had failed completely.
Wyeth's second expedition. But Wyeth was plucky, and had great faith in the prospects for a profitable commercial enterprise in the Oregon country. The salmon fishery of the Columbia was a possible source of great wealth, and he proposed to couple fur trading with it. He therefore induced the Boston partners to supply another ship, the May Dacre, which was sent down the coast in the fall of 1833. Wyeth himself made the trip overland once more in the summer of 1834. This time he took a number of wagons from St. Louis, with goods which had been ordered by the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. When the company refused to receive them, Wyeth selected a place near the junction of the Snake and Portneuf rivers, where he built Fort Hall and began trading with the Indians on his own account by means of an agent left there. He then passed on down the river, reaching Vancouver in September. Once more the energetic captain was disappointed, for the May
