248 T. d ELLIOTT
lation and batik deposits. David Thompson spent the winter of 1809-10 at this trading post, in company with his clerk, James McMillan, who arrived in November by way of Kootenay River with additional trading goods. Again, in 1811-12, after his famous journey to the mouth of the Columbia, Mr. Thomp- son wintered here.
When in April, 1810, he started on his annual journey across the Rocky Mountains, Mr. McMillan accompanying him, by the usual long and wearisome series of canoe routes and port- ages, Mr. Thompson expected to be back again in the early fall, and he left Finan McDonald in charge of Saleesh House, with instructions or permission to assist the Saleesh Indians in the use of their newly-acquired firearms. Such an activity was very much to the liking of that restless Highlander, and he even accompanied the tribe on their annual buffalo hunt and took part in a successful battle with the Piegans on the plains along the Missouri River. The Piegans were so angered by this that they at once made trouble on the Saskatchewan River, further north, and prevented Mr. Thompson's party from returning over the usual mountain pass. He was com- pelled to seek a route through the Athabasca Pass, and as a result did not arrive at the Columbia at all until the middle of January, 1811, and was ice-bound for the rest of the winter at the mouth of Canoe River.
In April, 1810, when at Kullyspell House, Mr. Thompson had also engaged the services for the summer of one Jaco Finlay (whose full name was Jacques Raphael Finlay) an in- telligent half-breed, who seems to have been already living in the Saleesh country as a sort of free-hunter; and the pre- sumption is that he authorized Finlay to push the trade further west into the Skeetshoo, which would be the Coeur d'Alene Country. At any rate, when Mr. Thompson returned to the Saleesh Country in June, 1811, he found no one there nor at Kullyspell House ; but he did find both Jaco Finlay and Finan McDonald residing and trading at a new post designated as Spokane House. To Jaco Finlay, then, possibly assisted by or assisting Finan McDonald, probably belongs the honor of
