The American fur companies keep no established posts beyond the
mountains. Everything there is regulated by resident partners; that
is to say, partners who reside in the tramontane country, but who move
about from place to place, either with Indian tribes, whose traffic
they wish to monopolize, or with main bodies of their own men, whom they
employ in trading and trapping. In the meantime, they detach bands,
or "brigades" as they are termed, of trappers in various directions,
assigning to each a portion of country as a hunting or trapping ground.
In the months of June and July, when there is an interval between the
hunting seasons, a general rendezvous is held, at some designated place
in the mountains, where the affairs of the past year are settled by the
resident partners, and the plans for the following year arranged.
To this rendezvous repair the various brigades of trappers from their
widely separated hunting grounds, bringing in the products of their
year's campaign. Hither also repair the Indian tribes accustomed to
traffic their peltries with the company. Bands of free trappers resort
hither also, to sell the furs they have collected; or to engage their
services for the next hunting season.
To this rendezvous the company sends annually a convoy of supplies from
its establishment on the Atlantic frontier, under the guidance of some
experienced partner or officer. On the arrival of this convoy, the
resident partner at the rendezvous depends to set all his next year's
machinery in motion.
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