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Rare letter from Nathaniel Wyeth sent from Fort Vancouver via the Hudson Bay Company to his brother Charles, Baltimore. With a copy (not in Nathaniel’s hand) of a letter, written the same day, to his brother Leonard, forwarded by him to Charles. Having reached the Pacific virtually alone, and with no idea of the bitter controversy dividing his family back home, Nathaniel wrote Charles a cheerful account of the end of his journey, though pointedly avoiding any business references because the letter was being obligingly carried East by agents of the Hudson’s Bay Company which controlled the fur trade in the region: “This will be short, and I hope sweet. It comes to you by the way of the Hon. Hudsons Bay Co. and as a matter of course cannot contain matters of business. From the agents of this Co. I have received all manner of assistance. And attentions rendered in such a way as to be extremely agreeable. I expect to be with you about the time you receive this, but if I should be a year later it need occasion no surprise, as I have now but two men. I can only travel when and where I have company, and where I am in a country where I can get horses to ride, and Buffaloe to eat, and Deer skin to wear, I will not risqué my life in trying to get home with only two men. From the Hudsons Bay Co. I have drawn some small supply for the amt. of which I shall draw on you on [hand?] and please receive this in advice of the same. Our journey out was attended with few of the difficulties and none of the adventure anticipated. As I expect to be with you in October I will not trouble you with much at this time..." In the other letter, which Leonard copied and forwarded to Charles, Nathaniel writes “My route will be across the Mountains…down the Platte to the Mississippi…My journey hither has been attended with much less difficulty than I expected but it appears the hardships of the undertaking were greater than those with me anticipated as they have all left me, as they fell in with opportunity. I have now two hired men, with whom I shall return. I think I may reach home in October…my object in returning by a different route from that by which this will reach you, is to avail myself of some deposits of goods etc. which for want of Horses I left in the interior, as I cannot travel in this country with so few as two men. I must wait the movements of the friendly Indians, and whites and journey in Co. with them. In this way I am subject to great uncertainty. My health very good…” Wyeth’s reference to his relatively uneventful 'journey out' must refer to rest of his trip, after the hair-raising fur trapper battle with Blackfoot Indians which moved Jacob and John to desert the expedition after months of hunger, illness and other misfortunes. While the powerful Hudson’s Bay Company was helpful enough to Nathaniel personally, it had no intention of making any fur-trading business arrangement with the upstart American. In the spring of 1833, Nathaniel began his overland journey home, accompanied by other friendly fur traders. He reached Boston, as predicted, in the fall of 1833, and immediately – to his father’s consternation – began making plans for a second expedition across the Plains.

Additional note on Letters of Nathaniel Wyeth’s First Oregon Trail Expedition

Nathaniel Wyeth led the first "emigrant party" to cross the Plains from Missouri to Oregon from May to October 1832. It was a hazardous overland journey, marked by privation, Indian attacks and personal conflicts in wild country previously known only to rugged Mountain Men and fur trappers. But Wyeth, an Eastern "tenderfoot" entrepreneur, who set out with twenty recruits, including his younger brother Jacob Jr., a neer-do-well Doctor, and 17 year-old cousin John, remained determined to reach the Columbia River, dreaming of wealth in the fur trade which had made John Jacob Astor the richest man in America.

These letters are taken from the unpublished papers of Nathaniel's brother Charles, a Baltimore merchant who, together with his brother Leonard in New York, helped bankroll the expedition. They reveal the undocumented conflicts within the Wyeth family which surrounded the famous expedition, including opposition to the venture by their father, Jacob Sr., a Massachusetts hotel owner; and the "desertion", midway, by the alcoholic Jacob Jr. and teenaged John, both of whom turned back after a battle with Indians in present-day Idaho.

One letter, written by Nathaniel after had reached Fort Vancouver alone, is a philatelic as well as historic rarity, being carried across the plains by agents of the Hudson's Bay Company. Two are written by Nathaniel's father and two others by John Wyeth's father, a semi-literate sea captain whose direct descendants were the famed artists Andrew and Jamie Wyeth. These letters illuminate the conflicts between Jacob Jr. and John after they had abandoned Nathaniel, significant because John, returning to Boston, published a ghost-written critical account of the journey which has become a rare classic of Oregon Trail literature.