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Show THE "DISCOVERT" IMPOSTURE. Those who aro Xiniiliar with the claims of original discoveries will be quite prepared to accept tho statements of the three Fort Simpson trappors who claim. that they found tho blonde Es.-quimos. Es.-quimos. before Stofansson 'Hid. In fact, they claim that they were living with" tho very party of blonde Esquimos that Stefansson "discovered" at the time that he visited these "blondes. The fact that Stefansson made no reference to these white trappers is qulto tho usual thing among those who wish to claim original discoveries. Throughout all of tho old 'Northwest tho Bois Brulcs had traversed all of the supposed- unknown un-known regions lone before the famous "discoverers" who got tho credit of original exploration know anything about them. Those ' old Bois Brulcs went everywhere and were familiar with the prctt' much all Indian coun-tr3', coun-tr3', that was supposed to bo eutiroly unknown, long before that country was oflicially or 'historical!- " discovered." In the same way, throughout all this region, John C. Fremont posed as a great discovoror and explorer, and yot the streams of all this mountain regiou-had regiou-had boon so thoroughly trapped out that as early :w 1S3G trapping was no longer profitable. Bonneville know all about this country lone: beforo Fremont Fre-mont '3 alleged oxplorationa. General Ashley brought a cannon through tho passes on its own wheels and took it to the fihores of Utah lake in 182C. The trappers had, in fact, complete' overrun all this mountain country years before Fremont's appearance, and had ropeatcdly traversed both" the Southern routo to California and the direct routo westward from here through the Sierras. Thoy bad gone from south to north along tho coast, and had visited and trapped in all of the great rivers and their tributary streams. Bat officially all this region was supposed to be unknown until Fremont's Fre-mont's reports were made and published pub-lished by Congress. The humbug of the " discovery " claims has been thoroughly thor-oughly known for many years to all who cared to investigate. But in sequonco, first the unknown and unrecorded explorer, trapper, and hunter, goes all through an unknown country and finds out all about it; then some official or some agent, some person per-son pf "prominence, hears the tales of tlio?e original explorers, becomes fired with tho idea that ho can make a naihe and ropulation by making tho facts known, gets authority to proccod, and, presto! his famo is secure. In viow of the universal precedent iu this matter, it is no surprise to find that Stofansson has done cxactlj- aB other oxplorcrs have dono before him, taken all tho credit to himself, and ignored ig-nored the discoveries of thoso who had gone before. If Stofnnsson had said ' candidly that he found three white trapperB living with tho blondo Esquimos, ho would have been accorded accord-ed a higher credit in the long run; but as all other oxplorers have done, ho saw tho opportunity to gain original fame us the "first cvor," and.' ignoring all others, ho 'put in his claim and "let it go at that." |