In the meanwhile Dr. Reed, who had been relieved as Agent of the Blackfoot tribes, went up on the American Fur Company boat _Yellowstone_ to turn over his charge to the new agent, Mr. Gad E. Upson. Mr. Chouteau had received the contract for taking up the annuities for the year 1864. He took them only to Cow Island, where, for some reason, possibly low water, they were put on the shore and the boat turned back. Mr. Upson, who had gone down from Benton to Union early in the spring, went back on the _Yellowstone_ with Mr. Reed. The boat, after unloading, turned back, and a day later met the _Effie Deans_. La Barge reported to Dr. Reed the facts as to the goods at Fort Union. Mr. Chouteau, who was on the _Yellowstone_, was called in and professed to disapprove of Rolette’s course, but did nothing to rectify it. So far as Captain La Barge knew at the time or ever learned afterward, this large quantity of Indian goods was traded out to the Indians by the so-called American Fur Company and constituted an unqualified theft from the government. The final outcome of the affair, so far as Captain La Barge was concerned, was a loss of nearly twenty thousand dollars.[62] He died a poor man, with the government in his debt by a sum that would have given ample comfort to his declining years. CHAPTER XXVII. COLLAPSE OF THE LA BARGE-HARKNESS OPPOSITION. The steamboat _Shreveport_, with the annual outfit of the new firm for the year 1863, did not get above Cow Island on account of the extremely low stage of the river. No other boat went as far as that within two hundred miles. Harkness and John La Barge put the cargo out upon the bank and hastened back to the assistance of the _Robert Campbell_. This event further illustrated the incapacity of Harkness. No arrangement was made for the transportation of the goods to Benton, although he knew that a considerable portion of the freight belonged to outside parties, and that the firm had contracted to take it through to that post. This precipitate action was due in part to danger from the Indians. In the year 1863 the tribes along the river were all in a state of unrest, and some of them actually on the warpath against the whites. Fort Union was practically in a state of siege all summer, and the danger to steamboats was a very formidable one. It was held by some parties that the sudden termination of the voyage was due to news received of the famous discovery of the Alder Gulch placers and the desire to go back and notify the firm; but of this there is not the slightest probability. Whatever the explanation, the act itself was disastrous upon the fortunes of the firm. [Sidenote: NICHOLAS WALL.]