Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/59

Rh boiling a ham-bone, with thistles for greens, and a cup of spruce tea. Think of this, unlucky men, bothered with women, who, but for them, might be subsisting yourselves on thistles and spruce tea!

Our guide points out to us the peculiar features of Young's Bay, and the adjoining country. While we admire again the peaks of Castle (Saddle) Mountain, we listen to a legend, or tradition, which the Nehalem Indians relate of a vessel once cast ashore near the mouth of their river, the crew of which wero saved, together with their private property, and a box which they carried ashore, and buried on Mount Neah-car-ny, with much care, leaving two swords placed on it in the form of a cross.

Another version is, that one of their own number was slain, and his bones laid on top of the box when it was buried. This, were it true, would more effectually keep away the Indians than all the swords in Spain.

The story sounds very well, and is firmly believed by the Indians, who can not be induced to go near the spot, because their ancestors were told by those who buried the box, that, should they ever go near it, they would provoke the wrath of the Great Spirit. The tale corresponds with that told by the Indians of the upper Columbia, who say that some shipwrecked men, one of whom was called Soto, lived two or three years with their tribe, and then left them to try to reach the Spanish countries overland. It is probable enough that a Spanish galleon may have gone ashore near the mouth of the Columbia, and it agrees with the character of the early explorers of that nation, that they should undertake to reach Mexico by land. That they never did, we feel sure, and give a sigh to their memory.