Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/117

 vealed the high rock Islands with their rugged crags and mouldering tombs. The winds from Mount Adams were loaded with frosts, and the poetry of the night was fast waning into an ague, when Mr. L. ordered the steersman to moor. A crackling pine fire was soon blazing, and having warmed our shivering frames, we spread our blankets and slept sweetly till the dawn.

At the time I took the wagons, I had no idea of undertaking to bring them into this country. I exchanged fat horses to the missionaries for their animals; and, after they had been gone a month or more for Willamette, and the American Fur Company had abandoned the country for good, I concluded to hitch up and try the much-dreaded job of taking a wagon to Oregon. I sold one of those wagons to Mr. Ermatinger, at Fort Hall. On the 15th of August, 1840, we put out with three wagons. Joseph L. Meek drove my wagon. In a few days, we began to realize the difficult task before us, and found that the continued crashing of the sage under our wagons, which in many places was higher than the mules' backs, was no joke. Seeing our animals begin to fail, we began to lighten up, finally threw away our wagon beds, and were quite sorry we had undertaken the job. All the consolation we had was that we broke the first sage on the road, and were too proud to eat anything but dried salmon skins after our provisions had become exhausted. In a rather rough and reduced state, we arrived at Dr. Whitman's mission station, in the Walla Walla valley, where we were met by that hospitable man and kindly made welcome, and feasted accordingly. On hearing me regret that I had undertaken to bring wagons, the Doctor said: "Oh, you will never regret it; you have broken the ice, and when others see that wagons have passed, they, too, will pass; and in a few years the val-