Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/201

 those who follow them, should therefore be the wish, as it is the interest of every citizen of this valley.

To show the necessity of improvements upon the route, and the means adopted to effect them, I shall briefly refer to the time and manner in which the three preceding emgrations have accomplished the journey; and as the latter part of the road is much the most difficult, as well as most susceptible of improvement, all improvements worthy of notice, have been made or attempted west of the Rocky mountains.

The imigrants of 1843 were the first who traveled with wagons below Fort Hall—of these a part reached the Dalles of the Columbia in the month of November—others left their wagons and animals at Wallawalla, and a few remained at Dr. Whitman's Mission through the winter.

When we condiser the scarcity of grass and water along most of the route, and the making of the road for so great a distance, over wide plains of sage and sand, and almost impassable mountains, that they arrived on the Columbia at all, is a proof of energy and perseverance not often equaled by those who have followed them.

The obstacles so formidable had not been surmounted without much labor and loss, both of life and property; yet though so near the end of their journey, they experienced by far, more losses, hardship and sufferings in descending from the Dalles to the Willamette than in all the rest of the journey together; and almost in sight of the great object of their wishes, many were relieved from perishing by the benevolence of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the timely and gratuitous assistance of Capt, James Waters, a fellow emigrant.

The emigrants of 1844 fared even worse than those of the preceding year; arriving late in the season, when, by reason of the snow, the trail by Mount Hood was thought to be impassable; the greater part of their worn-down animals were swum to the north side of the Columbia, which is nearly a mile wide, driven down on that side and re-crossed