Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/162

Rh On the 8th, three muscular Walla Wallas, with a canoe furnished with provisions by Pambrun, took the hopeful traveller in charge for a voyage to Fort Vancouver. The first day's experience of the Columbia rapids so alarmed him that he begged the natives to put him ashore, but he yielded to their assurance that there was no danger. He visited the Cayuse tribe on the south side of the river, and some savages, whom he called Nez Percés, on the north bank. The Cayuses were curious to know what had brought a white man who was not a trader amongst them; and being told that he had come to instruct them how to worship God, they gave him a salute, as the Nez Percés had done, every man, woman, and child shaking hands with him, and expressing their satisfaction. Not being able to converse freely, and having no interpreter, he promised to meet them in the spring at Walla Walla, and bade them farewell.

Arriving at the Dalles on the 12th, the Walla Wallas were dismissed. Here he met Captain Wyeth, on his way to Fort Hall, who furnished him a short vocabulary of Chinook words for the necessary business of a traveller among the natives below the Dalles. After this he engaged a canoe and crew of Wascos, and again set out with a few strange savages. Being near the middle of October, the season of storms was at hand, as he was informed by the strong south wind which obliged him to encamp. On the second and third days from the Dalles it rained, and the portage at the cascades compelled a toilsome walk of several miles.

About noon of the 16th, he was surprised by seeing on the north bank of the river two white men and a yoke of oxen drawing logs for sawing, and soon after a large mill, around which were piles of lumber and a group of cottages. Cheered with the sight, he landed, and was offered a breakfast of pease and fish by the Orkney laborers. Reëmbarking, he landed at Fort Vancouver at two o'clock in the afternoon, and was