Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/236

Rh Before returning from the mouth of the river, Daniel Lee had already accompanied Solomon Smith and wife to Clatsop plains, where were good farming and pasture lands, though not conveniently situated, being eighteen miles from Astoria, and reached by eight miles of rather rough water in Meriwether Bay, or as it is now called, Young Bay, and ten miles of land journey among alternate marshes and sand-dunes. But as Americans foresaw that a city would be built at the entrance of the Columbia, few considerations would weigh against the importance of securing this location. Daniel Lee and Frost were accordingly detailed to erect a station on the Clatsop plains. Lee seems to have preferred staying at the Dalles, and Frost spent most of the summer between the missions and the forts of the fur company, apparently waiting for some one to provide a pleasant place for him.

At length, after his family had been a long time the guests of Mr Birnie at Astoria, Kone was sent as associate, and they set to work with the aid of Solomon Smith to prepare a residence among the Clatsops; but having only Smith to assist them, and Frost being afraid of canoes, bears, savages, and, in a general way, of everything not to his liking, they made little progress, and the autumn rains came on before the green log house was ready for use, or the Mission goods had been brought from Astoria. However, by the time the December storms had set in, with the strong south-west winds and floods of rain, they had comfortable covering; but at night their floor was often covered with sleeping Indians of the filthiest habits, and through the leaky roof the water came down upon their beds. These trials were increased by the difficulty of getting to Astoria for supplies, the marshes being overflowed and the plains a quagmire Fortunately, about Christmas they were reënforced by Calvin Tibbets, who had determined to settle near the sea-coast, and by a negro named Wal-