Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/573

522 the children with feet almost bare, with nothing to eat, were still eighty miles from the settlements. Their wants were partially relieved by others in a not much better condition. Three of those who had first reached Oregon City were met returning with horses; and a company was found at the crossing of the Sandy cutting out a road toward the settlements from this point; the low land along the stream being covered with a heavy growth of fir and cedar.

Two of the horses in Palmer's party became too weak to proceed and were left. Of the eleven sent with provisions, not one survived. On the 30th Palmer arrived at the house of Samuel McSwain of the previous year's pilgrimage, who subsequently sold his claim to Philip Foster, and it became the recruiting station in crossing the mountains. The next night was spent at the house of Peter H. Hatch, in the Clackamas Valley. On the 1st day of November he arrived at Oregon City, having passed a month in the Cascade Mountains; but it was not until December that the last of the belated people arrived in the Willamette Valley. Nor did those who last reached the Columbia River arrive in the valley any earlier. The same detentions and misfortunes which awaited every company here were meted out to these. A raft of logs becoming water-soaked, four women, mother and three