Page:McLoughlin and Old Oregon.djvu/292



w

XXXIII

ELIJAH 1844

IE want cattle, much cattle," said the Walla Walla chief in the Indian council. They all knew the gallant Captain Sutter; he passed through their country when he came to Oregon. And now, when he heard those eastern chiefs were in need of cattle, he sent them an invitation to visit his fort on the Sacramento. Pio-pio-mox-mox, Tauitau, and certain chiefs and sub-chiefs of the Nez Perces and Spokanes, agreed to go down there together, to make a trade with skins and ponies. This Walla Walla expedition constitutes one of the most remarkable commercial exploits in Indian annals. Conceived and planned and manned entirely by the chiefs, it bade fair to be a great success.

The morning sun poured over the Blue Mountains in a cataract of gold when the chiefs set out in English costume, magnificently mounted, to visit their white friend, Captain Sutter. Behind them followed a packtrain, heavily freighted with beaver, deer, and elk skins. A bevy of beautiful girls, on their Cayuse ponies, accompanied the expedition a few miles up the John Day River. Their little grass caps fitted closely over the smooth-combed hair. Their long, black braids hung over their breasts, and the chalk-whitened deerskin dresses glistened in the sun. Their noses we