Page:Oregon, her history, her great men, her literature.djvu/91

88 through to the Columbia with pack animals. But S. A. Clark tells us in "Pioneer Days of Oregon History" that Whitman encouraged them to continue, with the assurance that he could lead them to the Columbia with their wagons. After the settlers had halted for a few days to recuperate and to rest their weary teams, they decided to continue their journey with Doctor Whitman as their guide since he was well qualified to select the best route for the wagons to follow. They reached Fort Boise on the twentieth of

September. On the twenty-fourth of September they entered Burnt River Canon. By the first of October their route led through the beautiful Grand Ronde Valley, where snowy summits of the Blue Mountains looked down on pine clad hills. In the same month they reached Waiilatpu. Some of the cattle were left in the Walla Walla Valley. The others were driven overland; while "the families, wagons, and other property were taken down the Columbia river on boats and rafts, arriving in the Willamette Valley by the end of November." The latter part of the journey was so arduous that some declared the hardships greater and the suffering more acute while descending the Columbia from The Dalles to the Willamette than were those of the long pilgrimage from the Missouri River.