Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 1.djvu/187

Rh looking around the country and making arrangements for a permanent home. Lucier, therefore, was not the first settler upon French Prairie, but this honor belongs to Joseph Gervais, who must have gone there, according to Labonte's recollections, about 1828.

William Cannon was a millwright, being an American by birth, from Pennsylvania, and at the time the Labontes came to French Prairie, was at Vancouver, building the gristmill. He afterwards built the Champoeg gristmill, as stated by Willard H. Rees.

Dubruy settled subsequently about two and one-half miles south of Champoeg.

Alexander Carson (Alex Essen, as pronounced by Labonte), was a trapper, and spent much of his time in the Yamhill country. He seems to have been a very independent man, but finally lost his life at a certain butte on the North Yamhill River (still called Alec's Butte) by the Twhatie (Tualatin) Indians, probably with the simple object of possessing themselves of his rifle and trappings.

As to Champoeg, the historic point in Oregon history, this was originally a camping and council ground of the Indians. It was near the north boundary of the Calapooyas, and here various tribes came to trade, to play games of chance and skill, and not infrequently to intermarry.

One great sport was diving. The water of the Willamette River off the bluff was very deep, and it became a great contest for the young men to see who could dive deepest and remain under water longest. Some of the bolder ones even not rising until the blood began to burst from their noses or mouths.

Labonte recalls with great vividness the wedding ceremonies which he often witnessed, and that were