Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/126

 women. They make wicker work very neatly, flat and in baskets. They make use of earthen pots, which they use like many other nations for cooking their food. They are for the most part great eaters; are eager for feasts. They brought me every day more than twenty dishes of wheat, beans and pumpkins, all cooked. Mr. de la Marque, who did not hate feasts, went to them continually with my children. As I did not go to them, my share was sent to me. The men are stout and tall, generally very active, fairly good looking, with a good physiognomy. The women have not the Indian physiognomy. The men indulge in a sort of ball play on the squares and ramparts.

On the evening of the 4th, the Sieur Nolant and my son arrived, well satisfied with their journey, having been well received and strongly urged to remain longer. The fort is on the bank of the river, as large again as this; the squares and streets very fine and clean; their palisade is in the best order and strength; the whole built in the same fashion as the one in which we were. From what they could hear, all their forts were alike; who saw one saw them all, with this difference, that some were much larger than others; that the last was the largest of all. The nearest to the Pananas that the river appeared to go, was according to the compass, south-west by south, by signs given to them; the lower part may go to the sea to the south-west by west. They were often amused with broken talk; not being able to answer questions put to them, they answered something else, for want of understanding. The waters of their rivers come down with great rapidity, having many shoals. The water is not good for drinking, being brackish. We have constantly found from the last mountain almost all the marshes and ponds brackish, or sulphurous. What they could understand was, that on the lower part of the river there were men like us, who made cloth and linen, were very