Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/122

 He wafts us westward on his strong plume, and we look down upon those hapless Astorians, but we might as well be ballooning for aught we can make of this celebrated itinerary." As tu description of the route, this is a true criticism; but Irving has supplied the imagination with a truer picture of the hardships of the expedition, coming and going, than any diary written on the journey could have given us. Men who go through hardships can seldom describe them. Indeed, the most dreadful horrors that men suffer are little remembered.

The only descendant, so far as I know, of any member of the original Astor party now living in Oregon is Colonel Crooks, of Portland, who holds an official position in the O. R. & N. Co. His father, Ramsay Crooks, came with the overland or Hunt party, and returned in the same way. Much of the journey both ways was made in winter, arid the sufferings of the party from destitution, fatigue and cold were extreme. Ramsay Crooks and John Day were separated for a time from their main party, were robbed by the Indians and stripped of their clothing, and as the weather was still wintry (it was early spring), they were saved only by simple good fortune. Perhaps we should say it is "one of those miraculous escapes." Some of their companions, whom they had not seen for a long time, and were not known by them to be in the vicinity, appeared, and they were rescued. Day became insane, and died, it is believed, at Astoria, for to that place he was sent back by Indians after the party had started on its return to the East. Crooks lived to an old age. and died in the State of New York in the year 1859.

It has come to pass now, in the course of nature, that the citizens of longest residence in Oregon are those who were born here prior to 1840, or perhaps I should say 1842. With the single exception of the venerable William, of Forest drove, I know no survivor of the immigrants of American nativity who came previous to that year. But there is a man still living at Port Hill, in the Kootenai country, North Idaho, who saw Oregon before any other person now living