Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/263

Rh I turned cook, made a basin of tea for myself and cooked some salmon for my companions, after which we proceeded on our route. About 8 o'clock the same evening we put ashore at the village of Oak Point, to procure some food, when an Indian handed me a letter from Dr. Scouler. the surgeon of the ship, in which my friend informed me that, they would not probably leave the bay for some days, and as the vessel had been seen there that morning, I was desirous of writing to Mr. Sabine at the latest possible date. After obtaining a few dried salmon, and a wild goose, we proceeded four miles farther down the river till midnight, when we stopped to take a little supper, hoping before daybreak the next morning to reach the sea, from whence we were still about forty-five miles distant. At 4 o'clock in the morning a strong breeze set in from the sea, which produced a very angry swell on the river, and obliged me to coast along its shore (a measure indeed almost necessary under any state of wind, because my canoe was in so frail a condition) and afterwards to haul our bark across a narrow neck of land at Tongue Point, when unfortunately a sudden change of wind enabling the ship in the bay to weigh her anchor we missed her by just one single hour! This was a severe disappointment, as besides not seeing Dr. Scouler, I had my letters written all ready to hand on board.

Leaving my canoe men to lie down and sleep, I took my gun and knapsack, and proceeded along the bay in search of seeds. At dark I returned to the lodge of Madsue, or "Thunder," one of the Chenook chiefs, where I found his brother, Tha-a-mux, a chief of the Cheeheelie River, on Whitby's Harbour, and as he was then going home I acceded to his request to accompany me. The following morning Com Comly, the chief of all the Chenooks on the north side of the river, sent his canoe with twelve Indians to ferry me across the Columbia to Baker's Bay, on the south [north] side, which they performed with great skill, though a violent storm overtook us in the middle of the channel, by which we lost a few pounds of flour and a little tea, all the provisions we had ex-