Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/376

 366 JOURNAL AND LETTERS OF DAVID DOUGLAS. tain some sleep. Happily, the road was less rugged, and at midday I found myself on the banks of the Columbia, opposite the Oakanagan Establishment, where an old man who was spearing salmon, helped us to cross the horses, and put me and my guide over in a small canoe. Here I found my kind friends, Messrs. McDonald and Ermet- inger, who supplied me with a change of linen and some comfortable food. Gladly would I have tarried here two or three days to rest and recruit myself, but my time was too precious ; and having communicated to these gentle- men my desire to push on immediately for the coast, that I might put my collections on board the ship which was to sail so shortly for England, they kindly made arrange- ments with some Indians to conduct me to the junction of Lewis and Clarke's River. Meanwhile, I wrote a few lines to Mr. Dease and sent them by the return of my guide, who had behaved entirely well, and who is to sta} 7 here two or three days to rest himself, and having picked up a few seeds, and changed my plant-papers, I went early to bed ; but the doors being left open, on account of the heat, and the windows, which are made of parchment instead of glass, not closing tightly, the mosquitoes found free access. Thus I was under the necessity of abandon- ing the house, and betook myself to a sort of gallery over the gate, where I obtained some sound sleep. Before leaving this place next morning, I took break- fast, and thankfully accepted a little tea and sugar, which, with a small portion of dried salmon, was all that my kind friends had to give. The stock of dried meat that I had received from Mr. Dease was not, however, quite ex- hausted, so that I considered myself pretty well off, par- ticularly when they kindly added a little tin shaving pot, the only cooking utensil they eould spare. Two miles and a half from this place a disaster deprived me of these gifts; in passing the canoe down a rapid, I took the pre-