Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/172

166 166 DR. JOHN SCOULER. Guinea, & the acute people of Carybee, reigns with no less force among the tribes of the Columbia. To revenge this imaginary crime, the remaining son of Comcomli had assassinated the medicine chief, & it was now expected that his friends, who are both numerous & powerful, would attempt to revenge his death. To-morrow in all probability a battle will take place, as old Oomcomli is going to visit the graves of his sons, who are buried near the village of the murdered chief. We made a short excursion to the neighbouring woods, & collected a good number of Musci & Jungermannias be- sides Pha3nogamous plants. On our return we ventured into an Indian house, but the reception we experienced rendered it prudent to leave it as soon as possible. Two of the Indians drew their daggers, an insult of which we were obliged to take no notice. Ft. George is a square building, consisting entirely of wood, & situated about 100 yards from the river. It is surrounded by palisades & furnished with bastions. The entrance looks towards the river & opens into a large square court. On the West side of this court are the stores & warehouses, on the opposite one the houses of the people & the shops of the mechanics. On the south side is a large building containing a messroom & the apartments of the gentlemen. They have cleared about 80 acres of land, on which they cultivate potatoes; & the woods afford plenty of pasturage to their cattle, which, however, are not very numerous. They have only hogs brought from Owyhee & bullocks from Monterey. A little to the west of the factory is the Indian village, it [is] sit- uated on a low sandy beach & is sheltered on the south side by a forest of pine trees, many of them of immense height. This village consists of about a dozen houses, but many of them are large & many have from 15 to 30 inmates.