Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/208

202 202 DR. JOHN SCOULER. the Columbia Indians, & are frequently ornamented with the skins of serpents. The arrows are very short and are armed with barbed pieces of bone, about six inches long. 19th. This morning we left the Saugtch Indians & an- chored of[f]. Point Roberts. The coast here has a very low marshy appearance, & is more abundantly covered with bushes & shrubs than any part of the coast we have seen. As the weather was rather blowy we did not ven- ture to land, nor did any natives come of[f] to us, although three canoes & several Indians ashore. 20th. As the weather was much improved this morn- ing, the canoes came of[f] to us & proved to be our old ac- quaintances from Saugtch & Lummie. They said they came to warn us that we would soon be visited by two very powerful & dangerous tribes, the Cowitchen & Yakulta, who would surprise the vessel if possible & would poison the fish they sold us. This piece of policy on the part of these natives was easily detected. At every place from port Discovery to Point Roberts the Indians had endeav- oured to prejudice us against the natives farther up the Gulph, & [to get us] to join them in an expedition against the Cowitchen & Yakultas. To their advice we paid little attention, as it only proved the inveterate hatred that pre- vailed among the different tribes. The canoes had not left us long when those [of] the Cowitchen & their allies appeared, & we were soon con- vinced that they were as friendly & peac[e]able as any of the tribes we had yet seen. Before mid[d]ay we ventured ashore & I had a short time to examine the productions of this part of the coast. Point Roberts consists of an extensive flat marsh, bounded towards the sea by a slightly elevated beach, formed prob- ably by the accumulation of drift wood, which was very abundant here. The interior of the marsh was impene- trable on account of its semifluid, consistance & the abund-