Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/268

 260 WILLIAM BARLOW waiting to get a crowd for his famous cut-off that would save more than half the distance to The Dalles, he thought. There the Geers, Moores and Sweets bid us boodbye and said they would wait for us at The Dalles. But we got to The Dalles six weeks before they did, besides they had lost two or three of their family. At this camp the old gent lost a fine Indian pony that he had bought to rest and recruit his fine American mare, and that was the only animal we lost from start to finish. Nothing transpired from there on to The Dalles that requires special notice, except the peculiar way we had to cross the Deschute. River. We had to drive out into the Columbia River and strike the sandbar made by the Deschutes River and circle around on that to reach the bank of the Columbia River below the mouth of the Deschutes. We were now nearing The Dalles, where decision had to be made about tackling the supposed impracticable mountains. It was early in the fall, somewhere close to October, and we had plenty of provisions to last us two months and our teams were in good condition, or would be by having a few days' rest on good grass. I knew the old captain was determined to go through the mountains. He said, "God never made a moun- tain that He had not made a place for a man to go over it or under it, if he could find the place," and, he said, "I am going to hunt for that place." But he further remarked he did not ask anyone but his own family to go with him, and wanted no one to go who knew what the word "can't" meant. So we drove out to Five-Mile Creek, where there was wood, water and plenty of good grass. He said we could stay there and look after the stock and the women could wash and clean up as much as they wished, until he got back from a little recon- noitre to look out for a starting point. He had his eye on a low sink in the mountains just south of Mt. Hood ever since we had crossed the Blue Mountains. Our company was now reduced down to thirteen wagons, all good teams, and were well provided with provisions and tools. But the old gent said