Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/356

 A search through the works of Cox, Ross, Gibbs, Dall, Kane and 20 or 30 other early writers about Indians and their daily life does not show that the natives within the present confines of Oregon and Washington used signals to convey informa- tion to a distance, but they undoubtedly must have done so. In a monograph prepared by Colonel Granville O. Haller regarding his campaign into the Yakima country during October, 1855, he remarks: "The Indians evidently possessed some system of telegraphy or signals. At times groups of Indians were observed so near as to be within the range of the howitzer in places where they unconsciously exposed themselves to danger without being able to see into camp; yet the moment the howitzer was moved toward such parties they instantly dispersed, no doubt warned by their friends, through signals." Personally, I do not accept this as conclusive, for on Puget Sound I have been present when Indians were calling to each other intelligibly at a distance of more than 1000 yards, and it may have been that some equally strong lunged savage was directing his comrades orally during the engagement.

From the time the Astor expedition failed, for 10 years few white men penetrated the lower Columbia. About 1824, the Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Vancouver and it at once became the center of the vast operations of that company on the Pacific. For a quarter century all communication of intelligence from Sitka on the north to Yerba Buena and Mazatlan on the south, from Fort Hall, and even on to the Great Lakes and to the St. Lawrence, and westward to the Sandwich Islands was conducted by that company. It had ships to and from London, schooners to Honolulu, steamers from Nisqually to Victoria, Langley and Sitka. Expresses were sent in every direction as the needs of the service required. By canoe down the Columbia and up the Cowlitz to a landing near the Cowlitz Farms, and thence to Nisqually by land. The trip usually required six days. From Nisqually, by canoe, to Victoria and Langley, though sometimes the Cadboro served, and after 1836 the steamer Beaver and later the Otter, in place of canoes.