Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/159



THE DALLES-CELILO CANAL 143

of North America from 1821 to the time of his death in 1860. His book states under date of August, 1841 :

"As we descended, the rocks became loftier, and the current stronger. About two in the afternoon, we reached Les Chutes, where we made, a portage, after having run nearly four hundred miles without even lightening our craft. As my own ex- perience, as well as that of others, had taught me to keep a strict eye on the "Chivalry of Wishram," always congregated here in considerable numbers, I marshalled our party into three well-armed bands, two to guard either end of the portage, and the third to transport the, baggage."

Here follows a graphic account of Gov. Simpson's experi- ence at this Portage in the spring of 1829 when four or five hundred Indians planned an attack upon his party, and then the Governor continues :

"But now these pirates had degenerated into something like honesty and politeness. On our approaching the landing-place, an Indian, of short stature and a big belly the very picture of a grinning Bacchus waded out about two hundred yards, (?) in order to be the first to shake hands with us. We were hardly ashore, when we were surrounded by about a hundred and fifty savages of several tribes, who were all, how- ever, under the control of one chief ; and on this occasion the "Chivalry of Wishram" actually condescended to carry our boat and baggage for us, expecting merely to be somewhat too well paid. The path, about a quarter of a mile in length, ran over a rocky pass, whose hollows and levels were covered with sand, almost the only soil in this land of droughts.

"The Chutes vary very much in appearance, according to the height of the waters. At one season may be seen cascades of twenty or thirty feet in height, while, at another, the current swells itself up into little more than a rapid, so as even to be navigable for boats. At present, the highest fall was scarcely ten feet; and as the stream, besides being confined within a narrow channel, was interrupted by rocks and islets, its foam- ing and roaring presented a striking emblem of the former