Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/68



60 J. NEILSON BARRY

It sometimes happens that a borrowed umbrella is not re- turned until the original owner is able to recognize its identity with difficulty, and the same appears to be the case with our English word "free-booter," so associated with the ancient buccaneers of the Spanish main, because as the result of French spelling and French pronunciation it has returned to us under the form of filibuster so altered that even its mother tongue can scarcely recognize it.

This, however, has been doubly revenged by the Indians who have committed similar atrocities upon two French words, their attempt to pronounce the French word for Eng- lish to designate the first white settlers in Massachusetts hav- ing resulted in Yankee, which would appear to indicate that the red men are not adepts in regard to correct French pro- nunciation, which is also illustrated by their having adopted Siwash as the Indian-French for savage, which they doubtless regarded as a very honorable designation.

American Falls in Idaho might appear so distinctively patri- otic as to preclude any possibility of French influence, and yet it originated in the early days when practically the only white men in this region were French-Canadian trappers and was given because one of the first parties of Americans in this section were drowned at those falls in the Snake river.

The advent of Americans into this region was the result of the great tide of Anglo Saxon civilization which has spread over the area once occupied by the French and these names and words of French origin so widely scattered over the country are but flotsam and jetsam of the tide which pre- ceded it.