Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/166



138 Fred Wilbur Powell

steerage. I went down. One of the sailors filled a tea kettle with boiling water, into which he put some tea, and offered me the use of a tin pot which was really too dirty for any animal but a pig to eat from. The tea being sweetened with molasses, was too unpalatable for my drinking. Some coarse ship bread, and cold boiled beef served in a small wooden tub, was all I saw, and more than I tasted of.

^'Dinner — the cold beef and coarse bread returned, and a pudding composed of flour and mashed potatoes, half baked, clammy and heavy, without plate, knife or fork. . . . Had a wakeful night — suffered much — attributable to the miser- able accommodations and grub.

"Breakfast — ^Tea sweetened with molasses, and cold salt beef without vegetables.

"Went on shore, built a fire, and sat down by it — reflected on past adventures and present ills of life. I do not despair. The rectitude of my conduct, and an ever approving conscience sustains the heart and keeps the courage up. How disagree- able it is to be made the ccnnpanions of ignorant and sordid- minded men I To me it is misery indeed; but I must suffer their insolence, and accommodate myself to circumstances."^^

In one of his petitions to congress, additional details were given:

"Head wind retarded, for several days, the descent of the vessel to the ocean; which circumstances gave him an oppor- tunity to make particular examinations of the river, and col- lect materials for a correct map of the same. He had pre- viously made examinations. ... He was terribly seasick through the voyage. The food furnished him was scant, and unsavory. The sailors at times spat upon his bed and wearing apparel, and in diverse ways injured, or destroyed, the exposed articles of his effects. To render his situation in the highest degree distressing, after having retired to rest, the sailors in the steerage were in the practice of filling the place with tobacco smoke, raising high the wicks of the lamps, bringing

17 Mtmoriol, 1848:16^.