Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/343

 states that on May 2, 1811, a party consisting of Alexander McKay and Robert Stuart, partners, and Ovide de Montigny and Gabriel Franchere, clerks, together with a Clatsop chief, Coalpo, set out for a trip up the Columbia. On May 6, 1811, they passed for the first time the mouth of the Willamette. Coalpo informed them that about a day's journey up this river there was a considerable fall, beyond which the country abounded in deer, elk, bear, beaver and otter.

No further record regarding the Willamette occurs until after a lapse of six months, when on Nov. 10, 1811, three of the Canadian boatmen deserted and were captured by the chief of a tribe of Indians on the Willamette. They were not located until Nov. 18th, when a ransom was paid for them and they were taken back to Astoria, where the party arrived the 24th.

No doubt the Willamette country had been discussed pro and con, for on Dec. 5,1811, Robert Stuart, (partner),