Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/931

Rh the peace offering was accepted, and in return, the chief took a pipe, painted and ornamented with feathers, and laid it down before me. This was a favorable sign. They were gratified with the toy; it pleased them. The chief asked to smoke. I then handed him the pipe he had but a little before refused, and some tobacco, and they sat down and commenced smoking. The smoking ended, each great man got up in turn and made a speech; before they had all got through nearly two hours had elapsed, and all that time I had to stand and wait. These speeches set forth, in strong language, a statement of their grievances, a demand for redress, and a determination to resist in future the whites from proceeding up the Wallamitte. As soon as the Indians had said all they had to say, they sat down."

After long negotiations related by Ross, the conditions of a rude treaty were "that the Wallamitte should remain open; that the whites should have at all times free ingress and egress to that quarter unmolested. . . . The business being ended, the chief as a token of general consent, scraped a little dust together, and with his hand throwing it in the air, uttered at the same time the expressive word "hilow," it is done. This was no sooner over than the chief man presented us with a slave as a token of his good will, signifying by the act that if the Indians did not keep their promise, we might treat them all as slaves. The slave being returned again to the chief, we prepared to leave the Indians, paid our offering for the dead, shook hands with the living, satisfied the chiefs, and pushed down the current.

"On reaching Fort George, the articles of the treaty were read over and drew from Mr. Keith a smile of approbation that was no small credit to me, for he is a very cautious man and not lavish of his praise. 'Your success,' said he, 'removes my anxiety, and is calculated not only to restore peace in the Wallamitte, but throughout the whole of the neighboring tribes.'"

In 1829, Dr. McLoughlin, in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company of fur traders, built a log storehouse at the falls for the convenience of his men passing up and down the river in canoes, but the Indians tore it down.

In 1834 the Methodist missionaries passed the falls and went on up into the valley and established a mission near the present city of Salem.

November 24, 1835, Dr. Samuel Parker, of Ithaca, N. Y., arrived at the falls of the Willamette at 1 o'clock in the afternoon and hired eight Indians to carry the canoe by the falls, the distance of half a mile. He says, 'It was a pleasant day, and the rising mist formed in the rays of the sun a beautiful bow; and the grass about the falls, irrigated by the descending mist, was in fresh green. The opportunities here for water power are equal to any that can be named. There cannot be a better situation for a factory village than on the east side of the river, a dry, widespread level extends some distance, and the shores form natural wharves for shipping. The whole country around, particularly the east side, is pleasant and fertile, and can the period be far distant when there will be here a busy population? I could hardly persuade myself that this river had for many thousand years, poured its waters constantly down these falls without having facilitated the labor of man. Absorbed in these contemplations, I took out my watch to see if it was not the hour for the ringing of the bells. It was 2 o'clock and all was still, except the roaring of the falling water. I called to remembrance, that in the year 1809 I stood by the falls of the Genessee river and all was still except the roar of the cataract. But it is not so now, for Rochester stands where I then stood."

Mr. Parker went on up the river to visit the Methodist mission, and on Monday at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of November 30th, he arrived again at the falls on his way down the river and says, "Here I engaged two Indians belonging to a small village, who have a permanent residence a little below the falls. Wanaxka, the chief, came up to the falls where I was about to camp alone for the night and invited me to share his hospitality at his house. I hesitated what to do, not that I would undervalue his kindness, but feared such annoyances as