Page:Recollections of My Boyhood.djvu/45

Rh affair, coming up so unexpectedly, created some excitement in camp for a moment, but it was soon over, for some of our party caught the young man who was now fairly on the warpath with his "brand snatched from the burning," and pacified him. The chances are that had not this been done promptly, there would have been a sanguinary battle fought then and there, for thre were probably many Indians skulking near our corral, prepared for mischief and only waiting for a signal from the Indians in camp, who were spies and had weapons under their blankets. By the time the trouble arose in camp, I think the spies had discovered that our men were on the alert and prepared for anything the redskins wanted, and having become satisfied of this, they did not wish to precipitate a fight, so were willing to drop the matter as it was.

Probably this scrimmage at the camp fire, between the white man and Indian did not much alarm me, for soon after quiet was restored, I became drowsy, went to bed, and went to sleep, listening to a monotonous song and grunt accompanied by a tapping noise on the spoke of a wagon wheel. Years afterwards I heard the same song and noise made by Indians gambling.

Probably the next day, the commander of the fort, McKinley, visited our camp and remained quite a while. I understood afterwards that he invited, or rather advised, us to sleep in the fort, as the Indians were not well disposed toward us. I remember sleeping in the fort after this, and think it probable that the women and children retired to the fort of nights while the men remained in and guarded the corral.

During the time we remained at Walla Walla, probably two weeks, the men were busy sawing lumber and building small boats. They called them skiffs, and one of average size would carry a family of eight or ten persons. The lumber was sawed by hand with a pit-saw or whip-saw, from timber that had drifted to that place when the river was very high. To carry out the plan of descending the Columbia River to the Willamette country in those small boats, it was of course, necessary to leave the wagons and cattle behind. The cattle and horses were branded with the Hudson Bay Company's brand, "H. B." and the property was understood to be under the protection of that company.