Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/74



Indianman, to their native country. And beside this, there are the remains of a wreck, near Cape Look Out, at which the Indians have frequently collected beeswax, which was thrown out on the beach, by the surf; and it is the general impression, that this also, was a Japanese or Chinese vessel. The Indians have some strange and mysterious traditions, concerning this wreck; but we were not able to learn any thing definite from them, concerning its character, or the time of its destruction; but it is evidently many years since it was lost. We know of no account of the loss of any such vessel, from any of the Commercial nations of the world, and it is, at least, probable, that this also, was driven from the shores of the Eastern Continent; and if this were the case, here then, are two instances, in which people have been cast upon the Western shores of America, from China or Japan, perhaps from both; two instances, by which, had the continent been at those times without inhabitants, it would, or might have been peopled. And since the Chinese Empire has been in existence so long, and since they have been, in many respects, so long enlightened, why may not this have happened, thousands as well as fifty or an hundred years ago; and why may it not have happened, before this Continent was inhabited, and they have been the parents of the present aborigines? The scenery in Oregon, is varied, romantic, picturesque, and grand. There is certainly nothing to equal it, in North America, East of the Rocky Mountains; and, although much has been said of the beauty and grandeur of the scenery of Switzerland, we doubt if any thing can be there found to equal it; taking into view, the rich, extensive, and flowery plains, surrounded by tall and heavy forests, of ever-green, watered by many large and living streams, flowing sometimes smooth and geneile, then rapid, and again precipitating, in broad, and heavy sheets, down immense perpendicular Falls. There may be, some where on the earth's whole surface, some spot which can equal in the mighty grandness of its scenery, the mountains, the valleys, and the shores of Oregon; but if there be, 'tis vast, 'tis beautiful, 'tis grand indeed. Let the beholder, stand upon the green summit of one of the high isolated hills, that rise from the plain in the upper Willammette, and what a prospect! The imagination that has been accustomed only to the level surface, and dull monotony of the Valley of the Mississippi, must be stretched to its utmost to comprehend the mighty picture. The fair Valley of the Willammette, with its hills, and its vales, its forests, and its plains, is spread out before you. To the East, and