Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/164

 among the remainder we distributed a few heads of leaf-tobacco.

We purchased altogether fifty horses to carry the goods and baggage; and from the difficulty we experienced in procuring that number, we were not able to obtain enough for our own use. M'Lennan and I, however, succeeded in purchasing one for our joint use; and Farnham and Pillet got another. The men also obtained a few, which occasionally served to relieve them in the progress of their journey. Our destination was fixed for the Spokan tribe of Indians, whose lands lay about one hundred and fifty miles from Lewis River in a north-east direction, and among whom we were given to understand the North-west Company had already established a trading post from the east side of the Rocky Mountains. We also engaged an Indian guide to conduct us to the Spokan lands.

On the 15th of August, at five, we took our departure from Lewis River. Our party consisted of one proprietor, four clerks, twenty-one Canadians, and six Sandwich islanders, with the Indian guide. We proceeded nearly due north along the banks of the small river for some miles through an open plain, which was bounded by a range of steep rugged hills, running from the