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/280

 ridge of mountains she fell on the Wallah Wallah river, along the banks of which she continued until she arrived at its junction with the Columbia. Her reception and treatment by the tribe at that place was of the most cordial and hospitable description; and she had been living with them about a fortnight when the canoes passed, and took her up to Oakinagan.

The house that had been built by Mr. Read had no paling or defence of any kind; and as the men were constantly out hunting, or procuring provisions, she supposed he had not more than one or two with him at the time they were attacked, and that the others had been cut off in the same manner as her husband and his companions. She could not assign any reason for this butchery, and up to the period I quitted the country, the cause of it was never satisfactorily ascertained. Some imagined that it was committed by the tribe to which the man belonged that had been hanged by Mr. Clarke, in revenge for his death; but this could not have been the case; for, leaving the policy or impolicy of that execution out of the question, we subsequently learned that his tribe inhabited the upper parts of Lewis River, and never crossed the mountains beyond which Mr. Read had formed his establishment.