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/289

 Clatsop River, a place had been established for making charcoal. One of the men employed at this business was a poor half-witted American from Boston, named Judge, who had crossed the continent with Mr. Hunt's party, and whose sufferings during that journey had partially deranged his intellect. He was however a capital woodsman; and few men could compete with him, as he said himself, in hewing down forests "by the acre." His comrade had been absent one day selecting proper wood for charcoal, and on returning to the lodge in the evening he found the body of the unfortunate Judge lying stretched on the ground, with his skull completely cleft in two by the blow of an axe which was lying beside him steeped in blood. He instantly repaired to the fort, and communicated the dreadful intelligence; upon which a party was despatched for the mangled remains of poor Judge.

Mr. M'Tavish forthwith summoned all the neighbouring chiefs to attend at the fort; and on the following day there was a congress of representatives from the Chinooks, Chilts, Clatsops, Killymucks, and Cathlamahs. They could not assign any reason for the murder; nor indeed could any one, for Judge was the most harmless individual belonging to our establishment. They