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/87

 white men; while others cursed the inhabitants, particularly the females, and expressed a wish that the new discovery would contain some cooling simples. In the mean time, we kept standing under easy sail for this unknown paradise; but in proportion as we advanced the hills seemed to ascend, and blend their craggy summits with the passing clouds: a pale bright opening appeared to divide the land; and the sad conviction was at length forced on us, that Maddison's Island was, like his immortality, based on a nebulous foundation: in fact, it turned out what sailors call "a cape fly-away island;" and all our glorious speculations dissolved literally in nubibus.

This disappointment chagrined us much; but none felt it more sensibly than the captain, who was quite chapfallen on the occasion. However, on the 1st of May, we made the real terra firma, in lat. 41° N., Cape Orford in sight. We coasted along-shore until the 5th, when we had the happiness of beholding the entrance of the long-wished-for Columbia, which empties itself into the Pacific in lat. 46° 19' N., and long. 120° W. Light baffling winds, joined to the captain's timidity, obliged us to stand off and on until the 8th, on which day we descried a white