Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/216

198 head-waters of a stream flowing, it was believed, into the ocean near Cape Blanco. They were therefore, though designing to go south-eastwardly, actually some distance north as well as east from Port Orford, the nature of the country and the direction of the ridges forcing them out of their intended course. Finding an open country on this stream, they followed it down some distance, and chancing to meet an Indian boy engaged him as a guide, who brought them to the southern branch of a river, down which they travelled, finding the bottoms covered with a thick growth of trees peculiar to low, moist lands. It was now determined to abandon their horses, as they could advance with difficulty, and had no longer anything to carry which could not be dispensed with. They therefore procured the services of some Indians with canoes to take them to the mouth of the river, which they found to have a beautiful valley of rich land, and to be, after passing the junction of the two forks, about eighty yards wide, with the tide ebbing and flowing from two to three feet. On the 14th, about ten o'clock in the morning, having descended to within a few miles of the ocean, a member of the party, Mr Hedden, one of those driven out of Port Orford in June, and who escaped up the coast, recognized the stream as the Coquille River, which the previous party had crossed on a raft. Too exhausted to navigate a boat for themselves, and overcome by hunger, they engaged some natives to take them down the river, instead of which they were carried to a large ranchería situated about two miles from the ocean.

Savages thronged the shore armed with bows and arrows, long knives, and war-clubs, and were upon them the moment they stepped ashore. T'Vault