Part 2 (1/2)

The agent tolde as interpreter This conversation ending, I went out to take ain front of the chieftain's tent, a young Indian wo astride of a very fine horse, approached the tent She reined up her steed a few feet in front of htly dismounted without any assistance fro me an excellent chance for observation While I can not say that her forular, nor was her forht and stood erect Her head was covered with a luxuriant growth of dark coarse hair, flowing over her shoulders and extending down to her waist Her hair was neatly cos of different-colored beads, large and of bogus pearls; she had on a short gown closely fitting her neck and body, and extending to her knees; it was made out of soft buckskin and was tastefully ornaed around the bottos with fringed stripes at the sides; her feet were covered with a neat pair of moccasins, ornahter as I then saw her She dashed by ed fro stare of the hter, that the agent and chief were talking about me; and I subsequently learned that such was the fact By invitation of the chief we stayed for dinner I will not detain you by a description of that repast After dinner we smoked the pipe of peace and friendshi+p, then bade adieu to the chieftain and rode back to our caent's camp and wrote for the ”Detroit Free Press” a description of the U country, stated the nu there, their ether with their desire for civilization I stated the generous offer of the Cayuse chief, and closed with a glowing description of the dusky princess I mailed the letter at The Dalles

In due time we arrived in the Willamette Valley Over three months elapsed before I received a copy of The Free Press containing ed the word ”cayuse” into ”hans” This explained a mystery Quite a number of letters directed to the chief of the ”Hans” Indians, care of the superintendent of Indian affairs for Oregon, had been received by hi about the Hans Indians These letters were afterwards published in the Oregon papers I will give from memory a synopsis of two of thean man, and he was endorsed by Lewis Cass, Henry Ward Beecher and ht-forward letter and unconditionally accepted the chieftain's offer He desired to be speedily notified, in order that he ricultural school The other letter ritten by a Virginian He was endorsed by the Senators of that State and by uerreotype accoentleman stated to the Chief that he would scorn to accept the hand of the daughter unless he could first win her heart He flattered himself, however, that he would have no difficulty in that ular masher I do not knohether these letters ever reached the chief and his fair dusky daughter or not, nor do I knohether he was blessed or cursed with a white son-in-law

My belief is that the perverseness of that Detroit printer obstructed the civilization of a tribe

In conclusion, the jolly Indian agent was gathered to his fathers years ago The bow has fallen froenerous chieftain The princess may still be alive; if so, and if her eyes by chance should fall upon these lines, she will, no doubt, re man who met her in front of her royal father's mansion in the beautiful U of the fifth day after our arrival in the beautiful and fertile valley of the Umatilla we resumed our journey Our first point of destination was The Dalles There we replenished our nearly exhausted stock of provisions From thence, our first camp was at the eastern base of the Cascade Mountains We passed over this rugged and densely-tie by the Barlow Route In addition to the stillness of the solemn and continuous woods, and themountains, there is the steep descent at once of Laurel Hill from a summit plateau to the valley of the Sandy River below While it involves some sacrifice of truth to call this the descent of a hill, it requires a greater poetic iination, fro on the western rim, of this suons with their household goods and Gods descend this so-called hill None but pioneers on whose brow and face sunshi+ne and storm had stamped their heraldic honors, who had swam cold and turbulent erous canyons, and had crossed treacherous streams of quicksand, would ever have attempted this descent To such seasoned veterans, i radius With a steady yoke of oxen--or a true and biddable span of horses--with a long and strong rope fastened to the hind axle-tree of the wagon and wound around soons were safely let down these rough and alons pass over this road now It answers for a bridle-path and pack-trail, and nowhose southern base we passed, stood forth in her irandeur The waters of the Columbia wash her northern base and the southern base of Mount Adae rock-ribbed canyon, at the bottoon, separates the two

An interesting Indian tradition connected with thesein fact, but a broader, more airy and more poetic foundation in myth It runs thus:

Prior to the tremendous conflict and convulsions mentioned herein, the waters of the Colureat basin east of the Cascade Mountains They had no outlet to the ocean Mount Hood and Mount Adaes been friends; but in process of tiement deepened in intensity until it culiant boulders at each other Fro volumes of fire and molten lava In their herculean and supreme efforts for victory they tore asunder the -accumulated waters of the upper basin rush doard to the ocean Thus, was their separation made final and irrevocable

It is not in the line of this narrative to ainst the probability, or iends If I should depart from this rule in this instance, I would say that the sireat Colue; the presence of subreat eastern basin, as well as the fores, and the character of its soil, lend a certain tinge of verification to a portion of this legend

The other portion may be taken as a poetic description of volcanic action, with an attendant earthquake or seisreat intensity, and of tremendous force

Froround There are two rivers heading near the sahest tableland of the Cascade Mountains The waters of the one, flow eastward and find the Columbia by a tortuous course east of the mountains; the waters of the other, floard and empty in the Columbia above the mouth of the Willamette The Barlow Road is located on the northern side of this depression, or break in the raphic state incident:

Late in the fall of 1847 a large ox-train, with many loose cattle, attempted the ascent of the mountains by the eastern river, but were finally blockaded by the constantly-increasing depth of snow There were many women and children, as well as stalwart reat suffering, and the possibility of starvation; hence, twosnow-fields to the Willamette Valley for assistance R and B were the men chosen for the difficult task; and with both of them I subsequently became well acquainted Equipped with snow-shoes, they successfully passed over the sues to the desolate base of old Mt Hood

Here they were enveloped in a dense fog--that most fearful of all calamities to a man in unknooods, or mountains Even to the experienced hunter or trapper, fae, or a dense forest, the co envelop obliterates all the landmarks Darkness has different shades of blackness;--the depth before you has an intensified blackness; the shadow of a e column, or wooded side still darker R and B beca Their provisions were exhausted, and they were subsisting on snails R was six feet and well proportioned--brawny and enured to toil; B was smaller and of a more delicate constitution R was a pronounced skeptic; B was a her pohen ierly hunting for food, B was engaged in prayer One day, deep down under the snow, R found the slimy trail of a snail; it led directly under B's knee R pushed B aside, saying: ”Get out of aenerously divided it with his starving companion At the conclusion of their scanty feast, B said to R: ”You are er than I am, and you will probably survive me: now, if I die, ill you do with me?”

”Eat you, sir: eat you!” was the emphatic reply B, in his subsequent narration of the incident, said that the idea was so abhorrent to him that it nerved him up until their escape was made The families were rescued, and they came down the Columbia River to the Willaood pasturage east of the athered to their fathers

Their trials, difficulties and dangers are over May they rest in peace!

Crossing the Sandy we arrived at Foster's, situated at the west end of the Barlow Road and at the western base of the Cascade Mountains We were now in the great Willae presented itself!

Here were green fields, e lands The breezes wereover scorched and desolate plains, encountering quite a number of sunburnt, treeless and waterless deserts In this valley vegetation of all kinds was luxuriant and the smaller fruits abundant For over three etable food, and we never before so wares, potatoes and carrots

I remained in the vicinity of Foster's for four days On the evening of the fourth day a rancher by the name of Baker, who lived on the Clearwater offered ht on about ten acres of very fertile soil in the dense forest This he cultivated in vegetables He took a canoe-load every day to Oregon City, distant about five etables for transportation, for which I received five dollars per day; but onea day at it I struck He wasperformance He asked me if I could shoot well; I answered that that was just to my hand So the next day we took our rifles and went up the creek-bottom and found deer very plentiful I shot two fine bucks while they were bounding away, and Baker was much pleased by my ability in this line; so he offered me six dollars a day for every day that I would furnish him, on the bank of the creek, two deer I successfully did this for ten days, when, the ga soo out some six or seven miles into the foothills of the mountains

This proposition carried with it so much loneliness and isolation, that it was declined

While wandering through the valley of the Clearwater and the adjacent hills, I was e fir-logs, petrified I can never think of what I then saithout recalling a story which I heard while delegate to Congress, and at Washi+ngton City Congress always ation of the flora and fauna, and the mineral indications, as well as the water supply or rainfall, in the territories, and in the desert portions of the United States Rugged old Ben Wade, while a Senator from Ohio, always opposed these appropriations as a waste of the people'sexpeditions Two scientists, e, and known as Major Hayden and Captain Powell, were usually employed in these explorations The Major was said to be soe of human nature, and had plenty of what the Philosopher Locke called ”round-about co expeditions these two gentlemen were in the mountains near Pike's Peak That country abounds in fine specimens of petrification One day the Major met a company of miners, and related to them the wonderful specimens of petrification seen by him that day The miners listened with eloquent, but I fear insincere, attention to the Major's stateo with e, I will show you a speci you have seen today”

The Major listened while the miner said, that at the base of a nearly perpendicular wall of rock, extending upward several hundred feet, there was an Indian with a rifle in his hand pointing at an angle upward towards the rock; that both Indian and rifle were petrified; that the sun was petrified; and, as un a cougar was petrified right in the air The Major showed some uneasiness as the story proceeded, and said at its conclusion: ”I was inclined to believe you when you began, but now I know you are lying” The , said: ”You are a tenderfoot and I forgive you; but why did you say I was lying?” ”Because,” said the Major, ”I know that the laws of gravitation would bring that cougar down” ”The laws of gravitation be damned,” said the on City with my friend, and observed the beautiful falls of the Willamette and the waste of electrical andto his huood-bye, and with my horses started for a point in Mill Creek Valley, six or seven miles south of Salem, to the home of a friend hom I became acquainted on the plains This friend had taken up a claied in the erection of a building whichhouse and a cabin

He had detero to the on I also concluded to try old In the latter part of October, 1852, in coentleue River Valley, Southern Oregon The habitations in the Willae bands of Spanish cattle roamed over, and found aerous for a footh that country On horseback he was safe But little of interest occured on this trip My friend claie and powerful Spanish horse as his riding animal While in the U without saddle or bridle on a steep hill The horse viciously resented this breach of etiquette and plunged with stiff-legged vaults doard and sideways on the steep incline, throwing his rider over his head The rider struck with his full weight and thethe small bones, to which some of the muscles of the inner arm are attached, out of their sockets at the base of the palm of the hand The tendency was for thesehis injury The nearest doctor was fifty miles away Upon exaht to be forced into their proper place, if possible, before inflaly placed the injured round, and as the operation would be very painful, the others held him securely while I forced these bones back into their sockets Then we bound the wrist tightly, so as to keep them in place

When we arrived at the Doctor's he, after an exaavethe wrist of the injured h what is known as the Canyon in the ue River county People now passing through this canyon scarcely appreciate the difficulties attending the passage which then existed The canyon is for in a small pond or lake at the summit of the mountain; the one that flows northward is called Canyon Creek It was then crossed eighty-four times by the road The other stream flowed southward and was crossed by way of the road over sixty times In the rainy season, and especially when the e was ale was streith the wrecks of wagons and the bones of horses and ress h this e This money was faithfully expended by General Hooker The distance through the canyon is about nine miles General Hooker built the military road on the side of the e and look down into a nearly perpendicular and sunless abyss hundreds of feet in depth Large sums of money have since been expended by toll corporations, to keep this military road passable and in repair

We arrived at Jacksonville, in Southern Oregon, in the first part of November

To a person who prior to that time had always been accustomed to a different order of society, and who had never visited the mines in the palmy days of California, a new social order was manifest I state the facts and the iht to add that since that ti becohened, so that h ment as to the ultied

There were in Jacksonville and its iht thousand men, possibly more The coat as an article of dress had fallen into ”innocuous desuetude” Soft slouch hats were universally worn There were but a feoelic Theraht not to omit the dance-halls that pointed the lurid way to perdition I said that money was abundant; I do not old coin was in circulation There was a five-dollar gold piece that had its origin in Oregon It was stamped on one side with the words ”United States of America,” and on the reverse side with the impress of a beaver; hence, it was called ”beaver le, but contained old The other piece of money in circulation was octahedron in shape or form It was stamped on one side the same as the beaver money, and on the reverse side were the words ”Fifty Dollars” It contained ht of minted coin; but the old dust; hence, every old scales at command Gold dust had a standard value of sixteen dollars per ounce, and purchases were paid for in gold dust There was some silver in circulation, but the lowest denolass of beer or any other liquor, enty-five cents