could benefit his tribe no more, retired to the rocks above the falls,
and began weeping; and, indeed, wept so copiously that his tears
falling on each side of the falls wore two great holes in the solid
rock, which may be seen there to this day. Finally deciding that he
would no longer live as a man, the boy changed himself into a fish in
order that he might rest in the quiet waters. But he was disturbed by
the roaring of the river to such an extent that he swam upward as far
as the Tualatin. But neither here could he rest on account of the
roaring of the water. He proceeded thence to the mouth of the Molalla,
and of the Pudding River, and of the Yamhill, successively, but had
no resting place, until finally he reached the clear Santiam. Here he
found what he desired, and went to sleep in a still pool; but being
discovered by Tallapus, was changed into a rock, having the form of a
salmon. And this accounts, say the Indians, for the fact that no salmon
that ascend the falls at Oregon City ever turn aside into any of the
streams until they reach the Santiam; but there seeing the rock, they
take a circle and swim near, and then saluting it with a flip of their
tail proceed up the crystal clear river until they reach the pebbly
bars suitable for their spawning grounds.
THE HAUNTED LAKE.
In addition to the above, Labonte tells an Indian story of a haunted
lake in the hills to the northward of Newburg. The waters of this lake
are exceedingly deep and still, and it has the name of the skookum
water.
Long ago, said the Indians, there was one man who, although he knew
that this was a tomaniwus water, determined recklessly to reach it
in his canoe, and disturb its placid surface with the strokes of his
paddle. Making his way thither, in his little craft in which he also
had his dog as his sole companion, he at length came to the shadowy
lake. He directed his strokes toward the center, which he had scarcely
reached before the water grew darker and became greatly disturbed.
Finally, it began revolving round and round, and the man with his canoe
and dog were whirled along in the stream until a vortex was developed
and opened, into which all sank. Then the lake was pacified, and again
became serene. But even at the present time, upon a foggy morning, if
one gazes over the rocks upon Skookum Lake, he will see a white object
whirling round and round on the surface of the water, and may, perhaps,
hear whines and cries; this is the spirit of the dog, which thus
returns.
DR. ELLIOTT COUES.
The untimely passing of Dr. Elliott Coues, scientist and historian,
has deprived the Historical Society of Oregon of the pleasure of
making acknowledgments to the living man of its appreciation of the
invaluable work he has done, touching the history of the Northwest,
and particularly of Oregon, in the latter part of the eighteenth and
early part of the nineteenth centuries. Doctor Coues' personal bias
was towards the natural sciences, in which he was distinguished, both
as to the quantity and quality of the matter produced, on ornithology,
mammalogy, herpetology, comparative anatomy, natural philosophy,
psychical research, etc.[21] Incidentally, through his researches in
natural history, which led him to explore wilderness regions, he became
a historian of more than ordinary value, for he was never satisfied
with his work until he had gone to the very bottom of his subject. The
books and manuscripts which he edited became original histories in his
hands, from his almost incredible industry in bringing to light facts
to verify or disprove the author's statements. With all the care of a
genealogist he followed a clue leading to the identity of the persons
mentioned in the writings before him, or the places named. His insight
into, and industry in exploiting the fading records of the past was
extraordinary, amounting to genius. His editorial revision of the
journal of Lewis and Clark, has added immensely to the value of that
work, so interesting to Oregonians, and should revive our zeal for the
study of early history.[22]
But of all the work done by Doctor Coues none has interested me more
than his abridgment of and notes upon the journal of Alexander Henry
and David Thompson, two of the leaders of the Northwest Fur Company,
almost a century ago, extending over a period of fourteen years, and
covering the ground from Lake Superior to the mouth of the Columbia,
whose ruthless waters at the last swallowed up Henry, May 22, 1814.
This journal was at Astoria at that date, and we hear in it of the
carpenter making an oak chest for it, or "for my papers," as Henry
writes it. Covering so long a period, it was very voluminous. It was
carried to Hudson's Bay, but perhaps because of this, and because its
author was dead, it was never made public. When Doctor Coues found
it the paper was much worn, and the writing in places illegible; but
that did not deter him from entering upon the task of preparing it for
publication. Not only is the journal itself of great interest, but the
notes and explanations attached to almost every page are wonderfully
complete. The enormous bulk of Henry's matter is reduced by its editor,
together with his notes, to 916 pages, in two volumes, without the
sacrifice of facts, giving us a clear account of the country's history
not obtainable in any, or all other, writers.
A little more personal notice may not be out of place here as
significant of the man. In January, 1898, I received a letter from
Doctor Coues desiring me to send him a copy of the _River of the West_,
"with any erroneous passages it may possibly contain corrected in your
(my) own hand," and asking me to give him information on some subjects
which he named, and among them, the origin of the name "Lawyer," as
applied to a Nez Perce chief; also asking the meaning of the word
"Lo-Lo," whether it was a personal name, etc.[23] He understood that
an author is pretty sure to find "erroneous passages" in books that an
honest writer must be willing to correct; besides, he wished to avoid
quoting others' errors.
From that date to his death we were in frequent correspondence, and
when the Oregon Historical Society was formed, he was made acquainted
with the fact, on which he expressed a desire to be made a member. It
is not too late to thus honor the man who has given the state a chapter
of its history hitherto unrevealed.
Mrs. Coues, in a letter replying to one of mine, says: "His home life
and ways would hardly interest the public, they were so simple and
quiet, with a wonderful appreciation of any little thing that was done
for his comfort. I think the one characteristic that stands out the
most prominently was, 'Now, I have finished that piece of writing. I
have begun another.'" To finish a work was not an occasion for rest,
but to put forth fresh energy for other effort. Francis P. Harper,
his publisher, says: "He had a capacity for work that was almost
beyond belief, and was always prompt and business-like. He was a
firm and trustworthy friend, and an ideal author for a publisher to
have business relations with." His printer (in the Osprey office,
Washington), adds: "I have had years of experience with various
authors and editors, and can truthfully say his genial friendship
and appreciation stands out markedly beyond all others." "He never
neglected a letter," says Mrs. Coues, "although from a total stranger,
asking for assistance. He gave it if he could, most generously, and if
unable, gave a courteous answer, and a reason. I myself have counted
sixty letters he had written in about six hours—not merely a reply of
a few lines. His one great desire in life was a search after truth, and
kept his mind receptive to all that could give him a clue."
Doctor Coues spent the summer of 1899 in New Mexico, making researches
in his usual energetic fashion—"forgetful of his fifty-seven years" as
he wrote me after returning home ill. It was not years, however, that
bore so heavily upon him; but the crowding of five years' work into
one. This it was that deprived the world of his incomparable services
in the very fullness of his intellectual powers.
Doctor Coues was the son of Samuel Elliott Coues and Charlotte Haven
Ladd Coues, born at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, September 9, 1842. His
literary tastes were inherited from his father, who was a writer on
scientific subjects. He was educated at Ganzaga College and Columbia
University, Washington, D. C., from which he graduated in 1861. He
continued to reside at the capital, and his life was spent in contact
with all that was strongest and best in a nation which his talents
helped to make conspicuous in the fields of science and literature.
His death occurred at Johns Hopkin's Hospital, Baltimore, December 25,
1899. The State of Oregon cannot fail to place his name high among the
fathers of her early history.
FRANCES F. VICTOR.
[Footnote 21: Principal Works: "Key to North American Birds," '72;
"Field Ornithology," '74; "Birds of the Northwest," '74; "Fur-Bearing
Animals," '77; "Monographs of North America Rodentia (with
Allen)," '77; "Birds of the Colorado Valley," '78; "Ornithological
Bibliography," '78-'80; "New England Bird Life (with Stearns)," '81;
"Check List and Dictionary of North American Birds," '82; "Avifauna
Columbiana (with Prentiss)," '83; "Biogen, a Speculation on the Origin
and Nature of Life," '84; "New Key to North American Birds," '84; "The
Dæmon of Darwin," '84; "Code of Nomenclature and Check List of North
American Birds (with Allen, Ridgway, Brewster, and Henshaw)," '86; "A
Woman in the Case," '87; "Neuro-Myology (with Shute)," '87; "Signs of
the Times,"'88. Also author of several hundred monographs and minor
papers in scientific periodicals, and editor or associate editor for
some years of the Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey,
Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, American Naturalist,
American Journal of Otology, Encyclopædia Americana, Standard Natural
History, The Auk, The Biogen Series, Die Sphinx (Liepsig), The Century
Dictionary of the English Language (in General Biology, Comparative
Anatomy and all departments of Zoology), The Travels of Lewis and
Clark, &c.]
[Footnote 22: See the "American Explorers Series," published by Francis
P. Harper, for Coues' work in this line. His last was "On the Trail of
a Spanish Pioneer."]
[Footnote 23: I have since learned that Lolo is not an Indian word, but
is the Indian pronunciation of the word Lawrence—the letter _r_ not
being sounded in the native tongue. A mingling of the French sound of
the other letters in the word produces the word as pronounced by the
Indians.]
DOCUMENT.
THE ORIGINAL OF THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENT IS IN THE POSSESSION OF
MRS. FRANCES FULLER VICTOR, PORTLAND, OREGON. IT WAS SECURED
FROM MR. HARVEY, A SON-IN-LAW OF DOCTOR MCLOUGHLIN,
AND SEEMS TO BE A DEFENCE BY DOCTOR MCLOUGHLIN
OF HIMSELF, ADDRESSED TO PARTIES IN LONDON.
The first Americans since 1814 who crossed to the west side of the
Rocky Mountains was (at least to our knowledge) Mr. Jedidiah Smith with
five trappers, who, having met some of the Hudson's Bay Company on the
headwaters of Snake River came with them to the Hudson's Bay post at
the Flat Heads, where they passed the winter.
In 1825 he returned to join his people, and in 1826 he brought a large
party of his countrymen to hunt in the Snake country, where they have
been ever since. In 1826 and up to 1828, there were constantly five
or six hundred. But now, that beaver are scarce, there are only about
fifty. In 1827, Mr. Smith pushed his trapping parties to the Bay of
San Francisco, in California, and, in endeavoring to make his way here
from California in 1828, fifteen of his men were murdered by the Umpqua
Indians when he with only three of his men reached Vancouver from
whence, spring 1829, he proceeded to join his countrymen in the Snake
country.
The first American vessel that entered the Columbia River to trade
since 1814 was the Oahee, Captain Dominus, in February, 1829. The
Convoy, Captain Thompson, came a while after. These two vessels
belonged to the same party, a merchant in Boston. In summer, they
went up to the coast. Returned in the fall. The Oahee wintered in the
Columbia River, but the Convoy proceeded to Oahoo. Returned spring
1830, and in the summer both vessels left and never returned.
In 1832 a Mr. Wyeth came across by land from Boston with eleven men,
with the intention of establishing a salmon fishery and expected
to have met a vessel which he had sent from Boston, but he learned
afterwards she had been wrecked on an island in the Pacific, and the
nonarrival of his vessel obliged Mr. Wyeth to return to the United
States, but his men remained in the Wallamette.
In 1834 Mr. Wyeth returned with a large number of men whom he left
in the Snake Country to trap beaver, where he built the present Fort
Hall, and brought about twenty men with him to prosecute the object
of his first voyage in 1832, for which purpose he had despatched the
May Dacre, Captain Lambert, from Boston in 1833, and which entered
the river a few days after Mr. Wyeth arrived at Vancouver, who built
on Wapatoo Island. Collected in 1835 about a half cargo of salmon
when the May Dacre sailed in 1835, and in 1836 Mr. Wyeth broke up his
establishment on Wapatoo Island. Returned to the states, offered the
remains of his property in the country for sale to the Directors of the
Hudson's Bay Company in London, but they referred him to their officers
in the country at Vancouver, who bought Mr. Wyeth's property and his
establishment of Fort Hall in 1837 from Mr. Wyeth's agent, and he left
in one of the Hudson's Bay Company's vessels for Oahoo in 1838. But
his labouring men dispersed in the country. The Rev. Jason and Daniel
Lee of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with three laymen came overland
from the states in company with Mr. Wyeth in 1834. They brought horses
and cattle with them, but their supplies came by sea in the May Dacre.
Messrs. Lee left the states with the intention of settling in the
Flat Head Country as missionaries to those Indians but changed their
minds and settled in the Wallamette Country, and as they had left
their cattle at Walla Walla and they were rather weak after their long
journey, they asked and obtained the loan of cattle from me.
In 1834 one Kelley came from Boston by way of California, accompanied
by Ewing Young and eight English and American sailors. Kelley left the
states with a party intending to come here by way of Mexico, but the
party broke up on the way and Kelley alone reached California, and
with one man overtook our California trappers on their return about
two hundred miles from San Francisco, and Young, a few days after,
with the rest of them; but as Gen. Fiqueroa, Governor of California,
had written me that Ewing Young and Kelley had stolen horses from the
settlers of that place I would have no dealings with them, and told
them my reasons. Young maintained he stole no horses, but admitted
the others had. I told him that might be the case, but as the charge
was made I could have no dealings with him till he cleared it up.
But he maintained to his countrymen and they believed it, that as he
was a leader among them, I acted as I did from a desire to oppose
American interests. I treated all of the party in the same manner as
Young, except Kelley, who was very sick. Out of humanity I placed him
in a house, attended on him and had his victuals sent him at every
meal till he left in 1836, when I gave him a passage to Oahoo. On his
return to the states, he published a narrative of his voyage in which,
instead of being grateful for the kindness shown him, he abased me
and falsely stated I had been so alarmed with the dread that he would
destroy the Hudson's Bay Company's trade, that I had kept a constant
watch over him, and which was published in the Report of the United
States Congress. In 1835 five English and American deserters having
lost two of their companions murdered by Indians made their way from
California to the Wallamette. The same year the Revd. Samuel Parker of
the Presbyterian Church, was sent by the Missionary Society of Boston
to examine and find proper places to establish missions. He came with
the American Fur-Traders to their rendezvous in the Snake Country,
from whence he sent his companion, Dr. Whitman, to the states for
missionaries and came alone to Vancouver. The Rev. Mr. Parker appears
to me to be a man of piety and zeal, but is very unpopular with the
other protestant missionaries in the country, for which I see no cause
except that acting differently from them, he has published to the world
the manner some of their countrymen act toward Indians, and the very
different manner we treat them as may be seen by reference to his work.
He left in 1836 by way of Oahoo.
In 1836 Dr. Whitman with his wife, and accompanied by the Rev. Mr.
Spalding and his wife, and laymen, returned to the country. Dr. Whitman
established himself in the vicinity of Walla Walla. The Rev. Mr.
Spalding in the Nes Perces Country. In the fall Mr. Slocum [Slacum]
came in a vessel from Oahoo, which he hired for the purpose. On
arriving, he pretended that he was a private gentleman, and that he
came to meet Messrs. Murray and companions who had left the states to
visit the country. But this did not deceive me, as I perceived who he
was and his object, and by his report of his mission published in the
proceedings of the Congress of the United States, I found my surmises
were correct. This year the people in the Wallamette formed a party and
went by sea with Mr. Slacum to California for cattle, and returned in
1837 with 250 head. In 1836 the Rev. Mr. Leslie and family, accompanied
by the Rev. Mr. Perkins and another single [man], and a single woman,
came by sea to reinforce the Methodist Mission. In 1837 a bachelor and
five single women came by sea to reinforce the Methodist Mission, and
three Presbyterian ministers came across land with their families,
while their supplies came by sea. Two of these missionaries settled in
the vicinity of Colville, the other in the Nes Perces Country. In 1838
two Roman Catholic Missionaries came from Canada. This year the Rev.
Mr. Griffin of the Presbyterian Church, with his wife, came across land
from the states by way of the Snake Country. There came with him also
a layman of the name of Munger, and his wife. They came on what they
called the self supporting system, that is, they expected the Indians
would work to support them in return for their teachings, but their
plan failed. Mr. Griffin is now settled in the Wallamette as a farmer,
and Mr. Munger joined the Methodist Mission, where he became deranged,
threw himself on a large fire, saying it would not hurt him, but was
so seriously burned that in a few days he died. In 1839 a party left
the State of Illinois, headed by Mr. Farnham, with the intention of
exploring the country and reporting to their countrymen who had sent
them. But four only reached this place. Three remained, but Mr. Farnham
returned to the states by sea and published an account of his travels.
Messrs. Geiger and Johnson came this year, sent as they said by people
in the states to examine the country and report to them. Johnson
left by sea and never returned. Geiger went as far as California and
returned here by land. He is settled in the Wallamette. In 1840, the
Rev. Mr. Clarke of the Presbyterian Church with his wife, and two
laymen with their wives, came across land on the self supporting
system, but, as their predecessors, they failed and are now settled in
the Wallamette. In 1840 the Rev. Mr. Jason Lee, who had gone in 1838
across land to the United States, returned by sea in the Lausanne,
Capt. Spalding, with a reinforcement of fifty-two persons, ministers
and laymen, men, women and children, for the Methodist Mission, and a
large supply of goods with which the Methodist Mission opened a sale
shop. In 1841 the American exploring squadron, under Capt. Wilkes,
surveyed the Columbia River from the entrance to the Cascades, and sent
a party across land from Puget Sound to Colville and Walla Walla, and
another from Vancouver to California. At same time the Thomas Perkins,
Capt. Varney, of Boston, entered Columbia River for the purpose of
trade. She was the second vessel that came for that object since the
May Dacre in 1834. The first was the Maryland in 1840, Capt. Couch, of
Boston, who came to endeavor to establish a salmon fishery, but did
not succeed. The Thomas Perkins had a quantity of liquor, and as this
was an article which, after a great deal of difficulty, we had been
able to suppress in the trade, to prevent its being again introduced, I
bought up Varney's goods and liquor, and it was still, spring 1846, in
store at Vancouver. Spring 1842 the Americans invited the Canadians to
unite with them and organize a temporary government, but the Canadians,
apprehensive it might interfere with their allegiance, declined, and
the project, which originated with the mission, failed. This spring
the Chenamus, Capt. Couch, came from Boston. Capt. Couch opened a
store at Oregon City and left a Mr. Wilson to do his business when he
sailed in the fall for Boston. The ——, Capt. Chapman, of Boston, came
also, who traded for a cargo of salmon, sailed in the fall, but never
returned. In the spring the Rev. Father Desmit of the Society of Jesus
came to Vancouver from the Flat Head Country where the year before he
had established a mission from St. Louis. He came for supplies, which
he purchased, and with which he returned to his mission. In August,
the Rev. Messrs. Langlois and Bolduc [?] came by sea. The month of
September 137 men, women and children arrived from the states. They
came with their wagons to Fort Hall, and from thence packed their
effects on horses and drove their cattle. They passed, without visiting
Vancouver, from The Dalles to the Wallamette over the Cascades by the
road which the Methodist Mission had opened to drive cattle from the
Wallamette to that place. Dr. White who had formerly been a member of
the Methodist Mission, but disagreeing with them had left them in 1840,
came with these immigrants. He gave himself out, at a meeting which
he called for the purpose, as being appointed Sub-Indian Agent by the
American government for Oregon Territory. But of course the officers
of the Hudson's Bay Company did not acknowledge his authority, and the
immigrants brought the printed copy of a bill brought into the Senate
of the United States by Dr. Linn, in which it was proposed to donate
640 acres of land to every white male inhabitant, the same to a male
descendant of a white man, 320 to a wife, and 160 to a child under 18
years old. This year my difficulties began with the Methodist Mission,
but as I have already given a full detail of it, I will not repeat it
here. In 1843 the Americans again proposed to the Canadians to join and
form a temporary government, but the Canadians declined for the same
reason as before.
In the summer a number of the immigrants of last year, headed by Mr.
Hastings, not being satisfied with the country, left for California.
As they were destitute of means, I made them advances, which they were
to pay to the late Mr. Rae, at San Francisco, but few did so. But in
the fall, 875 men, women, and children came from the states by the same
route as those of last year, and brought 1,300 head of cattle. These
came to The Dalles, on the Columbia River, with their wagons, drove
their cattle over the Cascades by the same route as those of last year
to the Wallamette, and when the road was blocked up by snow, along
the north bank of the Columbia to Vancouver, where they crossed the
river and proceeded to the Wallamette, and brought down their wives and
children and property on rafts, in canoes which they hired from the
Indians, and in boats belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company, lent them
by me. Yet with the assistance I lent them, they still suffered a great
deal of misery, and spent a great deal of time, and the last passed
Vancouver only at Christmas, and if, as some years is the case, the
Columbia had frozen on the beginning of December, these immigrants were
so destitute of provisions, and so poorly clad, many of them would have
perished.
The Rev. Father Deros, [Demers] of the Society of Jesus, came this
year with two other fathers of the same society and three laymen and
established a mission in Colville District. Lieut. Fremont, of the
United States service, came with a party to examine the country. After
purchasing supplies from the Hudson's Bay Company, he rejoined his
party at The Dalles, and proceeded across land to California.
In 1844 the immigrants amounted to 1,475 men, women, and children. They
came by the same route, and were assisted by me with the loan of boats,
as their predecessors of last year.