Whilst I am thus taking a hasty glance at the tribes on the Atlantic
Coast, on the borders of Mexico, and the confines of Canada, the
reader will pardon me for taking him for a few minutes to the mouth
of the Columbia, on the Pacific Coast; which place I have not yet
quite reached myself, in my wild rambles, but most undoubtedly shall
ere long, if my strolling career be not suddenly stopped. I scarcely
need tell the reader where the Columbia River is, since its course and
its character have been so often, and so well described, by recent
travellers through those regions. I can now but glance at this remote
country and its customs; and revert to it again after I shall have
examined it in all its parts, and collected my materials for a fuller
account.