being able to obtain a sufficient amount of farming implements. The
early settlers were supplied at the Hudson Bay Company's store, and at
prices much less than those now charged for the same articles. At that
time the supply was equal to the demand; but since the tide of
emigration has turned so strongly to this region, the demand is much
greater than the supply. This may be said of almost every kind of goods
or merchandise. The supply of goods in the hands of the American
merchants has been very limited, being the remnant of cargoes shipped
round upon the coast, more for the {117} purpose of treating with the
Indians, than with the cultivators of the soil.
Great complaints have been made by the merchants trading in that
quarter, that they were not able to compete with the Hudson Bay Company;
and this is the cry even at home; but the fact is, the prices were much
lower before these American merchants went into the country than they
now are. Their mode of dealing is to ask whatever their avarice demands,
and the necessities of the purchaser will bear. And not being satisfied
with an open field, they have petitioned the Hudson Bay Company to put a
higher price upon their goods, as they were selling lower than the
American merchants wished to sell. In accordance with this request, the
H. B. Company raised the price of goods _when sold to an American_, but
sold them at the old prices to British subjects. This arrangement was
continued for two years; but an American can now purchase at the fort as
cheap as any one. These facts I obtained from various sources, and when
apprised of the prices of goods in that country, they are not so hard to
be believed.
I paid for a pair of _stoga_ shoes, made in one of the eastern states,
and a very common article, four dollars and _fifty_ cents; for a common
coarse cotton flag handkerchief, which can be had in Cincinnati for five
or ten cents, fifty cents. The price of calico ranges from thirty-one to
eighty-seven and a half cents a yard; common red flannel one dollar and
fifty cents per yard; a box of two hundred and fifty percussion caps,
two dollars and fifty cents; coarse boots, eastern made, six to eight
dollars; calfskin from ten to twelve dollars; coarse half hose, one
dollar; dry goods generally ranging with the above prices. Iron was
selling at twelve and a half cents per pound. Tools of all kinds are
very high; so that whatever may be said against the company, for putting
down the prices to destroy competition by breaking up other merchants,
cannot be "sustained by the facts of the case." That they prevent them
from raising the prices there is no doubt, and if the American merchants
had the field, clear of competition, the prices would be double what
they now are. They have not capital to enable them to keep up a supply,
nor to purchase the surplus of the country. The Hudson Bay Company are
the only purchasers to any extent, for there are no others who have the
necessary machinery to manufacture wheat, which is the staple of the
country at present. The American merchants buy a few fish, {118} hides,
and lumber; but in such limited quantities as to be of very little
advantage to the country.
A few American merchants, with a little capital, would give an impulse
to trade, encourage the settlers, make it a profitable business to
themselves, and add much to the character of the country. There is
scarcely any branch of business that might not be carried on
successfully in Oregon. Flouring mills, saw-mills, carding machines,
fulling and cloth dying, tin shops, potteries, tanyards, &c., &c., would
all be profitable; and in truth they are all much needed in the country.
The price of a flour barrel is one dollar; that of common split-bottom
chairs twenty-four dollars per dozen; a common dining table without
varnish, fourteen dollars; half soling a pair of shoes or boots, two
dollars; cutting and splitting rails, one dollar and twenty-five cents
per hundred; eighteen inch shingles, four dollars and fifty cents per
thousand; cutting cord wood, from seventy-five cents to one dollar per
cord; carpenter's wages from two to three dollars per day; laborer's
from one to two dollars per day; plough irons fifty cents per pound;
stocking a plough, from four to six dollars. Wheat, eighty cents per
bushel; potatoes fifty cents; corn sixty-two and a half cents; oats
fifty cents; beef four to six cents per pound; pickled salmon by the
barrel, nine to twelve dollars for shipment; work cattle are from
seventy-five to one hundred dollars per yoke; cows from twenty-five to
fifty dollars each; American work horses from one hundred and fifty to
two hundred dollars. I have never heard of any sheep being sold, but
presume they would bring from five to ten dollars. A tailor will charge
from six to twelve dollars for making a dress coat. Hogs are high,
though there seems to be plenty of them in the country. The common kinds
of poultry are plenty. It is a singular fact that the honey bee is not
found in the Oregon territory, neither wild nor domesticated. Beef hides
are two dollars each; a chopping axe from four and a half to six
dollars; a drawing knife, three to five dollars; hand-saws, six dollars;
crosscut saws, eight to twelve dollars; mill-saws, twenty-five dollars.
There is but little hollow ware in the country. No stationery of any
kind could be had when I was there. The people are in great need of
school books; some sections being destitute of schools in consequence of
not being able to procure books. Good teachers are also much needed.
I had expected to find the winters much more severe than they turned out
to be. I had no thermometer, and no means {119} of ascertaining the
degrees of heat and cold, but I kept an account of the wet and dry
weather, cloudy, clear, &c., &c., commencing on the first day of
November and ending on the fifth of March, which was the day I started
on my return to the United States.
The 1st and 2d days of November were clear; 3d rainy; then clear until
the 11th; cloudy until the 13th. Then cloudy, with slight showers of
rain until the 20th; 21st and 22nd clear; 23d rainy; 24th and 25th were
cloudy, but no rain; the weather was then clear until the 29th, when it
again clouded up.
30th of November and first of December were cloudy; 2d and 3rd clear,
with frosty nights. On the 4th a misty rain; 5th and 6th were cloudy;
from 7th to 10th clear and cool, with frost every night. On the 11th it
rained nearly all day, and on the 12th about half the day. 13th and 14th
were cloudy. From the 15th to 22d clear and pleasant, with frosty
nights; it thawed through the day in the sun all that froze at night,
but in the shade remained frozen. From the 22d to 24th cloudy, with
showers of drizzling rain; 25th, 26th and 27th rain nearly all the time,
but not very copiously; the mornings were foggy. The 28th and 29th were
clear, but very foggy in the forepart of the day; 30th and 31st rain
about half the time.
From the 1st to 3d of January it was squally, with frequent showers of
rain; 4th cloudy, but no rain; 5th rained nearly all day. From the 6th
to the 12th, clear and pleasant, being slightly foggy in the mornings;
from 13th to 17th rained about half each day, and nearly all the night;
18th and 19th, cloudy without rain. The 20th and 21st, slight rain
nearly all the time; 22d was cloudy; 23d and 24th, rain about half of
each day; 25th rained all day, 26th cloudy, without rain, 27th was
rainy, some heavy showers; 28th was clear; 29th, 30th and 31st, were
showery and blustering, raining about half the time, and foggy.
The 1st of February was clear; 2d cloudy, 3d rainy; 4th and 5th were a
little cloudy, but pleasant; 6th and 7th, a few slight showers; 8th and
9th rainy and quite cool; snow was seen on the lower peaks of the Coast
range of mountains, but none in the valley. The 10th was cloudy, at
night a little frost; 11th was rainy; 12th and 13th rained all the time;
14th and 15th were nearly clear, with light frosts. The weather remained
clear until the 23rd, with light frosts, but not cold enough to freeze
the ground; 24th cloudy; 25th clear; 26th, 27th, and 28th rained all the
time.
{120} First of March, rained half the day; 2d cloudy, 3d rained all day;
4th cloudy, 5th was showery--making in all about twenty days that it
rained nearly all the day, and about forty days that were clear, or
nearly so; the remainder of the days were cloudy and showery. A number
of the days set down as rainy, a person with a blanket coat could have
worked out all the day without having been wet. Much of the time it
rained during the night, when it was clear through the day. I should
think that two-thirds of the rain fell during the night.
No snow fell in the valleys, nor were there frosts more than _fifteen_
nights. Ice never formed much over a quarter of an inch in thickness.
The little streams and "_swales_" sometimes rise so high as to make it
difficult to get about for a few days; but they are short, and soon run
down. But little labour has yet been bestowed on the public roads. The
Willamette river is the highway upon which nearly all the traveling is
done, and upon which nearly all the products of the country are
conveyed. The numerous streams can be easily bridged, and when this is
done, there will be but little difficulty in traveling at any period of
the year.
Upon the 5th of March, 1846, I set out on my return to the States. About
one week previous, a party of seven persons had also set out on their
return, and we expected to overtake them at Dr. Whitman's station. A few
head of lame cattle had been left the preceding fall with a man named
Craig, who resided near Spalding's mission;[196] and as the Indians in
that vicinity had large bands of horses, which they wished to trade for
cattle, I purchased several head of cattle to trade for horses, as also
did others of the party. I, however, had purchased two horses and one
mule; which, with several horses and mules belonging to the party, had
been taken ahead on the 2d of the month, with the view of crossing the
Columbia river at fort Vancouver, going up the valley of the Columbia,
and recrossing below the Dalles. By this route we would avoid the deep
snow on the Cascade mountains.
We loaded our effects on board a boat which we had bought for that
purpose, and at two o'clock P.M. shoved off; and although anxious to be
on the way back, yet I left the place with considerable reluctance. I
had found the people of Oregon kind and hospitable, and my acquaintance
with them had been of the most friendly character. Many of the persons
who had traveled through to Oregon with me, resided at Oregon {121}
city. Attachments had been formed upon the road, which when about to
leave, seemed like parting with our own families. We were about to
retrace the long and dreary journey which the year before had been
performed, and again to brave the privations and dangers incident to
such a journey. Traveling as we expected to do on horseback, we could
not take those conveniences so necessary for comfort, as when
accompanied with wagons; but we bade adieu to the good people of Oregon,
and rapidly floated down the Willamette to the town of Portland, twelve
miles below the falls. It commenced raining quite fast, and we hove to,
and procured quarters with Mr. Bell, one of the emigrants who had
recently settled at this place. This will probably be a town of some
consequence, as it occupies a handsome site, and is at the head of ship
navigation. Mr. Petigrew[197] of New York is the proprietor. It
continued raining nearly all night.
In the morning the rain abated; we again took the oars, and in two hours
and a half reached the town of Linnton. Here are a few log huts, erected
among the heavy timber; but it will not, probably, ever be much of a
town.[198] A great portion of the emigrants traveling down the Columbia
land at this place, and take the road to Quality plains, which are about
twenty-five miles distant; but the road is a bad one.
At 3 o'clock P. M. we arrived at fort Vancouver, where we made a few
purchases to complete our outfit, and then rowed up the river two miles
and a half, and encamped. Here we found the party with our horses. The
Indians had stolen two horses, several trail ropes, &c. The day was
showery.
On the 7th we ascended about eighteen miles, to the mouth of a stream
coming in upon the north side of the river, about one hundred yards in
width, having its source in Mount St. Helen. Here a commencement of a
settlement had been made by Simmons, Parker, and others, and about a
dozen buildings erected, but were now abandoned on account of its being
subject to be overflowed by the annual high freshets of the Columbia
river.[199] The soil is good, with several patches of prairie.
On our way we passed the grist and saw mills of the Hudson's Bay
Company. They stand immediately upon the bank of the Columbia. The water
power is obtained from small mountain streams. The mills are six and
eight miles above the fort. Several islands in the river might be
_leveed_ and successfully cultivated. The day was cloudy, with
occasional showers of rain, and some hail.
{122} On the 8th we advanced sixteen or eighteen miles. For the greater
part of the way, the river is hemmed in by high, craggy, rocky cliffs.
At a point, called Cape Horn, the rocks project over the stream,
presenting a huge mass of black looking rocks of several hundred feet in
height.[200] Some of them seem to have broken and slid from their former
position, and now stand in detached columns erect in the deep stream,
presenting a grand and terrific appearance. At several points, streams
of water were tumbling more than a thousand feet from crag to crag, and
falling into the river in broken sheets. Upon one of these columns
stands a solitary pine tree, and upon the topmost branch sat a large
bald-headed eagle. We rowed nearly under it, when one of our men took
his rifle and fired, and down came the eagle, striking the water not
more than ten feet from the boat. A wing had been broken, and we
dispatched him with our oars; he measured over seven feet from tip to
tip of the wings. Round this point the water is sometimes very rough.
Boats have been compelled to lay to, for two weeks, on account of the
roughness of the water. The day was clear.
Upon the 9th we progressed about ten miles. Seven miles brought us to
the foot of the rapids, called the Cascade falls, and here for five
miles the river is hemmed in and contracted to not more than three
hundred yards in width, and runs with tremendous velocity.[201] We were
compelled to _cordelle_ our boat, and sometimes lift it over the rocks
for several rods. It is not easy to form an idea of the difficulties to
be encountered, in ascending this rapid. Late in the evening we
encamped, after a day of hard work in wading, pulling and lifting. It
rained nearly all night.
On the 10th we arrived at the head of the portage. Three times we were
compelled to unload our boat, and carry our effects over the rocks along
the shore; and at the main falls the distance of the portage is nearly
one mile. At night we had completed the portage, and were all safe above
the falls.
At the foot of the rapids we met several families of emigrants, who had
been wintering at the Dalles. One of them had traveled the most of the
way with us, but being unwilling to travel as fast as we wished, had not
arrived in time to get through before winter set in. In this family was
a young woman, who so captivated one of our party, that he turned back
with them.
On the 11th we made but about eight miles; the wind causing {123} a
swell that rendered boating dangerous. The day was clear, and at night
there was a hard frost.
We progressed twelve or fourteen miles on the 12th; the day was cloudy.
Here we had designed crossing the river with our horses.
The morning of the 13th was too windy to swim our horses over. We
attempted to take them up the north side of the river; but after
clambering about three miles, we were compelled to halt, the cliffs
being so abrupt that we were unable to pass them with horses. We
remained at this place through the day.
On the morning of the 14th the wind had so abated that we could swim our
animals. We commenced by taking four at a time; two upon each side of
the boat, with four men rowing. In this manner by ten o'clock A. M., all
had crossed. The water was very cold. The width of the river at this
place, is more than a mile. The party with the horses then took the
trail, and we saw no more of them, until we arrived at the Dalles, which
we reached on the 15th. Here we found five of the party who had started
a week in advance of us. Two of their company had gone on to Whitman's
station. We sold our boat to the Missionaries, and remained here until
the morning of the 19th, endeavoring to hire and buy horses to pack our
effects to Dr. Whitman's. There were hundreds of horses belonging to the
Indians, but their owners knew our situation, and wished to extort a
high price from us. We so arranged our effects as to pack them on the
mules and horses we had, and we ourselves traveled on foot.
On the evening of the 18th, we packed up and proceeded two miles, when
we encamped. Two Indians came and encamped with us. In the night our
mules began to show signs that a thief was approaching. The guard
apprised us of it, and we prepared our arms. Our two Indian friends
seeing that we were prepared to chastise thieves, roused up and
commenced running around the camp, and hallooing most lustily; probably
to give warning that it was dangerous to approach, as they soon
disappeared.
During the day we had seen some sport. As we were nearly all _green_ in
the business of packing, and many of our animals were quite wild, we
frequently had running and kicking "sprees," scattering the contents of
our packs over the prairie, and in some cases damaging and losing them.
In one instance, while traveling along a narrow, winding path upon the
side of {124} a bluff, a pack upon a mule's back became loose; the mule
commenced kicking, and the pack, saddle and all, rolled off, and as the
trail rope was tied fast to the mule's neck, and then around the pack,
it dragged the mule after it. The bank for six or eight hundred feet was
so steep that a man could scarcely stand upright. The mule was sometimes
ahead of the pack, at others the pack was ahead of the mule. At length,
after tumbling about one thousand feet, to near a perpendicular ledge of
rocks, they stopped. Six feet farther would have plunged them over a
cliff of two hundred feet, into the river. We arrived at and crossed
Falls river, receiving no other damage than wetting a few of our
packs.[202] We encamped two miles above Falls river, having traveled
about sixteen miles. The weather was clear and warm. We traveled
leisurely along, nothing remarkable occurring; but as some of the party
were unaccustomed to walking, they soon showed signs of fatigue and sore
feet. We were often visited by a set of half-starved and naked Indians.
On the 26th we reached Fort Wallawalla, or Fort Nez Percés, as it is
sometimes called. This fort stands upon the east side of the Columbia,
and upon the north bank of the Wallawalla river. We went about three
fourths of a mile up the Wallawalla river, and encamped. Near us was a
village of the Wallawalla Indians, with their principal chief.[203] This
old chief was not very friendly to Americans. The season before, a
party of the Wallawallas had visited California, by invitation of Capt.
Suter; and whilst there, a difficulty arose about some horses, and the
son of the old chief was killed in the fort. The Indians left
immediately, and as Suter claimed to be an American, the chief's
feelings were excited against all Americans. He had showed hostile
demonstrations against a party of Americans the summer previous; and
when we arrived, we were told that he was surly, and not disposed to be
friendly. The grazing about the camp was poor, and we sent a few men
with the animals to the hills, three miles distant, to graze. Near night
we observed quite a stir among the Indians. We gave a signal to drive in
the horses; they soon came in, and we picketed them near the camp. As
soon as it was dark the Indians commenced singing and dancing,
accompanied with an instrument similar to a drum, and giving most
hideous yells, running to and fro. We began to suspect that they
meditated an attack upon our camp; and we accordingly prepared to meet
them by building a fortification of {125} our baggage, and posting a
strong guard. We remained in this position until daylight, when we
packed up, and traveled up the Wallawalla eight or ten miles, when we
stopped, cooked breakfast, and allowed our animals to graze.
Before starting, the old chief and a few of his principal men made us a
visit. They appeared friendly, and wished to trade. We gave them some
provisions, and made them a few presents of tobacco, pipes, &c. After
shooting at a mark with the chief, to convince him of our skill, we
conversed on various subjects, among which the death of his son was
mentioned, and he expressed his determination to go to California this
season. We parted, he and his people to their village, and we upon our
route to Dr. Whitman's.
We were here joined by a party of Nez Percé Indians; among whom were
four of their principal chiefs. Ellis the great chief was with them. He
speaks very good English, and is quite intelligent. He was educated at
the Hudson's Bay Company's school, on Red river.[204] They traveled and
encamped with us, making heavy drafts upon our provisions; but as we
expected to replenish at Whitman's, we gave them freely. We encamped on
a branch of the Wallawalla. This is a most beautiful valley of good
land, but timber is limited to a few cottonwood and willows along the
streams.
In the afternoon of the 28th we reached Dr. Whitman's station.[205] Here
we remained until the 31st, when in company with four others, and the
Nez Percé Indians, we started for Spalding's mission--Mr. Spalding being
of our party. The rest of our party remained at Whitman's. Our object
was to purchase horses and explore the country. The distance from Dr.
Whitman's to Spalding's was about one hundred and fifty miles, in a
northeast direction. The first day we traveled but about twenty-five
miles, over a most delightful prairie country, and encamped on a
beautiful clear stream coming down from the Blue mountains, which are
about twelve miles distant.[206]
The first of April we traveled about fifty-five miles, also over a
delightful, rolling, prairie country; crossing several beautiful
streams, lined with timber, and affording desirable locations for
settlement. The soil is rich, and covered with an excellent coat of
grass. This region possesses grazing advantages over any other portion
of Oregon that I have yet seen. The day was blustering, with a little
snow, which melted as it reached the ground.
On the 2d of April we arrived at Mr. Spalding's mission, {126} which is
upon the Kooskooskee or Clear Water,[207] and about twenty miles above
its mouth or junction with Lewis's fork of the Columbia. Ten miles from
our camp we struck Lewis's fork, and proceeded up it for five miles, and
crossed. On our way up we passed a ledge of rocks of fluted columns, two
or three hundred feet high. The bluffs of Lewis's fork and the
Kooskooskee are very high, sometimes more than three thousand feet. The
hills are nearly all covered with grass.
As the time I could remain in this region would not allow me to explore
it satisfactorily, I requested Mr. Spalding to furnish me with the
result of his experience for ten years in the country. He very kindly
complied, and the following is the information obtained from him.[208]
As he goes very much into detail, it is unnecessary for me to add any
further remarks here, in relation to this region of the country.