Occupations at Astoria.--Return of a Portion of the Men of the
Expedition to the Interior.--New Expedition.--Excursion in Search
of three Deserters.
On the 26th of September our house was finished, and we took possession
of it. The mason work had at first caused us some difficulty; but at
last, not being able to make lime for want of lime-stones, we employed
blue clay as a substitute for mortar. This dwelling-house was
sufficiently spacious to hold all our company, and we had distributed it
in the most convenient manner that we could. It comprised a sitting, a
dining room, some lodging or sleeping rooms, and an apartment for the
men and artificers, all under the same roof. We also completed a shop
for the blacksmith, who till that time had worked in the open air.
The schooner, the construction of which had necessarily languished for
want of an adequate force at the ship-yard, was finally launched on the
2d of October, and named the _Dolly_, with the formalities usual on such
occasions. I was on that day at _Young's Bay_, where I saw the ruins of
the quarters erected by Captains Lewis and Clarke, in 1805-'06: they
were but piles of rough, unhewn logs, overgrown with parasite creepers.
On the evening of the 5th, Messrs. Pillet and M'Lellan arrived, from the
party of Mr. David Stuart, in a canoe manned by two of his men. They
brought, as passengers, Mr. Régis Bruguier, whom I had known in Canada
as a respectable country merchant, and an Iroquois family. Mr. Bruguier
had been a trader among the Indians on the Saskatchawine river, where he
had lost his outfit: he had since turned trapper, and had come into this
region to hunt beaver, being provided with traps and other needful
implements. The report which these gentlemen gave of the interior was
highly satisfactory: they had found the climate salubrious, and had
been well received by the natives. The latter possessed a great number
of horses, and Mr. Stuart had purchased several of these animals at a
low price. Ascending the river they had come to a pretty stream, which
the natives called _Okenakan_. Mr. Stuart had resolved to establish his
post on the bank of this river, and having erected a log-house, he
thought best to send back the above named persons, retaining with him,
for the winter, only Messrs. Ross and de Montigny, and two men.[K]
[Footnote K: One of these men bad been left with him by Mr. Thompson, in
exchange for a Sandwich-islander whom that gentleman proposed to take to
Canada, and thence to England.]
Meanwhile, the season being come when the Indians quit the seashore and
the banks of the Columbia, to retire into the woods and establish their
winter quarters along the small streams and rivers, we began to find
ourselves short of provisions, having received no supplies from them for
some time. It was therefore determined that Mr. R. Stuart should set out
in the schooner with Mr. Mumford, for the threefold purpose, of
obtaining all the provisions they could, cutting oaken staves for the
use of the cooper, and trading with the Indians up the river. They left
with this design on the 12th. At the end of five days Mr. Mumford
returned in a canoe of Indians. This man having wished to assume the
command, and to order (in the style of Captain Thorn) the person who had
engaged him to obey, had been sent back in consequence to _Astoria_.
On the 10th of November we discovered that three of our people had
absconded, viz., P.D. Jeremie, and the two Belleaux. They had leave to
go out shooting for two days, and carried off with them firearms and
ammunition, and a handsome light Indian canoe. As soon as their flight
was known, having procured a large canoe of the Chinooks, we embarked,
Mr. Matthews and I, with five natives, to pursue them, with orders to
proceed as far as the Falls, if necessary. On the 11th, having ascended
the river to a place called _Oak Point_, we overtook the schooner lying
at anchor, while Mr. Stuart was taking in a load of staves and
hoop-poles. Mr. Farnham joined our party, as well as one of the hands,
and thus reinforced, we pursued our way, journeying day and night, and
stopping at every Indian village, to make inquiries and offer a reward
for the apprehension of our runaways. Having reached the Falls without
finding any trace of them, and our provisions giving out, we retraced
our steps, and arrived on the 16th at Oak Point, which we found Mr.
Stuart ready to quit.
Meanwhile, the natives of the vicinity informed us that they had seen
the marks of shoes imprinted on the sand, at the confluence of a small
stream in the neighborhood. We got three small canoes, carrying two
persons each, and having ascertained that the information was correct,
after searching the environs during a part of the 17th, we ascended the
small stream as far as some high lands which are seen from Oak Point,
and which lie about eight or nine miles south of it. The space between
these high lands and the ridge crowned with oaks on the bank of the
Columbia, is a low and swampy land, cut up by an infinity of little
channels. Toward evening we returned on our path, to regain the
schooner; but instead of taking the circuitous way of the river, by
which we had come, we made for Oak Point by the most direct route,
through these channels; but night coming on, we lost ourselves. Our
situation became the most disagreeable that can be imagined. Being
unable to find a place where we could land, on account of the morass, we
were obliged to continue rowing, or rather turning round, in this
species of labyrinth, constantly kneeling in our little canoes, which
any unlucky movement would infallibly have caused to upset. It rained in
torrents and was dark as pitch. At last, after having wandered about
during a considerable part of the night, we succeeded in gaining the
edge of the mainland. Leaving there our canoes, because we could not
drag them (as we attempted) through the forest, we crossed the woods in
the darkness, tearing ourselves with the brush, and reached the
schooner, at about two in the morning, benumbed with cold and exhausted
with fatigue.
The 18th was spent in getting in the remainder of the lading of the
little vessel, and on the morning of the 19th we raised anchor, and
dropped down abreast of the Kreluit village, where some of the Indians
offering to aid us in the search after our deserters, Mr. Stuart put Mr.
Farnham and me on shore to make another attempt. We passed that day in
drying our clothes, and the next day embarked in a canoe, with one
_Kreluit_ man and a squaw, and ascended the river before described as
entering the Columbia at this place. We soon met a canoe of natives, who
informed us that our runaways had been made prisoners by the chief of a
tribe which dwells upon the banks of the Willamet river, and which they
called _Cathlanaminim_. We kept on and encamped on a beach of sand
opposite _Deer island_. There we passed a night almost as disagreeable
as that of the 17th-18th. We had lighted a fire, and contrived a shelter
of mats; but there came on presently a violent gust of wind, accompanied
with a heavy rain: our fire was put out, our mats were carried away, and
we could neither rekindle the one nor find the others: so that we had
to remain all night exposed to the fury of the storm. As soon as it was
day we re-embarked, and set ourselves to paddling with all our might to
warm ourselves. In the evening we arrived near the village where our
deserters were, and saw one of them on the skirts of it. We proceeded to
the hut of the chief, where we found all three, more inclined to follow
us than to remain as slaves among these barbarians. We passed the night
in the chief's lodge, not without some fear and some precaution; this
chief having the reputation of being a wicked man, and capable of
violating the rights of parties. He was a man of high stature and a good
mien, and proud in proportion, as we discovered by the chilling and
haughty manner in which he received us. Farnham and I agreed to keep
watch alternately, but this arrangement was superfluous, as neither of
us could sleep a wink for the infernal thumping and singing made by the
medicine men all night long, by a dying native. I had an opportunity of
seeing the sick man make his last will and testament: having caused to
be brought to him whatever he had that was most precious, his bracelets
of copper, his bead necklace, his bow and arrows and quiver, his nets,
his lines, his spear, his pipe, &c., he distributed the whole to his
most intimate friends, with a promise on their part, to restore them, if
he recovered.
On the 22d, after a great deal of talk, and infinite quibbling on the
part of the chief, we agreed with him for the ransom of our men. I had
visited every lodge in the village and found but few of the young men,
the greater part having gone on a fishing excursion; knowing, therefore,
that the chief could not be supported by his warriors, I was resolved
not be imposed upon, and as I knew where the firearms of the fugitives
had been deposited, I would have them at all hazards; but we were
obliged to give him all our blankets, amounting to eight, a brass
kettle, a hatchet, a small pistol, much out of order, a powder-horn, and
some rounds of ammunition: with these articles placed in a pile before
him, we demanded the men's clothing, the three fowling-pieces, and
their canoe, which he had caused to be hidden in the woods. Nothing but
our firmness compelled him to accept the articles offered in exchange;
but at last, with great reluctance, he closed the bargain, and suffered
us to depart in the evening with the prisoners and the property.
We all five (including the three deserters) embarked in the large canoe,
leaving our Kreluit and his wife to follow in the other, and proceeded
as far as the Cowlitzk, where we camped. The next day, we pursued our
journey homeward, only stopping at the Kreluit village to get some
provisions, and soon entered the group of islands which crowd the river
above Gray's bay. On one of these we stopped to amuse ourselves with
shooting some ducks, and meanwhile a smart breeze springing up, we split
open a double-rush mat (which had served as a bag), to make a sail, and
having cut a forked sapling for a mast, shipped a few boulders to stay
the foot of it, and spread our canvass to the wind. We soon arrived in
sight of Gray's bay, at a distance of fourteen or fifteen miles from our
establishment. We had, notwithstanding, a long passage across, the
river forming in this place, as I have before observed, a sort of lake,
by the recession of its shores on either hand: but the wind was fair. We
undertook, then, to cross, and quitted the island, to enter the broad,
lake-like expanse, just as the sun was going down, hoping to reach
Astoria in a couple of hours.
We were not long before we repented of our temerity: for in a short time
the sky became overcast, the wind increased till it blew with violence,
and meeting with the tide, caused the waves to rise prodigiously, which
broke over our wretched canoe, and filled it with water. We lightened it
as much as we could, by throwing overboard the little baggage we had
left, and I set the men to baling with our remaining brass kettle. At
last, after having been, for three hours, the sport of the raging
billows, and threatened every instant with being swallowed up, we had
the unexpected happiness of landing in a cove on the north shore of the
river. Our first care was to thank the Almighty for having delivered us
from so imminent a danger. Then, when we had secured the canoe, and
groped our way to the forest, where we made, with branches of trees, a
shelter against the wind--still continuing to blow with violence, and
kindled a great fire to warm us and dry our clothes. That did not
prevent us from shivering the rest of the night, even in congratulating
ourselves on the happiness of setting our foot on shore at the moment
when we began quite to despair of saving ourselves at all.
The morning of the 24th brought with it a clear sky, but no abatement in
the violence of the wind, till toward evening, when we again embarked,
and arrived with our deserters at the establishment, where they never
expected to see us again. Some Indians who had followed us in a canoe,
up to the moment when we undertook the passage across the evening
before, had followed the southern shore, and making the portage of the
isthmus of Tongue Point, had happily arrived at Astoria. These natives,
not doubting that we were lost, so reported us to Mr. M'Dougal;
accordingly that gentleman was equally overjoyed and astonished at
beholding us safely landed, which procured, not only for us, but for the
culprits, our companions, a cordial and hearty reception.