Departure from Astoria or Fort George.--Accident.--Passage of the
Dalles or Narrows.--Great Columbian Desert.--Aspect of the
Country.--Wallawalla and Shaptin Rivers.--Rattlesnakes.--Some
Details regarding the Natives of the Upper Columbia.
We quitted Fort George (or Astoria, if you please) on Monday morning,
the 4th of April, 1814, in ten canoes, five of which were of bark and
five of cedar wood, carrying each seven men as crew, and two passengers,
in all ninety persons, and all well armed. Messrs. J.G. M'Tavish, D.
Stuart, J. Clarke, B. Pillet, W. Wallace, D. M'Gillis, D. M'Kenzie, &c.,
were of the party. Nothing remarkable occurred to us as far as the first
falls, which we reached on the 10th. The portage was effected
immediately, and we encamped on an island for the night. Our numbers
had caused the greater part of the natives to take to flight, and those
who remained in the villages showed the most pacific dispositions. They
sold us four horses and thirty dogs, which were immediately slaughtered
for food.
We resumed our route on the 11th, at an early hour. The wind was
favorable, but blew with violence. Toward evening, the canoe in which
Mr. M'Tavish was, in doubling a point of rock, was run under by its
press of sail, and sunk. Happily the river was not deep at this place;
no one was drowned; and we succeeded in saving all the goods. This
accident compelled us to camp at an early hour.
On the 12th, we arrived at a rapid called the _Dalles_: this is a
channel cut by nature through the rocks, which are here almost
perpendicular: the channel is from 150 to 300 feet wide, and about two
miles long. The whole body of the river rushes through it, with great
violence, and renders navigation impracticable. The portage occupied us
till dusk. Although we had not seen a single Indian in the course of the
day, we kept sentinels on duty all night: for it was here that Messrs.
Stuart and Reed were attacked by the natives.
On the 13th, we made two more portages, and met Indians, of whom we
purchased horses and wood. We camped early on a sandy plain, where we
passed a bad night; the wind, which blew violently, raised clouds of
sand, which incommoded us greatly, and spoiled every mouthful of food we
took.
On the 14th and 15th, we passed what are called the Great Plains of the
Columbia. From the top of the first rapid to this point, the aspect of
the country becomes more and more _triste_ and disagreeable; one meets
at first nothing but bare hills, which scarcely offer a few isolated
pines, at a great distance from each other; after that, the earth,
stripped of verdure, does not afford you the sight of a single shrub;
the little grass which grows in that arid soil, appears burnt by the
rigor of the climate. The natives who frequent the banks of the river,
for the salmon fishery, have no other wood but that which they take
floating down. We passed several rapids, and a small stream called
Utalah, which flows from the southeast.
On the 16th, we found the river narrowed; the banks rose on either side
in elevations, without, however, offering a single tree. We reached the
river _Wallawalla_, which empties into the Columbia on the southeast. It
is narrow at its confluence, and is not navigable for any great
distance. A range of mountains was visible to the S.E., about fifty or
sixty miles off. Behind these mountains the country becomes again flat
and sandy, and is inhabited by a tribe called the _Snakes_. We found on
the left bank of the _Wallawalla_, an encampment of Indians, consisting
of about twenty lodges. They sold us six dogs and eight horses, the
greater part extremely lean. We killed two of the horses immediately: I
mounted one of the six that remained; Mr. Ross took another; and we
drove the other four before us. Toward the decline of day we passed the
river _Lewis_, called, in the language of the country, the _Sha-ap-tin_.
It comes from the S.E., and is the same that Lewis and Clarke descended
in 1805. The _Sha-ap-tin_ appeared to me to have little depth, and to be
about 300 yards wide, at its confluence.
The country through which we were now passing, was a mingling of hills,
steep rocks, and valleys covered with wormwood; the stems of which shrub
are nearly six inches thick, and might serve for fuel. We killed six
rattlesnakes on the 15th, and on the 16th saw a great many more among
the rocks. These dangerous reptiles appeared to be very numerous in this
part of the country. The plains are also inhabited by a little
quadruped, only about eight or nine inches in length, and approaching
the dog in form. These animals have the hair, or _poil_, of a reddish
brown, and strong fore-paws, armed with long claws which serve them to
dig out their holes under the earth. They have a great deal of
curiosity: as soon as they hear a noise they come out of their holes and
bark. They are not vicious, but, though easily tamed, can not be
domesticated.
The natives of the upper Columbia, beginning at the falls, differ
essentially in language, manners, and habits, from those of whom I have
spoken in the preceding chapters. They do not dwell in villages, like
the latter, but are nomads, like the Tartars and the Arabs of the
desert: their women are more industrious, and the young girls more
reserved and chaste than those of the populations lower down. They do
not go naked, but both sexes wear habits made of dressed deer-skin,
which they take care to rub with chalk, to keep them clean and white.
They are almost always seen on horseback, and are in general good
riders; they pursue the deer and penetrate even to Missouri, to kill
buffalo, the flesh of which they dry, and bring it back on their horses,
to make their principal food during the winter. These expeditions are
not free from danger; for they have a great deal to apprehend from the
_Black-feet_, who are their enemies. As this last tribe is powerful and
ferocious, the _Snakes_, the _Pierced-noses_ or _Sha-ap-tins_, the
_Flatheads_, &c., make common cause against them, when the former go to
hunt east of the mountains. They set out with their families, and the
cavalcade often numbers two thousand horses. When they have the good
fortune not to encounter the enemy, they return with the spoils of an
abundant chase; they load a part of their horses with the hides and
beef, and return home to pass the winter in peace. Sometimes, on the
contrary, they are so harassed by the Blackfeet, who surprise them in
the night and carry off their horses, that they are forced to return
light-handed, and then they have nothing to eat but roots, all the
winter.
These Indians are passionately fond of horseraces: by the bets they make
on these occasions they sometimes lose all that they possess. The women
ride, as well as the men. For a bridle they use a cord of horse-hair,
which they attach round the animal's mouth; with that he is easily
checked, and by laying the hand on his neck, is made to wheel to this
side or that. The saddle is a cushion of stuffed deer-skin, very
suitable for the purpose to which it is destined, rarely hurting the
horse, and not fatiguing the rider so much as our European saddles. The
stirrups are pieces of hard wood, ingeniously wrought, and of the same
shape as those which are used in civilized countries. They are covered
with a piece of deer-skin, which is sewed on wet, and in drying stiffens
and becomes hard and firm. The saddles for women differ in form, being
furnished with the antlers of a deer, so as to resemble the high
pommelled saddle of the Mexican ladies.
They procure their horses from the herds of these animals which are
found in a wild state in the country extending between the northern
latitudes and the gulf of Mexico, and which sometimes count a thousand
or fifteen hundred in a troop. These horses come from New Mexico, and
are of Spanish race. We even saw some which had been marked with a hot
iron by Spaniards. Some of our men, who had been at the south, told me
that they had seen among the Indians, bridles, the bits of which were of
silver. The form of the saddles used by the females, proves that they
have taken their pattern from the Spanish ones destined for the same
use. One of the partners of the N.W. Company (Mr. M'Tavish) assured us
that he had seen among the _Spokans_, an old woman who told him that she
had seen men ploughing the earth; she told him that she had also seen
churches, which she made him understand by imitating the sound of a bell
and the action of pulling a bell-rope; and further to confirm her
account, made the sign of the cross. That gentleman concluded that she
had been made prisoner and sold to the Spaniards on the _Del Norte_; but
I think it more probable it was nearer, in North California, at the
mission of _San Carlos_ or _San Francisco_.
As the manner of taking wild horses should not be generally known to my
readers, I will relate it here in few words. The Indian who wishes to
capture some horses, mounts one of his fleetest coursers, being armed
with a long cord of horsehair, one end of which is attached to his
saddle, and the other is a running noose. Arrived at the herd, he dashes
into the midst of it, and flinging his cord, or _lasso_, passes it
dexterously over the head of the animal he selects; then wheeling his
courser, draws the cord after him; the wild horse, finding itself
strangling, makes little resistance; the Indian then approaches, ties
his fore and hind legs together, and leaves him till he has taken in
this manner as many as he can. He then drives them home before him, and
breaks them in at leisure.