Chapter IV: Spokane Indians and Indian Myths

When taken to Spokane Falls, Labonte was a small boy of about six years. His parents made their residence there from about 1824 to 1827.

He was much with the Indians, and learned their language like a native, and was often present at their religious services, and heard them tell their myths. One of their meetings he describes as follows: At the lodge of the greatest chief there was a picture, from whom obtained he does not know, but in all probability from some member of the Hudson's Bay Company. When worship was held, this picture was spread out on the floor, and, kneeling before it, the chief began a prayer to the Great Spirit, or the Hyas Ilmihum, who was addressed also by the name of Creator; the expression "Quilen-tsatmen," meaning Creator, or, more exactly, "He made us." The prayer was a petition to be made pleasing to God, to be kept under His care, to be taken to Him at last, and to be kept from the "Black fellow." After the chief had finished, others also followed, kneeling down and uttering a shorter petition until all at last took their place and followed along in an orderly manner. Those who had any offerings left them before the picture. Then they began a hymn or chant, and after that was finished, all joined in a dance.

Labonte recollects the names of some the Spokane chiefs: Ilmicum Spokanee, or the chief of the moon; Ilmicum Takullhalth, the chief of the day; and Kahwakim, a broken shoulder. He also recollects a Colville chief, whose name was Snohomich, a white-headed old man.

The Spokane Indians had the legends of the coyote, or Tallapus, but his name was Sincheleep. In his breast he carried certain knowing creatures, which were his spirits, or wits, and when he wished to take council with himself, he would call them forth. They gave him the answers he needed, and then went back into his breast. Sincheleep, the coyote, was quite different from the fox, Whawhaoolee, though the fox was also a knowing beast. The big gray wolf was Cheaitsin; the grizzly bear, Tsimhiatsin, and the black bear, N'salmbe.

A story of Tallapus, or Sincheleep, that Labonte remembers was the same in substance as that of Tallapus and the cedar tree; although Spokane is almost a thousand miles from the region of the story of Tallapus. This illustrates to what a wide extent the folklore of the primitive Indians extended. Sincheleep was once traveling and was not entirely certain how he should obtain his meals upon the way. However, in order to look as well as possible he decided to dress up nicely; to comb his hair, and paint his face becomingly. In the course of time he was met by two women who carried baskets in which they had some camas bread and other Indian dainties. He came forward and addressed them and said very pleasantly, "Sit down, sisters; sit down. I will sing to you and tell you stories." So they sat down while he sang and told them stories, and they enjoyed his society so much that when at length he remarked casually, "What have you in your baskets, sisters?" they very kindly opened their stores and treated him; which, of course, he enjoyed, and began at once to contrive for another treat. He bade them good-bye and went on, but when out of sight took a circle about and coming to a stream washed himself and painted another way, and also combed his hair differently, and met the two women again. He addressed them as before, saying, "Sit down, sisters; sit down, and I will sing and tell you stories." This they did, and were again so charmed that they opened their baskets and treated him as before. He then went on, but circled about again so as to meet them once more, being now combed and painted still differently. He sang and told stories and was again treated. But about the fifth or sixth time that this happened, the women began to suspect that the cunning creature was no other than Tallapus, and when he saw that he was discovered, he bade them a final good-bye, and went off to the wooded hills. Then began the story of the tree, which as told by Labonte, runs as follows: "He saw a tree with a crotched root, leading to a hollow within, and thinking this a fine resting place, went inside. He then asked the tree to close, and it did so obediently. This was some time along in the fall. After it was closed, he asked it to open, and it did this also. Then he asked it to close and it was closed. It opened or shut whenever he asked it to, but by and by when he asked it to open, it would not. Then he was very sorry and sat down inside the tree and cried. But he was compelled to remain there all winter."

Some time along in the early spring the birds came at his request to peck him out; but the first, the second, and many others that tried only broke their bills and were unable to make even a small hole, until this was done by a woodpecker; and through the opening Tallapus was able to gaze abroad and see the blooming flowers and the green grass.

But still he could not go through the opening, and finally concluded that the only way was to take himself to pieces and put himself out, piece by piece. His eyes were the first parts that he thus placed on the outside, but they were seized upon by a raven who carried them away. Finally the various sections of his body were all out and collected and put together properly, except that his eyes were gone and he was blind. But he smelled the scent of flowers and felt around until he found some of the flowers, which he placed in each eye. Then, feeling his way along laboriously, and staring about as if seeing everything, was at length directed by smelling smoke. Following this odor, he was led to a lodge where there were some women. By these his misfortune was ridiculed, and they engaged in laughter as he felt for the door; but he answered, "I am only measuring your house." He was moving around in the meantime and trying to find a place to sit down, which only increased their merriment; but he answered, "I see; I see; but I am only measuring the ground."

Then one of the women said, "Can you indeed see?"

Then he, staring off, replied, "Do you see that fire?"

"Where?" they asked.

"Far off," he answered, and described the distance as far away, beyond the limit of their vision.

"No," they confessed, "that is too far for us."

Then he answered, "I can see what you do not." By which one of the women was so impressed with the strength of his sight that she immediately wished to swap eyes, and he promptly accepted the proposition; as a result of which he could see even better than before, while she became blind. He then transformed her, for her folly, into a snail, which even to this day feels its way along the ground.

The following are some of the Tallapus stories, which Labonte remembers, found in the Willamette Valley:

According to the Calapooyas, who occupied this valley from near the Pudding River southward, Tallapus came originally from the Rocky Mountain country and went down the Columbia River, and thence southward along the coast and finally over the coast mountains into the Willamette Valley; though his exact birthplace or origin is still a matter of doubt.

Arriving by the Willamette River, he found the tribes of that region in very unhappy circumstances; chiefly from the absence of any good place for catching fish, and also, owing to the depredations of certain gigantic skookums. In order to remedy the first evil, he determined to make a fall in the Willamette River where the salmon would collect and be easily captured. He found a place at the mouth of Pudding River, the Indian name of which is Hanteuc, and here he began erecting the barrier, but finding it not suitable, went further down, leaving only a small riffle. At Rock Island, he began in earnest, but upon further investigation found this also unsuitable, and leaving here a strong rapid, went down to the present site of the Willamette Falls, where he completed his task and made the magnificent cataract which is not only a scene of beauty, but a model fishing place.

After having provided the fishery, he decided to invent a remarkable trap which would obviate the labor of fishing. He succeeded and produced a marvelous machine which not only caught the fish, but also had the power to talk, and would cry out, "Noseepsk, noseepsk," when it was full.

Determining to try his invention for himself, Tallapus set the trap and went immediately to his camping place to build a fire in order to cook the fish. But scarcely had he begun when the trap cried out, "Noseepsk! Noseepsk!" and going down he found it full of fish sure enough. Then, returning, he began once more to prepare his fire; but the trap called out again, "Noseepsk! Noseepsk!" He obeyed its summons and found it full, and went back once more to start his fire; but the trap called for him again, and now, out of patience with its promptness, he said to it crossly, "Wait until I build a fire, and do not keep calling for me forever." But by this sternness the trap was so much offended that it instantly ceased to work, and the wonderful invention was never used by men, who were obliged as before to catch the salmon with spears or nets.

THE STORY OF THE SKOOKUM'S TONGUE.

However, in the course of time the Indians became very prosperous, and a large village was built on the west side of the river. But while they were thus prospering, a gigantic skookum that lived upon the Tualatin River began to commit fearful depredations. His abode was on a little flat about two miles from the Indian village, but so long was his tongue that he was in the habit of reaching it forth and catching the people as he chose. By this, of course, the village was almost depopulated, and when, after a time, Tallapus returned, he was very angry to see that the benefits of his fishery had gone, not to the people, but to the wicked skookum. He therefore went forth to the monster and cried out to it, "O, wicked skookum; long enough have you been eating these people." And with one blow of his tomahawk cut off the offending tongue, and buried it under the rocks upon the west side of the falls; after which the people flourished. But so persistent is Indian superstition that even yet some of the old Indians say that when the canal was cut around the falls, that this was nothing more than laying bare the channel made for the tongue of the skookum.

THE SKOOKUM AND THE WONDERFUL BOY.

On the east side of the falls at about the site of Oregon City the Indians also made a large village, being nourished by the fishery, and had among them a great chief. But from the mountains on the east there came a frightful skookum, who destroyed the entire village and even the old chieftain and all the people, except the chief's wife and her unborn son.

The woman desiring that her son should be great and strong, took him after his birth to the various streams or lakes that were haunted by Tomaniwus spirits, and bathed him in the waters. From these he absorbed the strength of the water and of the spirits, and in consequence, grew prodigiously. In the course of time, he returned to the old village where he found his mother, and looking about the lodge, he began to ask her what were the various articles that he saw. She replied: "This is the spear with which your father used to catch the salmon; and this is the tomahawk with which he used to kill his enemies or to cleave wood; and this is the bow with which he used to shoot arrows." Taking the tomahawk in his hand, the boy went out to look abroad but was almost immediately met by the skookum returning. Thereupon driving his tomahawk into a gnarly log of wood so as to make a crack, he cried out to the giant, "If you are so strong, hold this crack open while I take another stroke;" and into the opening the witless skookum placed his fingers, but the tomahawk being instantly withdrawn and the crack closing, was held fast, after which he was easily killed by the boy. Then taking his father's bow, the youngster went forth and shot an arrow into the sky, calling out at the same time, "As the arrow falls let those who died come to life;" and this also was done. Scarcely had the arrow fallen before the old chief and all his people were seen coming up the river in their canoes; and landing at the rocks, they began fishing as if nothing had happened. The wonderful boy being rejoiced to see his father, whom he had never looked upon before, went down among the fishermen; but when he was seen by the old chief, was accosted rudely with the question "Who are you? I am chief here." And the old chief not knowing his son, accompanied his rough language with an even rougher blow.

By this the wonderful boy was greatly affected, and thinking that he 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.

The Americans applied this year again to the Canadians in the Wallamette (who were about settlers) to join them and form a temporary government, to which they acceded, as they saw from the influx of immigrants it was absolutely necessary to do so to maintain peace and order in the country. We had the pleasure to see her Majesty's ship, Modeste, Capt. Baillie. She anchored opposite Vancouver. The Belgian brig, Indefatigable, also anchored there. She was the only vessel that hitherto came under that flag, and brought the Rev. Father Desmit, with four fathers of the Society of Jesus, and five Belgian nuns of the Society of Sisters of our Lady. The fathers came to reinforce their mission in the interior in the Flat Head Country, and to establish others, and the nuns to build a convent and open a school for young females in the Wallamette. Spring, 1845, an American of the name of Williamson built a hut half a mile from Vancouver, on a piece of ground occupied by the Hudson's Bay Company. As soon as I was informed of it, I ordered the hut to be pulled down. A few days after, Williamson returned with a surveyor to survey the place, and finding his hut pulled down, and on inquiring, found it was pulled down by my orders, he called on me and asked the reason of my doing so. I told him it was because it was built on premises occupied by the Hudson's Bay Company, who were carrying on business in the country under a license from the British Government according to a treaty between the British and American Governments, which implies a right to occupy as much ground as they require for their business. But this was disputed, and he said he would persist and build. One of his companions went so far as to say if he was disturbed, he would burn the finest building in Oregon. Not wishing to enter into an altercation with this fellow, I told him in the presence of Chief Factor Douglas, and several of the Hudson's Bay Company's officers, and several Americans, and of Dr. White, who happened to be present at the time, that if he persisted in building, he would place me under the disagreeable necessity of using force to prevent him. He went away saying he would build. Although none of the Hudson's Bay Company's people, or any from the north side of the Columbia, had joined the organization, yet as Williamson was an American citizen, as a matter of courtesy to them, the accompanying letter of the 11th of March was addressed to the members of the Executive Committee of Oregon Organization with an address to the people, which on receipt was to be posted up for public perusal in Oregon City.

I also addressed them on the 12th, informing them that Williamson had desisted from his design of building on the premises in question.

In the summer a meeting of the people in the Wallamette was called in which the organization was new-modeled, and a clause put in by which it was provided that no man could be called to do any act contrary to his allegiance. It struck me this was done to enable us to join the organization and I mentioned this to my colleague Chief Factor Douglas, who thought, as I did, that in our present situation and the state of the country it would be advisable to do so, and I was not surprised to find a few days after on my visit to Oregon City that my surmises were correct, as the originator of the clause who was a member of the legislature then in session, called on me and proposed to me to enter the organization on the part of the Hudson's Bay Company. After conversing on the subject and being aware the organization could afford assistance to none but its own members, I told him I would proceed to Vancouver, consult with my colleague, Chief Factor Douglas, and the other officers of the Hudson's Bay Company at that place, which I did, and Chief Factor Douglas coincided with me in the expediency of our doing so. I returned to Oregon City and on the legislature writing me a letter inviting me to join the organization on the part of the Hudson's Bay Company, in a written reply I informed them I did so; and on my way back to Vancouver, I was informed of the arrival of Chief Factor Ogden with dispatches from Sir George Simpson, Governor in Chief of Rupert's Land, in which I was happy to see that my proceeding in the case of Williamson had been approved. I have stated that Chief Factor Douglas coincided in opinion with me that in our situation, and in the present state of the country, it was evident for us (since none of us could be called to do any act contrary to our allegiance), to join the organization, as it resolved itself by this clause merely into an association of the people of the country to maintain peace and order among themselves, and in the present state it was not only necessary, but absolutely our duty, as in 1843, seeing the large number of immigrants of that season, and seeing from the public papers it was expected the numbers would be greater next year, and as they came from that part of the United States most hostile in feeling to British interest which was greatly excited by the perusal of Irving's Astoria. Kelley and Spalding's letters, several copies of which were among them, in which our conduct and proceedings were represented in the blackest and falsest colors, had worked so much on the minds of these immigrants that I found out they supposed we would have set the Indians on them, and that they had frequently talked among themselves that they ought to take Vancouver. They now knew these reports were false, but as prejudice takes a strong hold of people's minds, and of which others might avail themselves to form a party to make an attack on the Hudson's Bay Company's property—of which it may be said they were encouraged by the public papers stating that British subjects ought not to be allowed to be in the country, by the expectation held out by Linn's bill that every male above eighteen years of age would have a donation 640 acres of land, a wife 320, and all under 18 would have 160 acres in any part of the country—I wrote, fall 1843, to the Directors of the Hudson's Bay Company that it was necessary to get protection from the government for the security of the Hudson Bay Company's property, and to which in June 1845 I received their answer stating that in the present state of affairs the company could not obtain protection from the government, and that I must protect it the best way I could, and as I had sent an account of Williamson's attempt to build on the premises of the Hudson's Bay Company, and of my proceedings on the occasion to her Majesty's Consul, Gen. Millar, at Oahoo, calling on him for protection for the Hudson's Bay Company's property, and to which he did not even reply, though he could have done so by the vessel which conveyed my letter. Therefore,—[seeing our situation, and that an incendiary in the dry weather in the summer and fall might easily destroy Vancouver and fly to the Wallamette where we could not touch him. Indeed at that very time, there was a man at Vancouver on his way with Dr. White to the states whom we knew had repeatedly said among his countrymen that his only object for coming to this country was to try a change of air for the benefit of his health, and to burn Vancouver, and I heard afterwards on his way back he had expressed his great regret at not having perpetrated his atrocious intention, and wanted to return from Fort Hall to endeavor to carry it into effect, but his countrymen and Dr. White persuaded him to continue his journey to the states with them; and there are plenty such characters in the country. One Chapman got up at a Methodist Camp Meeting and confessed publicly that he had belonged to a celebrated band of robbers in the State of Arkansas headed by the notorious —— whom the United States Government had a great deal of trouble to catch and break up his band, and Chapman declared there were several of his former associates in this country, and if they reformed he would not expose them, but if they persisted in their former evil course, he certainly would. Even in 1844 a man agreed at this place to erect a building on the opposite side of the river. After it was erected, they differed about the payment. It was referred to arbitration, and the builder lost his case. A few days after, the building was burnt in the night, and though every person about the place is convinced who did it, yet there is no evidence to convict, and if there was, it would afford no indemnification to the owner of the property that was destroyed. I also had been informed that an American had proposed to form a party to take Vancouver by surprise. To deprive evil-doers of a place of refuge, as the organization could only assist its own members]—I considered it our duty to join the organization, as already mentioned. It may be said why not place sentries? It is because I know from experience that common men cannot be depended on for such a purpose beyond a few nights, and there were so few officers at the fort, to have employed them on that duty we must have put a stop to the business of the place which would derange the whole business of the department, and I therefore considered it best to act as I did. I was much surprised a few days after the arrival of Chief Factor Ogden, by the arrival of Lieut. Peel and Capt. Parks, who handed me a letter from Capt. Gorden of Her Majesty's Ship America, from Nisqually, and stating he was sent by Admiral Seymour, who wrote me to the same purport to assure her Majesty's subjects in the country of firm protection, and which was most unexpected after what the Directors of the Hudson's Bay Company had written me. But more particularly from the silence of Her Majesty's Consul, Gen. Millar, at Oahoo, which led me to suppose at the time, though I was mistaken, that the British Government had cast us off and we must take care of ourselves the "best way we could." I do not mention this to find fault with others, but merely to state my feelings, and the responsibility I felt for the property under my charge. I was still more surprised on the return of Chief Factor Douglas from Nisqually, where he had been in company with Mr. Peel, to see Capt. Gorden, to receive a letter from Capt. Baillie of Her Majesty's Ship Modeste, informing me he was sent by Admiral Seymour to afford protection to her Majesty's subjects in the Columbia River if they required it. At first I thought we would not, as we had joined the organization, but on the suggestion of Chief Factor Douglas I thought it well to accept Capt. Baillie's important offer, and I am now happy I did so, as I am convinced it was owing to the Modeste being at Vancouver, and the gentlemen-like conduct of Capt. Baillie and his officers, and the good discipline and behavior of the crew, that the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company at Vancouver have had less trouble than they would have had, and which (though they have had a great deal more than I expected) certainly they have done nothing to incur, but the reverse. They have done everything they could to avoid it, but after all of which I am not surprised when I am certain there are many ill-disposed persons among these immigrants who think they are doing a meritorious act by giving trouble to British subjects.

The immigrants in 1845 amounted to 3,000 persons, men, women and children.

REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

_McLoughlin and Old Oregon._ By EVA EMERY DYE. (Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company, 1900. Pp. VIII, 381.)

The incidents, personalities, color, and sequence of events in the growth of Oregon from 1832 to 1849 were never before portrayed as they are in Mrs. Dye's "McLoughlin and Old Oregon." Had the present day kinetograph and phonograph been at hand and in operation for recording the dramatic scenes and sayings of that period of wonderful changes in the Valley of the Columbia, we should have had more of the foibles, limitations, and obliquities of human nature, but Mrs. Dye's minute study, sympathetic assimilation, and unique strength in constructive imagination have given us an exceedingly interesting series of pictures almost as vivid as real life.

The book opens at Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia, the center of the Hudson's Bay Company's widely extended operations west of the Rocky Mountains, and the home of its chief factor, Dr. John McLoughlin. The time, 1832, marks the revival of the movement of American enterprise for the occupation of Oregon in the person of Nathaniel J. Wyeth. Nineteen years had passed since the Astor venture had suffered dismal discomfiture in that region. From 1832 on, however, the United States was to have representatives, in one capacity or another, of its interests in Oregon. Slender was its hold during the first half of this period, but its preponderance was overwhelming in the latter half. Wyeth failed with his commercial venture. Physical obstacles taxed his resources, and he had to meet the determined monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company under its competent and benignant chief factor, Dr. John McLoughlin, backed by the millions of the company, and a disciplined host in possession of the good-will and salutary respect of the Indians. But the American missionaries remained on the ground, established stations, accumulated stores, formed nuclei of settlements through their lay helpers, and correctly conceived policies of inuring the Indians through example and precept to a status of settled agricultural life. Then come strong mountain men, who had had their fill of experience as solitary trappers in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains. Beginning with a band of one hundred and thirty-seven in 1842, and rising immediately to eight hundred and seventy-five in 1843 there rolled in the mighty tide of pioneer home-builders.

In such an entourage of events the author correctly conceives of the motive that is primary in this culminative course of events. A lower race is to be dispossessed by a higher, though Wyeth's plans contemplated advantage from the Indians' retaining their native employments, and the missionaries vainly hoped by a summary procedure to elevate them from lowest barbarism to civilization. Doctor McLoughlin holds the key to the situation, at least as to the immediate outcome. As representative of the fur trading monopoly, his interests are linked with the interests of the Indians in remaining in undisturbed possession of their imperial domains. It would have been so easy to have hustled back home the first forerunners of the great immigrations, and, if this had not deterred others from coming on in larger numbers, these in turn, utterly without resources after their long marches, could easily have been thrown into consternation and wrought havoc with by the chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company.

The issues in this great drama of the Pacific Northwest turn then, first, upon the qualities of heart and character of the Indians that came under the influence of Lee, Whitman, and Spalding. Will they have the faith and fortitude to sacrifice a world in which they are the leaders for a possibly better world in which leadership is with the white man? Secondly, the outcome of this second movement of the Americans on to Oregon lies with Doctor McLoughlin. Will the depth of his humanity suffice to rescue, shelter, nourish and shield year after year those who would have perished but for his intervention and whose survival is bound to result in the appearance of invading hosts who will wrest the sceptre from him? Mrs. Dye has thrilling issues and two real heroes, Whitman and McLoughlin, in this epoch of Oregon history, and she makes the most of them.

The secret of her remarkable success in making the characters and conditions of that time live again lay in her getting the confidence of the principal surviving actors of that period and securing from them the fullest impress of the traditions of stirring times, with all the halo that half-a-century would naturally invest them with. Through these sources she attained an understanding of the actors and spirit of the times so intimate that her pretension to supply the words used on all important occasions does not become a mockery, but through this dramatizing the author attains the unique element in her success. In this role her inimitable power of vivid representation, through successions of pictures, has its best application.

The stock of reminiscences that Mrs. Dye exploited with such rare skill and energy needed corroboration from contemporary documents. As the material for Oregon history is brought together, many lapses, more or less important, in matters of fact will no doubt be disclosed. As an instance: The magnitude of Wyeth's second expedition is stated in figures at least four times too large, both for the number of men and the amount of money.

The author has, however, kept herself remarkably well poised between the partisan bickerings that have characterized so much of the writing in Oregon history. The search of the author for indubitable evidence has been rewarded in the finding of some valuable material, notably the Whitman papers; and clues that she came upon have yielded treasures for others.

Towards the closing chapters the author swerves farthest from history towards romance. Instead of bringing the vigorous young Oregon community into the foreground, she leaves the stage empty. "Old Oregon," with its life had, of course, departed, but it was crowded out by the thronging of the new.

This book is by far the best that the general reader can select for an introduction to the life of early Oregon.

_Missionary History of the Pacific Northwest._ By H. K. HINES, D. D. (Portland: H. K. Hines, San Francisco: J. D. Hammond, 1899. Pp. 510.)

As the sub-title indicates, this is rather the "Story of Jason Lee" than a missionary history of the Pacific Northwest. There would have been no impropriety in giving it the title of "Jason Lee and the Methodist Missionary Effort in the Pacific Northwest." The title is positively misleading as it stands, for forty pages only are devoted to an account of the work of the missionaries under the "American Board," while some four hundred and fifty are taken up with the story of the Methodist Missions. The Methodist denomination was first in this field with wisely chosen representatives. It sustained and reinforced its movement to christianize the Indians of Oregon most munificently, considering the conditions of the times. As a memorial of these efforts conceived with such grand and consecrated spirit, nothing would have been more fitting than a volume by Doctor Hines.

No one could have been so unfair as to demand of Doctor Hines a cold and critical account of these missionaries and their work. A panegyric on Jason Lee and his colaborers was becoming from him. He was the man prepared through life-long schooling and natural inclination to do this, and Jason Lee's work deserved it. But for the title and an invidious comparison that crops out all too frequently, Doctor Hines has done in this book just what God had prepared him to do.

It is a pity that a work of so high general character, the best product of such fine literary ability as Doctor Hines possesses, could not have been one of some famous series by a strong publishing house of the East that would have pushed it into the markets of the world.

The fact that the critical historian will take issue with the conclusions of this book almost from the beginning constitutes no disparagement of the real worth of the author's work. It was a labor of love for a character and for a denomination. This, however, may be said: The Methodist missionary project in the Pacific Northwest was, soon after its inception, at all but one or two points, not distinctively a missionary station at all. But it was a colony with a strong secular spirit and exercised a most salutary influence upon the affairs of the Oregon community. This fact the work of Doctor Hines unwittingly proves.

NOTE—A CORRECTION.

_To the Editor Oregon Historical Quarterly_:

In the article upon F. X. Matthieu in the March Quarterly there appears one inadvertence which should be corrected: Doctor White is mentioned as having first come to Oregon on the Lausanne. He came in 1837 _via_ Honolulu, leaving Boston on the ship Hamilton, and reaching the Columbia in May, on the brig Diana.

H. S. LYMAN.

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CONTENTS NO. 1, VOL. I, MARCH, 1900.

THE GENESIS OF POLITICAL AUTHORITY AND OF A COMMONWEALTH
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THE PROCESS OF SELECTION IN OREGON PIONEER SETTLEMENT—_Thomas
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NATHANIEL J. WYETH'S OREGON EXPEDITIONS—"In Historic Mansions
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REMINISCENCES OF F. X. MATTHIEU—_H. S. Lyman_ 73

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NOTES AND NEWS 70

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Transcriber's Note

The order for "Contents No. 1, Vol. I, March, 1900" has been retained
as published in the original publication. Other apparent typographical
errors have been repaired.

Footnotes placed at end of the respective chapters.