Wahkiacum Is The County Lying Next West
Of Cowlitz.
When the explorers passed down the river under the piloting
of their Indian friend wearing a sailor's jacket, they were in a thick fog.
This cleared away and a sight greeted their joyful vision.
Their story says:
-
"At a distance of twenty miles from our camp, we halted at a
village of Wahkiacums, consisting of seven ill-looking houses,
built in the same form with those above, and situated at the foot
of the high hills on the right, behind two small marshy islands.
We merely stopped to purchase some food and two beaver skins,
and then proceeded. Opposite to these islands the hills
on the left retire, and the river widens into a kind of bay,
crowded with low islands, subject to be overflowed occasionally
by the tide. We had not gone far from this village when,
the fog suddenly clearing away, we were at last presented
with the glorious sight of the ocean - that ocean, the object
of all our labors, the reward of all our anxieties.
This animating sight exhilarated the spirits of all the party,
who were still more delighted on hearing the distant roar
of the breakers. We went on with great cheerfulness along
the high, mountainous country which bordered the right bank:
the shore, however, was so bold and rocky, that we could not,
until at a distance of fourteen miles from the last village,
find any spot fit for an encampment. Having made during the day
thirty-four miles, we now spread our mats on the ground, and passed
the night in the rain. Here we were joined by our small canoe,
which had been separated from us during the fog this morning.
Two Indians from the last village also accompanied us
to the camp; but, having detected them in stealing a knife,
they were sent off."
It is not very easy for us, who have lived comfortably at home,
or who have travelled only in luxurious railway-cars and
handsomely equipped steamers, to realize the joy and rapture
with which these far-wandering explorers hailed the sight
of the sea, - the sea to which they had so long been journeying,
through deserts, mountain-passes, and tangled wildernesses.
In his diary Captain Clark thus sets down some indication of his
joy on that memorable day, November 8, 1805: "Great joy in camp.
We are in view of the Ocean, this great Pacific Ocean which we
have been so long anxious to see, and the roaring or noise
made by the waves breaking on the rocky shores (as I suppose)
may be heard distinctly." Later, same day, he says, "Ocean in view!
O! the joy!" Fortunately, the hardships to be undergone on
the shores of the ocean were then unknown and undreamed of;
the travellers were thankful to see the sea, the goal of all
their hopes, the end of their long pilgrimage across the continent.
That night they camped near the mouth of the river in what is now known
as Gray's Bay, on the north side of the river, in the southwest corner
of Wahkiacum County.
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