Finding That The Enemy Had The Advantage Of The Ground,
The Whites Stopped Short When Within Five Hundred Yards Of Them,
And Discharged And Reloaded Their Pieces.
They then made a fire,
and dressed the wounds of Mr. Reed, who had received five severe
gashes in the head.
This being done, they lashed the canoes
together, fastened them to a rock at a small distance from the
shore, and there awaited the menaced attack.
They had not been long posted in this manner, when they saw a
canoe approaching. It contained the war-chief of the tribe, and
three of his principal warriors. He drew near, and made a long
harangue, in which he informed them that they had killed one and
wounded another of his nation; that the relations of the slain
cried out for vengeance, and he had been compelled to lead them
to fight. Still he wished to spare unnecessary bloodshed; he
proposed, therefore, that Mr. Reed, who, he observed, was little
better than a dead man, might be given up to be sacrificed to the
manes of the deceased warrior. This would appease the fury of his
friends; the hatchet would then be buried, and all thenceforward
would be friends. The answer was a stern refusal and a defiance,
and the war-chief saw that the canoes were well prepared for a
vigorous defense. He withdrew, therefore, and returning to his
warriors among the rocks held long deliberations. Blood for blood
is a principle in Indian equity and Indian honor; but though the
inhabitants of Wish-ram were men of war, they were likewise men
of traffic, and it was suggested that honor for once might give
way to profit. A negotiation was accordingly opened with the
white men, and after some diplomacy, the matter was compromised
for a blanket to cover the dead, and some tobacco to be smoked by
the living. This being granted, the heroes of Wish-ram crossed
the river once more, returned to their villages to feast upon the
horses whose blood they had so vaingloriously drunk, and the
travellers pursued their voyage without further molestation.
The tin case, however, containing the important despatches for
New York, was irretrievably lost; the very precaution taken by
the worthy Hibernian to secure his missives, had, by rendering
them conspicuous, produced their robbery. The object of his
overland journey, therefore, being defeated, he gave up the
expedition. The whole party repaired with Mr. Robert Stuart to
the establishment of Mr. David Stuart, on the Oakinagan River.
After remaining here two or three days, they all set out on their
return to Astoria accompanied by Mr. David Stuart. This gentleman
had a large quantity of beaver skins at his establishment, but
did not think it prudent to take them with him. fearing the levy
of "black mail" at the falls.
On their way down, when below the forks of the Columbia, they
were hailed one day from the shore in English. Looking around,
they descried two wretched men, entirely naked. They pulled to
shore; the men came up and made themselves known. They proved to
be Mr. Crooks and his faithful follower, John Day.
The reader will recollect that Mr. Crooks, with Day and four
Canadians, had been so reduced by famine and fatigue, that Mr.
Hunt was obliged to leave them, in the month of December, on the
banks of the Snake River. Their situation was the more critical,
as they were in the neighborhood of a band of Shoshonies, whose
horses had been forcibly seized by Mr. Hunt's party for
provisions. Mr. Crooks remained here twenty days, detained by the
extremely reduced state of John Day, who was utterly unable to
travel, and whom he would not abandon, as Day had been in his
employ on the Missouri, and had always proved himself most
faithful. Fortunately the Shoshonies did not offer to molest
them. They had never before seen white men, and seemed to
entertain some superstitions with regard to them, for though they
would encamp near them in the daytime, they would move off with
their tents in the night; and finally disappeared, without taking
leave.
When Day was sufficiently recovered to travel, they kept feebly
on, sustaining themselves as well as they could, until in the
month of February, when three of the Canadians, fearful of
perishing with want, left Mr. Crooks on a small river, on the
road by which Mr Hunt had passed in quest of Indians. Mr. Crooks
followed Mr. Hunt's track in the snow for several days, sleeping
as usual in the open air, and suffering all kinds of hardships.
At length, coming to a low prairie, he lost every appearance Of
the "trail," and wandered during the remainder of the winter in
the mountains, subsisting sometimes on horse meat, sometimes on
beavers and their skins, and a part of the time on roots.
About the last of March, the other Canadian gave out and was left
with a lodge of Shoshonies; but Mr. Crooks and John Day still
kept on, and finding the snow sufficiently diminished, undertook,
from Indian information, to cross the last mountain ridge. They
happily succeeded, and afterwards fell in with the Wallah-
Wallahs, a tribe of Indians inhabiting the banks of a river of
the same name, and reputed as being frank, hospitable, and
sincere. They proved worthy of the character, for they received
the poor wanderers kindly, killed a horse for them to eat, and
directed them on their way to the Columbia. They struck the river
about the middle of April, and advanced down it one hundred
miles, until they came within about twenty miles of the falls.
Here they met with some of the "chivalry" of that noted pass, who
received them in a friendly way, and set food before them; but,
while they were satisfying their hunger, perfidiously seized
their rifles. They then stripped them naked, and drove them off,
refusing the entreaties of Mr. Crooks for a flint and steel of
which they had robbed him; and threatening his life if he did not
instantly depart
In this forlorn plight, still worse off than before, they renewed
their wanderings.
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