On The 20th Of January, Mr. Hunt
Took Leave Of These Friendly Indians, And Of The River On Which
They Encamped, And Continued Westward.
At length, on the following day, the wayworn travellers lifted up
their eyes and beheld before them the long-sought waters of the
Columbia.
The sight was hailed with as much transport as if they
had already reached the end of their pilgrimage; nor can we
wonder at their joy. Two hundred and forty miles had they
marched, through wintry wastes and rugged mountains, since
leaving Snake River; and six months of perilous wayfaring had
they experienced since their departure from the Arickara village
on the Missouri. Their whole route by land and water from that
point had been, according to their computation, seventeen hundred
and fifty-one miles, in the course of which they had endured all
kinds of hardships. In fact, the necessity of avoiding the
dangerous country of the Blackfeet had obliged them to make a
bend to the south and traverse a great additional extent of
unknown wilderness.
The place where they struck the Columbia was some distance below
the junction of its two great branches, Lewis and Clarke rivers,
and not far from the influx of the Wallah-Wallah. It was a
beautiful stream, three-quarters of a mile wide, totally free
from trees; bordered in some places with steep rocks, in others
with pebbled shores.
On the banks of the Columbia they found a miserable horde of
Indians, called Akai-chies, with no clothing but a scanty mantle
of the skins of animals, and sometimes a pair of sleeves of
wolf's skin. Their lodges were shaped like a tent, and very light
and warm, being covered with mats and rushes; besides which they
had excavations in the ground, lined with mats, and occupied by
the women, who were even more slightly clad than the men. These
people subsisted chiefly by fishing; having canoes of a rude
construction, being merely the trunks of pine trees split and
hollowed out by fire. Their lodges were well stored with dried
salmon, and they had great quantities of fresh salmon trout of an
excellent flavor, taken at the mouth of the Umatilla; of which
the travellers obtained a most acceptable supply.
Finding that the road was on the north side of the river, Mr.
Hunt crossed, and continued five or six days travelling rather
slowly down along its banks, being much delayed by the straying
of the horses, and the attempts made by the Indians to steal
them. They frequently passed lodges, where they obtained fish and
dogs. At one place the natives had just returned from hunting,
and had brought back a large quantity of elk and deer meat, but
asked so high a price for it as to be beyond the funds of the
travellers, so they had to content themselves with dog's flesh.
They had by this time, however, come to consider it very choice
food, superior to horse flesh, and the minutes of the expedition
speak rather exultingly now and then, of their having made a
famous "repast," where this viand happened to be unusually
plenty.
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