It May Be As Well To
Add That The Indians Executed Their Task Faithfully, And Landed
John Day Among His Friends At Astoria; But His Constitution Was
Completely Broken By The Hardships He Had Undergone, And He Died
Within A Year.
On the evening of the 6th of July the party arrived at the
piratical pass of the river, and encamped at the foot of the
first rapid.
The next day, before the commencement of the
portage, the greatest precautions were taken to guard against
lurking treachery, or open attack. The weapons of every man were
put in order, and his cartridge-box replenished. Each one wore a
kind of surcoat made of the skin of the elk, reaching from his
neck to his knees, and answering the purpose of a shirt of mail,
for it was arrow proof, and could even resist a musket ball at
the distance of ninety yards. Thus armed and equipped, they
posted their forces in military style. Five of the officers took
their stations at each end of the portage, which was between
three and four miles in length; a number of men mounted guard at
short distances along the heights immediately overlooking the
river, while the residue, thus protected from surprise, employed
themselves below in dragging up the barges and canoes, and
carrying up the goods along the narrow margin of the rapids. With
these precautions they all passed unmolested. The only accident
that happened was the upsetting of one of the canoes, by which
some of the goods sunk, and others floated down the stream. The
alertness and rapacity of the hordes which infest these rapids,
were immediately apparent. They pounced upon the floating
merchandise with the keenness of regular wreckers. A bale of
goods which landed upon one of the islands was immediately ripped
open, one half of its contents divided among the captors, and the
other half secreted in a lonely hut in a deep ravine. Mr. Robert
Stuart, however, set out in a canoe with five men and an
interpreter, ferreted out the wreckers in their retreat, and
succeeded in wrestling from them their booty.
Similar precautions to those already mentioned, and to a still
greater extent, were observed in passing the Long Narrows, and
the falls, where they would be exposed to the depredations of the
chivalry of Wish-ram, and its freebooting neighborhood. In fact,
they had scarcely set their first watch one night, when an alarm
of "Indians!" was given. "To arms" was the cry, and every man was
at his post in an instant. The alarm was explained; a war party
of Shoshonies had surprised a canoe of the natives just below the
encampment, had murdered four men and two women, and it was
apprehended they would attack the camp. The boats and canoes were
immediately hauled up, a breastwork was made of them and the
packages, forming three sides of a square, with the river in the
rear, and thus the party remained fortified throughout the night.
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