CHAPTER XXXVIII.
The Village Of Wish-Ram.- Roguery Of The Inhabitants.- Their
Habitations.- Tidings Of Astoria.- Of The Tonquin Massacre.-
Thieves About The Camp.-A Band Of Braggarts- Embarkation.-
Arrival At Astoria.-A Joyful Reception.- Old Comrades- Adventures
Of Reed, M'Lellan, And M'Kenzie Among The Snake River Mountains.-
Rejoicing At Astoria.
0F the village of Wish-ram, the aborigines' fishing mart of the
Columbia, we have given some account in an early chapter of this
work.
The inhabitants held a traffic in the productions of the
fisheries of the falls, and their village was the trading resort
of the tribes from the coast and from the mountains. Mr. Hunt
found the inhabitants shrewder and more intelligent than any
Indians he had met with. Trade had sharpened their wits, though
it had not improved their honesty; for they were a community of
arrant rogues and freebooters. Their habitations comported with
their circumstances, and were superior to any the travellers had
yet seen west of the Rocky Mountains. In general, the dwellings
of the savages on the Pacific side of that great barrier were
mere tents and cabins of mats, or skins, or straw, the country
being destitute of timber. In Wish-ram, on the contrary, the
houses were built of wood, with long sloping roofs. The floor was
sunk about six feet below the surface of the ground, with a low
door at the gable end, extremely narrow, and partly sunk. Through
this it was necessary to crawl and then to descend a short
ladder.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 379 of 615
Words from 102089 to 102342
of 165649
