Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814 or the First American Settlement on the Pacific by Gabriel Franchere

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The goods which had been abandoned, were of consequence to the Company,
inasmuch as they could not be replaced. It was dangerous, besides, to
leave the natives in possession of some fifty guns and a considerable
quantity of ammunition, which they might use against us.[S] The
partners, therefore, decided to fit out an expedition immediately to
chastise the robbers, or at least to endeavor to recover the goods. I
went, by their order, to find the principal chiefs of the neighboring
tribes, to explain to them what had taken place, and invite them to
join us, to which they willingly consented. Then, having got ready six
canoes, we re-embarked on the 10th, to the number of sixty-two men, all
armed from head to foot, and provided with a small brass field-piece.

[Footnote S: However, some cases of guns and kegs of powder were thrown
into the falls, before the party retreated.]

We soon reached the lower end of the first rapid: but the essential
thing was wanting to our little force; it was without provisions; our
first care then was to try to procure these. Having arrived opposite a
village, we perceived on the bank about thirty armed savages, who seemed
to await us firmly. As it was not our policy to seem bent on
hostilities, we landed on the opposite bank, and I crossed the river
with five or six men, to enter into parley with them, and try to obtain
provisions. I immediately became aware that the village was abandoned,
the women and children having fled to the woods, taking with them all
the articles of food. The young men, however, offered us dogs, of which
we purchased a score. Then we passed to a second village, where they
were already informed of our coming. Here we bought forty-five dogs and
a horse. With this stock we formed an encampment on an island called
_Strawberry island_.

Seeing ourselves now provided with food for several days, we informed
the natives touching the motives which had brought us, and announced to
them that we were determined to put them all to death and burn their
villages, if they did not bring back in two days the effects stolen on
the 7th. A party was detached to the rapids, where the attack on Mr.
Stuart had taken place. We found the villages all deserted. Crossing to
the north bank, we found a few natives, of whom we made inquiries
respecting the Nipissingue Indian, who had been left behind, but they
assured us that they had seen nothing of him.[T]

[Footnote T: This Indian returned some time after to the factory, but in
a pitiable condition. After the departure of the canoe, he had concealed
himself behind a rock, and so passed the night. At daybreak, fearing to
be discovered, he gained the woods and directed his steps toward the
fort, across a mountainous region. He arrived at length at the bank of a
little stream, which he was at first unable to cross. Hunger, in the
meantime, began to urge him; he might have appeased it with game, of
which he saw plenty, but unfortunately he had lost the flint of his gun.
At last, with a raft of sticks, he crossed the river, and arrived at a
village, the inhabitants of which disarmed him, and made him prisoner.
Our people hearing where he was, sent to seek him, and gave some
blankets for his ransom.]

Not having succeeded in recovering, above the rapids, any part of the
lost goods, the inhabitants all protesting that it was not they, but the
villages below, which had perpetrated the robbery, we descended the
river again, and re-encamped on _Strawberry island_. As the intention of
the partners was to intimidate the natives, without (if possible)
shedding blood, we made a display of our numbers, and from time to time
fired off our little field-piece, to let them see that we could reach
them from one side of the river to the other. The Indian _Coalpo_ and
his wife, who had accompanied us, advised us to make prisoner one of the
chiefs. We succeeded in this design, without incurring any danger.
Having invited one of the natives to come and smoke with us, he came
accordingly: a little after, came another; at last, one of the chiefs,
and he one of the most considered among them, also came. Being notified
secretly of his character by _Coalpo_, who was concealed in the tent,
we seized him forthwith, tied him to a stake, and placed a guard over
him with a naked sword, as if ready to cut his head off on the least
attempt being made by his people for his liberation. The other Indians
were then suffered to depart with the news for his tribe, that unless
the goods were brought to us in twenty-four hours, their chief would be
put to death. Our stratagem succeeded: soon after we heard wailing and
lamentation in the village, and they presently brought us part of the
guns, some brass kettles, and a variety of smaller articles, protesting
that this was all their share of the plunder. Keeping our chief as a
hostage, we passed to the other village, and succeeded in recovering the
rest of the guns, and about a third of the other goods.

Although they had been the aggressors, yet as they had had two men
killed and we had not lost any on our side, we thought it our duty to
conform to the usage of the country, and abandon to them the remainder
of the stolen effects, to cover, according to their expression, the
bodies of their two slain compatriots. Besides, we began to find
ourselves short of provisions, and it would not have been easy to get at
our enemies to punish them, if they had taken refuge in the woods,
according to their custom when they feel themselves the weaker party. So
we released our prisoner, and gave him a flag, telling him that when he
presented it unfurled, we should regard it as a sign of peace and
friendship: but if, when we were passing the portage, any one of the
natives should have the misfortune to come near the baggage, we would
kill him on the spot. We re-embarked on the 19th, and on the 22d reached
the fort, where we made a report of our martial expedition. We found Mr.
Stuart very ill of his wounds, especially of the one in the side, which
was so much swelled that we had every reason to think the arrow had been
poisoned.

If we did not do the savages as much harm as we might have done, it was
not from timidity but from humanity, and in order not to shed human
blood uselessly. For after all, what good would it have done us to have
slaughtered some of these barbarians, whose crime was not the effect of
depravity and wickedness, but of an ardent and irresistible desire to
ameliorate their condition? It must be allowed also that the interest,
well-understood, of the partners of the Northwest Company, was opposed
to too strongly marked acts of hostility on their part: it behooved them
exceedingly not to make irreconciliable enemies of the populations
neighboring on the portages of the Columbia, which they would so often
be obliged to pass and repass in future. It is also probable that the
other natives on the banks, as well as of the river as of the sea, would
not have seen with indifference, their countrymen too signally or too
rigorously punished by strangers; and that they would have made common
cause with the former to resist the latter, and perhaps even to drive
them from the country.

I must not omit to state that all the firearms surrendered by the
Indians on this occasion, were found loaded with ball, and primed, with
a little piece of cotton laid over the priming to keep the powder dry.
This shows how soon they would acquire the use of guns, and how careful
traders should be in intercourse with strange Indians, not to teach them
their use.

CHAPTER XVII.

Description of Tongue Point.--A Trip to the _Willamet_.--Arrival of
W. Hunt in the Brig Pedlar.--Narrative of the Loss of the Ship
Lark.--Preparations for crossing the Continent.

The new proprietors of our establishment, being dissatisfied with the
site we had chosen, came to the determination to change it; after
surveying both sides of the river, they found no better place than the
head-land which we had named Tongue point. This point, or to speak more
accurately, perhaps, this cape, extends about a quarter of a mile into
the river, being connected with the main-land by a low, narrow neck,
over which the Indians, in stormy weather, haul their canoes in passing
up and down the river; and terminating in an almost perpendicular rock,
of about 250 or 300 feet elevation. This bold summit was covered with a
dense forest of pine trees; the ascent from the lower neck was gradual
and easy; it abounded in springs of the finest water; on either side it
had a cove to shelter the boats necessary for a trading establishment.
This peninsula had truly the appearance of a huge tongue. Astoria had
been built nearer the ocean, but the advantages offered by Tongue point
more than compensated for its greater distance. Its soil, in the rainy
season, could be drained with little or no trouble; it was a better
position to guard against attacks on the part of the natives, and less
exposed to that of civilized enemies by sea or land in time of war.

All the hands who had returned from the interior, added to those who
were already at the Fort, consumed, in an incredibly short space of time
the small stock of provisions which had been conveyed by the Pacific Fur
Company to the Company of the Northwest. It became a matter of
necessity, therefore, to seek some spot where a part, at least, could be
sent to subsist. With these views I left the fort on the 7th February
with a number of men, belonging to the old concern, and who had refused
to enter the service of the new one, to proceed to the establishment on
the _Willamet_ river, under the charge of Mr. Alexander Henry, who had
with him a number of first-rate hunters. Leaving the Columbia to ascend
the _Willamet_, I found the banks on either side of that stream well
wooded, but low and swampy, until I reached the first falls; having
passed which, by making a portage, I commenced ascending a clear but
moderately deep channel, against a swift current. The banks on either
side were bordered with forest-trees, but behind that narrow belt,
diversified with prairie, the landscape was magnificent; the hills were
of moderate elevation, and rising in an amphitheatre. Deer and elk are
found here in great abundance; and the post in charge of Mr. Henry had
been established with a view of keeping constantly there a number of
hunters to prepare dried venison for the use of the factory. On our
arrival at the Columbia, considering the latitude, we had expected
severe winter weather, such as is experienced in the same latitudes
east; but we were soon undeceived; the mildness of the climate never
permitted us to transport fresh provisions from the Willamet to Astoria.
We had not a particle of salt; and the attempts we made to smoke or dry
the venison proved abortive.

Having left the men under my charge with Mr. Henry, I took leave of that
gentleman, and returned. At Oak point I found Messrs. Keith and Pillet
encamped, to pass there the season of sturgeon-fishing. They informed me
that I was to stay with them.

Accordingly I remained at Oak point the rest of the winter, occupied in
trading with the Indians spread all along the river for some 30 or 40
miles above, in order to supply the factory with provisions. I used to
take a boat with four or five men, visit every fishing station, trade
for as much fish as would load the boat, and send her down to the fort.
The surplus fish traded in the interval between the departure and return
of the boat, was cut up, salted and barrelled for future use. The salt
had been recently obtained from a quarter to be presently mentioned.

About the middle of March Messrs. Keith and Pillet both left me and
returned to the fort. Being now alone, I began seriously to reflect on
my position, and it was in this interval that I positively decided to
return to Canada. I made inquiries of the men sent up with the boats for
fish, concerning the preparations for departure, but whether they had
been enjoined secrecy, or were unwilling to communicate, I could learn
nothing of what was doing below.

At last I heard that on the 28th February a sail had appeared at the
mouth of the river. The gentlemen of the N.W. Company at first flattered
themselves that it was the vessel they had so long expected. They were
soon undeceived by a letter from Mr. Hunt, which was brought to the fort
by the Indians of _Baker's bay_. That gentleman had purchased at the
Marquesas islands a brig called _The Pedlar_: it was on that vessel that
he arrived, having for pilot Captain Northrop, formerly commander of
the ship _Lark_. The latter vessel had been outfitted by Mr. Astor, and
despatched from New York, in spite of the blockading squadron, with
supplies for the _ci-devant_ Pacific Fur Company; but unhappily she had
been assailed by a furious tempest and capsized in lat. 16 deg. N., and
three or four hundred miles from the Sandwich Islands. The mate who was
sick, was drowned in the cabin, and four of the crew perished at the
same time. The captain had the masts and rigging cut away, which caused
the vessel to right again, though full of water. One of the hands dived
down to the sail-maker's locker, and got out a small sail, which they
attached to the bowsprit. He dived a second time, and brought up a box
containing a dozen bottles of wine. For thirteen days they had no other
sustenance but the flesh of a small shark, which they had the good
fortune to take, and which they ate raw, and for drink, a gill of the
wine each man _per diem_. At last the trade winds carried them upon the
island of _Tahouraka_, where the vessel went to pieces on the reef. The
islanders saved the crew, and seized all the goods which floated on the
water. Mr. Hunt was then at _Wahoo_, and learned through some islanders
from _Morotoi_, that some Americans had been wrecked on the isle of
_Tahouraka_. He went immediately to take them off, and gave the pilotage
of his own vessel to Captain Northrop.

It may be imagined what was the surprise of Mr. Hunt when he saw Astoria
under the British flag, and passed into stranger hands. But the
misfortune was beyond remedy, and he was obliged to content himself with
taking on board all the Americans who were at the establishment, and who
had not entered the service of the Company of the Northwest. Messrs.
Halsey, Seton, and Farnham were among those who embarked. I shall have
occasion to inform the reader of the part each of them played, and how
they reached their homes.

When I heard that Mr. Hunt was in the river, and knowing that the
overland expedition was to set out early in April, I raised camp at Oak
point, and reached the fort on the 2d of that month. But the brig
_Pedlar_ had that very day got outside the river, after several
fruitless attempts, in one of which she narrowly missed being lost on
the bar.

I would gladly have gone in her, had I but arrived a day sooner. I
found, however, all things prepared for the departure of the canoes,
which was to take place on the 4th. I got ready the few articles I
possessed, and in spite of the very advantageous offers of the gentlemen
of the N.W. Company, and their reiterated persuasions, aided by the
crafty M'Dougal, to induce me to remain, at least one year more, I
persisted in my resolution to leave the country. The journey I was about
to undertake was a long one: it would be accompanied with great fatigues
and many privations, and even by some dangers; but I was used to
privations and fatigues; I had braved dangers of more than one sort; and
even had it been otherwise, the ardent desire of revisiting my country,
my relatives, and my friends, the hope of finding myself, in a few
months, in their midst, would have made me overlook every other
consideration.

I am about, then, to quit the banks of the river Columbia, and conduct
the reader through the mountain passes, over the plains, the forests,
and the lakes of our continent: but I ought first to give him at least
an idea of the manners and customs of the inhabitants, as well as of the
principal productions of the country that I now quit, after a sojourn of
three years. This is what I shall try to do in the following
chapters.[U]

[Footnote U: Some of my readers would, no doubt, desire some scientific
details on the botany and natural history of this country. That is, in
fact, what they ought to expect from a man who had travelled for his
pleasure, or to make discoveries: but the object of my travels was not
of this description; my occupations had no relation with science; and,
as I have said in my preface, I was not, and am not now, either a
naturalist or a botanist.]

CHAPTER XVIII.

Situation of the Columbia River.--Qualities of its Soil.--Climate,
&c.--Vegetable and Animal Productions of the Country.

The mouth of the Columbia river is situated in 46 deg. 19' north latitude,
and 125 deg. or 126 deg. of longitude west of the meridian of Greenwich. The
highest tides are very little over nine or ten feet, at its entrance,
and are felt up stream for a distance of twenty-five or thirty leagues.

During the three years I spent there, the cold never was much below the
freezing point; and I do not think the heat ever exceeded 76 deg.. Westerly
winds prevail from the early part of spring, and during a part of the
summer; that wind generally springs up with the flood tide, and tempers
the heat of the day. The northwest wind prevails during the latter part
of summer and commencement of autumn. This last is succeeded by a
southeast wind, which blows almost without intermission from the
beginning of October to the end of December, or commencement of January.
This interval is the rainy season, the most disagreeable of the year.
Fogs (so thick that sometimes for days no object is discernible for five
or six hundred yards from the beach), are also very prevalent.

The surface of the soil consists (in the valleys) of a layer of black
vegetable mould, about five or six inches thick at most; under this
layer is found another of gray and loose, but extremely cold earth;
below which is a bed of coarse sand and gravel, and next to that pebble
or hard rock. On the more elevated parts, the same black vegetable mould
is found, but much thinner, and under it is the trap rock. We found
along the seashore, south of Point Adams, a bank of earth white as
chalk, which we used for white-washing our walls. The natives also
brought us several specimens of blue, red and yellow earth or clay,
which they said was to be found at a great distance south; and also a
sort of shining earth, resembling lead ore.[V] We found no limestone,
although we burnt several kilns, but never could get one ounce of lime.

[Footnote V: Plumbago.]

We had brought with us from New York a variety of garden seeds, which
were put in the ground in the month of May, 1811, on a rich piece of
land laid out for the purpose on a sloping ground in front of our
establishment. The garden had a fine appearance in the month of August;
but although the plants were left in the ground until December, not one
of them came to maturity, with the exception of the radishes, the
turnips, and the potatoes. The turnips grew to a prodigious size; one of
the largest we had the curiosity to weigh and measure; its circumference
was thirty-three inches, its weight fifteen and a half pounds. The
radishes were in full blossom in the month of December, and were left in
the ground to perfect the seeds for the ensuing season, but they were
all destroyed by the ground mice, who hid themselves under the stumps
which we had not rooted out, and infested our garden. With all the care
we could bestow on them during the passage from New York, only twelve
potatoes were saved, and even these so shrivelled up, that we despaired
of raising any from the few sprouts that still gave signs of life.
Nevertheless we raised one hundred and ninety potatoes the first season,
and after sparing a few plants for our inland traders, we planted about
fifty or sixty hills, which produced five bushels the second year; about
two of these were planted, and gave us a welcome crop of fifty bushels
in the year 1813.

It would result from these facts, that the soil on the banks of the
river, as far as tide water, or for a distance of fifty or sixty miles,
is very little adapted for agriculture; at all events, vegetation is
very slow. It may be that the soil is not everywhere so cold as the spot
we selected for our garden, and some other positions might have given a
better reward for our labor: this supposition is rendered more than
probable when we take into consideration the great difference in the
indigenous vegetables of the country in different localities.

The forest trees most common at the mouth of the river and near our
establishment, were cedar, hemlock, white and red spruce, and alder.
There were a few dwarf white and gray ashes; and here and there a soft
maple. The alder grows also to a very large size; I measured some of
twelve to fifteen inches diameter; the wood was used by us in
preference, to make charcoal for the blacksmith's forge. But the largest
of all the trees that I saw in the country, was a white spruce: this
tree, which had lost its top branches, and bore evident marks of having
been struck by lightning, was a mere, straight trunk of about eighty to
one hundred feet in height; its bark whitened by age, made it very
conspicuous among the other trees with their brown bark and dark
foliage, like a huge column of white marble. It stood on the slope of a
hill immediately in the rear of our palisades. Seven of us placed
ourselves round its trunk, and we could not embrace it by extending our
arms and touching merely the tips of our fingers; we measured it
afterward in a more regular manner, and found it forty-two feet in
circumference. It kept the same size, or nearly the same, to the very
top.

We had it in contemplation at one time to construct a circular staircase
to its summit, and erect a platform thereon for an observatory, but more
necessary and pressing demands on our time made us abandon the project.

A short distance above Astoria, the oak and ash are plentiful, but
neither of these is of much value or beauty.

From the middle of June to the middle of October, we had abundance of
wild fruit; first, strawberries, almost white, small but very sweet;
then raspberries, both red and orange color. These grow on a bush
sometimes twelve feet in height: they are not sweet, but of a large
size.

The months of July and August furnish a small berry of an agreeable,
slightly acid flavor; this berry grows on a slender bush of some eight
to nine feet high, with small round leaves; they are in size like a wild
cherry: some are blue, while others are of a cherry red: the last being
smaller; they have no pits, or stones in them, but seeds, such as are to
be seen in currants.

I noticed in the month of August another berry growing in bunches or
grapes like the currant, on a bush very similar to the currant bush: the
leaves of this shrub resemble those of the laurel: they are very thick
and always green. The fruit is oblong, and disposed in two rows on the
stem: the extremity of the berry is open, having a little speck or tuft
like that of an apple. It is not of a particularly fine flavor, but it
is wholesome, and one may eat a quantity of it, without inconvenience.
The natives make great use of it; they prepare it for the winter by
bruising and drying it; after which it is moulded into cakes according
to fancy, and laid up for use. There is also a great abundance of
cranberries, which proved very useful as an antiscorbutic.

We found also the whortleberry, chokecherries, gooseberries, and black
currants with wild crab-apples: these last grow in clusters, are of
small size and very tart. On the upper part of the river are found
blackberries, hazel-nuts, acorns, &c. The country also possesses a great
variety of nutritive roots: the natives make great use of those which
have the virtue of curing or preventing the scurvy. We ate freely of
them with the same intention, and with the same success. One of these
roots, which much resembles a small onion, serves them, in some sort, in
place of cheese. Having gathered a sufficient quantity, they bake them
with red-hot stones, until the steam ceases to ooze from the layer of
grass and earth with which the roots are covered; then they pound them
into a paste, and make the paste into loaves, of five or six pounds
weight: the taste is not unlike liquorice, but not of so sickly a
sweetness. When we made our first voyage up the river the natives gave
us square biscuits, very well worked, and printed with different
figures. These are made of a white root, pounded, reduced to paste, and
dried in the sun. They call it _Chapaleel_: it is not very palatable;
nor very nutritive.

But the principal food of the natives of the Columbia is fish. The
salmon-fishery begins in July: that fish is here of an exquisite flavor,
but it is extremely fat and oily; which renders it unwholesome for those
who are not accustomed to it, and who eat too great a quantity: thus
several of our people were attacked with diarrhoea in a few days after
we began to make this fish our ordinary sustenance; but they found a
remedy in the raspberries of the country which have an astringent
property.

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