86 NEW WALLA-WALLA CITY. 



mile in length, consisting principally of grog- 

 shops (or groceries), tawdry bar-rooms, billiard- 

 saloons, a few stores, and ' Corals ' for putting 

 horses in. The throng in the streets consists of 

 half-naked savages, with their squaws and child- 

 ren, gold-miners, settlers, American soldiers, and 

 rowdies of all sorts. I learn there are two causes 

 to which this extraordinary city owes its exist- 

 ence: first, the establishment of an American 

 garrison, to protect the settlers in Washington 

 Territory from Indian incursions, which garrison 

 is about a mile away ; and secondly, the rumours 

 of rich gold-placers in the Blue Mountains, a 

 little to the southward. 



I met my friend, to whom I had letters of in- 

 troduction, and slept at his house, about a mile 

 from this den of villany. 



June 8. The news that I was a Govern- 

 ment Agent, seeking mules and horses, spread 

 like a prairie-fire ; and Walla-walla, as I enter it 

 this morning, is a perfect horse-fair. Sis-ky-ous, 

 Walla-wallas, Nez-perces, and Indians from 

 various smaller tribes, living on the Columbia 

 and its tributaries, were dashing wildly up and 

 down the street some on bare-backed horses, 

 others having a rude kind of saddle: all are 

 yelling, whooping, and flourishing their lassos, 



