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. IJ 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, 
