TJie Houie of the Wolverene and Beaver. 2 1 3 



and the snow dimniishing in depth, they made a 

 desperate and successful attempt to cross the last 

 mountain range. Shortly after escaping from the 

 barren wilderness that had for so long kept them 

 prisoners, the two wanderers fell in with a tribe of 

 Wallah-Wallah Indians, who received the starving 

 men kindly, gave them plenty of horse-flesh to eat, 

 and showed them the best route by which to reach 

 the Columbia River. Aided by these instructions, 

 they once more set forth, arrived at the mighty 

 stream that flows past Astoria, and followed its 

 course for over a hundred miles, when they were 

 within a day's journey of the Cascades. Here they 

 encountered some of the rascally pirates before 

 mentioned, who pretended to receive them hos- 

 pitably, but when their attention was diverted by 

 the food the Indians set before them, these worthies 

 seized their rifles, stripped them of the few rags 

 that still clung to their emaciated limbs, and drove 

 them forth into the wilderness unarmed and naked, 

 refusing even to restore a flint and steel for which 

 Mr. Crooks earnestly entreated them. Of the 

 Cascade Indians an old trader says, "They are 

 saucy, impudent rascals, who will steal when they 

 can, and pillage whenever a weak party falls in 

 their power." These words were penned long 

 before the attack on Reed and the barbarity 



