1825, OCTOBER NOVEMBER. CAPE DISAPPOINTMENT 147 



were repairing it I occupied the office of cook. I made myself a small 

 basin of tea and boiled some salmon for them. At ten o'clock I proceeded 

 on my route. At eight the same evening I put ashore at the village of 

 Oak Point to procure some food, where an Indian gave me a letter from 

 Mr. Scouler, the surgeon of the ship, who informed me in his note they 

 would not yet leave for a few days, and as the vessel was seen that same 

 day in the bay I was desirous of writing to Mr. Sabine up to that date. 

 After obtaining a few dried salmon and a wild goose, I went on four miles 

 further down the river, where we took some supper, and continued my 

 journey at ten o'clock, expecting to reach the sea before daylight, being 

 only forty-three miles distant. At four in the morning of Monday a 

 strong westerly breeze set in, which produced a very angry swell on the 

 river and obliged me to cast along the shore. Indeed this was almost 

 necessary under any circumstances, my canoe being so frail. I landed 

 at the mouth of the river at 9 A.M., where I was informed by the Indians 

 the ship had sailed an hour before. I felt no little disappointed, 

 having my letter ready to hand on board. After breakfast my canoe- 

 men lay down to sleep, and I took my gun and knapsack and walked along 

 the bay in quest of some seeds. In the evening I returned to the lodge 

 of Madsue or Thunder, one of the Chenook chiefs, where I found his 

 brother Tha-a-muxi, or the Bear, a chief from Whitbey Harbour. As he was 

 then going to his home he offered to accompany me, to which I agreed. 

 On Tuesday the 25th Com Comly or Madsue ferried us across the Bay. 

 Our canoe being small, and as I found his so much more commodious, I 

 negotiated with him to lend it to me, which he did in Baker's Bay at the 

 entrance of Knight's River. In the evening I gave the two chiefs a dram of 

 well- watered rum, which pernicious liquor they will make any sacrifice to 

 obtain. I found an exception in my guide Tha-a-muxi ; he would not 

 taste any. I inquired the reason, when he informed me with much 

 merriment that some years since he got drunk and became very quarrel- 

 some in his village ; so much so that the young men had to bind his hands 

 and feet, which he looked on as a great affront. He has not tasted any 

 since. In lieu of that I found him an expensive companion in the way 

 of smoking : so greedily would he seize the pipe and inhale any particle 

 of smoke in the lungs, that he would regularly five or six times a day fall 

 down in a state of stupefaction. Smoking with them being the test of 

 friendship, it is indispensable. I was of course compelled to join. I found 

 my mode gave him as much sport as his gave me. He observed, " Oh, 

 why do you throw away the food ? Look at me, I take it in my belly." 

 On Wednesday I made a portage of four miles over Cape Disappointment, 

 on the north point of the Columbia, to a small rivulet which falls into the 

 ocean twelve miles to the north. I found it very laborious dragging my 

 canoe through the wood, over rocks, stumps, and gullies. On reaching the 

 bay I proceeded along the coast a few miles ; two hours before dusk a 

 thick fog with a drizzly rain obliged me to encamp for the night under a 

 shelving rock a little above the tide-mark, overshadowed by large pines. 

 In the evening I felt my knee more troublesome and very stiff, arising 

 from the exertion I had to make in transporting the canoe, or probably 



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