NORTHWESTERN AMERICA. 215 



and Clark, this was the most densely populated part of the whole 

 Columbian region, and it so continued until the fatal year 1823, 

 when the ague-fever, before unknown west of the Rocky Mountains, 

 broke out, and carried off four-fifths of the population in a single 

 summer. Whole villages were swept away, leaving not a single 

 inhabitant. The living could not bury the dead, and the traders 

 were obliged to undertake this office, to prevent a new pestilence from 

 completing the desolation of the country. The region below the 

 Cascades, which is as far as the influence of the tide is felt, suffered 

 most from this scourge. The population, which before was estimated 

 at upwards of ten thousand, does not now exceed five hundred. Be- 

 tween the Cascades and the Dalles, the sickness was less destructive. 

 There still remain five or six villages, with a population of seven or 

 eight hundred. 



They were formerly considered by the whites as among the worst 

 of the Oregon Indians, and were known as a quarrelsome, thievish, 

 and treacherous people. Their situation, on the line of communica- 

 tion between the interior and the coast, gave them great facilities for 

 trafficking with the natives of each for the productions peculiar to the 

 other, and pretty much on their own terms. Hence it happened that 

 they superadded to the turbulence and ferocity natural to their race, 

 the cupidity and trickiness of a nation of traders. They levied tribute, 

 by force or fraud, on all who passed through their country, and tra- 

 vellers were generally glad to be quit of them for a few thefts. The 

 great reduction of their numbers by the epidemic has somewhat 

 tamed their evil propensities, and the labors of the missionaries have 

 not been without a good effect. 



R. LOWER CHINOOK. 



Twenty years ago there were, below the Multnoma Island, some 

 five or six thousand people, speaking the same, or nearly the same 

 language. The principal tribes or bands were the Wakaikam (known 

 as the Wahkyekum), the Katldmat (Cathlamet), the Tshinuk (Chi- 

 nook), and the Tlatsap (Clatsop). They are now reduced to a tenth 

 of their former numbers, and the remnant will probably soon dis- 

 appear. 



This people may be considered the type of what we have called 

 the North-Oregon division, being that in which all the peculiarities 

 of this class are most conspicuous. Many of the characteristics of the 



