170 AAKRATIVE OF A JOURNEY 



' CHAPTER X. 



Fort Vancouver — JlgricuUural and other improvements — Vancouver " camp^' — 

 approach of the rainy season — Expedition to the Wallammet — The falls — ^1 

 village of KUkatat Indians — JManner of flattening the head — A Flathead 

 infant — Brig " JMarj Dacre^' — Preparations for a settlement — Success of 

 the natvralists — Chinook Indians — their appearance and costume — ^flgue and 

 fever — Superstitious dread of the Indians — Desertion of the Sandvjich 

 Islanders from Captain TTyeth^s party — Embarkation for a trip to the 

 Islands — George, the Indian pilot — Mount Coffin — A visit to the tombs — Su- 

 perstition — Visit to an Indian house — Fort George — Site of Astoria — A 

 blind Indian buy — Cruel and unfeeling conduct of the savages — their moral 

 character — Baker's Bay — Cape Disappointment — Dangerous bar at the en- 

 trance of the river — The sea beach — Visit of Mr. Ogden — Passage across the 

 bar — Sea birds — Landsmen at sea — A spei-m. whale — Albatrosses, SJc. — Tro- 

 pic birds A "school" of tihales — Dolphins— Make the Sandwich Islands — 



Oahu— A rhapsody. 



Fort Vancouver is situated on the north bank of the Co- 

 himbia on a large level plain, about a quarter of a mile from the 

 shore. The space comprised within the stoccade is an oblong 

 square, of about one hundred, by two hundred and fifty feet. 

 The houses built of loers and frame-work, to the number of ten 

 or twelve, are ranged around in a quadrangular form, the one occu- 

 pied by the doctor being in the middle. In front, and enclosed 

 on three sides by the buildings, is a large open space, where all the 

 in-door work of the establishment is done. Here the Indians 

 assemble with their multifarious articles of trade, beaver, otter, 

 venison, and various other game, and here, once a week, several 

 scores of Canadians are employed, beating the furs which have 

 been collected, in order to free them from dust and vermin. 



