on my enquiring the reason of his tem- 
| perance, he informed me that some years 
E ago he used to get drunk, and become very 
quarrelsome ; so much so, that the young 
men of the village had to take and bind 
- him hand and foot, which he looks upon as 
a great disgrace, and will taste spirits no 
more. In lieu of drinking, however, I 
found him an expensive companion, from 
his addiction to tobacco. So greedily 
would he seize the pipe and inhale every 
particle of smoke, that regularly five or six 
times a day he would fall down in a state of 
stupefaction. In self-defence I was obliged 
to smoke, when I found that my mode of 
using the Indian weed diverted my com- 
panion as much as his had me: “ Oh,” 
cried he, * why do you throw away the 
food ! (smoke). See, I take it in my belly." 
The following day, during the whole of 
, Which the rain fell in torrents, we made a 
| small portage of four miles over Cape 
Disappointment, the North point of the 
^olumbia, to a small rivulet that falls into 
the ocean, twelve miles to the northward. 
-I found the labour of dragging my canoe 
Occasionally over the rocks, stumps, and 
gulleys that intercepted our way extremely 
trying, especially as my knee became more 
and more stiff and troublesome from the 
damp and cold. On reaching the bay, I 
proceeded along it for a few miles, when 
the thick fog obliged us to encamp under 
a shelving rock, overshadowed with large 
. Pines, a little above tide-mark. After a 
: comfortless night I resumed my journey at 
. day -light, and, having been disappointed 
of Procuring any salmon at the village 
Which we passed, because it was aban- 
. doned, we pushed on with as much speed 
as possible to Cape Foulweather, which we 
Bained, after proceeding forty miles along 
the Coast. The rain continuing to fall 
Vily the next day, we sent the canoe 
| back to the Columbia from this place, it 
Mir also impossible, with so few hands, 
carry it over a portage of sixteen miles. 
€ Indians, too, were solicitous to leave 
s ere exhausted. The wind increased about 
night, two or three hours after they had 
NORTH-WESTERN PARTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
. Dé, when they knew that all the provisions 4 
95 
departed, to a perfect hurricane, accom- 
panied with sleet and hail, which obliged 
us twice to shift our camp, as the sea rose 
unusually high and almost reached us, 
and which also rendered me very anxious 
about the safety of the Indians, who, as I 
afterwards learned, were so fortunate as to 
gain the shelter of a creek until the storm 
abated. We had no protection, save what 
was afforded by our wet blankets and a 
few pine branches, and were destitute of 
provision. A few berries of Arbutus Uva- 
Ursi were all that could be got at this 
place, and the high wind and heavy rain 
almost rendered it impossible to keep up 
any fire. All the wild fowl had fled to the 
more sheltered spots, not a bird of any 
kind could be seen. Long ere day-light 
we were ready to leave Cape Foulweather;! 
well convinced that it deserved its name, 
and as there appeared no likelihood of 
procuring food, we walked along the sandy 
beach to endeavour to reach Whitby Har- 
bour, where my guide expected to meet a 
fishing party. On arriving there, when we 
found the village deserted, I can hardly 
describe the state I was in. While my 
guide and the Indians were collecting some 
drift wood, I made a small booth of Pine 
branches, straw and old mats. My blanket 
having been drenched all day, and the 
heavy rain affording no opportunity of 
drying it, I deemed it imprudent to lie 
down to sleep, and accordingly spent the 
night sitting over the fire. The following 
day found me so broken down with fatigue 
and starvation, and my knee so much 
worse, that I could not stir out. We fared 
most scantily on the roots of Sagittaria 
sagittifolia and Lupinus littoralis, called 
in the Chenook language Somuchtan, till, 
crawling out a few steps with my gun, I 
providentially saw some wild birds, and 
killed five ducks at one shot. These were 
soon cooked, though one of the Indians ate 
his share raw. To save time in plucking 
the fowl, I singed off the feathers, and, with 
! On the Map, belonging to the Flòra Boreali- 
mericana, and drawn up under Mr. Douglas’ inspec- 
tion,—probably by error, Cape Foulweather is repre- 
sented as on the South side of the Columbia, and 
Whitby Harbour on the North. 
