380 W I L L A JI E T T E VALLEY. 



ducements to the Indians to quit their wandering habits, settle, and 

 become cultivators of the soil. This object has not been yet attained 

 in any degree, as was admitted by the missionaries themselves ; and 

 how it is to be effected without having constantly around them large 

 numbers, and without exertions and strenuous efforts, I am at a loss 

 to conceive. I cannot but believe, that the same labour and money 

 which have been expended here, would have been much more appro- 

 priately and usefully spent among the tribes about the Straits of Juan 

 de Fuca, who are numerous, and fit objects for instruction. 



At the Rev. Mr. Hines's I had another long conversation relative 

 to the laws, &c. The only instance (which speaks volumes for the 

 good order of the settlers,) of any sort of crime being committed 

 since the foundation of the settlement, was the stealing of a horse ; 

 and a settler who had been detected stealing his neighbour's pigs, 

 by enticing them to his house, dropping them into his cellar, where 

 they were slaughtered and afterwards eaten. The theft was disco- 

 vered by the numbers of bones frequently found around his premises. 

 He was brought to a confession, and compelled to pay the value of the 

 stolen hogs, simply by the force of public opinion. 



We took leave of Mr. Raymond and his party, wishing them 

 success in their labours, and rode back over the fine prairies at a full 

 gallop, in the direction that seemed most convenient to save us dis- 

 tance. We stopped for a short time to take leave of Mr. and Mrs. 

 Abernethy, and then passed to the site of the old mission, on the banks 

 of the Willamette. The river here makes a considerable bend, and 

 has undermined and carried away its banks to some extent : a short 

 distance beyond, it is making rapid inroads into the rich soil of these 

 bottom lands. The log houses have the character that all old log 

 houses acquire, and I was warned, if I desired to pass a comfortable 

 night, to avoid them. 



This is the usual place of crossing the river, which is too deep to 

 be forded, and about two hundred yards wide. Its banks were 

 twenty feet high, and composed of stratified layers of alluvium. On 

 the shore of the river, which consists of a shingle beach some two 

 hundred feet wide, are to be found cornelians, agates, and chalcedony, 

 among the loose pieces of basalt of which it is composed. The 

 current was found to run at the rate of three miles an hour, although 

 the water was said to be low. An old canoe was procured, in which 

 we passed over, while one of the horses was led, and swam by its 

 side : the rest were driven into the water, and followed to the opposite 



