30 GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 



Skitikis. in latitude of 53 degrees 20 minutes, Cummashawa, a few miles 

 farther south, and still farther in the same direction, Port Ucah and Port 

 Sturges. The country around some of these places, especially Hancock's 

 River and Magee's Sound, is described by the American fur traders as 

 fertile and beautiful, and enjoying a milder climate than any other parts 

 of the north-west coasts. 



The Princess Royal's, Burke's, and Pitt's Islands form a third division 

 of the North-West Archipelago, lying near to each other and to the con- 

 tinent, immediately east of Queen Charlotte's Island. They are all small 

 and rocky, and nothing worthy of note appears in the accounts of them. 



To the aboriginal inhabitants of Oregon it would be inconsistent with 

 the plan of this work to devote much attention. They are all savages; 

 and they make no figure in the history of the country, over the destinies 

 of which they have not exerted, and probably never will exert, any influ- 

 ence. The principal tribes are the Clatsops and Chenooks, occupying 

 the country on each side of the Columbia, near its mouth ; the Klamets 

 and Killamucks, of the Umqua; the CI assets, on the Strait of Fuca; 

 the Kootanies, and the Salish or Flatheads, of the country about the 

 northern branches of the Columbia, and the Shoshones, the Sahaptins 

 or Nez-perces, the Kayouses, Walla-Wallas, and Chopunnish, who rove 

 through the regions of the Lewis branch. These tribes differ in habits 

 and disposition only so far as they are affected by the mode of life which 

 the nature of the country occupied by them respectively compels them to 

 adopt ; the people of the sea-coasts, who venture out upon the ocean, and 

 attack the whale, being generally much bolder and more ferocious than 

 those of the middle country, who derive their subsistence by the quiet 

 and unexciting employments of fishing in the river and digging for roots. 

 Among the peculiar habits of some of the tribes should be mentioned 

 that of compressing the heads of their infants by boards and bandages, so 

 as materially to alter their shape ; which induced the discoverers of the 

 country to apply to those people the name of Flathead Indians. This 

 custom appears to have prevailed chiefly among the tribes of the lower 

 Columbia, and but little among those dwelling on the northern branches 

 of the river, to whom the appellation of Flatheads is, however, at present 

 confined. The Blackfeet, so much dreaded by travellers in the middle 

 region, chiefly inhabit the country east of the Rocky Mountains, on the 

 Yellowstone, and the Missouri above its falls, and annually make in- 

 roads upon the Shoshones and the Chopunnish, whom they rob of their 

 horses, their only wealth. The principal tribes in the country north of the 

 Columbia regions, are the Chilcotins and the Talcotins, between whom 

 the most deadly hostility subsists. The natives of the North-West Ar- 

 chipelago are the most cunning and ferocious of all these savages; par- 

 ticularly those of the vicinity of Nootka, who appear also to be the most 

 intelligent. The number of the aborigines of all those territories cannot 

 be ascertained, but it is supposed not to exceed thirty thousand, and is 

 every where diminishing. 



Among these people, missionaries of various Christian sects have long 

 been laboring with assiduity, though, as it would seem, from all accounts, 

 with little advantage. The Roman Catholics have made the greatest 

 number of converts, if we assume the reception of baptism as the test 

 of conversion ; whole tribes submitting at once, on the first summons, to 

 the rite. The Methodists and Presbyterians employ themselves chiefly in 



