30 



PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



at a point about twenty miles north of Mount Rainier, seems prac- 

 ticable for horses during four or five months of the year: and indeed, 

 the chief obstacle arises from young- spruces, that prevent the snow 

 from settling around them in a solid mass. The passage was accom- 

 plished by transferring the luggage from the horses to the natives, an 

 extra number having been engaged for this purpose. It did not ap- 

 pear to have been remarked at the time, that there were slaves in the 

 party ; and I afterwards had some reason to suspect, that one man 

 had been overloaded. However, they got through wonderfully well, 

 and were admitted by general consent, to have surpassed the Poly- 

 nesians. The mode of carrying burdens was the same so general in 

 America, by means of a strap around the forehead. 



Most of the horses eventually got through in safety. But in the 

 mean time, Lachemere, a native, was sent forwards to find a chief, 

 who resided at some distance below; and from whom we proposed to 

 purchase additional horses. Lachemere, although according to his 

 own account, in part Wallawalla, considered himself as belonging to 

 the Nisqually tribe. He bore a high character among the residents; 

 and he accompanied us through the whole of our journey ; and proved, 

 with Pierre Charles, the Canadian, the main reliance of our party. 



We now proceeded along the bank of the Spipen, and after two 

 days fell in with the chief we were in search of, w^ho awaited our 

 approach. He was seated under a tree, in a pleasant spot of open 

 ground, where some horses were grazing ; and he received us with all 

 the state and dignity attributed to the former 'sachems' of New Eng- 

 land. His features were of the aboriginal type strongly pronounced, 

 and in fact were not unlike the portraits of Red-jacket, the Iroquois 

 chief. He inquired, "who was the greatest man," our leader or the 

 principal of the Hudson Bay Company. And he said, that " his heart 

 was good, and that his people did not kill anybody." On mentioning 

 a theft committed by one of our natives then present, he at first as- 

 sumed a severe look, but afterwards said, " that as he belonged to 

 another tribe, he could do nothing with him." He traced on the sand 

 a map of the country through which we were to pass; and he gave 

 us news from Wallawalla, of the death of the superintendent of the 

 Fort. The interpreter added, that the chief's " people lived alto- 

 gether in one town; and that he was formerly a very wicked man, 

 though now a great friend to the Whites, having been converted by 

 the missionaries." 



