294 
VOYAGE IN A CANOE FROM FORT OWEN TO VANCOUVER. 
are four lodges at this place, all built after the fashion of the Sioux lodges, with the single dif¬ 
ference that they are covered by mats of reeds instead of skins. These mats are made of rushes 
laid parallel and fastened together at the ends. For convenience in travelling, the mats are 
rolled into cylindrical bundles, and are thus easily carried in canoes. Our breakfast and lunch 
to-day consisted of camas roots and dried berries, a little flour and hard bread crumbs (our last) 
being sprinkled in to thicken the compound, thus making a somewhat palatable compound or 
mush, or gruel. This fills up the stomach, but does not allay hunger. Our provisions are out, 
the ground is covered with snow, and the sky obscured with clouds. The weather is excessively 
cold. Our tent is wet, as indeed it has been for a week or more. Our robes and some of our 
blankets are in the same condition; and, on the whole, our situation is quite uncomfortable. 
Under these circumstances, I concluded to lodge all night with the Indians. Our hungry stomachs 
were quite willing to partake of any hospitality they might offer in the shape of food. With 
these feelings I entered the lodge of All-ol-sturgh, the head of the encampment. The other 
lodges are principally occupied by his children and grandchildren. They provided us with dried 
camas and berries, also a piece of raw tallow, which tasted very good. Shortly after our 
entrance, All-ol-sturgh rang a little bell; directly the lodge was filled with the inhabitants of the 
camp, men, women, and children, who immediately got upon their knees, and repeated, or rather 
chanted, a long prayer, in their own language, to the Creator. The repetition of a few pious 
sentences, an invocation, and a hymn, closed the exercises. In these the squaws took as active 
a part as the men. The promptness, fervency, and earnestness all showed, was pleasing to con¬ 
template. These prayers, &c., have been taught them by their kind missionary and friend, the 
much-loved Father Hoecken, (S. J.) He is stationed at the Mission of St. Ignatius, from which 
we are, I hope, but a few miles distant. The participation of the squaws in the exercises, and 
the apparent footing of equality between them and the men, so much unlike their condition in 
other savage tribes, appear remarkable. 
November 8.—We ate some more dried berries and some dried fish for breakfast, and, after 
making our Indian friends some presents, pushed off in our canoe for the mission, which we 
reached after paddling seven miles. I walked up to the door of the mission-house, knocked and 
entered. I was met by the reverend superior of the mission, Father Hoecken, who, in a truly 
benevolent and pleasing manner, said, “ Walk in, you are welcome; we are glad to see the face 
of a white man.” I introduced myself and the men, and stated that I had come all the way 
from St. Mary’s by water, after a journey, or rather voyage, of twenty-five days; that I was 
out of provisions and tired. He bade us welcome, had our things brought up from the boat, an 
excellent dinner prepared for us, and a nice room to sleep in, and treated 11 s with the cordiality 
and kindness of a Christian and a gentleman. In these kindnesses the Reverend Father Mennet- 
tree, and the lay brother, Mr. Mageau, cordially took part—all uniting in their endeavors to render 
us comfortable and make us feel at home. From the Reverend Mr. Hoecken I have the follow¬ 
ing particulars concerning the mission and the condition of the inhabitants in its vicinity: The 
mission was established nine years ago; the whole country at that time being a vast wilderness. 
Its inhabitants were the Kalispelms. They lived mostly from the Pend d’Oreille or Kalispelm 
lake, down the Clark river, to this point; they speak nearly the same language as the Flathead 
or Selish Indians. Another mission (St. Mary’s) was at the same time opened among the 
last-mentioned tribe. Between these two, in the vicinity of the Horse and Camas plains, on the 
Clark river, another band, calling themselves Kalispelms, has since been formed, of which 
Ambrose is the chief; this band consists of a number of floating and wandering families, com¬ 
posed of Spokanes, Kalispelms proper, and Flatheads, who, having intermarried, have formed 
a habit of sojourning at this locality during their annual migrations to and from the buffalo hunt¬ 
ing-grounds. In all, the two bands of Kalispelms number about one hundred lodges—say sixty 
of the Kalispelms proper, or those who recognise Victor as their chief—and have their head¬ 
quarters at the mission, and about forty of the new band already alluded to, who look up to 
