The slaves of the Columbia River country were well treated as long as they were able to work. The district was a commercial one, and the slaves, as an article of commerce, were valuable. But when a slave grew old and was unable to work, he was neglected. The women of the tribe had several slaves who were dependent entirely upon their will. Slaves could be purchased by the male members of the tribes for wives. The Oackinacke Indians, at this time, possessed but few slaves, and these were adopted as children and as members of the family. _Ibid._, vii, pp. 103, 107, 303. Until 1850, the Thompson Indians of British Columbia enslaved captive Indians. Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, in _Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History_, pp. 269, 290. In 1836, the Chinook Indians possessed Indian slaves. In 1855, the Ute sacrificed four slaves, and buried them with one of their chiefs. One of these slaves was buried alive. Thomas, _Indians of North America in Historic Times_, p. 369. In 1863, the Cherokee abolished slavery by law. This was amended in 1866, so as to permit it as a punishment for crime. Thwaites, _Early Western Travels_, xx, p. 303. [110] Enslavement of the whites by the Indians was not uncommon. Cabeza de Vaca and other survivors of Narvaez’s expedition were made slaves by the Indians among whom they wandered. _Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca_, in _Narratives of Early American History_, i, pp. 64, 69. Soto found one of these survivors, Juan Ortiz by name, who had taken on Indian customs, and nearly forgotten his native language. “_Relation of Biedma_,” in Bourne, _Narratives of the Career of De Soto_, ii, p. 3. Strachey, _The Historie of Travaile into Virginia_, speaks of a story that he had heard from the Indians, concerning an Indian chief, Eyanoco by name, living somewhere to the south of Virginia, who had seven white slaves who had escaped from the massacre at Roanoke. These slaves the Indians employed in beating copper. _Hakluyt Society Publication_, vi, p. 26. Whether the story is wholly or partly true has never been determined. That the Indians of the locality did enslave the whites captured in war or shipwrecked off the coast is shown by the preamble of an act of Carolina in 1707. _North Carolina Colonial Records_, i, p. 674. In the war of 1711, the Indians spared some of the women and children captured on the plantations so that they might serve as slaves. _Ibid._, i, p. 182. Captain Hendrickson, in 1616, found three persons belonging to the Dutch West India Company, who were slaves of the Mohawk and Minquae, and who were traded to him for merchandise. Hazard, _Annals of Pennsylvania_, p. 7.