Oregon and Eldorado; or, Romance of the RiversBulfinch, Thomas
History
Oregon and Eldorado; or, Romance of the Rivers
Bulfinch, Thomas
Amazon River; Columbia River; El Dorado; Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806); Oregon -- Discovery and exploration
Monday, 25th November, we set out; but, as the wind was too high to
suffer us to cross the river, we kept near the shore, watching for a
favorable change. On leaving our camp, seven Clatsops in a canoe
accompanied us, but, after going a few miles, left us, and steered
straight across through immense, high waves, leaving us in admiration at
the dexterity with which they threw aside each wave as it threatened to
come over their canoe.
Next day, with a more favorable wind, we began to cross the river. We
passed between some low, marshy islands, and reached the south side of
the Columbia, and landed at a village of nine large houses. Soon after
we landed, three Indians came down from the village with wappatoo-roots,
which we purchased with fish-hooks.
We proceeded along the shore till we came to a remarkable knob of land
projecting about a mile and a half into the bay, about four miles round,
while the neck of land which unites it to the main is not more than
fifty yards across. We went round this projection, which we named Point
William; but the waves then became so high, that we could not venture
any farther, and therefore landed on a beautiful shore of pebbles of
various colors, and encamped near an old Indian hut on the isthmus.
DISCOMFORTS.
Nov. 27.--It rained hard all next day, and the next, attended with a
high wind from the south-west. It was impossible to proceed on so rough
a sea. We therefore sent several men to hunt, and the rest of us
remained during the day in a situation the most cheerless and
uncomfortable. On this little neck of land, we are exposed, with a
miserable covering which does not deserve the name of a shelter, to the
violence of the winds. All our bedding and stores are completely wet,
our clothes rotting with constant exposure, and no food except the dried
fish brought from the falls, to which we are again reduced. The hunters
all returned hungry, and drenched with rain; having seen neither deer
nor elk, and the swans and brants too shy to be approached. At noon, the
wind shifted to the north-west, and blew with such fury, that many trees
were blown down near us. The gale lasted with short intervals during the
whole night; but towards morning the wind lulled, though the rain
continued, and the waves were still high.
30th.--The hunters met with no better success this day and the next, and
the weather continued rainy. But on Monday, 2d December, one of the
hunters killed an elk at the distance of six miles from the camp, and a
canoe was sent to bring it. This was the first elk we had killed on the
west side of the Rocky Mountains; and, condemned as we have been to the
dried fish, it forms a most acceptable food.
The rain continued, with brief interruptions, during the whole month of
December. There were occasional falls of snow, but no frost or ice.
WINTER-QUARTERS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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