Think of using the names Salem and Portland for Chemeketa and Multnomah, the native names. Chemeketa means "Here we Rest," or, some say, the "Place of Peace," for it was the council ground of the Willamette Valley Indians. But the Methodist missionaries thought that it would have a more Biblical sound and conduce to the spiritual welfare of the natives to translate the word into its equivalent, Salem. So they spoiled the wild native beauty of the name for all time. Multnomah means "Down the Waters." But two Yankee sea captains, with a sad deficiency of poetry in them, tossed up a coin to decide whether to employ the name of Boston or Portland, the native town of each, and the latter won the toss. Oregon has been more fortunate than Washington in its State name, for it has the unique name, stately and sonorous, which old Jonathan Carver first used for the River and which is one of the most distinctive of all the names of States. But whether Oregon is Indian, Spanish, French, or a corruption of something else, or a pure invention of Carver's is one of the mooted points in our history. Idaho, too, has one of the most mellifluous of names, meaning the "Gem of the Mountains." All three States have many beautiful and appropriate names of rivers, lakes, mountains, and cities. Such are Chelan, "Beautiful Water"; Umatilla, "The Wind-blown Sand"; Walla Walla, "Where the Waters Meet"; Shuksan, "The Place of the Storm Winds"; Spokane, "The People of the Sun"; Kulshan, "The Great White Watcher"; Snoqualmie, "The Falls of the Moon God." Seattle derives its name from the old chief Seattle, or Sealth. The most bitterly disputed name of all is Tacoma _vs._ Rainier, as the name of the greatest of our mountains. The name of Rainier was derived by Vancouver from that of an officer of the British navy, a man who never knew anything of Oregon and had no part or lot in its discovery or development. Tacoma, or more accurately, _Takhoma_ (a peculiar guttural which we cannot fully indicate), was the native Indian name, meaning, according to some, "The Great White Mountain," and according to others meaning "The Fountain-breast of Milk-white Waters." With these glances at the character of the land, and its native inhabitants, we are now ready to see how they became known to the world. CHAPTER II Tales of the First White Men along the Coast Nekahni Mountain and Tallapus--Quootshoi and Toulux--Original Beauty of Clatsop Plains--The Story Told by Celiast and Cultee--Casting of the "Thing" upon the Beach--The Pop-corn--Burning of the Ship--Konapee, the Iron-worker--Franchere's Account of Soto--The Treasure Ship on the Beach at Nekahni Mountain--The Black Spook and Mysterious Chest--The Inscription Still Found on the Rock--The Beeswax Ship--Quiaculliby.