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diff --git a/24816.txt b/24816.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fcd9084 --- /dev/null +++ b/24816.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6127 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life at Puget Sound: With Sketches of +Travel in Washington Territory, British Columbia, Oregon and California, by Caroline C. Leighton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Life at Puget Sound: With Sketches of Travel in Washington Territory, British Columbia, Oregon and California + +Author: Caroline C. Leighton + +Release Date: March 13, 2008 [EBook #24816] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE AT PUGET SOUND: SKETCHES OF TRAVEL *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + + + +LIFE AT PUGET SOUND + +WITH + +SKETCHES OF TRAVEL + +IN + +WASHINGTON TERRITORY, BRITISH COLUMBIA, +OREGON, AND CALIFORNIA + + +1865-1881 + +BY + +CAROLINE C. LEIGHTON + + +BOSTON +LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS +NEW YORK +CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM +1884 + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1888, +BY LEE AND SHEPARD. + +_All rights reserved._ + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The following selections from observations and experiences during a +residence of sixteen years on the Pacific Coast, while they do not claim +to describe fully that portion of the country, nor to give any account +of its great natural wealth and resources, yet indicate something of its +characteristic features and attractions, more especially those of the +Puget Sound region. + +This remote corner of our territory, hitherto almost unknown to the +country at large, is rapidly coming into prominence, and is now made +easy of access by the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The +vast inland sea, popularly known as Puget Sound, ramifying in various +directions, the wide-spreading and majestic forests, the ranges of +snow-capped mountains on either side, the mild and equable climate, and +the diversified resources of this favored region, excite the +astonishment and admiration of all beholders. To the lovers of the grand +and beautiful, unmarred as yet by any human interference, who appreciate +the freedom from conventionalities which pertain to longer-settled +portions of the globe, it presents an endless field for observation and +enjoyment. There is already a steady stream of emigration to this new +"land of promise," and every thing seems to indicate for it a vigorous +growth and development, and a brilliant and substantial future. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. + + PAGE + + At Sea.--Mariguana Island.--Sea-Birds.--Shipwreck.--Life on + Roncador Reef.--The Rescue.--Isthmus of Panama.--Voyage to + San Francisco.--The New Baby. 1 + + + CHAPTER II. + + Port Angeles.--Indian "Hunter" and his Wife.--Sailor's + Funeral.--Incantation.--Indian Graves.--Chief Yeomans.--Mill + Settlements.--Port Gamble Trail.--Canoe Travel.--The + _Memaloost_.--Tommy and his Mother.--Olympic Range.--Ediz + Hook.--Mrs. S. and her Children.--Grand Indian + Wedding.--Crows and Indians. 18 + + + CHAPTER III. + + Indian Chief Seattle.--Frogs and Indians.--Spring Flowers + and Birds.--The Red _Tamahnous_.--The Little Pend + d'Oreille.--Indian Legend.--From Seattle to Fort + Colville.--Crossing the Columbia River Bar.--The River and + its Surroundings.--Its Former Magnitude.--The Grande + Coulee.--Early Explorers, Heceta, Meares, Vancouver, + Grey.--Curious Burial-Place.--Chinese + Miners.--Umatilla.--Walla Walla.--Sage-Brush and + Bunch-Grass.--Flowers in the Desert.--"Stick" + Indians.--Klickatats.--Spokane Indian.--Snakes.--Dead + Chiefs.--A Kamas-Field.--Basaltic Rocks. 38 + + + CHAPTER IV. + + Two Hundred Miles on the Upper Columbia.--Steamer + "Forty-Nine."--Navigation in a Canyon.--Pend d'Oreille River + and Lake.--Rock Paintings.--Tributaries of the Upper + Columbia.--Arrow Lakes.--Kettle + Falls.--Salmon-Catching.--Salmon-Dance.--Goose-Dance. 63 + + + CHAPTER V. + + Old Fort Colville.--Angus McDonald and his Indian + Family.--Canadian _Voyageurs_.--Father Joseph.--Hardships of + the Early Missionaries.--The Coeurs d'Alene and their + Superstitions.--The Catholic Ladder.--Sisters of Notre + Dame.--Skill of the Missionaries in instructing the + Indians.--Father de Smet and the Blackfeet.--A Native + Dance.--Spokanes.--Exclusiveness of the Coeurs + d'Alene.--Battle of Four Lakes.--The Yakima Chief and the + Road-Makers. 75 + + + CHAPTER VI. + + Colville to Seattle.--"Red."--"Ferrins."--"Broke Miners."--A + Rare Fellow-Traveller.--The Bell-Mare.--Pelouse + Fall.--Red-Fox Road.--Early Californians.--Frying-Pan + Incense.--Dragon-Flies.--Death of the Chief Seattle. 93 + + + CHAPTER VII. + + Port Angeles Village and the Indian Ranch.--A "Ship's + _Klootchman_."--Indian _Muck-a-Muck_.--Disposition of an Old + Indian Woman.--A Windy Trip to Victoria.--The Black + _Tamahnous_.--McDonald's in the Wilderness.--The Wild + Cowlitz.--Up the River during a Flood.--Indian + Boatmen.--Birch-Bark and Cedar Canoes. 109 + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + Voyage to San Francisco.--Fog-Bound.--Port Angeles.--Passing + Cape Flattery in a Storm.--Off Shore.--The "Brontes."--The + Captain and his Men.--A Fair Wind.--San Francisco Bar.--The + City at Night.--Voyage to Astoria.--Crescent + City.--Iron-Bound Coast.--Mount St. Helen's.--Mount + Hood.--Cowlitz Valley and its Floods.--Monticello. 124 + + + CHAPTER IX. + + Victoria.--Its Mountain Views, Rocks, and + Flowers.--Vancouver's Admiration of the Island.--San Juan + Islands.--Sir James Douglas.--Indian Wives.--Northern + Indians.--Indian Workmanship.--The Thunder-Bird.--Indian + Offerings to the Spirit of a Child.--Pioneers.--Crows and + Sea-Birds. 137 + + + CHAPTER X. + + Puget Sound and Adjacent Waters.--Its Early + Explorers.--Towns, Harbors, and Channels.--Vancouver's + Nomenclature.--Juan de Fuca.--Mount Baker.--Chinese + "Wing."--Ancient Indian Women.--Pink Flowering Currant and + Humming-Birds.--"Ah Sing." 151 + + + CHAPTER XI. + + Rocky-mountain Region.--Railroad from Columbia River to + Puget Sound.--Mountain Changes.--Mixture of + Nationalities.--Journey to Coos Bay, Oregon.--Mountain + Canyon.--A Branch of the Coquille.--Empire City.--Myrtle + Grove.--Yaquina.--Genial Dwellers in the Woods.--Our Unknown + Neighbor.--Whales.--Pet Seal and Eagle.--A Mourning + Mother.--Visit from Yeomans. 165 + + + CHAPTER XII. + + Puget Sound to San Francisco.--A Model Vessel.--The + Captain's Relation to his Men.--Rough Water.--Beauty of the + Sea.--Golden-Gate Entrance.--San Francisco Streets.--Santa + Barbara.--Its Invalids.--Our Spanish Neighbors.--The + Mountains and the Bay.--Kelp.--Old Mission.--A Simoom.--The + Channel Islands.--A New Type of Chinamen.--An Old Spanish + House. 182 + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + Our Aerie.--The Bay and the Hills.--The Little + Gnome.--Earthquake.--Temporary Residents.--The + Trade-Wind.--Seal-Rocks.--Farallon Islands.--Exhilarating + Air.--Approach of Summer.--Centennial + Procession.--Suicides.--Mission Dolores.--Father Pedro Font + and his Expedition.--The Mission Indians.--Chinese Feast of + the Dead.--Curious Weather. 199 + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + Quong.--His _Protege_.--His Peace-Offering.--The Chinese and + their Grandmothers.--Ancient Ideas.--Irish, French, and + Spanish Chinamen.--Chinese Ingenuity.--Hostility against the + Chinese.--Their Proclamations.--Discriminations against + them.--Their Evasion of the Law.--Their Perseverance against + all Obstacles.--Their Reverence for their Ancestors, and + Fear of the Dead.--Their Medical Knowledge.--Their Belief in + the Future.--Their Curious Festivals.--Indian Names for the + Months.--Resemblance between the Indians and + Chinese.--Their Superstitions. 220 + + + CHAPTER XV. + + Chun Fa's Funeral.--Alameda.--Gophers and Lizards.--Poison + Oak.--Sturdy Trees.--Baby Lizards.--Old Alameda.--Emperor + Norton.--California Generosity.--The Dead + Newsboy.--Anniversary of the Goddess Kum Fa.--Chinese Regard + for the Moon and Flowers.--A Shin Worshipper. 242 + + + + +LIFE AT PUGET SOUND. + + + + +I. + + At Sea.--Mariguana Island.--Sea-Birds.--Shipwreck.--Life on + Roncador Reef.--The Rescue.--Isthmus of Panama.--Voyage to San + Francisco.--The New Baby. + + + ATLANTIC OCEAN, May 26, 1865. + +It is a great experience to feel the loneliness of the sea,--to see the +whole circle of the heavens, and nothing under it but the rising and +falling water, from morning till night, day after day. + +The first night we were out the porpoises came up at twilight, and +sported round the vessel. I saw some sea-birds that seemed to be +playing,--running and sliding on the green, glassy waves. In the wake of +the vessel were most beautiful changing colors. Little Nelly S. sat with +us to watch the phosphorescence. She said, "The stars in the sea call to +me, with little fine voices, 'Nelly, Nelly, are you alive?'" + + + MAY 27, 1865. + +We have had our first sight of land,--Mariguana, a coral island, one of +the Bahamas. Every one stood in silence to see it, it was so beautiful. +The spray dashed so high, that, as it fell, we at first took it for +streams and cascades. It was just at sunrise; and we cast longing looks +at the soft green hills, bathed in light. Now it is gone, and we have +only the wide ocean again. But a new color has appeared in the water,--a +purplish pink, which looks very tropical; and there are blotches of +yellow seaweed. Some of it caught in the wheel, and stopped it. The +sailors drew it up, and gave it to the children to taste. It was like a +little fruit, and they say the birds eat it. + +The sea is growing quite rough. I was thinking of being a little afraid, +the vessel plunged so; but Mother Cary's chickens came out, and I +thought I might as well consider myself as one of them, and not in any +more danger than they are. + + + CARIBBEAN SEA, May 28, 1865. + +We have had a great experience of really rough weather. The spray dashed +over the deck, and only the hardiest could keep up. Any one who tried to +move was thrown off his feet. Preparations were made for divine service +by lashing two boxes together in the middle of the deck, and spreading +a flag over them. It was conducted by a Scotch Presbyterian minister. As +he began his prayer, he received quite an addition to his congregation, +in a flock of great birds, that appeared on my side of the vessel. They +wheeled round, and settled down softly together. I do not know what they +are, but suppose they are gulls of some kind. They have long, narrow +wings, brown, with a little black, and snow-white underneath. I am half +inclined to envy these wild, soulless creatures, that know no fear. + + + RONCADOR REEF, June 5, 1865. + +On Tuesday morning, May 30, between three and four o'clock, we were +awakened by the sharp stroke of the engine-bell, a deep grinding sound, +and the sudden stopping of the vessel. We knew that we had not arrived +at our port of destination, and felt instinctively that something +extraordinary had happened. For a moment all was silence; then inquiries +arose from all sides, as to what was the matter. The engine seemed to be +in a great state of commotion; and the vessel began to writhe with a +heavy, laborious movement, as if attempting to free herself from the +grasp of some monster. We dressed hastily, and went into the cabin, +where we found a good many of the passengers, and learned that the +vessel had struck on a coral-reef. We put on life-preservers, and sat +waiting until daylight, expecting every moment the vessel would split. +As soon as it was light enough, we went upon deck, and saw the sailors +cut away the masts and smoke-stacks, which went over the side of the +ship. The water dashed over the deck, so that we were obliged to go +below. It seemed there as if we were under the ocean, with the water +breaking over our heads. Chandeliers, glasses, and other movable +articles were crashing together around us. The cabin was filled with +people, quietly sitting, ready for they knew not what. But among all the +seven hundred passengers there was no shrieking nor crying nor groaning, +except from the little children, who were disturbed by the noise and +discomfort. How well they met the expectation of death! Faces that I had +passed as most ordinary, fascinated me by their quiet, firm mouths, and +eyes so beautiful, I knew it must be the soul I saw looking through +them. Some parties of Swedish emigrants took out their little +prayer-books, and sat clasping each other's hands, and reading them. A +missionary bound for Micronesia handed out his tracts in all directions, +but no one took much notice of them. Generally, each one seemed to feel +that he could meet death alone, and in his own way. + +In the afternoon a faint semblance of land was seen off on the horizon, +and a boat was sent out to explore. It was gone a long time, and as +night approached was anxiously looked for. Just about dark, it appeared +in sight. As it drew near, we saw the men in it waving their hats, and +heard them shouting, by which we knew they had succeeded in finding +land. The men on the vessel gave a hearty response, but the women could +not keep back their tears. + +That night the women and children were lowered with ropes, over the side +of the vessel, into boats, and taken to a raft near by, hastily +constructed on the rocks at the surface of the water, from loose spars, +stateroom-doors, and such other available material as could be secured +from the vessel. All night long we lay there, watching the dim outline +of the ship, which still had the men on board, as she rose and fell with +each wave,--the engine-bell tolling with every shock. The lights that +hung from the side of the vessel increased the wild, funereal appearance +of every thing about us. They continually advanced and receded, and +seemed to motion us to follow them. There was a strange fascination +about them, which I could not resist; and I watched them through the +whole night. + +At daylight the next morning the ship's boats began to take us over to +the island discovered the day before, which was slightly elevated above +the surface of the water, and about four miles distant from the wreck. +As we approached the shore, some new birds, unlike any I had seen +before,--indolent-looking, quiet, and amiable,--flew out, and hovered +over the boat, peering down at us, as if inquiring what strange +creatures were about to invade their home. Probably they had never seen +any human beings before. The sailors said they were "boobies;" and they +certainly appeared very unsophisticated, and quite devoid of the wit and +sprightliness of most birds. + +Only a few persons could be landed at a time, and I wandered about at +first almost alone. It was two days before all the passengers were +transferred. Every thing was so new and strange, that I felt as if I had +been carried off to another planet; and it certainly was a great +experience, to walk over a portion of the globe just as it was made, and +wholly unaltered by man. + +I thought of an account of a wreck on this same water I had once read, +in which the Caribbean was spoken of as the most beautiful though most +treacherous of seas, and the intensity of color was mentioned. Such +rose-color I never saw before as in the shells and mosses we find here, +nor such lovely pale and green tints as the water all about us shows. + +We have been here on this bare reef six days, with the breakers all +around us, and do not know whether we shall get off or not. We amuse +ourselves every morning with looking at the pert little birds, as queer +as the boobies, though quite different from them, that sit and nod to +each other incessantly, and give each other little hits with their +bills, as if these were their morning salutations,--a rough way of +asking after each other's health. + + + SAN FRANCISCO, July 2, 1865. + +We are safely here at last, after forty-two days' passage,--longer than +the children of Israel were in the wilderness. When we return it will be +by a wagon-train, if the Pacific Railroad is not done. + +When we landed on Roncador Reef, we had no data for conjecturing where +we were, except that we remembered passing the island of Jamaica at +twilight on the evening preceding the wreck. We were afterwards +informed that the vessel was seized by a strong current, and borne far +away from her proper course. How gay we were that night, with our music +and dancing, exhilarated all the more by the swiftness of the white, +rushing water that drove us on to our fate! + +The heat on the island was so intense, that our greatest necessity was +for some shelter from the sun. The only materials which the place +furnished us were rocks of coral, with which we built up walls, over +which were spread pieces of sail from the vessel. We lived in these +lodges, in little companies. We sat together in ours in the daytime, and +could not leave our shelter for a moment without feeling as if we were +sunstruck. Every night we abandoned it, and slept out on the rocks; but +the frequent little showers proved so uncomfortable that we were driven +to great extremity to devise some covering. R.'s ingenuity proved equal +to the emergency. He secured an opportunity to visit the vessel (which +held together for some days) in one of the boats which were continually +plying between her and the island, bringing over all available stores. +All the mattresses and other bedding that could be secured had been +distributed, mostly to the mothers and children. His penetrating eye +detected the materials for a coverlet in the strips of painted canvas +nailed to the deck. He managed without tools to tear off some pieces, +and, by untwisting some tarred rope, to fasten them together; thus +providing a quilt, which, if not comfortable, was at least waterproof, +and served to draw over us when a shower came on. It was no protection, +however, against the crabs, large and small, that used to crawl under +it, and eat pieces out of our clothes, and even our boots, while we were +asleep. These crabs were of the _hermit_ order. Each one, from the +minutest to the largest, had taken possession of the empty shell of some +other creature, exactly large enough for him, and walked about with it +on his back, and drew himself snugly into it when molested. Every little +crevice in the rocks had a white or speckled egg in it when we landed, +and from these we made a few good meals. The one day the women spent on +the island alone with the birds passed in the most friendly manner; but +after the men and boys came, the larger ones abandoned us. + +We felt sorry not to bring away some of the beautiful shells which were +plentiful there, and more gorgeous than any thing I ever saw before. +While the living creature is in them, they are much brighter than after +it is dead; and in the length of time it takes to bring them from +tropical countries, they fade almost like flowers. Mrs. S. was so +enterprising, and, I must say, so unaesthetic, as to try to concoct a +meal from the occupants of some of the large conch-shells taken from the +beach, cooking it for a considerable length of time in a large brass +kettle, the only available utensil. Those who partook of it in our +little group had cause to repent of their rashness; but we did not like +to charge the injury to the lovely creatures which were sacrificed for +this feast, preferring to "blame it on" to the brass kettle, as the +California children would express it. The more cautious ones contented +themselves with their two sea-biscuits and fragment of beef or pork per +day, which were the regular rations served to each from the stores saved +from the ship. Some surface water, found among the rocks, was carefully +guarded, and sparingly dealt out. + +After we had been four or five days on the island, two of the ship's +boats were sent out to seek assistance, manned by volunteer crews; one +headed for Aspinwall, which was thought to be about two hundred and +fifty miles distant, and the other to search for what was supposed to be +the nearest land. + +Very early on the morning of the tenth day we heard the cry of "A +sail!" We started up from our rocky beds, and stood, without daring to +speak. There was a little upright shadow, about as large as a finger, +against the sky. Every eye was turned to it, but no one yet dared to +confirm it; and, even if it were a sail, those on board the vessel might +not see our island, it was so low, or our flag of distress, as we had +nothing on which to raise it very high. We stood for several minutes, +without daring to look at each other with the consciousness that we were +saved. We presently saw that there were two little schooners beating up +against the wind, directly towards us, and that they carried the red +English flag. They had been catching turtles on the Mosquito Coast. As +soon as our boat reached them, they unloaded their turtles (which +occupied them a day), with the exception of three large ones which they +reserved for us, and then started at once. + +These small vessels were unequal to carrying away half the people on the +island, and they had no arrangements for the comfort of passengers. A +considerable number decided to embark on them, and commenced doing so; +while the larger part of the company remained on the spot, to take their +chance of escape in some other way, since communication with the world +was now established. + +The next day we were all rejoiced by the appearance of two United States +gunboats from Aspinwall, which point was reached by our other boat, +after a rough experience; the waves having capsized her during the +passage, and swallowed up the provisions and nautical instruments. + +It was then decided that all the company should be taken to Aspinwall by +the United States vessels, and their boats and ours were at once put to +service in transferring the people from the island; who, as they +gathered up such fragments of their property as had been rescued from +the wreck, and tied it up in bedquilts or blankets, shouldered their +bundles, and moved slowly down to the point of departure,--their +garments weather-stained and crab-eaten, some of them without shoes or +hats, and all with much-bronzed faces,--presented a picturesque and +beggarly appearance, in striking contrast to their aspect before the +wreck. + +We were treated with the greatest kindness by every one connected with +the gunboats. They took us in their arms, and carried us into the boats, +and stood all night beside us, offering ice-water and wine. They greatly +bewailed our misfortunes, and told us, that, when they heard of our +condition, they put on every pound of steam the vessels would bear, in +order to reach us as speedily as possible, fearing that some greater +calamity might befall us,--that our supply of water might entirely fail, +or that the trade-wind might change, and a storm bring the sea over the +island. They told us, too, that we were very far off the track of +vessels; and, if our boats had failed to bring succor, in all +probability no one would ever have come there in search of us. + +The two schooners decided to remain a while, and wreck the vessel. As we +steamed away from the reef, we passed her huge skeleton upon the rocks, +the bell still hanging to the iron part of the frame. + +On the second day we reached Aspinwall, and disembarked. As we sat on +the wharf, in little groups, on pieces of lumber or on our bundles, +waiting for arrangements to be made for our transportation across the +Isthmus, a black man, employed there, fixed his eye upon our +dark-skinned Julia, and, approaching, asked if she "got free in the +Linkum war." I told him that she did, and asked him where he came from. +He said he was from Jamaica; and I said, "I suppose you have been free a +long time?" to which he, replied, with great energy, "Before I was +born, I was free," and repeated it again and again,--"before I was +born." + +We found that Julia, to whom all things were new in the land of freedom, +thought that the island where we spent so many days was a regular +stopping-place on the way to California, and that the wreck was a +legitimate mode of stopping; as one day she inquired if that was the way +they always went to San Francisco, and said, if she had known travelling +was so hard, she would not have started. This accounted for her +equanimity, which surprised me, after the vessel struck the reef, as she +sat quietly eating her cakes, while every thing was going to destruction +around us, and the sea broke above our heads. + +In crossing the Isthmus of Panama, we were delighted with the neat +appearance of the natives, whom we saw along the roadside, or sitting in +their little huts near by, which were made of the trunks of the tall +palm-trees, in columns, open at the side, and thatched with leaves. +These people were clad in clean white garments, the women with muslins +and laces drooping from their bare shoulders, and with bright flowers in +their hair. + +On reaching Panama, the women there greeted us with great kindness and +sympathy. One of them threw her arms around one of the first women of +our party that she saw, and exclaimed, "Oh, we have thought so much +about you! we were afraid you would die for want of water." It seemed +strange that they should have cared so much, when a little while before +they never knew of our existence. I felt as if I had hardly had a chance +before in my life to know what mere humanity meant, apart from +individual interest, and how strong a feeling it is. We realized still +more the kindness of these "dear, dark-eyed sisters," when we opened the +trunk of clothing which they sent on board the "America," the steamer +that took us to San Francisco. + +The voyage up the Pacific coast was long and wearisome. For some days we +felt seriously the ill effects of the island life and the tropic heat, +and could only endure; until, one morning, we came up on deck, and there +were the beautiful serrated hills of Old California. We had rounded Cape +St. Lucas, and had a strong, exhilarating breeze from the coast, and +began to be ourselves again. + +The monotony of our sea-life was broken by one event of special +interest,--the addition of another human being to our large number. I +must mention first,--for it seems as if they brought her,--that all one +day we sailed in a cloud of beautiful gray-and-white gulls, flying +incessantly over and around us, with their pretty orange bills and +fringed wings and white fan-tails. They were very gentle and dove-like. +They staid with us only that day. The last thing that I saw at night, +far into the dark, was one flying after us; and, the next morning, we +heard of the birth of the baby. She was christened in the cabin, the day +after, by the Micronesian missionary, in the presence of a large +company. A conch-shell from the reef served as the christening-basin. +The American flag was festooned overhead; and, as far as possible, the +cabin was put into festive array. She was named "Roncadora America," +from the reef, and the vessel on which she was born. The captain gave +her some little garments he was carrying home to his own unborn baby, +and the gold ties for her sleeves. When her name was pronounced, the +ship's gun was fired; then the captain addressed the father, who held +her, and presented him with a purse of fifty dollars from the +passengers, ending in triumph with-- + + "And now, my friends, see Roncadora, + With freedom's banner floating o'er her." + +The father then uncovered her; she having made herself quite apparent +before by wrestling with her little fists under the counterpane, and +uttering a variety of wild and incomprehensible sounds. She proved a +handsome baby, large and red, with a profusion of soft, dark hair. + + + + +II. + + Port Angeles.--Indian "Hunter" and his Wife.--Sailor's + Funeral.--Incantation.--Indian Graves.--Chief Yeomans.--Mill + Settlements.--Port Gamble Trail.--Canoe Travel.--The + _Memaloost_.--Tommy and his Mother. Olympic Range.--Ediz + Hook.--Mrs. S. and her Children.--Grand Indian Wedding.--Crows and + Indians. + + + PORT ANGELES, WASHINGTON TERRITORY, + July 20, 1865. + +We reached here day before yesterday, very early in the morning. We were +called to the forward deck; and before us was a dark sea-wall of +mountains, with misty ravines and silver peaks,--the Olympic Range, a +fit home for the gods. + +A fine blue veil hung over the water, between us and the shore; and, the +air being too heavy for the smoke of the Indian village to rise, it lay +in great curved lines, like dim, rainbow-colored serpents, over sea and +land. + +I thought it was the loveliest place I had ever seen. The old Spanish +explorers must have thought so too, as they named it "Port of the +Angels." + +We found that the path to our house was an Indian trail, winding about +a mile up the bluff from the beach; the trees shutting overhead, and all +about us a drooping white spirea, a most bridal-looking flower. Here and +there, on some precipitous bank, was the red Indian-flame. Every once in +a while, we came to a little opening looking down upon the sea; and the +sound of it was always in our ears. At last we reached a partially +cleared space, and there stood the house; behind it a mountain range, +with snow filling all the ravines, and, below, the fulness and prime of +summer. We are nearly at the foot of the hills, which send us down their +snow-winds night and morning, and their ice-cold water. Between us and +them are the fir-trees, two hundred and fifty and three hundred feet +high; and all around, in the burnt land, a wilderness of bloom,--the +purple fireweed, that grows taller than our heads, and in the richest +luxuriance, of the same color as the Alpine rose,--a beautiful +foreground for snowy hills. + +The house is not ready for us. We are obliged at present, for want of a +chimney, to stop with our nearest neighbor. But we pay it frequent +visits. Yesterday, as we sat there, we received a call from two Indians, +in extreme undress. They walked in with perfect freedom, and sat down +on the floor. We shall endeavor to procure from Victoria a dictionary of +the Haidah, Chinook, and other Indian languages, by the aid of which we +shall be able to receive such visitors in a more satisfactory manner. At +present, we can only smile very much at them. Fortunately, on this +occasion, our carpenter was present, who told us that the man was called +"Hunter," which served as an introduction. Hunter took from the woman a +white bag, in which was a young wild bird, and put it into my hands. The +carpenter said that this Indian had done some work for him, bringing up +lumber from the beach, etc., and had come for his pay; that he would not +take a white man's word for a moment, but if, in making an agreement +with him, a white man gave him a little bit of paper with _any thing_ +written on it, he was perfectly satisfied, and said, "You my _tilikum_ +[relation]--I wait." + +The neighbor with whom we are stopping says, that, the night before we +came, a wildcat glared in at her as she sat at her window. + +It looks very wild here, the fir-trees are so shaggy. I think the bears +yet live under them. Many of the trees are dead. When the setting sun +lights up the bare, pointed trunks, the great troops of firs look like +an army with spears of gold, climbing the hills. + + + JULY 30, 1865. + +To-day, as we were descending by the trail from the bluff to the beach, +we saw a funeral procession slowly ascending the wagon-road. It came +from the Sailors' Hospital. We waited until it passed. The cart +containing the coffin was drawn by oxen, and followed by a little white +dog and a few decrepit sailors. There was no sign of mourning, but a +reverent look in their faces. The body had been wrapped in a flag by +brotherly hands. The deep music of the surf followed them, and the dark +fir-branches met overhead. + +In California, the poorest of people, by the competition of undertakers, +are furnished, at low rates, with the use of silver-mounted hearses and +nodding plumes, a shrouding of crape, and a long line of carriages. Even +those who have really loved the one who is gone seem, in some +incomprehensible way, to find a solace in these manifestations, and +would have considered this sailor's solitary funeral the extreme of +desolation. But Nature took him gently to her bosom; the soft sky and +the fragrant earth seemed to be calling him home. + +We found by inquiry that it was the funeral of an entirely unknown +sailor, who had not even any distant friends to whom he wished messages +sent. His few possessions he left for the use of the children of the +place, and quietly closed his eyes among strangers, returning peacefully +to the unknown country whence he came. + + + AUGUST 2, 1865. + +We went this morning to an Indian _Tamahnous_ (incantation), to drive +away the evil spirits from a sick man. He lay on a mat, surrounded by +women, who beat on instruments made by stretching deer-skin over a +frame, and accompanied the noise thus produced by a monotonous wail. +Once in a while it became quite stirring, and the sick man seemed to be +improved by it. Then an old man crept in stealthily, on all-fours, and, +stealing up to him, put his mouth to the flesh, here and there, +apparently sucking out the disease. + + + AUGUST 17, 1865. + +Hunter stopped to rest to-day on our door-steps. He had a haunch of +elk-meat on his back, one end resting on his head, with a cushion of +green fern-leaves. He called me "_Closhe tum-tum_" (Good Heart), and +gave me a great many beautiful smiles. + +We find that there are a number of canoes suspended in the large +fir-trees on some of our land, with the mummies of Indians in them. +These are probably the bodies of chiefs, or persons of high rank. There +is also a graveyard on the beach, which is gay with bright blankets, +raised like flags, or spread out and nailed upon the roofs over the +graves, and myriads of tin pans: we counted thirty on one grave. A +looking-glass is one of the choicest of the decorations. On one we +noticed an old trunk, and others were adorned with rusty guns. + +Last night there came a prolonged, heavy, booming sound, different from +any thing we had heard before. In the morning we saw that there had been +a great landslide on the mountain back of us, bringing down rocks and +trees. + + + AUGUST 30, 1865. + +Yeomans, an old Indian chief, the _Tyee_ of the Flat-heads at Port +Angeles, came to see us to-day. He pointed to himself, and said, "Me all +the same white man;" explaining that he did not paint his face, nor +drink whiskey. Mrs. S., at the light-house, said that she had frequently +invited him to dinner, and that he handled his napkin with perfect +propriety; although he is often to be seen sitting cross-legged on the +sand, eating his meal of sea-urchins. + +He is very dramatic, and described to us by sounds only, without our +understanding any of the words, how wild the water was at Cape Flattery, +and how the ships were rocked about there. It was thrilling to hear the +sounds of the winds as he represented them: I felt as if I were in the +midst of a great storm. + +His little tribe appear to have great respect for his authority as a +chief, and show a proper deference towards him. He is a mild and gentle +ruler, and not overcome by the pride and dignity of his position. He is +always ready to assist in dragging our boat on to the beach, and does +not disdain the dime offered him in compensation for the service. + +His son, a grown man, no longer young, who introduced himself to us as +"Mr. Yeomans's son," and who appears to have no other designation, is +much more of a wild Indian than the old man. Sometimes I see him at +night, going out with his _klootchman_ in their little canoe; she, +crouched in her scarlet blanket at one end, holding the dark sail, and +the great yellow moon shining on them. + +I used to wonder, when we first came here, what their interests were, +and what they were thinking about all the time. Little by little we find +out. To-night he came in to tell us that there was going to be a great +_potlach_ at the coal-mines, where a large quantity of _iktas_ would be +given away,--tin pans, guns, blankets, canoes, and money. How his eyes +glistened as he described it! It seems that any one who aspires to be a +chief must first give a _potlach_ to his tribe, at which he dispenses +among them all his possessions. + +This afternoon, as I sat at my window, my attention was attracted by a +little noise. I looked up; and there was a beautiful young Indian girl, +holding up a basket of fruit, of the same color as her lips and cheeks. +It was a delicious wild berry that grows here, known as the red +huckleberry. Mrs. S. knew her, and told me that she was the daughter of +the old chief, lately betrothed to a Cape Flattery Indian. + + + SEPTEMBER 20, 1865. + +Everywhere about Puget Sound and the adjoining waters are little arms of +the sea running up into the land, like the fiords of Northern Europe. +Many of them have large sawmills at the head. We have been travelling +about, stopping here and there at the little settlements around the +mills. We were everywhere most hospitably received. All strangers are +welcomed as guests. Every thing seems so comfortable, and on such a +liberal scale, that we never think of the people as poor, although the +richest here have only bare wooden walls, and a few articles of +furniture, often home-made. It seems, rather, as if we had moved two or +three generations back, when no one had any thing better; or, as if we +might perhaps be living in feudal times, these great mill-owners have +such authority in the settlements. Some of them possess very large +tracts of land, have hundreds of men in their employ, own steamboats and +hotels, and have large stores of general merchandise, in connection with +their mill-business. They sometimes provide amusements for the men, +little dramatic entertainments, etc.,--to keep them from resorting to +drink; and encourage them to send for their families, and to make +gardens around their houses. + +The house where we stopped at Port Madison was very attractive. The +maple-trees had been cut down to build it; but life is so vigorous here, +that they grew up under the porch, and then, as they became taller, came +outside, and curved up around it, so that it was a perfect nest. The +maple here is not just like the Eastern tree, but has a larger, darker +leaf. Inside, the rooms were large and low, with great fireplaces filled +with flaming logs, that illuminated them brilliantly. + +We began our expedition round the Sound in a plunger,--the most +atrocious little craft ever constructed. Its character is well expressed +by its name. These boats are dangerous enough in steady hands; but, as +they are exceedingly likely to be becalmed, the danger is very much +increased from the temptation to drink that seems always to assail the +captain and men in these wearisome delays. + +To avoid waiting two or three days at Port Madison for the steamer, we +determined to cross to the next port by an Indian trail through the +woods; though we were told that it was very rough travelling, and that +no white woman had ever crossed there, and, also, that we might have to +take circuitous routes to avoid fires. We started early in the morning, +allowing the whole day for the journey. We passed through one of the +burnt regions, where the trees were still standing, so gray and spectral +that it was like a strange dream. Farther along we heard a prolonged, +mournful sound, that we could not account for; but, in a little while, +we came to where the bright flames were darting from the trunks and +branches, and curling around them. The poor old trees were creaking and +groaning, preparatory to falling. We were obliged, occasionally, to +abandon the trail; or, rather, it abandoned us, being burnt through. +Off the path, the underbrush was almost impassable; the vine-maple, with +crooked stems and tangled branches, with coarse briers and vines, knit +every thing together. It seemed more like a tropical than a northern +forest, there were so many glossy evergreen leaves. We recognized among +them the holly-leaf barberry (known also as the Oregon grape), one of +the most beautiful of shrubs. Its pretty clusters of yellow flowers were +withered, and its fruit not yet ripe. We found also the sallal,--the +Indian's berry,--the salmon-colored raspberry, and the coral-red +huckleberry. Occasionally we heard the scream of a hawk, or the whirring +of great wings above our heads; but, for the most part, we tramped on in +perfect silence. The woods were too dark and dense for small birds. + +It was curious to notice how much some of the little noises sounded like +whispers, or like footsteps. There was hardly a chance that there could +be any other human beings there besides ourselves. It recalled to me the +Indian's dread of _skookums_ (spirits) in the deep woods. To him, the +mere flutter of a leaf had a meaning; the sighing of the wind was +intelligible language. So many generations of Indians had crossed that +trail, and so few white people, I felt as if some subtile aroma of +Indian spirit must linger still about the place, and steal into our +thoughts. Occasionally an owl stirred in the thicket beside us, or we +caught a glimpse of the mottled beauty of a snake gliding across our +path. The great boom and crash of the falling trees startled us, until +we were used to it, and understood it. + +Whenever we left the trail, we felt some doubt lest we might not find it +again, or might happen upon an impassable stream that would cut us off +from farther progress; not feeling quite equal to navigating with a pole +on a snag, after the fashion of the Indians. + +Near sunset, when the woods began to grow darker around us, we saw a +bird, about as large as a robin, with a black crescent on his breast. +His song was very different from that of the robin, and consisted of +five or six notes, regularly descending in minor key. It thrilled me to +hear it in the solitary woods: it was like the wail of an Indian spirit. + +It began to be quite a serious question to us, what we were to do for +the night; as how near or how far Port Gamble might be, we could not +tell. There was no possibility of our climbing the straight fir-trees, +with branches high overhead; and to stop on the ground was not to be +thought of, for fear of wild beasts. We hastened on, but the trail +became almost undistinguishable before the lights of Port Gamble +appeared below us. As we descended to the settlement, we were met with +almost as much excitement on the part of the mill people, who had never +crossed the trail, as if we had risen from the water, or floated down +from the sky, among them. + +We take great satisfaction in the recollection of this one day of pure +Indian life. + +The next day we decided to try a canoe. We should not have ventured to +go alone with the Indians, not understanding their talk; but another +passenger was to go with us, who represented that he had learned the +only word it would be necessary to use. He explained to us, after we +started, that the word was "_hyac_," which meant "hurry up;" the only +danger being that we should not reach Port Townsend before dark, as they +were apt to proceed in so leisurely a way when left to themselves. After +a while, the bronze paddlers--two _siwashes_ (men) and two _klootchmen_ +(women)--began to show some abatement of zeal in their work, and our +fellow-passenger pronounced the talismanic word, with some emphasis; +whereat they laughed him to scorn, and made some sarcastic remarks, +half Chinook and half English, from which we gathered that they advised +him, if he wanted to reach Port Townsend before dark, to tell the sun to +stop, and not tell them to hurry up. We could only look on, and admire +their magnificent indifference. They stopped whenever they liked, and +laughed, and told stories. The sky darkened in a very threatening way, +and a heavy shower came on; but it made not the slightest difference to +them. After it was over, there was a splendid rainbow, like the great +gate of heaven. This animated the Indians, and their spirits rose, so +that they began to sing; and we drifted along with them, catching enough +of their careless, joyous mood, not to worry about Port Townsend, +although we did not reach the wharf till two or three hours after dark. + +A day or two after, we found, rather to our regret, that we should be +obliged to take a canoe again, from Port Discovery. The intoxicated +"Duke of Wellington"--an Indian with a wide gold band round his hat, and +a dilapidated naval uniform--came down, and invited us to go in his +sloop. We politely declined the offer, and selected Tommy, the only +Indian, we were told, who did not drink. With the aid of some of the +bystanders, we asked his views of the weather. He said there would +undoubtedly be plenty of wind, and plenty of rain, but it would not make +any difference: he had mats enough, and we could stop in the woods. But, +as we had other ideas of comfort, we waited two days; and, as the +weather was still unsettled, we took the precaution, before starting, to +give him his directions for the trip: "_Halo_ wind, Port Angeles; _hyiu_ +wind, Dungeness," meaning that we were to have the privilege of stopping +at Dungeness if it should prove too stormy to go on. So he and his +little _klootchman_, about as big as a child of ten, took us off. When +we reached the portage over which they had to carry the canoe, he +pointed out the place of the _memaloost_ (the dead). I see the Indians +often bury them between two bodies of water, and have wondered if this +had any significance to them. I have noticed, too, that their +burial-places have always wild and beautiful surroundings. At this +place, the blue blankets over the graves waved in the wind, like the +wings of some great bird. A chief was buried here; and some enormous +wooden figures, rudely carved, stood to guard him. They looked old and +worn. They had long, narrow eyes, high cheek-bones, and long upper lips, +like true Indians, with these features somewhat exaggerated. + +We tried to talk with Tommy a little about the _memaloost_. He said it +was all the same with an Indian, whether he was _memaloost_, or on the +_illahie_ (the earth); meaning that he was equally alive. We were told +at the store, that Tommy still bought sugar and biscuits for his child +who had died. + +When we reached the other side of the portage, the surf roared so loud, +it seemed frightful to launch the canoe in it; but Tommy praised R. as +_skookum_ (very strong) in helping to conduct it over. He seemed much +more good-natured than the Indians we had travelled with before. He +smiled at the loon floating past us, and spoke to it. + +When we reached Dungeness, he represented that it would be very rough +outside, in the straits. So he took us to a farmhouse. I began to +suspect his motive, when I saw that there was a large Indian encampment +there, and he pointed to some one he said was all the same as his mamma. +It was the exact representation of a sphinx,--an old gray creature lying +on the sand, with the upper part of her body raised, and her lower limbs +concealed by her blanket. I expected to see Tommy run and embrace her: +but he walked coolly by, without giving her any greeting whatever; and +she remained perfectly imperturbable, never stirred, and her expression +did not change in the least. I was horror-stricken, but afterwards +altered my views of her, and came to the conclusion that she was a good, +kind mother, only that it was their way to refrain from all appearance +of emotion. When we started the next morning, she came down to the canoe +with the little _klootchman_, loaded with presents, which she carried in +a basket on her back, supported by a broad band round her +head,--smoking-hot venison, and a looking-glass for the child's grave, +among them. The old lady waded into the water, and pushed us off with +great energy and strong ejaculations. + +As we approached Port Angeles, we had a fine view of the Olympic Range +of mountains,--shining peaks of silver in clear outline; later, only +dark points emerging from seas of yellow light. Little clouds were drawn +towards them, and seemed like birds hovering over them, sometimes +lighting, or sailing slowly off. + + + EDIZ HOOK LIGHT, September 23, 1865. + +This light-house is at the end of a long, narrow sand-spit, known by the +unpoetical name of Ediz Hook, which runs out for three miles into the +Straits of Fuca, in a graceful curve, forming the bay of Port Angeles. +Outside are the roaring surf and heavy swell of the sea; inside that +slender arm, a safe shelter. + +In a desolate little house near by, lives Mrs. S., whose husband was +recently lost at sea. She is a woman who awakens my deepest wonder, from +her being so able to dispense with all that most women depend on. She +prefers still to live here (her husband's father keeps the light), and +finds her company in her great organ. One of the last things her husband +did was to order it for her, and it arrived after his death. I think the +sailors must hear it as they pass the light, and wonder where the +beautiful music comes from. There is something very soft and sweet in +her voice and touch. + +Sometimes I see the four children out in the boat. The little girls are +only four and six years old, yet they handle the oars with ease. As I +look at their bare bright heads in the sunshine, they seem as pretty as +pond-lilies. I feel as if they were as safe, they are so used to the +water. + + + PORT ANGELES, October 1, 1865. + +Port Angeles has been the scene of a grand ceremony,--the marriage of +Yeomans's daughter to the son of a Makah chief. Many of the Makah tribe +attended it. They came in a fleet of fifty canoes,--large, handsome +boats, their high pointed beaks painted and carved, and decorated with +gay colors. The chiefs had eagle-feathers on their heads, great +feather-fans in their hands, and were dressed in black bear-skins. Our +Flat-heads in their blankets looked quite tame in contrast with them. +They approached the shore slowly, standing in the canoes. When they +reached the landing in front of Yeomans's ranch, the congratulations +began, with wild gesticulations, leapings, and contortions. They were +tall, savage-looking men. Some of them had rings in their noses; and all +had a much more primitive, uncivilized look, than our Indians on the +Sound. I could hardly believe that the gentlemanly old Yeomans would +deliver up his pretty daughter to the barbarians that came to claim her, +and looked to see some one step forward and forbid the banns; but the +ceremony proceeded as if every thing were satisfactory. There may be +more of the true old Indian in him than I imagined; or perhaps this is a +political movement to consolidate the friendship of the tribes. When +they landed, they formed a procession, bearing a hundred new blankets, +red and white, as a _potlach_ to the tribe. They brought also some of +the much-prized blue blankets, reserved for special ceremonies and the +use of chiefs. + +What occurred inside the lodge, we could not tell; but were quite +touched at seeing Yeomans's son take the flag from his dead sister's +grave, and plant it on the beach at high-water mark, as if it were a +kind of participation, on the part of the dead girl, in the joy of the +occasion. + + + OCTOBER 5, 1865. + +Flocks of crows hover continually about the Indian villages. The most +proverbially suspicious of all birds is here familiar and confiding. The +Indian exercises superstitious care over them, but whether from love or +fear we could never discover. It is very difficult to find out what an +Indian believes. We have sometimes heard that they consider the crows +their ancestors. It is a curious fact, that the Indians, in talking, +make so much use of the palate,--_kl_ and other guttural sounds +occurring so often,--and that the crow, in his deep "caw, caw," uses the +same organ. It may be significant of some psychological relationship +between them. + + + + +III. + + Indian Chief Seattle.--Frogs and Indians.--Spring Flowers and + Birds.--The Red _Tamahnous_.--The little Pend d'Oreille.--Indian + Legend.--From Seattle to Fort Colville.--Crossing the Columbia + River Bar.--The River and its Surroundings.--Its Former + Magnitude.--The Grande Coulee.--Early Explorers, Heceta, Meares, + Vancouver, Grey.--Curious Burial-Place.--Chinese + Miners.--Umatilla.--Walla Walla.--Sage-Brush and + Bunch-Grass.--Flowers in the Desert.--"Stick" + Indians.--Klickatats.--Spokane Indian.--Snakes.--Dead Chiefs.--A + Kamas-Field.--Basaltic Rocks. + + + SEATTLE, WASHINGTON TERRITORY, + November 5, 1865. + +We saw here a very dignified Indian, old and poor, but with something +about him that led us to suspect that he was a chief. We found, upon +inquiry, that it was Seattle, the old chief for whom the town was named, +and the head of all the tribes on the Sound. He had with him a little +brown sprite, that seemed an embodiment of the wind,--such a swift, +elastic little creature,--his great-grandson, with no clothes about him, +though it was a cold November day. To him, motion seemed as natural as +rest. + +Here we first saw Mount Rainier. It was called by the Indians _Tacoma_ +(The nourishing breast). It is also claimed that the true Indian name is +_Tahoma_ (Almost to heaven). It stands alone, nearly as high as Mont +Blanc, triple-pointed, and covered with snow, most grand and +inaccessible-looking. + +We have a great laurel-tree beside our house. It looks so Southern, it +is strange to see it among the firs. It has a dark outer bark, and a +soft inner skin; both of which are stripped away by the tree in growing, +and the trunk and branches are left bare and flesh-colored. It has +glossy evergreen leaves, and bright red berries, that look very cheerful +in contrast with the snow. + + + APRIL 6, 1866. + +The frogs have begun to sing in the marsh, and the Indians in their +camps. How well their voices chime together! All the bright autumn days, +we used to listen to the Indians at sunset; but after that, we heard no +sound of them for several months. They sympathize too much with Nature +to sing in the winter. Now the warm, soft air inspires them anew. All +through the cold and rainy months, as I looked out from my window, there +was always the little black figure in the canoe, as free and as +unembarrassed by any superfluities as the birds that circled around it. +It seemed a mistake, when the most severe weather came, for them to have +made no preparation whatever to meet it. It drove the women into our +houses, with their little bundles of "fire-sticks" (pitch-wood) to sell. +I offered one of them a pair of shoes; but she pointed to the snow, and +said it was "hot," and that it would make her feet too cold to wear +shoes. + +We were told, before we came here, that this climate was like that of +Asia; and now an Asian flower has come to confirm it. The marshes are +all gay with it: it is the golden club. The botany calls it the +Orontium, because it grows on the banks of the Orontes; and it is very +Asian-looking. It has a great wrapper, like the rich yellow silk in +which the Japanese brought their presents to President Lincoln. It is a +relation to the calla-lily, but is larger. + +The very last day of winter, as if they could not possibly wait a day +longer, great flocks of meadow-larks came, and settled down on the field +next to us. They are about as large as robins, and have a braided work +of black-and-gold to trim off their wings, and a broad black collar on +their orange breasts. They appear to have a very agreeable consciousness +of being in the finest possible condition. The dear old robins look +rather faded beside them. With them came the crimson-headed linnets. In +trying to identify these little birds from our books, I found that great +confusion had prevailed in regard to them, because their nuptial plumage +differs so much from their ordinary dress. These darlings blushed all +over with life and joy, which told me their secret. + + + APRIL 30, 1866. + +In the winter we were told, that, when the spring came fully on, the +Indians would have the "_Red Tamahnous_," which means "love." A little, +gray old woman appeared yesterday morning at our door, with her cheeks +all aglow, as if her young blood had returned. Besides the vermilion +lavishly displayed on her face, the crease at the parting of her hair +was painted the same color. Every article of clothing she had on was +bright and new. I looked out, and saw that no Indian had on any thing +but red. Even old blind Charley, whom we had never seen in any thing but +a black blanket, appeared in a new one of scarlet. But I was most +touched by the change in this woman, because she is, I suppose, the +oldest creature that I ever looked at. Nothing but a primeval rock ever +seemed to me so old; and when we had seen her before, she was like a +mummy generally in her clothing. These most ancient creatures have their +little stiff legs covered with a kind of blue cloth, sewed close round +them, just like the mummy-wrappings I have seen at Barnum's Museum. She +has more vivacity and animation than any one else I ever saw. If anybody +has a right to bright cheeks, she has. I like the Indians' painting +themselves, for in them it is quite a different thing from what it is in +fashionable ladies. They do it to show how they feel, not commonly +expressing their emotions in words. + +This woman, who is a Pend d'Oreille, has the most extraordinary power of +modulation in her voice. The Indians, by prolonging the sound of words, +add to their force, and vary their meaning; so that the same word +signifies more or less, according as it is spoken quickly or slowly. She +has such a searching voice, especially when she is attempting to convict +me of any subterfuge or evasion, that I have to yield to her at once. +The Indians have no word, as far as I can learn, for "busy." So, when I +cannot entertain her, I have to make the nearest approach I can to the +truth, and tell her I am sick, or something of that kind; but nothing +avails, with her, short of the absolute truth. She is so very fantastic +and entertaining, that I should cultivate her acquaintance more, if it +were not for this deficiency in the language, which makes it impossible +to convey the idea to her when I want to get rid of her. As old as she +is, she still carries home the great sacks of flour--a hundred +pounds--on her back, superintends the salmon-fishery for the family, +takes care of the _tenas men_ (children), and looks after affairs in +general. + + + MAY 10, 1866. + +We walked out to Lake Union, and found an Indian and his wife living in +a tree. The most primitive of the Indians, the old gray ones, who look +the most interesting, do not commonly speak the Chinook at all, or have +any intercourse with the whites. On the way there, we found the peculiar +rose that grows only on the borders of the fir-forest, the wild white +honeysuckle, and the glossy _kinni-kinnick_--the Indian tobacco. + +We saw a nest built on the edge of the lake, rising and falling with the +water, but kept in place by the stalks of shrubs about it. A great brown +bird, with spotted breast, rose from it. I recognized it as the +dabchick. The Indians say that this bird was once a human being, wife to +an Indian with whom she quarrelled. He was transformed to the great +blue heron, and stalks about the marshes. With the remnant of her +woman's skill, she makes these curious nests, in sheltered nooks, on the +edges of lakes. She dived below the water, and we peeped in at her +babies. Their floating nest was overhung by white spirea. They had +silver breasts, and pale blue bills. I wondered that their little +bleating cry did not call her back; but, though below the water, she +seemed to know that we were near, and as long as we lingered about she +would not return. + +We are going on a long journey to the north, part of it over a desert +table-land, where for four days there will be no house,--a part of the +country frequented by the Snake River Indians and the Nez Perces, who +are inclined to be hostile. It is near the territory of the Pend +d'Oreilles. I have seen one of them, with a pretty, graceful ornament in +her ear. + + + FORT COLVILLE, WASHINGTON TERRITORY, + June 8, 1866. + +We travelled by steamer from Seattle to Portland, thence by a succession +of steamers as far as Wallulla. We then took the stage for Walla Walla, +at which point public accommodation for travel ceases. We stopped there +two or three days, seeking a conveyance across the country to this +point; and finally secured a wagoner, who agreed to transport us and our +luggage for a hundred dollars, the distance being two hundred miles. + +The most interesting part of the journey was the passage of the +Columbia. The bar at the mouth of the river is a great hinderance to its +free navigation; and vessels are often detained for days, and even +weeks, waiting for a favorable opportunity to cross. We waited five days +outside in the fog, hearing all the time the deep, solemn warning of the +breakers, to keep off. Our steadfast captain, as long as he could see +nothing, refused to go on, knowing well the risk, though he sent the +ship's boats out at times to try to get his bearings. In all that time, +the fog never once lifted so that he could get the horizon-line. At the +end of the fifth day, he entered in triumph, with a clear view of the +river, the grandest sight I have ever seen. The passengers seemed hardly +to dare to breathe till we were over the bar. Some of them had witnessed +a frightful wreck there a few years before, when, after a similar +waiting in the fog for nearly a week, a vessel attempted to enter the +river, and struck on the bar. She was seen for two days from Astoria, +but the water was so rough that no life-boat could reach her. The +passengers embarked on rafts, but were swept off by the sea. + +As we passed into the river, I sat on deck, looking about. All at once I +felt a heavy thump on my back, and a wave broke over my head,--a pretty +rough greeting from the sea. It seems that we slightly grounded, but +were off in an instant. + +I had long looked forward to the wonderful experience of seeing this +immense river, seven miles broad, rolling seaward, and the great line of +breakers at the bar; but no one can realize, without actually seeing it, +how much its grandeur is enhanced by the surroundings of interminable +forest, and the magnificence of its snow-mountains. The character of the +river itself is in accordance with every thing about it, especially +where it breaks through the Cascade Mountains in four miles of rapids; +and still higher up, shut between basaltic walls, rushes with deafening +roar through the narrow passage of the Dalles, where it is compressed +into one-eighth of its width. For a long time I could not receive any +other sensation, nor admit any other thought, but of its terrific +strength. The Indians say that in former times the river flowed smoothly +where are now the whirling rapids of the Cascades, but that a landslide +from the banks dammed up the stream, and produced this great change. How +many generations have repeated the account of this wonderful occurrence, +from one to another, to bring it down to our times! This is now accepted +by scientific men as undoubtedly the fact. + +It is hard to conceive the idea of the geologists, that this is only the +remnant of a vastly greater Columbia, that formerly occupied not only +its present bed, but other channels, now abandoned, including the Grande +Coulee, between whose immense walls it poured a current ten miles broad +at the mouth; and that the water was at some time one or two thousand +feet above the present level of the river, as shown by the terraces +along its banks, and fragments of drift caught in fissures of the rock. +The Grande Coulee is like an immense roofless ruin, extending north and +south for fifty miles. Strange forms of rock are scattered over the +great bare plain. To the Indians, it is the home of evil spirits. They +say there are rumblings in the earth, and that the rocks are hot, and +smoke. Thunder and lightning, so rare elsewhere on the western coast, +are here more common. The evidences of volcanic action are everywhere +apparent,--in the huge masses and curious columns of basaltic and +trap-rock, the lava-beds through which the rivers have found their way, +and the powdery alkaline soil. The marks of glaciers are also as +distinct in the bowlders, and the scooping-out of the beds of lakes. The +gravelly prairies between the Columbia and Puget Sound, and the +Snoqualmie, Steilaguamish, and other flats, show that the Sound was +formerly of much more extensive proportions than at present. + +The Columbia was first discovered on the 15th of August, 1775, by Bruno +Heceta, a Spanish explorer, who found an opening in the coast, from +which rushed so strong a current as to prevent his entering. He +concluded that it was the mouth of some great river, or possibly the +Straits of Fuca, which might have been erroneously marked on his chart. +As this was the anniversary of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, he +named the opening _Ensenada de Asuncion_ (Assumption Inlet); and it was +afterwards called, in the charts published in Mexico, _Ensenada de +Heceta_, and _Rio de San Roque_. He gave to the point on the north side +the name of Cape _San Roque_; and, to that on the south, Cape _Frondoso_ +(Leafy Cape). + +Meares, in 1788, gave the name of Cape Disappointment to the northern +point, owing to his not being able to make the entrance of the river, +and the mouth he called Deception Bay, and asserted that there was no +such river as the St. Roc, as laid down in the Spanish charts. + +Vancouver also, when exploring the Pacific coast in 1792, passed by this +great stream, without suspecting that there was a river of any +importance there. He noticed the line of breakers, and concluded, that, +if there was any river, it must be unnavigable, from shoals and reefs. +He had made up his mind, that all the streams flowing into the Pacific +between the fortieth and forty-eighth parallels of latitude were mere +brooks, insufficient for vessels to navigate, and not worthy his +attention. + +Capt. Grey, who reached the place shortly after, with keener observation +and deeper in-sight, saw the indications of a great river there, and +after lying outside for nine days, waiting a favorable opportunity to +enter, succeeded in doing so on the 11th of May, 1792, being the first +to accomplish that feat, and explored the lower portion of it. He gave +to the river and to the southern point the names they now bear. + +Vancouver failed in the same way to discover the Fraser, the great river +of British Columbia, although he actually entered the delta of the +river, and sailed about among the sand-banks, naming one of them +Sturgeon Bank; while the Spanish explorers, who were there about the +same time, recognized the fact of its existence far out at sea, in the +irregular currents, the sand-banks, the drift of trees and logs, and +also in the depression in the Cascade Mountains, which marks its +channel. + +In 1805 Lewis and Clarke, who reached the mouth of the Columbia that +year, found that the Indians called the river "_Shocatilcum_" (friendly +water). + +Tourists have not yet discovered what a wonderful country this is for +sight-seeing, fortunately for us. On our passage up the Columbia, after +leaving Portland, we sat for two or three days, almost alone, on the +deck of the steamer, with nothing to break the silence but the deep +breathing of the boat, which seemed like its own appreciation of it; and +sailed past the great promontories, some of them a thousand feet high, +and watched the slender silver streams that fall from the rocks, and +felt that we were in a new world,--new to us, but older and grander than +any thing we had ever seen. + +We were shown a high, isolated rock, rising far above the water, on +which was a scaffolding, where, for many generations, the Indians had +deposited their dead. They were wrapped in skins, tied with cords of +grass and bark, and laid on mats. Their most precious possessions were +placed beside them, first made unserviceable for the living, to secure +their remaining undisturbed. The bodies were always laid with the head +toward the west, because the _memaloose illahie_ (land of the dead) lay +that way. + +In the instincts of children and of uncivilized people, there seems +something to trust. This idea of Heaven's lying toward the west appears +to have been held by the New-England Indians also, and is expressed in +Whittier's lines,-- + + "O mighty Sowanna! + Thy gateways unfold, + From thy wigwam of sunset + Lift curtains of gold! + Take home the poor spirit whose journey is o'er-- + _Mat wonck kunna-monee!_ We see thee no more!" + +The Chinese have also the "peaceful land in the west," lying far beyond +the visible universe. + +Farther up the river, we passed some abandoned diggings, where little +colonies of patient, toilsome Chinamen had established themselves, and +were washing and sifting the earth discarded by previous miners; making, +we were told, on the average, two or three cents to the pan. The +Chinaman regularly pays, as a foreigner (and is almost the only +foreigner who does so), his mining-license tax to the State. He never +seeks to interfere with rich claims, and patiently submits to being +driven away from any neglected spot he may have chosen if a white man +takes a fancy to it. + +We stopped one night at Umatilla City, a cheerless little settlement at +the junction of the Umatilla River with the Columbia, in the midst of a +bleak, dreary waste of sand and sage-brush, without a sign of a tree in +any direction, a perfect whirlwind blowing all the time. What could +induce people to live there, I could not imagine. + +We stopped a day or two at Walla Walla, where one of the early forts was +established; the post having been transferred from Wallula, where it was +called Fort "Nez Perces," from the Indians in that vicinity, who wore in +their noses a small white shell, like the fluke of an anchor. + +The journey from Walla Walla to Fort Colville occupied eleven days and +nights, during which time we did not take a meal in a house, nor sleep +in a bed. It was cold, rainy, and windy, a good deal of the time, but we +enjoyed it notwithstanding. To wake up in the clear air, with the +bright sky above us, when it was pleasant; and to reach at night the +little oases of willows and birches and running streams where we +camped,--was enough to repay us for a good deal of discomfort. At one of +the camping-grounds,--Cow Creek,--a beautiful bird sang all night; it +sounded like bubbling water. + +For several days we saw only great sleepy-looking hills, stretching in +endless succession, as far as the horizon extended, from morning till +night, as if a billowy ocean had been suddenly transfixed in the midst +of its motion. They have only thin vegetation on them,--not enough to +disturb or conceal the beautiful forms, the curves which the waves leave +on the hills they deposit. Their colors are very subdued,--pale salmon +from the dead grass, or light green like a thin veil, with the red earth +showing dimly through. There is no change in looking at them, but from +light to shadow, as the clouds move over them. + +We travelled, for a long distance, over sage-brush and alkali plains. In +this part of the country, sage-brush is a synonym for any thing that is +worthless. We found the little woody twigs of it available for our +camping-fires; but its amazing toughness reminded me of a story told by +Mr. Boller, in his book "Among the Indians." He was taking a band of +mustang half-breeds from California to Montana, when, to his surprise, +one of the mares presented him with a foal. Supposing it would be +impossible for it to keep up with the party, he took out his revolver to +shoot it. Twice he raised it, but the little fellow trotted along so +cheerily that his heart failed him, and he returned it to the holster. +The colt swam creeks breast-high for the horses, and travelled on with +sublime indifference to every thing but the gratification of its keen +little appetite. He resolved to take it through, thinking it would never +do to destroy an animal of so much pluck, and named it "Sage-brush." It +swam every stream, flinched from nothing, and arrived in good order in +Montana, a distance of three hundred miles, having travelled every day +from the time it was half an hour old. Its name was most appropriate, as +an illustration of the character of the plant. + +Intermixed with the wastes of sage-brush were patches of bunch-grass. +The horses sniffed it with delight as luxuriant pasturage. It is curious +to see how nature here acts in the interest of civilization. The old +settlers told us that many acres formerly covered with sage-brush were +now all bunch-grass. It is a peculiarity of the sage-brush, that fire +will not spread in it. The bush which is fired will burn to the ground, +but the next will not catch from it. The grass steals in among the +sage-brush; and, when that is burned, it carries the fire from one bush +to another. Although the grass itself is consumed, the roots strike +deep; and it springs up anew, overrunning the dead sage-brush. + +Then we came to the most barren country I ever saw,--nothing but broken, +rusty, worm-eaten looking rocks, where the rattlesnakes live. But here +grew the most beautiful flower, peach-blossom color. It just thrust its +head out of the earth, and the long pink buds stretched themselves out +over the dingy bits of rock; and that was all there was of it. We took +some of the roots, which are bulbous, and shall try to furnish them with +sufficient hardships to make them grow. + +One night, while in this region, we camped on a hill where the cayotes +came up and cried round us, which made it seem quite wild. + +Wherever there was any soil, there was another little plant that was +very pretty to notice, both for itself, and because of its adaptation to +the climate in the dry season. It was coated with a delicate fur; and +long after the hot sun was up, and when every thing else was dry, great +diamonds of dew glistened in its soft hair. We saw a great many plants +of the lupine family, in every variety of shade, from crimson, blue, and +purple, to white. + +On the last days we had all the time before us dark mountains, with snow +on their summits, and troops of trees on their sides, and ravines with +sun-lighted mists travelling through them. It was like getting into an +inhabited country, to reach the trees again: they were almost like human +beings, after what we had seen. The Spokane River divides the great +treeless plain on the south from the timbered mountainous country to the +north. + +During this journey, we came upon various little bands of Indians, of +different tribes. We noticed the superiority of the "stick" Indians +(those who live in the woods) over those who live by the sea. The former +have herds of horses, and hunt for their living. The Indians who live by +fishing are of tamer natures, poor and degraded, compared to those of +the interior. + +We saw at Walla Walla some of the Klickatats, from the mountains. They +were very bright and animated in their appearance, and wore fringed +dresses and ornamented leggings, and moccasins of buffalo-skin. They +were mounted upon fancy-colored and spotted horses, which they prize +above all others. They presented such a striking contrast to the lazy +Clalams on the Sound,--who used to say to us in reply to our inquiries +as to their occupations and designs, "_Cultus nannitsh, cultus +mitlight_" (look about and do nothing), as if that were their whole +business all day long,--that I was reminded of what some of the early +explorers said, that no two nations of Europe differed more widely from +each other than the different tribes of Indians. + +One day we met an Spokane Indian, of very striking appearance, with a +face like Dante's, but with a happier expression. He was most becomingly +clothed in white blankets, compactly folded about him, with two or three +narrow red stripes across his bonnet of the same material, which had a +red peaked border, completely encircling the face, like an Irishwoman's +night-cap, or rather day-cap, but much more picturesque. He was scouring +the hills and plains between the Snake and Spokane Rivers, mounted on a +gay little pony, in search of stolen horses. Upon being questioned as to +his abiding-place, he informed us that he did not live anywhere. + +We saw some representatives of another tribe of Indians, the Snakes. +They call themselves Shoshones, which means only "inland Indians." The +white people called them Snakes, probably because of their marvellous +power of eluding pursuit, by crawling off in the long grass, or diving +in the water. They seemed more wild and agile than any we had seen. The +Snakes were a very numerous tribe when the traders first came among +them. When questioned as to their number, by the agents of "The Great +White Chief," they said, "It is the same as the stars in the sky." They +were a proud, independent people, living mostly on the plains, hunting +the buffalo. They kept no canoes; depending only on temporary rafts of +bulrushes or willows, if not convenient to ford or swim across the +streams. They were the only Indians of this part of the country who had +any knowledge of working in clay,--their necessities obliging them to +make rude jugs in which to carry water across the bare plains. The +mountain Snakes were outlaws, enemies to all other tribes. They lived in +bands, in rocky caverns; and were said to have a wonderful power of +imitating all sounds of nature, from the singing of birds to the howling +of wolves,--by this means diverting attention from themselves, and +escaping detection in their roving, predatory expeditions. + +When we reached the ferry on the Snake River, we saw some Indians +swimming their horses across. They were a bunting-party of Spokanes and +Nez Perces. Strapped on to one of the horses, with a roll of blankets, +was a Nez Perces baby. This infant, though apparently not over a year +and a half old, sat erect, grasping the reins, with as spirited and +fearless a look as an old warrior's. + +At one of the portages, we saw some graves of chiefs; the bodies +carefully laid in east-and-west lines, and the opening of the lodge +built over them was toward the sunrise. On a frame near the lodge were +stretched the hides of their horses, sacrificed to accompany them to +another world. The missionaries congratulate themselves that these +barbarous ceremonies are no longer observed, that the Indian is weaned +from his idea of the happy hunting-ground, and the sacrilegious thought +of ever meeting his horse again is eradicated from his mind. I thought +with satisfaction that the missionary really knows no more about the +future than the Indian, who seems ill adapted to the conventional idea +of heaven. For my part, I prefer to think of him, in the unknown future, +as retaining something of his earthly wildness and freedom, rather than +as a white-robed saint, singing psalms, and playing on a harp. + +Between the Snake and the Spokane are several beautiful lakes. We met a +hunter coming from one of them, who had shot a white swan. He said he +found it circling round and round its dead mate, in so much distress +that he thought it was a kindness to kill it. + +We passed two great smoking mounds, and, on alighting to investigate, +found that we were in the midst of a kamas-field, where a great many +Indian women and children were busy digging the root, and roasting it in +the earth. + +Some of the old women wore the fringed skirt, made of cloth spun and +woven from the soft inner bark of the young cedar, which they used to +wear before blankets were introduced. + +The Indians eat other roots beside the kamas, but that is the one on +which they chiefly depend. As soon as the snow is off the ground, they +begin to search for a little bulbous root they call the _pohpoh_. It +looks like a small onion, and has a dry, spicy taste. In May they get +the _spatlam_, or bitter-root. This is a delicate white root, that +dissolves in boiling, and forms a bitter jelly. The Bitter Root River +and Mountains get their name from this plant. In June comes the kamas. +It looks like a little hyacinth-bulb, and when roasted is as nice as a +chestnut. We have seen it in blossom, when its pale-blue flowers +covered the fields so closely that, at a little distance, we took it for +a lake. One of the women, seeing our curiosity as we watched them, drew +some of the bulbs out of the earth ovens, and handed them to us. As we +tasted them, they explained that they were not ready to eat; that it +would take two or three days to roast them sufficiently. This they live +upon for two or three months; with the salmon, it is their chief article +of food. The women stop at the kamas-grounds, while the men go to the +fishing-stations. + +In August they gather the choke-berry and service-berry, to dry for the +winter. When they are reduced to great extremity for food, they +sometimes boil and eat the moss and lichens on the trees, which the deer +eats. Most of the work of digging the roots, and picking the berries, +falls upon the women. On this account, a Spokane man in marrying joins +the tribe of his wife, instead of her joining his tribe; thinking, if he +takes her away from the places where she has been accustomed to find her +roots and berries, she may not succeed, in a new place, in discovering +them. + +We saw, in the vicinity of the Pelouse River, some remarkable basaltic +rocks, that looked like buildings with columns and turrets and +bastions. Some of them were like my idea of the great kings' tombs of +the Egyptians. The colors on them were often very Egyptian-like,--bright +sulphur-yellow, and brown, and sometimes orange and dark +red,--incrustations of lichen and weather-staining. We saw, also, walls +of pentagonal columns of rock, packed closely together. Where the +Pelouse enters the Snake River, are immense ledges of square blocks. +When we camped there, and I lay down beneath them at night, "Swedish +_trappa_, a stair," from the geological text-book, was always running in +my mind,--this black trap-rock made such great steps that led up towards +the sky. + +We have seen here a splendid specimen of gold, which is to be sent to +the Exposition at Paris. It is granulated, and sparkles as I never saw +gold before. Some one suggests that a thin film of quartz may be +crystallized over it. + +Next week we hope to go up within sight of the whirlpools of Death's +Rapids, a long distance above here, on the Columbia River. These rapids +are so named on account of the number of persons who have been lost in +attempting to navigate them. Their names are cut into the rocks at the +side of the passage; their bodies have never been found. + + + + +IV. + + Two Hundred Miles on the Upper Columbia.--Steamer + "Forty-Nine."--Navigation in a Canyon.--Pend d'Oreille River and + Lake.--Rock Paintings.--Tributaries of the Upper Columbia.--Arrow + Lakes.--Kettle + Falls.--Salmon-Catching.--Salmon-Dance.--Goose-Dance. + + + FORT COLVILLE, July 20, 1866. + +We have just returned from a trip on the Columbia River, extending two +hundred miles north into British Columbia, on the little steamer built +in this vicinity for the purpose of carrying passengers and supplies to +the Big Bend and other mines in the upper country. We did not get to the +"Rapids of the Dead." The boat, this time, did not complete her ordinary +trip. Some of the passengers came to the conclusion that the river was +never intended to be navigated in places she attempted to run through. +It is a very adventurous boat, called the "Forty-nine," being the first +to cross that parallel,--the line separating Washington Territory from +British Columbia. The more opposition she meets with, and the more +predictions there are against her success, the more resolute she is to +go through; on which account, we were kept three weeks on the way, the +ordinary length of the passage being four days. I was surprised, when we +came to the first of what was called the "bad water," to see the boat +aim directly for it. It was much better, the captain said, to go "head +on," than to run the risk of being carried in by an eddy. I never saw +any river with such a tendency to whirl and fling itself about as the +Upper Columbia has. It is all eddies, in places where there is the least +shadow of a reason for it, and even where there is not; influenced, I +suppose, by the adjoining waters. Some of these whirl-pits are ten or +fifteen feet deep, measured by the trees that are sucked down into them. + +The most remarkable part of the river is where it is compressed to +one-sixth of its width, in passing through a mountain gorge +three-quarters of a mile long. The current is so strong there, that it +takes from four to six hours for the steamer to struggle up against it, +and only one minute to come down. The men who have passed down through +it, in small boats, say that it is as if they were shot from the mouth +of a cannon. + +When we reached this canyon, our real difficulties began. We attempted +to enter it in the afternoon, but met with an accident which delayed us +until the next morning. Meanwhile the river began to rise. It goes up +very rapidly, fifty, sixty, I believe even seventy, feet, sometimes. We +waited twelve days in the woods for it to subside. The captain cut us a +trail with his axe; and we sat and looked at the great snow-fields up on +the mountains, so brilliant that the whitest clouds looked dark beside +them. The magnificence of the scenery made every one an artist, from the +captain to the cook, who produced a very beautiful drawing of three +snow-covered peaks, which he called "The Three Sisters." + +Everybody grew very impatient; and at length, one night, the captain +said he would try it the next morning, although he had never before been +up when the water was so high. A heavy rain came on, lasting all night, +so that it seemed rather desperate to attempt going through, if the +river was too high the night before; and I could hardly believe it, when +I heard the engineer getting up the steam to start. The wildest weather +prevailed at this time, and on all important occasions. As soon as we +went on board the boat, in first starting, a violent thunder-storm came +on, lightning, hail, and rain; and a great pine-tree came crashing +down, and fell across the bow of the boat. A similar storm came again +the first time we tried to enter the canyon; and the drift it brought +down so interfered with the steering, that it led to the accident before +mentioned. On this last morning, there were most evident signs of +disapproval all about us,--the sky perfect gloom, and the river +continually replenishing its resources from the pouring rain, and +strengthening itself against us. But we steamed up to the entrance of +the canyon. Then the boat was fastened by three lines to the shore, and +the men took out a cable six hundred feet in length, which they carried +along the steep, slippery rocks, and fastened to a great tree. One of +them rolled down fifty feet into the water, but was caught by his +companions before he was whirled away. They then returned to the boat, +let on all the steam, and began to wind up the cable on the capstan. +With the utmost power of the men and steam, it was sometimes impossible +to see any progress. Finally, however, that line was wound up; and the +boat was again secured to the bank, and the cable put out the second +time. This part of the passage was still more difficult; and, after the +line was arranged, two men were left on shore with grappling-irons to +keep it off the rocks,--a great, fine-looking one, who appeared equal to +any emergency, and a little, common one, with sandy hair and a +lobster-colored face and neck. We watched them intently; and, as we drew +near, we saw that the line had caught on something beneath the surface +of the water, so that they could not extricate it. The little man toiled +vigorously at it, standing in the water nearly up to his head; but +appeared to be feebly seconded, by the big one, who remained on the +rocks. It seemed as if the line would part from the strain, or the boat +strike the next moment. The mate shouted and gesticulated to them; but +no voice could be heard above the raging water, and they either could +not understand his motions, or could not do as they were directed. The +boat bore directly down upon them. Presently it seemed evident to us +that the little man must sacrifice himself for the steamer; but I did +not know how it looked to him,--people are all so precious to +themselves. He stopped a second, then flung back his cap and pole, and +threw himself under the boiling water. Up came the rope to the surface, +but the man was gone. Instantly after, he scrambled up the bank; and the +great magnificent man did nothing but clutch him on the back when he +was safely out. + +We had then wound up about two-thirds of the cable. Immediately after, +this remarkable occurrence took place: The great heavy line came wholly +up out of the water. A bolt flew out of the capstan, which was a signal +for the men who were at work on it to spring out of the way. The captain +shouted, "Cut the rope!" but that instant the iron capstan was torn out +of the deck, and jumped overboard, with the cable attached to it. I felt +thankful for it, for I knew it was the only thing that could put an end +to our presumptuous attempt. I had felt that this rope would be a great +snare to us in case of accident. Three of our four rudders were broken; +but the remaining one enabled us to get into an eddy that carried us to +a little cove, where we stopped to repair damages sufficiently to come +down the river. + +All day, the rain had never ceased; and the river had seemed to me like +some of those Greek streams that Homer tells of, which had so much +personal feeling against individuals. I felt as if we were going to be +punished for an audacious attempt, instead of rewarded for what might +otherwise have been considered a brave one. When the capstan +disappeared, it was just as if some great river-god, with a whiff of +his breath, or a snap of his fingers, had tossed it contemptuously +aside. So we turned back defeated. But there was a great deal to enjoy, +when we came to think of it afterwards, and were safely out of it. We +had seen nothing so bold and rugged before. An old Scotchman, who knows +more about it than any one else here, had said to us before we started, +"That British Columbia is such a terrible country, very little can ever +be known of it." But there was a great deal that was beautiful too. I +was particularly struck with the manner in which the Pend d'Oreille +springs into the Columbia. Glen Ellis Fall, gliding down in its +swiftness, always seemed to me more beautiful than almost any thing else +I ever saw. But this river is more demonstrative. It springs up, and +falls again in showers of spray, and comes with great leaps out of the +canyon, in a way that I cannot describe. There is in it more freedom and +strength and delight than in any thing else I ever saw. Far to the +south-east, this stream widens into Lake Pend d'Oreille. On this lake +are the wonderful painted rocks, rising far above the water, upon which, +at the height of several hundred feet, are the figures of men and +animals, which the Indians say are the work of a race that preceded +them. They are afraid to approach the rocks, lest the waters should rise +in anger, and ingulf them. There are also hieroglyphic figures far up on +the rocks of Lake Chelan, which is supposed to have once been an arm of +the Columbia. These paintings or picture-writings must have been made +when the water was so high in the lakes that they could be done by men +in boats. + +Most of the tributaries of the Upper Columbia are similar in character +to the main stream,--wild, unnavigable rivers, flowing through deep +canyons, and full of torrents and rapids. With Nature so vigorous and +unsubdued about us, all conventionalities seemed swept away; and +something fresh and strong awoke in us, as if it had long slumbered +until the presence of its kindred in these mountain streams called it to +consciousness,--something of the force and freedom of these wild, +tireless Titans, that poured down their white floods to the sea. + +Most of these streams rise in lakes, and in some part of their course +spread again into one or more lakes; as, the Arrow Lakes of the +Columbia, the Flat-head, Kootenay, Pend d'Oreille, and Coeur d'Alene, +and the beautiful string of lakes of the Okinakane, and many others. + +As we passed through the Upper Arrow Lake and Lower Arrow Lake, which +lie in British Columbia, we had some splendid views of mountain scenery. +The Upper Lake is thirty-three miles long, and three in width, +crystalline water, surrounded by snow-covered peaks and precipices, and +forests of pine and cedar. The second is sixteen miles below the first, +forty-two miles in length, and two and a half wide. Innumerable arrows +were sticking in the crevices of the rocks. Formerly every Indian who +passed deposited an arrow,--intended probably as an offering to the +spirit that rules over the chase, just as the Indian medicine-man, when +he gathers his roots, makes an offering to the earth. + +The Catholic missionaries were much surprised to find crosses erected +sometimes in lonely places, and at first supposed some other priests +must have preceded them; but learned that they were set up by the +Indians, in honor of the moon, to induce her to favor their nightly +expeditions for robbery or the chase. + + + JULY 22, 1866. + +We have been on an excursion to Kettle Falls on the Columbia, where the +river dashes over the huge rocks in a most picturesque way. These falls +were called _La Chaudiere_ by the Canadian _voyageurs_, because the +pool below looks like a great boiling caldron. We noticed that limestone +there replaced the black basalt, of which we had seen so much, the water +falling over a tabular bed of white marble. + +There we saw some Indians engaged in spearing salmon, as the fish were +attempting to leap the falls, in their passage up the stream to their +breeding-places. They do not always succeed in passing the falls at +their first leap, sometimes falling back two or three times. Many of +them are dashed on the rocks at the Cascades, and at other points where +the river presents obstacles to their progress. An immense number become +victims to the nets of the fishermen, and the traps and spears of the +Indians; and those that escape these dangers, and reach the upper +waters, are very much bruised and battered,--"spent salmon" they are +called. After their long journey of six or seven hundred miles from the +sea, it seems as if they would be filled with despair at the sight of +these boiling cataracts. They refuse bait on the way, apparently never +stopping for food, from the time they leave the salt water. Often with +fins and tails so worn down as to be almost useless, their noses worn to +the bone, their eyes sunken, sometimes wholly extinguished, they +struggle on to the last gasp, to ascend the streams to their sources. In +calm weather they swim near the surface, and close to the shore, to +avoid the strong current; and they are so possessed with this one +purpose, and so regardless of every thing about them, that the Indians +catch hundreds of them by merely slipping the gaff-hook under their +bodies, and lifting them out of the water,--selecting the best to +preserve for food, and throwing aside those that they consider as +worthless. These pale, emaciated creatures, I looked at with the +greatest interest. How strong is the impulse that carries them through, +in spite of these almost insurmountable obstacles! It is beyond our +knowledge, why, in coming in from the sea, they pass certain streams to +enter others; but this they are known to do, so perfectly do they +understand the mysterious direction given them. + +The early explorers witnessed many ceremonies among the Indians not now +observed by them; as, the salmon-dance, to celebrate the taking of the +first salmon in the river. When the earliest spring salmon was caught in +the Columbia, the Indians were extremely particular in their dealings +with it. No white man could obtain it at any price, lest, by opening it +with a knife instead of a stone, he should drive all following salmon +from the river. Certain parts must be eaten with the rising, and others +with the falling, tide; and many other minute regulations carefully +observed. After the salmon-berry ripened, they relaxed their vigilance, +feeling that by that time the influx was secure. + +The Gros Ventres celebrated the goose-dance, to remind the wild geese, +as they left in the autumn, that they had had good food all summer, and +must come back in the spring. This dance was performed by women, each +one carrying a bunch of long seed-grass, the favorite food of the wild +goose. They danced to the sound of the drum, circling about with +shuffling steps. + + + + +V. + + Old Fort Colville.--Angus McDonald and his Indian Family.--Canadian + _Voyageurs_.--Father Joseph.--Hardships of the Early + Missionaries.--The Coeurs d'Alene and their Superstitions.--The + Catholic Ladder.--Sisters of Notre Dame.--Skill of the Missionaries + in instructing the Indians.--Father de Smet and the Blackfeet.--A + Native Dance.--Spokanes.--Exclusiveness of the Coeurs + d'Alene.--Battle of Four Lakes.--The Yakima Chief and the + Road-Makers. + + + FORT COLVILLE, July 25, 1866. + +We have been making a little visit to Old Fort Colville, one of the +Hudson Bay stations, kept by Angus McDonald, an old Scotchman, who has +been there for a great many years. He is an educated gentleman, of a +great deal of character and intelligence; and his wife is an Indian +woman, who cannot live more than half the year in the house, and has to +wander about, the rest of it, with her _tilicums_ (relations and +friends). + +It was interesting to see how this cultivated man, accustomed to the +world as he had been, had adapted himself to life in this solitary spot +on the frontier, with his Indian children for his only companions. He +has about ten. In some of them the Scotch blood predominated, but in +most the Indian blood was more apparent. The oldest son, a grown man, +was a very dark Indian, decorated with wampum. Christine, the oldest +daughter, resembled her father most. She kept house for him, because, as +she explained to us, her mother could not be much in-doors. She spoke, +too, of disliking to be confined. I asked her where she liked best to +be; and she said, with the Blackfeet Indians, because they had the +prettiest dances, and could do such beautiful bead-work; and described +their working on the softened skins of elk, deer, and antelope, making +dresses for chiefs and warriors. We had a sumptuous meal of +Rocky-Mountain trout, buffalo-tongues, and pemmican. Although Christine +was, in some respects, quite a civilized young lady, she occasionally +betrayed her innocence of conventionalities, as when she came and +whispered to me, before the meal was announced, what the chief dishes +were to be. She mentioned, as one of the delicacies of the Blackfeet, +berries boiled in buffalo-blood. + +Mr. McDonald told us many stories about the Canadian _voyageurs_ +employed by the Hudson Bay Company, illustrating their power of +endurance and their elastic temperament. One of their men, he said, was +lost for thirty-five days in the woods, and finally discovered by the +Indians, crawling on his hands and feet towards a brook, nearly +exhausted, but still keeping up his courage. He asked us if we could +conjecture how he had kept alive all that time, with no means whatever, +outside of himself, to procure food. He had actually succeeded in making +a fine net from his own hair, with which he caught small fishes, +devouring them raw, accompanied by a little grass or moss; not daring to +eat any roots or berries, lest they might be poisonous, as the country +was new to him. These Canadians are as brown as Indians, from their +constant exposure to the sun and wind, and have adapted themselves +completely to Indian ways, wearing a blanket _capote_, leather trousers, +moccasins, and a fur cap, with a bright sash or girdle to hold a knife +and a tobacco-pouch. Their half-breed children are generally excellent +canoe-men and hunters, with the vivacity of the father, and the +endurance of the mother's race. Marcel Bernier, one of these French +Canadians, was one of the early settlers in the Cowlitz Valley; and we +have travelled with him between the Columbia River and Puget Sound, and +once stopped at his house over night. It was quite different from the +common Indian houses; having pillow-cases trimmed with ruffles and lace, +and great bear-skin mats on the door. The baby slept in a little hammock +swung from the ceiling. The family were devoted Catholics, and sung +matins and vespers, and had pictures and images of saints about the +room. We were quite impressed by the advance in civilization which the +little admixture of French blood had brought. + +Christine took us to see an ancient Indian woman, who remembers the +country when there were no white people in it. She has the fifth +generation of her children about her. She is wholly blind, her eyes +mostly closed, only little bloodshot traces of them left. She sat +serenely in the sunshine, hollowing out a little canoe of pine-bark for +the youngest, two little girls who swam in the arm of the river before +the tent-door. + +We went with Christine also up on the bluff to see Father Joseph, a +Catholic priest, who represented to me a new class of men, whom I had +known before only in books. His eyes were as clear blue as Emerson's +ideal ones, that tell the truth; and I knew he meant it, when he +answered a question I asked him, in a way that surprised me, and which I +should have taken, in some men, for cant. I asked him if it was not +ever solitary there; and he said, "It is enough like my own home +[Switzerland] for that, but all countries are alike to me. We have no +home here below." For twenty-five years he has lived on the top of that +hill, with only miserable Indians around him, who could repay him very +little for all his efforts. In the Indian war, he was supposed to be so +strongly on the side of the Indians, that the government agent, as I +find by the printed report, recommended his removal; although he +admitted that it was hard to say any thing against a man who had made +such unbounded sacrifices for what he considered the good of the +Indians. He had books in all languages on his shelves, and was very +intelligent and courteous. + +He described the condition of the country when the first little band of +Jesuits, of whom he was one, entered upon the Oregon mission,--Oregon +then extending east as far as the Rocky Mountains. They had often to +travel through dark forests, into which the daylight never entered, and, +axe in hand, make their own paths through the wilderness, sometimes +crawling on all-fours through labyrinths of fallen trees, fording rivers +where the water reached to their shoulders, travelling afterwards in +their wet clothes, with swollen limbs, and moccasins soaked in blood +from laceration of their feet by the thorns of the prickly pear, and +lying down at night on their beds of brushwood, wrapped in their +buffalo-robes. The Indians were full of curiosity to know what they were +in search of, and listened with great interest when they attempted to +talk with them. The first group that Father Joseph gathered about him +sat all night to hear him, although they had come from hard labor of +hunting and fishing, and digging roots. He said, that, however degraded +they were, they were all eager to find some power superior to man. + +The tribe among whom he first established himself--the Coeurs +d'Alene--were renowned among all the tribes for their belief in sorcery; +and he experienced great difficulty in making an impression upon them, +from the opposition of the medicine-men (jugglers). Among this tribe he +found two relics held in great esteem, of which the Indians gave him +this account:-- + +They said that the first white man they ever saw wore a spotted-calico +shirt--which to them appeared like the small-pox--and a great white +comforter. They thought the spotted shirt was the Great Manitou himself, +the master of the alarming disease that swept them off in such vast +numbers, and that the white comforter was the Manitou of the snow; that, +if they could only secure and worship them, the small-pox would be +banished, and abundant snows would drive the buffalo down from the +mountains. The white man agreed to give them up, receiving in exchange +several of their best horses; and for many years these two Manitous were +carried in solemn procession to a hill consecrated to superstitious +rites, laid reverently on the grass, and the great medicine-pipe (which +is offered to the earth, the sun, and the water) was presented to them; +the whole band singing, dancing, and howling around them. + +Father Joseph treated the Indians altogether as children, and devised a +system of object-teaching, making little images representing what they +were to shun, and what to seek, to which he pointed in instructing them. +He considered it a miracle, that they yielded their hearts to his +teaching; but it seemed to me, that if the good priest's gentle ways and +entire devotion to their welfare had produced no effect, it would have +been as contradictory to all the laws of nature as any miracle could be. +While instructing some savages from Puget Sound, he said the idea came +into the mind of one of the priests, to represent by a ladder, which he +made on paper, the various truths and mysteries of religion, in their +chronological order. This proved vastly beneficial in instructing them. +It was called the "Catholic ladder," and disseminated widely among the +Indians; their progress in religion being measured by their knowledge of +this ladder. At the same time that he sent the ladder among them, he +sent also roots and seeds and agricultural tools. I could hardly repress +a smile at seeing that he spoke with the same enthusiasm of their +success with the beans and potatoes, as with the ladder. The truth is, +that he had deeply at heart the good of these, his "wild children of the +forest," as he always called them. It was quite touching to him, he +said, to see how ready they were to believe that God took charge of +earthly things as well as of heavenly. + +One of his associates in the early missions was a Belgian priest, whose +journal he showed us. He brought over, to aid in the work, six sisters +of Notre Dame, in 1844. The vessel which brought them to the Pacific +coast stopped at Valparaiso and Lima, to inquire how to enter the +Columbia River. Not receiving any satisfactory information, they sailed +north till they reached the forty-sixth degree of latitude. Then they +explored for several days, and at length saw a sail coming out of what +appeared to be the mouth of a river. They immediately sent an officer to +find out from this vessel how to enter; but, as he did not return, they +were obliged to approach alone the "vast and fearful mouth of the +river," and soon found themselves in the terrible southern channel, into +which, they were assured afterwards, no vessel had ever sailed before. +The commander of the fort at Astoria had endeavored, by hoisting flags, +by great signal-fires, and guns, to warn them of their danger. They saw +the signals, but did not suspect their intention. They sailed two miles +amidst fearful breakers. When at length they reached stiller water, a +canoe approached them, containing an American man and some Clatsop +Indians. The white man told them he would have come sooner to their aid, +but the Indians refused to brave the danger; and said that he expected +every moment to see the vessel dashed into a thousand pieces. The +Indians, seeing it ride triumphantly over the dreadful bar, considered +it under the special guidance of the Great Spirit, and greeted it with +wild screams of delight. This was the introduction of the serene sisters +to their field of labor. My idea of the sisters generally had been of +pale, sad beings, whose most appropriate place was by the side of +death-beds. These sisters of Notre Dame were brisk, energetic women, of +lively temperaments. Finding the building which was preparing for them +not yet provided with doors and windows, from the scarcity of mechanics, +they themselves set about planing, glazing, and painting, to make every +thing neat and comfortable. Wilkes, in his account of his exploring +expedition, speaks regretfully of the poor appearance the Protestant +missions presented, when compared with those of the Catholics; there +being among the former an unthrifty, dilapidated look, and the Indians +he saw there appeared to be employed only as servants. + +The Catholics took pains to make all their ceremonies as imposing as +circumstances would permit; making free use of musketry, bright colors, +and singing,--things most attractive to an Indian,--remarking often, +"Noise is essential to the Indian's enjoyment," and, "Without singing, +the best instruction is of little value." They showed the Indians that +they regarded the comfort and good of their bodies, as well as of their +souls; giving them at Easter a great feast of potatoes, parsneps, +turnips, beets, beans, and pease, to impress upon them the advantages of +civilization, and taking pains that the requirements of religion should +not interfere with the fishery or the chase. All the good customs and +practices already established among them, they confirmed and approved, +and found much to sympathize with in the Indians. The suavity and +dignified simplicity of the chiefs particularly pleased them, and the +relation of the chief to the people,--they consulting him in regard to +every public or private undertaking, as when about to take a journey, or +when entering upon marriage; he regulating the gathering of roots and +berries, the hunting and fishing, and the division of spoils. The +priests said of the chief, "He speaks calmly, but never in vain." They +admired the self-control of the Indians, who never showed any impatience +when misfortunes befell them; and said, that, the farther they +penetrated into the wilderness, the better Indians they found. They were +especially pleased with those about the sources of the Columbia, and +said of their converts in that region, "If it be true that the prayer of +him who possesses the innocence, the simplicity, and the faith of a +child, pierces the clouds, then will the prayers of these dear children +of the forest reach the ear of Heaven." They were interested in the +different views of the future life held by the different tribes. To +those who lived by woods and waters, heaven was a country of lakes, +streams, and forests; but the Blackfoot heaven was of great sandhills, +stretching far and wide, abounding in game. + +They devoted themselves with great zeal to reconciling hostile tribes, +particularly the Blackfeet and Flat-heads. All the tribes feared the +Blackfeet, especially that terrible sub-tribe called the "Blood +Indians." The Snakes, too, were a common enemy to all the river-tribes. +Father De Smet, the Belgian priest, with great intrepidity started for +the Blackfoot country, although receiving numerous warnings of the risk +he incurred. He encamped in the heart of their country. One of their +chiefs sought him out, and took a fancy to the fearless old man at +sight, embracing him in savage fashion, "rough but cordial." This chief +was ornamented from head to foot with eagle-feathers, and dressed in +blue as a mark of distinction. With this powerful friend, he immediately +gained a footing among them. He conducted towards them with great wisdom +and kindness, interfering as little as possible with their old customs. +After he had made many converts among them, they asked him, on one of +the great days of the Church, if he would like to see them manifest +their joy in their own way,--by painting, singing, and dancing; to +which he gave courteous assent. The dance was performed wholly by women +and children, although in the dress of warriors. Some of them carried +arms, others only green boughs. All took part in it, from the toddling +infant to the ancient grandam whose feeble limbs required the aid of a +staff. They carried caskets of plumes, which nodded in harmony with +their movements, and increased the graceful effect. There was also +jingling of bells, and drums beaten by the men who surrounded them, and +joined in the songs. To break the monotony, occasionally a sudden +piercing scream was added. If the dance languished, haranguers and those +most skilful in grimaces came to its aid. The movement consisted of a +little jump, more or less lively according to the beat of the drum. It +was danced on a beautiful green plain, under a cluster of pines. All the +Indians climbed the trees, or sat round on their horses, to see it. + +The missionaries secured some of their readiest converts among the +Spokanes (children of the sun), who lived mostly on a great open plain. +Instead of being crafty and reserved, like most of the tribes about +them, they were free and genial. They welcomed the earliest explorers, +and lived on friendly terms with the settlers. They were more +susceptible to civilization and improvement than most of the other +Indians. + +Father De Smet was enthusiastic in his enjoyment of the forests and the +mountains; speaking often of the "skyward palaces and holy towers" among +the hills, "the immortal pine," the "rock-hung flower," the "fantastic +grace of the winding rivers." The desert country through which he +travelled, and of which we also saw something in coming to this place, +he called "a little Arabia shut in by stern, Heaven-built walls of +rock." In the narrow valleys at the foot of the Cascade Mountains, he +found magnificent groves of rhododendrons, thousands of them together, +fifteen or twenty feet high,--green arches formed underneath by their +intertwined branches; above, bouquets of splendid flowers, shading from +deepest crimson to pure white. + +He mourned very much over the superstitions of the Indians; but said, +nevertheless, that an attack of severe illness, which he suffered after +one of his journeys, was no doubt sent as a punishment for his too +carnal admiration of nature. + + * * * * * + +While we were talking with Father Joseph, and looking over the journal, +a messenger rode up to the door, and told him that _Tenas Marie_ (Little +Mary) was dying. The Indian agent, who stood by, said, "It is not much +of a loss; she is a worthless creature." Father Joseph turned to him in +a most dignified way, and said, "It is a human being;" and then to +Christine, and asked if she would lend him a horse, she having a whole +herd at command. Presently he started off for a whole night's ride. I +thought, if I were Little Mary, after my bad life, when I must enter +into account for it, I should be a good deal cheered and supported to +see his kind eyes, and hear his firm voice directing me at the last. + +The Coeurs d'Alene (pointed hearts, or hearts of arrows--flint)[1] +were so called from their determined resistance to having the white men +come among them. They did not desire to have one of the Hudson Bay +Company's posts upon their land, although the other tribes favored their +establishment among them, wishing to barter their skins and obtain +fire-arms; but said, that, if the white men saw their country, they +would want to take it from them, it was so beautiful. + +Father Joseph was their interpreter in the negotiations between them +and the United States Government. They attacked Col. Steptoe, while he +was passing through their territory, because they had heard that the +white men were going to build a road which would drive away the deer and +the buffalo. It was explained to them, that, although this was so, other +advantages would more than compensate for it. This was beyond their +comprehension. To them, the advantages of civilization bore no +comparison to the charm of their free, roving life. When the army +officers entered the Coeur d'Alene country, they declared that no +conception of heaven could surpass the beauty of its exquisite lakes, +embosomed in the forest. This tribe held firm against all propositions +of the government to treat with them, until Donati's comet appeared in +1858; when, supposing it to be a great fiery broom sent to sweep them +from the earth, they accepted a treaty. + +The "Battle of Four Lakes" was fought in this country. An old man whom +we met at the fort in Walla Walla, who saw this battle, gave us some +account of it. The lakes are surrounded with rocks covered with pine. +Beyond them is a great rolling country of grassy hills. For about two +miles, he said, this open ground was all alive with the wildest, most +fantastic figures of mounted Indians, with painted horses, having +eagle-feathers braided into their tails and manes; each Indian fighting +separately on his own account. He described to us the appearance of the +war chief as he rode to battle, his own head hidden by a wolf's head, +with stiff, sharp ears standing erect, ornamented with bears' claws, and +under it a circlet of feathers. From this head depended a long train of +feathers that floated down his back; the loss of which would be the loss +of his honor, and as great a disaster to him as, to a Chinaman, the loss +of his cue. His war-horse was painted, as well as his own person, and +also profusely decorated with feathers on head and tail. The Indians +have such a fancy for feathers, that, in some of their medicine +ceremonies, they smear their heads with a sticky substance, and cover +them all over with swan's-down. + +Lieut. Mullan's surveying expedition roused many of the tribes to +desperation. Owhi, the Yakima chief, when urged to give up his +land,--or, what amounted to the same thing, to allow free passage to the +surveying party and the road-makers,--argued that he could not give away +the home of his people; saying, "It is not mine to give. The Great +Spirit has _measured_ it to my people." Not being successful in his +arguments, he organized the outbreak of the following winter. The army +destroyed the caches filled with dried berries, and the pressed cake +which the Indians prepare from roots for their winter food, many lodges +filled with grain, and hundreds of horses; the officers mentioning in +their report, that it would insure the Indians a winter of great +suffering, and concluding in these words: "Seldom has an expedition been +undertaken, the recollection of which is invested with so much that is +agreeable, as that against the Northern Indians." + + + FOOTNOTES: + +[1] To the Canadian _voyageur_, the word _alene_ (awl) meant any +sharp-pointed instrument. + + + + +VI. + + Colville to Seattle.--"Red."--"Ferrins."--"Broke Miners."--A Rare + Fellow-Traveller.--The Bell-Mare.--Pelouse Fall.--Red-Fox + Road.--Early Californians.--Frying-Pan + Incense.--Dragon-Flies.--Death of the Chief Seattle. + + + SEATTLE, August 23, 1866. + +We were detained at Fort Colville several days longer than we desired, +seeking an opportunity to get back to the Columbia River, by some chance +wagon going down from the mines, or from some of the supply-stations in +the upper country. In our expedition on the "Forty-nine," we had seen a +great many miners, and, among them, one horrid character, with a flaming +beard, who was known by every one as "Red." He had been mining in the +snow mountains, far up in British Columbia, and joined us to go down on +the steamer to Colville. He was terribly rough and tattered-looking. The +mining-season in those northern mountains is so short, that he said he +was going back to winter at the mines, so as to be on the spot for work +in the spring, and that he should take up about forty gallons of grease +to keep himself warm through the winter. + +He and his companions told great stories about their rough times in the +mountains. Some of them mentioned having been reduced to the extremity +of living on "ferrins" when all other food had failed. These accounts +were generally received, by the rest of the miners, with great outbursts +of laughter. That appeared to be their customary way of regarding all +their misfortunes,--at least, in the retrospect. We wondered what the +"ferrins" could be. Nobody seemed to resort to them, except in the +direst need. Upon inquiry, we found out that they were _boiled ferns_. I +have always noticed that even insects of all kinds pass by ferns. I +suspect that even the hungriest man would find them rather unsatisfying, +but this light diet seemed to have kept them in the most jovial spirits. + +R. was rather averse to travelling in such company, and always presented +"Red" to me as the typical miner, when opportunities offered for our +getting down from Colville with a party from the mines. Finally I +persuaded him to accept either "Buffalo Bill," who offered to take us by +ourselves, or an Irishman who insisted upon having a few miners with +him. I think he was rather prejudiced against the former, on account of +his name; and we therefore made an agreement with the latter, to take +us, with only two miners, instead of ten as he at first desired, that R. +should see them before we started, and that we should have the wagon to +ourselves at night. As it happened, we left in haste, and did not see +the miners until they leaped from the wagon, and began to assist in +putting in our baggage. That was not an occasion, of course, for +criticising them. Besides that, I saw, when I first looked at them, that +they were rather harder to read than most people I had met; and I could +not in a minute tell what to make of them. Our wagoner said they were +"broke miners." I did not know exactly what that meant, but thought they +might be very desperate characters, made more so by special +circumstances. One of them looked like a brigand, with his dark hair and +eyes. But I didn't mind; for I was tired of travelling about, and +anxious to get home. I thought I would sleep most of the way down; so I +put back my head, and shut my eyes. Presently the dark man began to talk +with R., in a musical voice, about the soft Spanish names of places in +California; and I could not sleep much. Then he spoke of the primitive +forms in which minerals crystallized, the five-sided columns of volcanic +rock, and the little cubes of gold. I could make no pretence at sleep +any longer; I had to open my eyes; and once in a while I asked a +question or two, although I would not show much interest, and determined +not to become at all acquainted with him, because we were necessarily to +be very intimate, travelling all day together, and camping together at +night. But I watched him a great deal, and listened to his conversation +upon many subjects. I think, that not only on this journey, but in all +the time since we came to this coast, we have not enjoyed any thing else +so much. He had uncommon powers of expression, and of thought and +feeling too, and took great interest in every thing. He had even a +little tin box of insects. He showed us the native grains, wild rice, +etc., the footprints of animals, the craters of old volcanoes, and +called us to listen to the wild doves at night, and the cry of the loon +and the curlew. + +We travelled in a large freight-wagon, drawn by four mules. A pretty +little "bell-mare" followed the wagon. At night she was tied out on the +plain; and the mules were turned loose to feed, and were kept from +wandering far away by the tinkle of the bell hung on her neck. We slept +on beautiful flowering grass, which our wagoner procured for us on the +way. When he tied great bunches of it on the front of the wagon, to feed +the animals when they came to a barren place, it looked as if we were +preparing to take part in some floral procession. The first night, we +camped in the midst of the pine-trees. When I woke in the night, and +looked round me, the row of dark figures on either side seemed like the +genii in "The Arabian Nights," that used to guard sleeping princesses. + +Besides the knowledge which our fellow-traveller possessed of the +country through which we were passing, which made him a valuable +companion to us then, his general enthusiasm would have made him +interesting anywhere. I remember a little incident at one of our noon +stopping-places, which we thought was very much to his credit. He always +hastened to make a fire as soon as we stopped. It was rather hard to +find good places, sheltered from the wind, where it would burn, and +which would furnish us, too, with a little shade. On this occasion there +was a magnificent tree very near us. We were passing out of the region +of trees, so it was a particularly welcome sight. He started the fire +close to it. It happened to be too near; the pitch caught fire, and +presently the trunk was encircled with flame. He was desperate to think +that he should have been guilty of an act of "such wanton +destructiveness," as he called it,--especially as it was the last fine +tree on the road. He abandoned all idea of dinner, and did nothing +through that fiery noon, when we could hardly stir from the +shade,--which we found farther off,--but rush between the stream near by +and the tree, with his little camp-kettle of water, to try to save it. +He looked back with such a grateful face, as we left the spot, to see +that the flames were smothered. There was something like a child about +him; that is, an uncommon freedom from the wickedness that seems to +belong to most met, certainly the class he is in the habit of +associating with. I doubt if there is one of the men we saw on the +"Forty-nine" who would not have been delighted to burn that tree down; +and how few of them would have thought, as he did, to put the little +pieces of wood that we had to spare, where fuel was scarce, into the +road, so that "some other old fellow, who might chance to come along, +might see them and use them "! + +He told us one beautiful story about miners, though, in connection with +the loss of the "Central America." He had a friend on board among the +passengers, who were almost all miners going home. When they all +expected to perish with the vessel, a Danish brig hove in sight, and +came to the rescue. But the passengers could not all be transferred to +her. They filled the ship's boats with their wives and their treasure, +and sent them off; and the great body of them went down with a cheer and +a shout, as the vessel keeled over. + +The event of special interest, in our journey home, was our visit to the +Pelouse Fall. We had heard that there was a magnificent fall on the +Pelouse, twelve miles by trail from the wagon-road, which we were very +desirous of seeing; but no one could give us exact directions for +finding it. Our friend the miner wanted very much to see it also; and as +he seemed to have quite an instinct for finding his way, by rock +formations and other natural features of the country, we ventured to +attempt it with him. The little bell-mare, which was a _cayuse_ (Indian) +horse, was offered for my use, and an old Spanish wooden saddle placed +upon her back. I had no bridle; but I had been presented at the fort +with a _hackama_ (a buffalo-hair rope), such as the Indians use with +their horses. This was attached to the head of the horse, so that the +miner could lead her. My saddle had an arrangement in front by which to +attach the lasso, in catching animals. The miner said that just the same +pattern was still in use in Andalusia and other Spanish provinces. I +felt as if I were starting on quite a new career. When he lifted me on +to the horse, he said, "How light you are!" It was because every care +had dropped off from me. + +We rode over the wildest desert country, with great black walls of rock, +and wonderful canyons, with perpendicular sides, extending far down into +the earth. Mr. Bowles, in his book, "Across the Continent," says he +cannot compare any thing else to the exhilaration of the air of the +upland plains; neither sea nor mountain air can equal it. The extreme +heat, too, seemed to intensify every thing in us, even our power of +enjoyment, notwithstanding the discomfort of it. The thermometer marked +117 deg. in the shade. I felt as if I had never before known what breezes +and shadows and streams were. Just as we had reached the last limit of +possible endurance, the shadow of some great wall of rock would fall +upon us, or a little breeze spring up, or we would find the land +descending to the bed of a stream. At length our miner, who had been +for the last part of the way looking and listening with the closest +attention, struck almost directly to the spot, hardly a step astray. It +was all below the surface of the earth, so that hardly any sound rose +above; and there was no sign of any path to it, not a tree, nor shrub, +nor blade of grass near, but an amphitheatre of rock, and the beautiful +white river, in its leap into the canyon falling a hundred and ninety +feet. The cliffs and jagged pinnacles of basaltic rock around it were +several hundred feet high. It looked like a great white bridal veil. It +was made up of myriads of snowy sheaves, sometimes with the faintest +amethyst tint. It shattered itself wholly into spray before it struck +the water below,--that is, the outer circumference of it,--and the inner +part was all that made any sound. + +The miner looked upon it with perfect rapture. He said to me, "It is a +rare pleasure to travel with any one who enjoys any thing of this kind." +I felt it so too. + +His striking directly at the spot, after many miles of travel, without +any landmarks, reminded me of the experience of Ross, the Hudson Bay +trader, when he travelled from Fort Okanagan on foot, two hundred miles +to the coast, taking with him an Indian, who told him they would go by +the Red Fox road; that is, the road by which Red Fox the chief and his +men used to go. After they had travelled a long distance over a pathless +country, without any sign of a trail, or climbed along the rocky banks +of streams, he asked his guide when they would reach the Red Fox road. +"This is it, you are on," was the reply. "Where?" eagerly inquired Ross: +"I see no road here, not even so much as a rabbit could walk on."--"Oh, +there is no road," answered the Indian: "this is the place where they +used to pass." + +At another time, when he was travelling with an Indian guide, who was +accompanied by some of his relatives, the latter were left at a place +called Friendly Lake, and were to be called for on their return. They +went on to their journey's end, and on their way back, some days after, +stopped at the place; but no sign of the relatives appeared. The guide, +however, searched about diligently, and presently pointed to a small +stick, stuck up in the ground, with a little notch in it. He said, "They +are there," pointing in the direction in which the stick slanted,--"one +day's journey off." Exactly there they were found. + +There was a kind of generosity about this "broke miner," that made us +ready to forgive a great deal in him. No doubt there would have been a +great deal to forgive if we had known him more. He was, very likely, in +the habit of drinking and gambling, like the others that we saw. I know +he was a terrible tobacco chewer and smoker. He has been seventeen years +on the Pacific side of the continent, came out as a "forty-niner," has +travelled a great deal, and taken notes of all he has seen, and said he +thought of making use of them some time, if his employments would ever +admit of it. I think he is the best fitted to describe the country, of +all the persons I have met. + +He gave us quite a vivid idea of the semi-barbarous life of the +California pioneers, and of the intense desire they sometimes felt for a +glimpse of their homes, their wives, and children. I remembered Starr +King's saying that women and children had been more highly appreciated +in California ever since, on account of their scarcity during the first +few years. I rather think the sentiment of the miners was somewhat +intensified by the extreme difficulty they found in doing women's work. +One of them, now an eminent physician, pricked and scarred his fingers +in the most distressing manner, in attempting to sew on his buttons, +and patch the rents in his garments. Another member of the camp, who +was afterwards governor of the State, won his first laurels as a cook, +by the happy discovery, that, by combining an acid with the alkali used +in the making of their bread, the result was vastly more satisfactory +than where the alkali alone was used. In crossing the plains, they had +used the alkali water found there for this purpose. + +A travelling theatrical company, who presented themselves with the +announcement that they would perform a drama entitled "The Wife," met +with unbounded appreciation. Carpenters were employed at sixteen dollars +a day to prepare for its presentation. This was the first play ever +acted in San Francisco. The company were encouraged to remain, and give +other performances; but, as there was only one lady actor, every play +had to be altered to conform to this condition of things. + +The most tempting advertisement a restaurant could offer was, "potatoes +at every meal." Those who indulged in fresh eggs did so at an expense of +one dollar per egg. + +When the signal from Telegraph Hill announced the arrival of the monthly +mail-steamer, there was a general rush for the post-office; and a long +line was formed, reaching from the office out to the tents in the +chapparal. The building was a small one, and the facilities for +assorting and delivering the mail so limited, that many hours were +consumed in the work. Large prices were often paid for places near the +head of the line; and some of the more eager ones would wrap their +blankets around them, and stand all night waiting, in order to get an +early chance. + +Thus, with endless stories and anecdotes, accounts of his adventures as +a miner and explorer, and descriptions of the new and wonderful places +he had visited, and the curious people he had met, our fellow-traveller +beguiled the tediousness of the journey, and continually entertained us. + +As we approached Walla Walla, we made our last camp at the Touchet, a +lovely stream. I woke in the morning feeling as if some terrible +misfortune had befallen us. I could not tell what, until I was fully +roused, and found it could be nothing else than that we must sleep in a +bed that night. + +We left our miner in Walla Walla, to get work, I think, as a machinist. +My acquaintance with him was a lesson to me, never to judge any one by +appearance or occupation. We met afterwards some little, common-looking +men, who had been so successful at the mines that they could hardly +carry their sacks of gold-dust, which made hard white ridges in their +hands. They had fifteen thousand dollars or more apiece. I thought, how +unequally and unwisely Fate distributes her gifts; but then, as Mrs. S. +said when there was such a rush for the garments brought on board the +steamer for us at Panama, after our shipwreck, "Let those have them who +can least gracefully support the want of them." + +Among the miners of the upper country, who had not seen a white woman +for a year, I received such honors, that I am afraid I should have had a +very mistaken impression of my importance if I had lived long among +them. At every stopping-place they made little fires in their +frying-pans, and set them around me, to keep off the mosquitoes, while I +took my meal. As the columns of smoke rose about me, I felt like a +heathen goddess, to whom incense was being offered. The mosquitoes were +terrible; but we found our compensation for them in the journey +homeward. I remember the entomology used to call the dragon-fly the +"mosquito-hawk;" and such dragon-flies I never before saw as we met with +near the rivers, especially at the Pelouse. There seemed to be a +festival of them there, and one kind of such a green as I believe never +was seen before on earth,--so exquisite a shade, and so vivid. There +were also burnished silver and gold ones, and every beautiful variety of +spotting and marking. A little Indian boy appeared there, dressed in +feathers, with a hawk on his wrist,--a wild, spirited-looking little +creature. + +On Sunday we reached Olympia, and saw the waters of the Sound, and the +old headlands again. I had no idea it could look so homelike; and when +the mountain range began to reveal itself from the mist, I felt as if +nothing we had seen while we were gone had been more beautiful, more +really impressive, than what we could look at any day from our own +kitchen-door. + +As we approached Seattle, we began to gather up the news. It is very +much more of an event to get back, when you have had no newspapers, and +only the rarest communication of any kind, while you have been gone. + +Seattle, the old chief, had died. When he was near his end, he sent word +over to the nearest settlement, that he wished Capt. Meigs, the owner of +the great sawmill at Port Madison, to come when he was dead, and take +him by the hand, and bid him farewell. + +We learned that the beautiful Port Angeles was to be +abandoned,--Congress having decided to remove the custom-house to Port +Townsend,--and that no vessels would go in there. It seemed like leaving +Andromeda on her rock. We are going down to make a farewell visit. + + + + +VII. + + Port Angeles Village and the Indian Ranch.--A "Ship's + _Klootchman_."--Indian _Muck-a-Muck_.--Disposition of an Old Indian + Woman.--A Windy Trip to Victoria.--The Black + _Tamahnous_.--McDonald's in the Wilderness.--The Wild Cowlitz.--Up + the River during a Flood.--Indian Boatmen.--Birch-Bark and Cedar + Canoes. + + + EDIZ HOOK, October 21, 1866. + +We are making a visit at the end of Ediz Hook. No one lives here now but +the light-keepers. When we feel the need of company, we look across to +the village of Port Angeles and the Indian ranch. It is very striking to +see how much more picturesque one is than the other, in the distance. In +the village, all the trees have been cut down; but the lodges of the +Indians stand in the midst of a maple grove, and in this Indian-summer +weather there is always a lovely haze about it, bright leaves, and blue +beams of mist across the trees. Living so much out of doors as they do, +and in open lodges, their little fires are often seen, giving their +ranch a hospitable look, and making the appearance of the village very +uninviting in comparison. + + OCTOBER 26, 1866. + +We have had a great storm; and last night, about dark, a white figure of +a woman appeared in the water, rising and falling, outside the breakers. +Some Indians went out in their canoes, and took her in to the shore. One +of them came to tell us about it. A "ship's _klootchman_" (wife or +woman), he said it was, and a "_hyas_ [big] ship" must have gone down. +It was the figure-head of a vessel. The next morning, I saw that the +Indians had set it up on the sand, with great wings--which they made of +broken pieces of spars--at the sides. It was the large, handsome figure +of a woman, twice life-size. They seemed to regard it as a kind of +goddess; and I felt half inclined to, myself, she looked out so serenely +at the water. I sat down by her side, thinking about what had probably +happened, to try to get her calm way of regarding it. A sloop was sent +over from the custom-house, to take it across the bay for +identification; but that proved impracticable. The captain said that he +knew the work,--it was English carving. Soon after, a vessel came in, +having lost her figure-head. The men on board said that a strange ship +ran into her in the night, and immediately disappeared. They supposed +she was much injured, as they afterwards saw a deck-load of lumber +floating, which they thought had come from her. They said it might be +the "Radama," bound for China. + + + OCTOBER 29, 1866. + +To-day, when we were coasting along the shore, we saw Yeomans preparing +his canoe for a long excursion. It was lined with mats. In the middle +were two of the baskets the Indians weave from roots, filled with red +salmon-spawn. Against them lay a gray duck, with snowy breast; then, +deer-meat, and various kinds of fishes. Over the whole he had laid great +green leaves that looked like the leaves of the tulip-tree. The narrow +end of the canoe was filled with purple sea-urchins, all alive, and of +the most vivid color. I took one up, and asked him if they were good to +eat. He said, "Indian _muck-a-muck_, not for Bostons" (whites). His +arrangements looked a great deal more picturesque than our preparations +for picnics. + +The light-keeper at Ediz Hook told us to-day that he had exhumed an old +Indian woman, whom some of her tribe had buried alive, or, rather, +wrapped up and laid away in one of the little wooden huts in their +graveyard, according to their custom of disposing of the dead. They had +apparently become tired of the care of her, and concluded to anticipate +her natural exit from the world by this summary disposition of her. Mr. +S. heard her cries, and went to the rescue. He restored her to the +tribe, with a reprimand for their barbarity, and told them the Bostons +would not tolerate such _mesahchie_ (outrageous) proceedings. + + + PORT ANGELES, October 31, 1866. + +We made a spirited voyage to Victoria, across the Straits of Fuca. There +had been a very severe storm, which we thought was over; but it had a +wild ending, after we were on our way, and beyond the possibility of +return. We saw the California steamer, ocean-bound, putting back to +port. Our only course was to hasten on. The spray was all rainbows, and +there were low rainbows in the sky,--incomprehensible rainbows above and +below,--and the strongest wind that ever blew. It was all too wonderful +for us to be afraid: it was like a new existence; as if we had cast off +all connection with the old one, and were spirits only. We flew past the +high shores, and looked up at the happy, homelike houses, with a strange +feeling of isolation and independence of all earthly ties. + +I staid on deck till every man had gone in, feeling that I belonged +wholly to wind and wave, borne on like a bird. But the captain came and +took me in, lest I should be swept from the deck. When we reached +Victoria, great wooden signs were being blown off the stores, and +knocking down the people in the streets. This is certainly the home of +the winds. + + + NOVEMBER 20, 1866. + +To-day we met on the beach Tleyuk (Spark of Fire), a young Indian with +whom we had become acquainted. Instead of the pleasant "_Klahowya_" (How +do you do?), with which he was accustomed to greet us, he took no notice +of us whatever. On coming nearer, we saw hideous streaks of black paint +on his face, and on various parts of his body, and inquired what they +meant. His English was very meagre; but he gave us to understand, in a +few hoarse gutturals, that they meant hostility and danger to any one +that interfered with him. We noticed afterwards other Indians, with +dark, threatening looks, and daubed with black paint, gathering from +different directions. The old light-keeper was launching his boat to +cross over to the spit, and we turned to him for an explanation. He +warned us to keep away from the Indians, as this was the time of the +"Black _Tamahnous_," when they call up all their hostility to the +whites. He pointed to some Indian children, who had a white elk-horn, +like a dwarf white man, stuck up in the sand to throw stones at. I had +noticed for the last few days, when I met them in the narrow paths in +the woods, that they stopped straight before me, obliging me to turn +aside for them. + +We saw them withdraw to an old lodge in the woods, as if to hold a +secret council. We did not feel much concerned as to the result of it +for ourselves, as we held such friendly relations to Yeomans, the old +chief, and had always given the Indians all the sea-bread they +wanted,--that being the one article of our food that they seemed most to +appreciate. As it proved, it was a mere thunder-cloud, dissipated after +a few growls. + + + MCDONALD'S, December 18, 1866. + +Not knowing the name of the nearest town, I date this from McDonald's, +that having been our last stopping-place. It is on the stage-route +between Columbia River and Puget Sound, and a place worth remembering. I +wish I could give an idea of its cheeriness, especially after travelling +a fortnight in the rain, as we have done. At this season of the year, +every thing is deluged; and the roads, full of deep mudholes and +formidable stumps, are now at their worst. The heavy wagons move slowly +and laboriously forward, sometimes getting so deep in the mire that it +is almost impossible to extricate them, and at times impeded by fallen +trees, which the driver has to cut away. They are poorly protected +against the searching rains, and for the last two days we have been +drenched. + +When we caught the first glimpse of the red light in the distance, we +felt very much inclined to appreciate any thing approaching comfort, +tired and dripping as we were; but what our happy Fates had in store for +us, we never for a moment imagined. We had hardly entered the house +before we felt that it was no common place. The fireplace was like a +great cavern, full of immense logs and blazing bark. It lighted up a +most hospitable room. From a beam in the low ceiling, hung a great +branch of apples. I counted twenty-three bright red and yellow apples +shining out from it. + +Two stages meet here, and the main business at this time of the year is +drying the passengers sufficiently for them to proceed on their way the +next day. The host and his family stood round the fire, handling and +turning the wet garments with unbounded good-nature and patience. The +stage-drivers cracked jokes and told stories. A spirit of perfect +equality prevailed, and a readiness to take every thing in the best +possible part. The family are Scotch,--hard-working people; but they +have not worked so hard as to rub all the bloom off their lives, as so +many people have that we have seen. + +When supper was announced, another surprise awaited us. Instead of the +unvarying round of fried meat and clammy pie with which we had hitherto +been welcomed, we were refreshed with a dish of boiled meat, a +corn-starch pudding, and stewed plums. Why some other dweller in the +wilderness could not have introduced a little variety into his bill of +fare, we could never conceive. It seemed a real inspiration in McDonald, +to send to California or Oregon for a little dried fruit and some papers +of corn-starch. He gave us, too, what was even more delightful than his +wholesome food,--a little glimpse of his home-life. To a tired +traveller, what could be more refreshing than a sight of somebody's +home? Generally, at whatever place we stopped, we saw only the +"men-folks;" the family, often half-breed, being huddled away in the +rear. Here, in the room in which the guests were received, lay the +smiling baby in its old-fashioned cradle. Two blithe little girls danced +in and out, and the old grandfather sat holding a white-haired boy. When +dinner was over, the great business of drying the clothes was resumed by +the travellers and the family; and we held our wrappings by the fire, +and turned them about, until we became so drowsy that we lost all sense +of responsibility. We found, the next morning, that our host sat up and +finished all that were left undone. He had become so accustomed to this +kind of work, that he did not seem to consider it was any thing extra, +or that it entitled him to any further compensation than the usual one +for a meal and a night's lodging. When we offered something more, he +pointed to a little box nailed up beside the door, over which was a +notice that any one who wished might contribute something for a school +which the Sisters were attempting to open for the children of that +neighborhood. Being Scotch people, I could hardly believe they were +Catholics; but found upon inquiry that their views were so liberal as to +enable them to appreciate the advantages of education, by whomsoever +offered. I was quite touched by McDonald's little contribution to +civilization, in the midst of the wilderness. As I looked back, in +leaving, at the great trees and the exquisitely curved slope of his +little clearing, I felt that in the small log house was something worthy +of the fine surroundings. + + + OLYMPIA, December 23, 1866. + +When we reached Cowlitz Landing, we found the river quite different in +character from what we had known it before. It had risen many feet above +its ordinary level, and was still rising, and had become a wide, fierce, +and rushing stream, bearing on its surface great trees and fragments of +wrecked buildings, swiftly sailing down to the Columbia. How serenely we +descended the river last year, floating along at sunset, admiring the +lovely valley and the hills, reaching over the side of the canoe, and +soaking our biscuits in the glacier-water, without once thinking of the +vicissitudes to which we were liable from its mountain origin! + +The little steamer that recently had begun to compete with the Indian +canoes in the traffic of the river, and the carrying of passengers, did +not dare to attempt to ascend it. Navigation was not to be thought of by +ordinary boats, or by white men, and was possible only by canoes in the +most trusty hands. No land-conveyance could be had at this point. We +were told that we might take the stream, by those familiar with it, if +we could find good Indians willing to go with us. One called "Shorty" +was brought forward to negotiate with us. He has the same dwarfed +appearance I have noticed in the old women, and that strange, +Egyptian-looking face and air. It would be impossible for any one to +tell, by his appearance, whether he personally were old or young; but +the ancientness of the type is deeply impressed upon him. If +half-civilized Indians had been offered, or those that had had much +intercourse with the whites, I should have hesitated more to trust them; +but he was such a pure Indian, it seemed as if he were as safe as any +wild creature. Whether he would extend any help, in emergencies, to his +clumsy civilized passengers, was a more doubtful question. However, as +the alternative was to wait indefinitely, and the character of the +stopping-places, as a rule, drives one to desperate measures, we +confided ourselves to his hands, and embarked with him and his +assistant, a fine athletic young Indian. + +We fixed our eyes intently upon him, as if studying our fates. He was +perfectly imperturbable, and steered only, the other poling the canoe +along the edge of the stream, and grasping the overhanging trees to +pull it along, using the paddle only when these means were not +available. His work required unceasing vigilance and activity, and was +so hard that it would have exhausted any ordinary man in a few hours; +but he kept on from early morning till dark. Always in the most +difficult places, or if his energy seemed to flag in the least, Shorty +would call out to him, in the most animated manner, mentioning a canoe, +a hammock, and a _hyas closhe_ (very nice) _klootchman_; at which the +young man would laugh with delight, and start anew. I considered it was +probably his stock in life, the prospect of an establishment, which was +presented to rouse and cheer him on. Shorty had been recommended to us +as one of the best hands on the river. I began to see that it was for +his power of inspiring others, as well as for his extreme vigilance in +keeping out of the eddies, and avoiding the drift in crossing the river, +to be caught in which would have been destruction. We crossed several +times, to secure advantages which his quick eye perceived. I noticed +that whenever he pointed out any particular branch on the shore to be +seized, how certain the other was to strike it at once. With white men, +how much blundering and missing there would have been! + +I never felt before, so strongly, how many vices attend civilization, +which it seems as if men might just as well be free from, as when I +compared these Indians with the common white people about us,--the +stage-drivers, mill-men, and others,--with no smoking nor drinking nor +tobacco-chewing, and so strong and graceful, and sure in their aim, that +no gymnast I have ever seen could compare with them. The ingenious ways +in which they helped themselves along in places where any boat of ours +would have been immediately overturned, converting obstacles often into +helps, were fascinating to study. As night came on, I began to wish that +their consciences were a little more developed, or, rather, that they +had a little more sense of responsibility with regard to us. The safety +of their passengers is no burden whatever on the minds of the Indians. +Their spirits seem to rise with danger. They know that they could very +well save themselves in an emergency, and I believe they prefer that +white people should be drowned. I could only look into the imperturbable +faces of our boatmen, and wonder where we were to spend the night. +Finally, with a terrible whirl, which I felt at the time must be our +last, they entered a white foaming slough (a branch of the river), and +drew up on the bank. They announced to us then that we were to walk a +mile through the woods, to a house. I think no white man, even the most +surly of our drivers, would have asked us to do that,--in perfect +blackness, the trees wet and dripping,--but would have managed to bring +us to some inhabited place. They started off at a rapid gait, and we +followed. We could not see their forms; but one carried something white +in his hand, which we faintly discerned in the darkness, which served as +our guide. They sang and shouted, and sounded their horn, all the way. I +supposed it was to keep off bad spirits, but the next day we heard that +in those woods bears and panthers were sometimes found. At length a +light appeared. We felt cheered; but when we approached it, two furious +dogs rushed out at us. They were immediately followed by their master, +who took us in. After consultation with him, we concluded to abandon our +Indians, as he said he could take us, on the following day, through the +woods to the next stopping-place, with his ox-team. The quiet comfort of +being transported by oxen was something not to be resisted, after having +our nerves so racked. We felt an immense satisfaction in coming again +upon our own kind, even if it were only in an old log cabin, where the +children were taken out of their bed to put us in. + +We have seen no bark canoes here; they are all of cedar. No doubt there +is good canoe-birch on the river-banks, but something more durable is +needed. The North-west Fur Company, in early days, sent out a cargo of +birch from Montreal to London, to be shipped from there round Cape Horn +to the north-west coast of America, to be made into canoes for their men +to navigate the Columbia and its branches; in direst ignorance of the +requirements of the country, as well as of its productions. + + + + +VIII. + + Voyage to San Francisco.--Fog-Bound.--Port Angeles.--Passing Cape + Flattery in a Storm.--Off Shore.--The "Brontes."--The Captain and + his Men.--A Fair Wind.--San Francisco Bar.--The City at + Night.--Voyage to Astoria.--Crescent City.--Iron-Bound + Coast.--Mount St. Helen's.--Mount Hood.--Cowlitz Valley and its + Floods.--Monticello. + + + SAN FRANCISCO, February 20, 1867. + +We are here at last, contrary to all our expectations for the last ten +days. We left Puget Sound at short notice, taking passage on the first +lumber-vessel that was available, with many misgivings, as she was a +dilapidated-looking craft. We went on board at Port Madison, about +dusk,--a dreary time to start on a sea-voyage, but we had to accommodate +ourselves to the tide. The cabin was such a forlorn-looking place, that +I was half tempted to give it up at the last; when I saw, sitting beside +the rusty, empty stove, a small gray-and-white cat, purring, and rubbing +her paws in the most cheery manner. The contrast between the great, +cold, tossing ocean, and that little comfortable creature, making the +best of her circumstances, so impressed me, that I felt ashamed to +shrink from the voyage, if she was willing to undertake it. So I +unpacked my bundles, and settled down for a rough time. There were only +two of us as passengers, lumber-vessels not making it a part of their +business to provide specially for their accommodation. + +The sky looked threatening when we started; and the captain said, if he +thought there was a storm beginning, he would not try to go on. But as +we got out into the Straits of Fuca, the next day, a little barque, the +"Crimea," came up, and said she had been a week trying to get out of the +straits, and thought the steady south-west wind, which had prevented +her, could not blow much longer. We continued beating down towards the +ocean, and in the afternoon a dense fog shut us in. The last thing we +saw was an ocean-steamer, putting back to Victoria for shelter. Our +captain said his vessel drew too much water for Victoria Harbor, and the +entrance was too crooked to attempt; but, if he could find Port Angeles, +he would put in there. A gleam of sunshine shot through the fog, and +showed us the entrance; and we steered triumphantly for that refuge. Two +other vessels had anchored there. But just as we were about rounding +the point to enter, and were congratulating ourselves on the quiet night +we hoped to spend under the shelter of the mountains, the captain spied +a sail going on towards the ocean. He put his vessel right about, +determined to face whatever risks any other man would. But the vessel +seemed unwilling to go. All that night, and the next day, and the next +night, we rode to and fro in the straits, unable to get out. + +Passing Cape Flattery is the great event of the voyage. It is always +rough there, from the peculiar conformation of the land, and the +conflict of the waters from the Gulf of Georgia, and other inlets, with +the ocean-tides. Our captain had been sailing on this route for fifteen +years, but said he had never seen a worse sea than we encountered. We +asked him if he did not consider the Pacific a more uncertain ocean than +the Atlantic. At first he said "Yes;" then, "No, it is pretty certain to +be bad here at all times." What could Magellan's idea have been in so +naming it? He, however, sailed in more southern latitudes, where it may +be stiller. We expected to sail _on_ the water; but our vessel drove +_through_ it, just as I have seen the snow-plough drive through the +great drifts after a storm. Going to sea on a steamer gives one no idea +of the winds and waves,--the real life of the ocean,--compared to what +we get on a sailing-vessel. Every time we tried to round the point, +great walls of waves advanced against us,--so powerful and +defiant-looking, that I could only shut my eyes when they drew near. It +did not seem as if I made a prayer, but as if I were myself a prayer, +only a winged cry. I knew then what it must be to die. I felt that I +fled from the angry sea, and reached, in an instant, serene heights +above the storm. + +Finally, as the result of all these desperate efforts, in which we +recognized no gain, the captain announced that we had made the point, +but we could get no farther until the wind changed; and, while we still +felt the fury of the contrary sea, it was hard to recognize that we had +much to be grateful for. We saw one beautiful sight, though,--a vessel +going home, helped by the wind that hindered us. It was at night; and +the light struck up on her dark sails, and made them look like wings, as +she flew over the water. What bliss it seemed, to be nearing home, and +all things in her favor! + +I could hear all about us a heavy sound like surf on the shore, which +was quite incomprehensible, as we were so far from land. But the water +drove us from the deck. The vessel plunged head foremost, and reeled +from side to side, with terrible groaning and straining. If we attempted +to move, we were violently thrown in one direction or another; and +finally found that all we could do was to lie still on the cabin-floor, +holding fast to any thing stationary that we could reach. We could hear +the water sweeping over the deck above us, and several times it poured +down in great sheets upon us. We ventured to ask the captain what he was +attempting to do. "Get out to sea," he said, "out of the reach of +storms." That is brave sailing, I thought, though I would not have gone +if I could have helped it. We struggled on in this way for a day and a +night, and then he said we were beyond the region of storms from land. I +am afraid I should, if left to myself, linger always with the +faint-hearted mariners who hug the shore, notwithstanding this great +experience of finding our safety by steering boldly off from every thing +wherein we had before considered our only security lay. After this, I +performed every day the great exploit of climbing to the deck, and +looking out at the waste of water. I saw only one poor old vessel, +pitching and reeling like a drunken man. I wondered if we could look so +to her. She was always half-seas-over. I came to the conclusion it was +best not to watch her, but it was hard to keep my eyes off of her. She +was our companion all the way down, always re-appearing after every gale +we weathered, though often far behind. I remember, just as we were +fairly under way, hearing a man sing out, "There's the old 'Brontes' +coming out of the straits." My associations with the name were gloomy in +the extreme. + +When the wind and sea were at their worst, considering the extremity, we +felt called upon to offer some advice to the captain, and suggested +that, under such circumstances, it might be advisable to travel under +bare poles; but that, he assured us, was only resorted to when a man's +voice could not possibly be heard in giving orders. + +The captain was quite a study to us. On shore he presented the most +ordinary appearance. When we had been out two or three days, I noticed +some one I had not seen before on deck, and thought to myself, "That is +an apparition for a time of danger,--a man as resolute as the sea +itself, so stern and gray-looking." I was quite bewildered, for I +thought I must certainly before that have seen every one on board. It +proved to be the captain in his storm-clothes. One of the sailors was a +Russian serf, running away, as he said, from the Czar of Russia, not +wholly believing in the safety of the serfs. He had shipped as a +competent sea-man; but when he was sent up to the top of the +mizzen-mast, to fix the halliards for a signal, he stopped in the most +perilous place, and announced that he could not go any farther. It seems +that every man on board was a stranger to the captain. It filled us with +anxiety to think how much depended on that one man. One night there was +an alarm of "A man overboard!" If it had been the captain, how aimlessly +we should have drifted on! I liked to listen, when we were below, to +hear the men hoisting the sails, and shouting together. It sounded as if +they were managing horses, now restraining them, and now cheering them +on. When the captain put his hand on the helm, we could always tell +below. There was as much difference as in driving. In the midst of the +wildest plunging, he would suddenly quiet it by putting the vessel in +some other position, just as he would have held in a rearing horse. + +Two or three times, when there was a little lull, I went on deck; and +the air was as balmy as from a garden. What can it mean, this fragrance +of fresh flowers in the midst of the sea? + +Some virtues, I think, are admirably cultivated at sea. Night after +night, as we lay there, I said to the captain, "What is the meaning of +those clouds?" or "that dull red sky?" And he answered so composedly, +"It's going to be squally," that I admired his patience; but it wore +upon us very much. + +At length, one night, as I lay looking up through our little skylight, +at the flapping of the great white spanker-sheet,--my special enemy and +dread, because the captain would keep it up when I thought it unsafe, it +seemed such a lawless thing, and so ready to overturn us every time it +shifted,--a great cheerful star looked in. It meant that all trouble was +over. One after another followed it. I could not speak, I was so glad. I +could only look at them, and feel that our safety was assured. The wind +had changed. I appreciated the delight of Ulysses in "the fresh North +Spirit" Calypso gave him "to guide him o'er the sea,"--the rest of our +voyage was so exhilarating. + +We had one more special risk only,--crossing the bar of San Francisco +Bay. The captain said, if he reached it at night, he expected to wait +until daylight to enter; but I knew that his ambitious spirit would +never let him, if it were possible to get over. About three o'clock in +the morning, I heard a new sound in the water, like the rippling of +billows, as if it were shallow. I hastened upon deck, and found that we +were apparently on the bar. The captain and the mate differed about the +sounding. Immediately after, I heard the captain tell a man to run down +and see what time it was; and, upon learning the hour, heard him +exclaim, in the deepest satisfaction, "Flood-tide, sure! Well, we had a +chance!" I felt as if we had had a series of chances from the time we +left Port Angeles Harbor, to the running in without a pilot, and +drifting, as we did, into the revenue-cutter, just as we anchored. We +had a beautiful entrance, though. It is a long passage, an hour or two +after crossing the bar. San Francisco lay in misty light before us, like +one of the great bright nebulae we used to look at in Hercules, or the +sword-handle of Perseus. It is splendidly lighted. As we drew nearer, +there seemed to be troops of stars over all the hills. + + + ASTORIA, ORE., October 17, 1868. + +In making the voyage from San Francisco, I could hardly go on deck at +all, until the last day; but, lying and looking out at my little +port-hole, I saw the flying-fish, and the whales spouting, and the +stormy-petrels and gulls. + +On Sunday the boat was turned about; and when we inquired why, we were +told that the wind and sea were so much against us, we were going to put +back into Crescent City. It came at once into our minds, how on Sunday, +three years before, the steamer "Brother Jonathan," in attempting to do +the same thing, struck a rock, and foundered, and nearly all on board +were lost. + +Crescent City is an isolated little settlement, a depot for supplies for +miners working on the rivers in Northern California. It has properly no +harbor, but only a roadstead, filled with the wildest-looking black +rocks, of strange forms, standing far out from the shore, and affords a +very imperfect shelter for vessels if they are so fortunate as to get +safely in. The Coast Survey Report mentions it as "the most dangerous of +the roadsteads usually resorted to, filled with sunken rocks and reefs." +It further says, that "no vessel should think of gaining an anchorage +there, without a pilot, or perfect knowledge of the hidden dangers. The +rocks are of peculiar character, standing isolated like bayonets, with +their points just below the surface, ready to pierce any unlucky craft +that may encounter them." The "Dragon Rocks" lie in the near vicinity, +at the end of a long reef that makes out from Crescent City. All the +steamers that enter or depart from there must pass near them. + +It is very remarkable, that, while the Atlantic coast abounds in +excellent harbors, on the Pacific side of the continent there is no good +harbor where a vessel can find refuge in any kind of weather between San +Francisco Bay and San Diego to the south, and Port Angeles, on the +Straits of Fuca, to the north. It is fitly characterized by Wilkes as an +"iron-bound coast." + +We reached here Saturday night. Sunday morning, hearing a silver +triangle played in the streets, we looked out for tambourines and +dancing-girls, but saw none, and were presently told it was the call to +church. We were quite tempted to go and hear what the service would be, +but the sound of the breakers on the bar enchained us to stop and listen +to them. + + + PORTLAND, ORE., October 20, 1868. + +In coming up the river from Astoria, we had always in view the +snow-white cone of St. Helen's, one of the principal peaks of the +Cascade Range. Nothing can be conceived more virginal than this form of +exquisite purity rising from the dark fir forests to the serene sky. +Mount Baker's symmetry is much marred by the sunken crater at the +summit; Mount Rainier's outline is more complicated: this is a pure, +beautiful cone. It is so perfect a picture of heavenly calm, that it is +as hard to realize its being volcanic as it would be to imagine an +outburst of passion in a seraph. Fremont reports having seen columns of +smoke ascending from it, and showers of ashes are known to have fallen +over the Dalles. + +As we approached Portland, the sharp-pointed form of Mount Hood came +prominently into view. Portland would be only a commonplace city, the +Willamette River being quite tame here, and the shores low and +unattractive; but this grand old mountain, and the remnant of forest +about it, give it an ancient, stately, and dignified look. + + + OLYMPIA, October 30, 1868. + +In crossing from the Columbia River to the Sound, we saw, along the +Cowlitz Valley, marks of the havoc and devastation caused by the floods +of last winter. The wild mountain stream had swept away many familiar +landmarks since we were last there; in fact, had abandoned its bed, and +taken a new channel. It gave us a realizing sense of the fact that great +changes are still in process on our globe. Where we had quietly +slumbered, is now the bed of the stream. We mourned over the little +place at Monticello, where for eight years a nice garden, with rows of +trim currant-bushes, had gladdened the eyes of travellers, and the neat +inn, kept by a cheery old Methodist minister, had given them hospitable +welcome,--not a vestige of the place now remaining. Civilization is so +little advanced in that region, that few men would have the heart or the +means to set out a garden. + + + + +IX. + + Victoria.--Its Mountain Views, Rocks, and Flowers.--Vancouver's + Admiration of the Island.--San Juan Islands.--Sir James + Douglas.--Indian Wives.--Northern Indians.--Indian + Workmanship.--The Thunder-Bird.--Indian Offerings to the Spirit of + a Child.--Pioneers.--Crows and Sea-Birds. + + + VICTORIA, B.C., November 15, 1868. + +We are to stay for several months in this place. We are delightfully +situated. The house has quite a Christmas look, from the holly and other +bright berries that cluster round the windows. The hall is picturesquely +ornamented with deer's horns and weapons and Indian curiosities. But the +view is what we care most about. On our horizon we have the exquisite +peaks of silver, the summits of the Olympic Range, at the foot of which +we lived in Port Angeles. We look across the blue straits to them. +Immediately in front is an oak grove, and on the other side a great +extent of dark, Indian-looking woods. There are nearer mountains, where +we can see all the beautiful changes of light and shade. Yesterday they +were wrapped in haze, as in the Indian summer, and every thing was soft +and dreamy about them; to-day they stand out bold and clear, with great +wastes of snow, ravines, and landslides, and dark prominences, all +distinctly defined. When the setting sun lights up the summits, new +fields of crystal and gold, and other more distant mountains, appear. + +It is very refreshing to get here, the island has such a rich green look +after California. It is quite rocky about us; but the rocks even are +carpeted deep with moss, and the old gnarled branches of the oaks have a +coating of thick, bright velvet. It is now the middle of November; and +the young grass is springing up after the rain, and even where it does +not grow there is no bare earth, but brown oak-leaves and brakes, with +soft warm colors, particularly when the sun strikes across them. The +skies, too, are like those at home, with the magnificent sunrise and +sunset that only clouds can give. The California sky is, much of the +time, pure unchanging blue. + +When we first landed here, we were very much impressed by the appearance +of the coast, it being bold and rocky, like that of New England; while +on the opposite side of the straits, and almost everywhere on the Sound, +are smooth, sandy shores, or high bluffs covered with trees. The trees, +too, at once attracted our attention,--large, handsome oaks, instead of +the rough firs, and a totally different undergrowth, with many flowers +wholly unknown on the opposite side, which charmed us with their +brilliancy and variety of color; among them the delicate cyclamen, and +others that we had known only in greenhouses. They continually recalled +to us the surprise of some of the early explorers at seeing an +uncultivated country look so much like a garden. We were told that much +less rain falls here than on the American side; the winds depositing +their moisture as snow on the mountains before they reach Victoria, +which gives it a dryer winter climate. + +Vancouver, in his narrative, repeatedly speaks of the serenity of the +weather here, and says that the scenery recalled to him delightful +places in England. He felt as if the smooth, lawn-like slopes of the +island must have been cleared by man. Every thing unsightly seemed to +have been removed, and only what was most graceful and picturesque +allowed to remain. He says, "I could not possibly believe that any +uncultivated country had ever been discovered exhibiting so rich a +picture." When requested by the Spanish Seignor Quadra to select some +harbor or island to which to give their joint names, in memory of their +friendship, and the successful accomplishment of their business (they +having been commissioned respectively by their governments to tender and +receive the possessions of Nootka, given back by Spain to Great +Britain), he selected this island as the fairest and most attractive +that he had seen, and called it the "Island of Quadra and Vancouver." +The "Quadra," as was usual with the Spanish names, was soon after +dropped. + +Between Vancouver's Island and Washington Territory lie the +long-disputed islands of the San Juan group; the British claiming that +Rosario Strait is the channel indicated in the Treaty of 1846, which +would give them the islands; while the United States claim that De Haro +Strait is the true channel, and that the islands belong to them. + +These islands are valuable for their pasturage and their harbors, and +most of all for their situation in a military point of view. While this +question is still in dispute, the British fort at one end of San Juan, +and the American fort at the other, observe towards each other a +respectful silence. + + + DECEMBER 1, 1868. + +Sir James Douglas, the first governor of British Columbia, selected the +site of Victoria. Owing to his good taste, the natural beauty of the +place has been largely preserved. The oak groves and delicate +undergrowth are a great contrast to the rude mill-sites of the Sound, +where every thing is sacrificed to sending off so much lumber. He lives +at Victoria in a simple, unpretending way. It was made a law in British +Columbia, that no white man should live with an Indian woman as wife, +without marrying her. He set the example himself, by marrying one of the +half-breed Indian women. Some of the chief officers of the Hudson Bay +Company did the same. The aristocracy of Victoria has a large admixture +of Indian blood. The company encouraged their employes, mostly French +Canadians, to take Indian wives also. They were absolute in prohibiting +the sale of intoxicating drinks to the Indians, and dismissed from their +employ any one who violated this rule. They gave the Indians better +goods than they got from the United States agents; so that they even now +distinguish between a King George (English) blanket, and a Boston +(American) blanket, as between a good one and a bad one. + +It was, no doubt, owing to the influence of Sir James Douglas, that +Lady Burdett Coutts sent out and established a high school here for boys +and girls. + + + DECEMBER 5, 1868. + +We saw here some of the Northern Indians of the Haidah tribe, from Queen +Charlotte's Islands. They came in large canoes, some of which would hold +a hundred men, and yet each was hollowed out of a single log of cedar. +They came down to bring a cargo of dogfish-oil to the light-house at +Cape Flattery. They camped for two weeks on the beach, and we went often +to see them. Having led such an isolated life on their islands, +surrounded by rough water, and hardly known to white men, they have +preserved many peculiarities of their tribe, and are quite different in +their looks and habits from the Indians of Puget Sound. Some of the old +women had a little piece of bone or pearl shell stuck through the lower +lip, which gave them a very barbarous appearance; but in many ways the +men had more knowledge of arts and manufactures than any other Indians +we have seen. They showed us some ornaments of chased silver, which they +offered for sale; also bottle-shaped baskets, made of roots and bark, so +closely woven together as to hold water. But most curious to us were +some little black, polished columns, about a foot high, that looked like +ebony. They were covered with carvings, very skilfully executed. When we +took them into our hands, we were surprised at their weight, and found +that they were made of a fine, black coal-slate. A man who stood by +explained to us that this slate is a peculiar product of their islands. +When first quarried, it is so soft as to be easily cut; and when +afterward rubbed with oil, and exposed to the air, it becomes intensely +hard. At the foot of the column was the bear, who guards the entrance of +their lodges; at the top, the crow, who presides over every thing. On +some were frogs and lizards. One was surmounted by the "thunder-bird," a +mythological combination of man and bird, who lives among the mountains. +When he sails out from them, the sky is darkened; and the flapping of +his wings makes the thunder, and the winking of his eyes the lightning. +It is very strange that the "thunder-bird" should be one of the deities +of the Indians of the North-west, where thunder is so rare as to be +phenomenal. We heard of him in other parts of British Columbia, and see +him represented in carvings from Sitka. Tatoosh Island, off Cape +Flattery, where the Makah Indians live, derives its name from +_Tootootche_, the Nootka name for the "thunder-bird." The Makahs +originally came from the west coast of Vancouver's Island. They deem +themselves much superior to the tribes of the interior, because they go +out on the ocean. Their home being on the rocky coast islands, they +naturally look to the water to secure their living. Their chief business +is to hunt the whale, they being the only Indians who engage in this +pursuit. + +Sometimes we found the Indians so deeply interested in a game they were +playing, that they took no notice of us. It was played with slender +round sticks, about six inches long, made of yew wood, so exquisitely +polished that it had a gloss like satin. Some of the sticks were inlaid +with little bits of rainbow pearl, and I saw one on which the figure of +a fish was very skilfully represented. It is quite incomprehensible, how +they can do such delicate work with the poor tools they have. They use +only something like a cobbler's knife. + +They shuffled the sticks under tow of cedar-bark, droning all the time a +low, monotonous chant. It is curious that any thing so extremely simple +can be so fascinating. They will sit all day and night, without stopping +for food, and gamble away every thing they possess. It appeared to be +identical with the old game of "Odd or Even" played by the ancient +Greeks, as described by Plato. + +We saw here the great conical hat worn by the Cape Flattery Indians, +similar in form to the Chinese hat; and also some blankets of their own +manufacture, woven of dog's hair. + + + PORT TOWNSEND, WASHINGTON TERRITORY, + April 4, 1869. + +This afternoon we rode past the graveyard of the Indians on the beach. +It is a picturesque spot, as most of their burial-places are. They like +to select them where land and water meet. A very old woman, wrapped in a +green blanket, was digging clams with her paddle in the sand. She was +one of those stiff old Indians, whom we occasionally see, who do not +speak the Chinook at all, and take no notice whatever of the whites. I +never feel as if they even see me when I am with them. They seem always +in a deep dream. Her youth must have been long before any white people +came to the country. When she dies, her body will be wrapped in the +tattered green blanket, and laid here, with her paddle, her only +possession, stuck up beside her in the sand. + +We saw two Indians busy at one of the little huts that cover the +graves. They were nailing a new red covering over it. We asked them if a +chief was dead. A _klootchman_ we had not noticed before looked up, and +said mournfully, "No," it was her "little woman." I saw that she had +before her, on the sand, a number of little bright toys,--a doll wrapped +in calico, a musical ball, a looking-glass, a package of candy and one +of cakes, a bright tin pail full of sirup, and two large sacks, one of +bread, and the other of apples. + +Another and older woman was picking up driftwood, and arranging it for a +fire. When the men had finished their work at the hut, they came and +helped her. They laid it very carefully, with a great many openings, and +level on the top, and lighted it. + +Then the grandmother brought a little purple woollen shawl, and gave it +to the old man. He held it out as far as his arm could reach, and waved +it, and apparently called to the spirit of the child to come and receive +it; and he then cast it into the fire. He spoke in the old Indian +language, which they do not use in talking with us. It sounded very +strange and thrilling. Each little toy they handled with great care +before putting it into the flames. After they had burned up the bread +and the apples, they poured on some sugar, and smothered the flames, +making a dense column of smoke. + +Then they all moved a little farther back, and motioned us to also. We +wondered they had tolerated us so long, as they dislike being observed; +but they seemed to feel that we sympathized with them. The old man staid +nearest. He lay down on the sand, half hidden by a wrecked tree. He +stripped his arms and legs bare, and pulled his hair all up to the top +of his head, and knotted it in a curious way, so that it nodded in a +shaggy tuft over his forehead. Then he lay motionless, looking at the +fire, once in a while turning and saying something to the women, +apparently about the child, as I several times distinguished the word +_tenas-tenas_ (the little one). I thought perhaps he might be describing +her coming and taking the things. At times he became very animated. They +did not stir, only answered with a kind of mournful "Ah--ah," to every +thing he said. + +At last their little dog bounded forward, as if to meet some one. At +that, they were very much excited and pleased, and motioned us to go +farther off still, as if it were too sacrilegious for us to stay there. +They all turned away but the old man, and he began to move in a stealthy +way towards the fire. All the clumsiness and weight of a man seemed to +be gone. He was as light and wiry as a snake, and glided round the old +drift that strewed the sand, with his body prostrate, but his head held +erect, and his bright eyes fixed on the fire, like some wild desert +creature, which he appeared to counterfeit. The Indians think, that, by +assuming the shape of any creature, they can acquire something of its +power. When he had nearly reached the fire, he sprang up, and caught +something from it. I could not tell whether it was real or imaginary. He +held it up to his breast, and appeared to caress it, and try to twine it +about his neck. I thought at first it was a coal of fire; perhaps it was +smoke. Three times he leaped nearly into the flames in this way, and +darted at something which he apparently tried to seize. Then he seemed +to assure the others that he had accomplished his purpose; and they all +went immediately off, without looking back. + + + APRIL 20, 1869. + +We are surprised to find so many New-England people about us. Many of +those who are interested in the sawmills are lumbermen from Maine. The +two men who first established themselves in the great wilderness, with +unbroken forest, and only Indians about them, are still living near us. +They are men of resources, as well as endurance. A man who comes to do +battle against these great trees must necessarily be of quite a +different character from one who expects, as the California pioneer did, +to pick up his fortune in the dust at his feet. I am often reminded of +Thoreau's experience in the Maine woods. He says, "The deeper you +penetrate into the woods, the more intelligent, and, in one sense, less +countrified, do you find the inhabitants; for always the pioneer has +been a traveller, and to some extent a man of the world; and, as the +distances with which he is familiar are greater, so is his information +more general and far-reaching." + + + MAY 30, 1869. + +The gulls and crows give parties to each other on the sand, at low-tide. +Farther out are the ducks, wheeling about, and calling to each other, +with sharp, lively voices. It is curious to watch them, and try to +understand their impulses. Sometimes they are all perfectly motionless, +sitting in companies of hundreds, in the deepest calm; sometimes all in +a flutter, tripping over the water, with their wings just striking it, +uttering their shrill cry. They dive, but never come to shore. What one +does, all the rest immediately do. Sometimes the whole little fleet is +gone in an instant, and the water unruffled above them. + +The prettiest among them is the spirit-duck,--its motion is so +beautiful, as it breasts the little billows, or glides through the still +water. Their bosoms are so like the white-caps, I have to look for their +little black heads, to see where they are. Once in a while, a loon comes +sailing along, in its slow, stately way, turning its slender, graceful +neck from side to side, as if enjoying the scenery. We never see more +than two of them together, and they generally separate soon. + + + + +X. + + Puget Sound and Adjacent Waters.--Its Early Explorers.--Towns, + Harbors, and Channels.--Vancouver's Nomenclature.--Juan de + Fuca.--Mount Baker.--Chinese "Wing."--Ancient Indian Women.--Pink + Flowering Currant and Humming-Birds.--"Ah Sing." + + + PORT TOWNSEND, September 10, 1869. + +We have been spending a day or two in travelling about the Sound by +steamer, touching at the various mill-towns and other ports, where the +boat calls, to receive and deliver the mails, or for other business. +Every time we pass over these waters, we admire anew their extent and +beauty, and their attractive surroundings, their lovely bays and +far-reaching inlets, their bold promontories and lofty shores, their +setting in the evergreen forest, and the great mountains in the +distance, standing guard on either side. + +The early explorers who visited this part of the country evidently had a +high appreciation of it, as their accounts of it show. Vancouver, who +came in 1792, expressed so much admiration of these waters and their +surroundings, that his statements were received with hesitation, and it +was supposed that his enthusiasm as an explorer had led him to +exaggeration. But Wilkes, who followed him many years afterwards, +confirmed all that he had said, and, in his narrative, writes as follows +regarding this great inland sea:-- + + "Nothing can exceed the beauty of these waters, and their safety. + Not a shoal exists within the Straits of San Juan de Fuca, + Admiralty Inlet, Puget Sound, or Hood's Canal, that can in any way + interrupt their navigation by a seventy-four-gun ship. I venture + nothing in saying there is no country in the world that possesses + waters equal to these." + + In another account Wilkes writes: "One of the most noble estuaries + in the world; without a danger of any kind to impede navigation; + with a surrounding country capable of affording all kinds of + supplies, harbors without obstruction at any season of the year, + and a climate unsurpassed in salubrity." + +More recently the United States Coast Survey Report of 1858 declares, +that, "For depth of water, boldness of approaches, freedom from hidden +dangers, and the immeasurable sea of gigantic timber coming down to the +very shores, these waters are unsurpassed, unapproachable." + +We were at first puzzled by the various names given to the different +waters over which we travelled; but soon discovered, that, while the +term "Puget Sound" is popularly applied to the whole of them, it +properly belongs only to the comparatively small body of water lying +beyond the "Narrows," at the southern end, and the arms and inlets that +branch therefrom. + +The great natural divisions of this system are: the Straits of Juan de +Fuca, extending from the ocean eastward about eighty miles, and then +branching into the vast Gulf of Georgia to the north, and Admiralty +Inlet to the south; Hood's Canal, branching from the latter, on the west +side, near the entrance, and running south-west about sixty miles; +Possession Sound, branching from the east side, and extending north +between Whidby Island and the mainland, as far as Rosario Straits; and +Puget Sound, connected with the southerly end of Admiralty Inlet by the +"Narrows." + +We commenced our recent trip at Victoria, and crossed the Straits of +Fuca,--through which the west wind draws as through a tunnel,--to Port +Angeles. This place was named by Don Francisco Elisa, who was sent out +to this region in 1791 by the Mexican Viceroy. Of course Don Francisco +must compliment the Viceroy by giving his name to some important points. +This royal personage had a string of ten proper names, besides his +titles. These Don Francisco distributed according to his judgment. Being +apparently a religious man, he was mindful also of the claims of saints +and angels; and, when he reached the first good harbor on the upper +coast, he called it _Puerto de los Angeles_ (Port of the Angels). + +Proceeding eastward, the next point of interest is New Dungeness, so +called by Vancouver from its resemblance in situation to Dungeness on +the British Channel. The harbor of this place, like that of Port +Angeles, is formed by a long sand-spit that curves out from the shore. +On account of this resemblance, Vancouver gave to Port Angeles the name +of False Dungeness, thinking it might be mistaken for the other. But +this name has been dropped, and the more poetical designation of the +Spaniard retained. The pious Elisa called the long-pointed sand-spit at +Dungeness "the Point of the Holy Cross." + +The great body of water north of Vancouver's Island, which had not yet +received its name, he called _Canal de Nuestra Senora del Rosario_ (the +Channel of Our Lady of the Rosary). When Vancouver, in the following +year, gave his own name to the island, he called this body of water the +Gulf of Georgia, in honor of George III., the reigning king of England. +The name given by Elisa is still retained by the strait east of the De +Haro Archipelago. + +The next place at which we stopped was Port Townsend. This was named, by +Vancouver, Marrowstone Point, from the cliff of marrowstone at the head +of the peninsula; but this name was afterwards given to the headland on +the opposite side of the entrance to Port Townsend Bay, to the +south-east of the town, and the name of Townshend, one of the lords of +the Admiralty, was given to the bay. The town afterwards took the same +name, dropping the _h_ from it. Admiralty Inlet commences here, and was +named by Vancouver in honor of the Board of Admiralty for whom he +sailed. Hood's Canal was named for another of the lord-members of the +Board. + +Opposite, across the inlet, to the north and east, lies Whidby Island, +which Vancouver named for one of his lieutenants. It is a pity it could +not have had some more poetic name, it is so beautiful a place; it is +familiarly known here as the "Garden of the Territory." It was formerly +owned and occupied by the Skagit Indians, a large tribe, who had several +villages there, and fine pasture-grounds; their name being still +retained by the prominent headland at the southern extremity of the +island. I heard one of the passengers remark that there were formerly +white deer there. I strained my eyes as long as it was in sight, hoping +to see one of these lovely creatures emerge from the dark woods; but in +vain. Wilkes says that the Skagit Indians had large, well-built lodges +of timber and planks. But, since so many tribes have been swept away by +the small-pox, most of them have lost their interest in making +substantial houses, feeling that they have so little while to live. +North of Whidby is Fidalgo Island, named for a Spanish officer. Between +them is a narrow passage, called Deception Pass, very intricate and full +of rocks, above and below the water, and most difficult to navigate,--in +striking contrast to the waters of the Sound in general. + +We called at Port Ludlow and Port Gamble, the latter on Hood's Canal, +near the entrance,--_Teekalet_ being its Indian name. Returning to +Admiralty Inlet, we presently passed Skagit Head, at the entrance of +Possession Sound, so named by Vancouver to commemorate the formal +taking possession, by him, of all the territory around the Straits of +Fuca and Admiralty Inlet, on the king's birthday. + +We steamed serenely on, over the clear, still water, to Port Madison, +and then crossed the inlet to Seattle. Thence we proceeded south, and +passed Vashon Island, which has many attractive features. +Quartermaster's Harbor, at the southern end, is a lovely place; and +beautiful shells and fossils are to be found there. Occasionally we came +across a great boom of logs, travelling down to some sawmill; or a +crested cormorant, seated on a fragment of drift, sailed for a while in +our company. We passed on through the "Narrows," and entered Puget Sound +proper, named for Peter Puget, one of Vancouver's lieutenants, who +explored it. + +All Vancouver's friends, patrons, and officers--lieutenants, pursers, +pilots, and pilot's mates--are abundantly honored in the names scattered +about this region. He appears, too, to have had a good appreciation of +nature, and praised, in his report, the landscape and the flowers. He +regarded somewhat, in his nomenclature, the natural features of the +country; as in Point Partridge, the eastern headland of Whidby Island; +Hazel Point, on Hood's Canal; Cypress Island, one of the San Juan +group; and Birch Bay, south of the delta of Fraser River. + +The Spanish explorers in this region do not seem to have taken much +pains to record and publish the result of their discoveries. Vancouver +held on to his with true English grip, and often supplanted their names +by others of his own choosing. + +At night we reached Steilacoom, where there was formerly a military +post. It has an imposing situation, with a fine mountain view; and there +are some excellent military roads leading from it in various directions. + +We spent a pleasant day at Olympia, which lies at the southern extremity +of the Sound, and resembles a New-England village, with its maples +shading the streets, and flower-gardens. It has an excellent class of +people, as have the towns upon the Sound in general; and the evidences +of taste and culture, which are continually seen, are one of the +pleasantest characteristics of this new and thinly settled part of the +country. + +There are no sawmills on the Straits of Fuca, and the slight +settlements along its shores have scarcely marred their primitive +wildness and beauty. The original forest-line is hardly broken; the deer +still come down to the water's edge; and the face of the country has +apparently not changed since Vancouver, nearly a hundred years ago, +stooped to gather the May roses at Dungeness; or Juan de Fuca, two +centuries earlier, "sailed into that silent sea," and looked round at +the mountains,--not less beautiful, though more imposing, than those +that lay about his own home on the distant Mediterranean. + + + DECEMBER 10, 1869. + +We have just seen an English gentleman who came over to this country for +the purpose of ascending Mount Baker, first called by the Spaniards +_Montana del Carmelo_. He was three years in trying to get a small +company to attempt the expedition with him. Indians do not at all +incline to ascending mountains; they seem to have some superstitious +fear about it. I believe this mountain has never been explored to any +extent. He describes the colors of the snow and ice as intensely +beautiful. He has travelled among the Alps, but saw an entirely new +phenomenon on the summit of Mount Baker,--the snow like little tongues +of flame. In the deep rifts was a most exquisite blue. On the last day's +upward journey, they were obliged to throw away all their blankets,--as +they were not able to carry any weight,--and depend on chance for the +night's shelter. How well Fate rewarded them for trusting her! They +happened at night upon a warm cavern, where any extra coverings would +have been quite superfluous. It was part of the crater, but they slept +quietly notwithstanding. + + + JANUARY 15, 1870. + +We have now a little Chinese boy to live with us; that is, he represents +himself as a boy, but he seems more as if he were a most ancient man. He +might have stepped out of some Ninevite or Egyptian sculpture. He is +like the little figures in the processions on the tombs, and his face is +perfectly grave and unchanging all the time. I feel about him, as I do +about some of the Indians,--as if he had not only his own age, but the +age of his race, about him. + +There never could be any thing more inappropriate than that he should be +named "Wing," for no creature could be farther from any thing light or +airy. One reason, I think, why he seems so different from any of his +countrymen that we have seen, is because he has never lived in a city, +but only in a small village, which he says has no name that we should +understand. + +He works in the slowest possible way, but most faithfully and +incessantly, and never shows the slightest desire for any recreation or +rest. Even the anticipation of the great national Chinese feast, which +is to be celebrated next month, and which occurs only once in a thousand +years, has failed to arouse any enthusiasm in him, and he is apparently +quite indifferent to it. + +Our goat has taken a great dislike to him,--I think just because he is +so different from herself. She is always making thrusts at him with her +horns, and trying to butt him over. But he preserves, even toward her, +his uniform sweet manner; calls her a "sheep," entirely ignoring her +rude, fierce ways; leads her to pasture every day, under great +difficulties; and attempts to milk her, at the risk of his life. The +serenity of these people is really to be envied; they go on their way so +perfectly undisturbed, whatever happens. + + + APRIL 30, 1870. + +The tides are very peculiar here. Every alternate fortnight they run +very low, and then the beach is uncovered so far out that we can take +long rides on it, as far as the head of the bay. + +We are very much entertained with seeing the old Indian crones digging +clams. They appear to be equally amused with us, and chuckle with +delight as we pass. It seems very strange to see human beings without +the least approach to any thing civilized or artificial, with the single +exception of the old blankets knotted about them with pieces of rope; +but when I compare them with civilized women of the same age, who are +generally helpless, I see that they have a great advantage over them. +They are out everywhere, in all weathers, and do always the hardest of +the work. We meet them often in the woods, so bowed down under the loads +of bark on their backs, that it looks as if the bark itself had a stout +pair of legs, and were walking. Our horse is always frightened, and can +never get used to them. + +We can ride now for hours on the beach, looking at the water on one +side, and on the other at the densely wooded bluffs, now most +beautifully lighted up by the pink flowering currant. It is like the +rhodora at home, in respect to coming very early,--the flowers before +the leaves. At first it is of a delicate faint pink; but as the season +advances it becomes very deep and rich in color, and contrasts most +beautifully with the drapery of light-gray moss, and the dark fir-trees. + +This flower attracts the humming-bird, and furnishes its earliest food. +This delicate, tropical-looking little creature is the first bird to +arrive; coming often in March from its winter home in California, where +it lives on another species of flowering currant that blooms through the +winter. + +In making some excavations here, there have been found the bones and +teeth of the American elephant, and with them a bone made into a wedge, +such as the Indians here use in splitting wood; which seems to imply +great antiquity for their race. + + + AUGUST 10, 1870. + +We have a new China boy, Ah Sing, who is very impulsive and +enthusiastic, quite a different character from the unemotional Wing. He +is almost too zealous to learn. R. began to teach him his letters, to +make him contented. I hear him now repeating them over and over to +himself, with great emphasis, while he is washing the clothes. He is so +big and strong, that they come out with great force. A few nights ago, +after everybody had gone to bed, he came down past our room, and went +into the kitchen. R. followed him to see what was the matter, and, as +the boy looked a little wild, thought perhaps he was going into a fit. +He had seized the primer, and was flourishing it about and +gesticulating with it; and finally R., who has a wonderful faculty for +comprehending the Chinese, divined that he had gone to bed without a +lesson, and could not sleep until he had learned something. + + + + +XI. + + Rocky-mountain Region.--Railroad from Columbia River to Puget + Sound.--Mountain Changes.--Mixture of Nationalities.--Journey to + Coos Bay, Oregon.--Mountain Canyon.--A Branch of the + Coquille.--Empire City.--Myrtle Grove.--Yaquina.--Genial Dwellers + in the Woods.--Our Unknown Neighbor.--Whales.--Pet Seal and + Eagle.--A Mourning Mother.--Visit from Yeomans. + + + PORT TOWNSEND, November 18, 1872. + +We had quite a pleasant journey back from the East, and saw some things +we must have passed in the night on our trip thither. About the +Rocky-mountain region we saw what appeared to be immense ruins; but they +were really natural formations, resembling old castles, with ramparts +and battlements and towers. I could not help feeling as if they must +belong to some gigantic extinct race. On the wide, solitary plains they +were most imposing. + +At the Laramie Plains, where we stopped a while, we were so blinded by +the glittering crystals of quartz and specks of mica, we could well +understand why the name of the Glittering Mountains was first given to +the Rocky-mountain Range. + +We saw at Cheyenne a most curious cactus. Outside, it was only a green, +prickly ball; inside, was a deep nest, filled with a cluster of pink +blossoms. + +We looked into the beautiful Blue Canyon--blue with mist. Hundreds of +feet below us was the gliding silver line of a stream. + +At one of our stopping-places was a team of buffalo and oxen working +together. To see this chief Manitou of the Indians so degraded, was like +seeing a captive Jugurtha. + +We found great changes had taken place within a year between Columbia +River and Puget Sound. Where we used to cross alone, in the deepest +solitude of the forest, there were cars running, gangs of Chinamen +everywhere at work, great burnt tracts, and piles of firewood. Once in a +while a stray deer bounded by, and turned back to look at us, with +pretty, innocent curiosity. And there were still some of the old trees +left standing, gnarled and twisted, and so thickly coated with moss, +that great ferns grew out of it, and hung down from the branches. What a +pity to destroy the work of centuries, the like of which we shall never +see again! + +We saw to-day some of the pretty spotted sea-doves, that have just +arrived to spend the winter with us. Puget Sound, with its mild climate, +is their Florida or Bermuda. In early spring they return to the rocky +lagoons of the North, to pair and breed. + + + DECEMBER 15, 1872. + +With our wider range from the hill-top to which we have removed, we +notice more how the appearance of the mountains changes with the changes +of the sky. This morning they were all rose-color; and are now so +ghostly, the snow like shrouds about them. Before, we had only single +chains and solitary peaks; here, we look into the bosom of a mountainous +country, and every change in the light reveals something new. Where we +have many times looked without seeing any thing, at length some +beautiful new outline appears in faint silver on the distant horizon. +Heaven ought to be more real to us for living in sight of what is so +inaccessible, and so full of beauty and mystery. + + + MARCH 9, 1873. + +We are very much struck with the mixture of nationalities upon this +coast. We were so fortunate as to secure last winter the services of a +splendid great Swedish girl, the heartiest and healthiest creature I +ever saw. There did not seem to be a shadow of any kind about her, nor +any thing more amiss with her in any way than there is with the sunshine +or the blue sky. All kinds of work she took alike, with equal readiness, +and never admitted to her mind a doubt or anxiety on any subject. + +We felt sorry enough, when we had had her only three weeks, to have the +foreman of the mill come and beg us to release her. It seems they were +engaged to be married when they left Sweden; but, being of thrifty +natures, they had agreed to work each a year before settling down in +marriage. The constant sight of her charms proved too much for him, and +they decided that all they needed to begin life together was their +wealth of affection and their exuberant health and spirits. + +Her size may be imagined, when I mention that her lover brought up six +rings in succession, to try to find one big enough to go over her +finger. Finally he squeezed on the largest one he could obtain, as an +absolutely essential ceremony to bind them together, and smiled with +delight to see that it could never be taken off. + +The only help we could find in her place, at such short notice, was a +Russian boy, lately arrived from Kodiac. When we first saw him, we were +quite disheartened at his appearance, his mouth and eyes were so like +those of a fish, and he seemed so terribly uncivilized. I attempted to +intimate that I thought we could not undertake to do any thing with him. +He seemed to suspect what I thought,--although he could not understand +my words,--and took up a piece of paper, and wrote some Russian words on +it. I asked him what they meant; and he said, "Jesus Christ, he dead; he +get up again; men and devils he take them all up." I supposed the most +civilized person he had ever seen was the priest; and, as the priest had +taught him that, he thought it was a kind of introduction for him, and +that I should feel it to be a bond of union between us. I did not feel +quite so much as if he were a fish or a seal afterward. All the time, +even over the hot cooking-stove, he kept his rough fur cap on his head. +His great staring eyes rolled round in every direction; and he looked so +utterly uncouth and so bewildered, that I doubted very much if he could +ever be adapted to our needs. + +To my great surprise, however, he learned very fast, stimulated by his +curiosity to know about every thing. What made him appear so very +stupid at first was, that he felt so strongly the newness of all his +surroundings. After he learned to talk with us, he interested us very +much with accounts of his own country, and with the letters he read us +from his father, an old man of ninety, who had spent his life in charge +of convicts in Siberia. He wrote his father that he was homesick; and +the old man replied: "You homesick--work! work by and by make you +strong!" His letters were directed only: "Son mine--George Olaf." He +seemed to trust to some one on the way, to take an interest in their +reaching him. + +The boy generally set up his hymn-book in some place where he could +occasionally glance at it, and chant his Russian hymns, while he was +about his work. On the other side, the nurse sang Dutch songs to the +baby. + + + JULY 1, 1873. + +We have just returned from a long, rough journey in southern and western +Oregon. We crossed the Coast Range of mountains,--not so high and +snow-capped as the Cascades, but beautiful to watch in their variations +of light and shade, always the shadows of clouds travelling over them, +and mists stealing up through the dark ravines. A Dutchwoman--our +fellow-passenger--was in ecstasies, exclaiming continually: "How +beautiful is the land here! How _bracht_ [bright]!"--noticing all the +sun-lighted places; but I was more attracted by the shadows. I heard +another hard-looking woman say to a man, that she cried when she saw the +hills, they were so beautiful. There was a deep welcome in them; +something human and responsive seemed to fill the stillness. In these +solitary places, remote from all other associations, it seems as if +Nature could communicate more directly with us. + +I noticed, more than I ever did before, the difference in the appearance +and bearing of the flowers; how some seemed only to flaunt themselves, +and others had so much more character. As we passed a little opening in +the woods, a great dark purple flower, that was a stranger to me, fixed +its gaze upon me so that I felt the look, as we sometimes do from human +eyes. Any thing supernatural is so in keeping with these solitary +places, I felt as if some one had assumed that form to greet me. There +were some beautiful new flowers; among them a snow-white iris, which was +very lovely. It seemed like a miracle that this fair little creature +should come up so unsoiled out of the rough, black earth. + +We crossed the mountain range through a canyon. The road wound round and +round the sides of it, sometimes so narrow that it seemed hardly more +than an Indian trail. We had a true California driver, who shouted out +to us every few minutes, to hold on tight, or all to get together on one +side, or something equally suspicious; but dashed on without any regard +to danger. We were in constant expectation of being hurled to the +bottom; but it quickened our senses to enjoy the beauty about us, to +feel that any moment might be our last. We saw below us great trees that +filled the canyon. They were so very tall, that it appeared as if, after +having grown into what would be recognized everywhere as lofty trees, +they had altered their views altogether as to what a tall tree really +should be, and started anew. We did not wholly enjoy looking down at +their great mossy arms, stretched out as if to receive us. Everywhere +was the most exquisite fragrance, from the Linnaea and other flowers. At +the bottom was a little thread of a brook. After we passed through the +canyon, the brook came out, and went down the mountain side with us. It +was very lively company. Sometimes it hid from us, but we could tell +where it was, by the rushing of the water. Then it would appear again, +whirling and eddying about the rocks. In some places, its bed was of +pure, hard stone, with basins full of foam. Sometimes the rocks were +covered with dark, rich moss. There were retired little falls in it, +that seemed like nuns, so unregarding as they were of all the commotion +about them. Then the whole body of water would gather itself up, and +shoot down some rock, and cut like a sword-blade into the still water +below. We shall long remember that little, leaping, dancing branch of +the Coquille, that runs from the Coast Mountains to the sea. + +Upon learning that we were approaching "Empire City," we attempted a +hasty toilet,--as appropriate for entering a metropolis as circumstances +would permit,--but we were kindly informed that we might spare ourselves +the trouble, as the place consisted at present of but a single house; a +carpenter having established himself there, and, with a far-seeing eye, +given the place its name, and started a settlement by building his own +dwelling, and a play-house in the woods for his little daughter. + +We spent one night in a myrtle-grove. The trees leaned gracefully +together, and the whole grove for miles was made of beautiful arched +aisles. Coming from our shaggy firs, and the rough undergrowth that is +always beneath them, to these smooth, glossy leaves, and clear, open +spaces of fine grass, was like entering fairy-land, or the "good green +wood" of the ballads. I looked for princes and lovers wandering among +them, and felt quite transformed myself. The driver I regarded as a +different man from that moment; to think that he should show so much +good taste as to draw up for the night in that lovely place. + +In coming from the mountain, we had to ride a good deal of the way +without seeing where we were going; and once we found ourselves with a +great roof over our heads, hollowed out of the solid rock, and covered +with dripping maiden's-hair. All the rock about was like flint, and worn +into strange shapes by the water. + +One day we were accompanied quite a distance through the woods by a +female chief, Yaquina. I think that she is a celebrated woman in Oregon, +and that Yaquina Bay was named for her. She was mounted on a little +pony, and riding along in a free and joyous way, looking about at the +green leaves and the sunshine. I thought of Victoria with her heavy +crown, that gives her the sick headache, and wondered how she would like +to exchange with her. + +We were quite interested in some of the people we saw, one of them +especially,--a man whose house had no windows. We felt at first as if we +could not stop with him; but he came out to our wagon, looking so bright +and clean, and had such an air of welcome as he said, "We are not very +well provided, but we are very accommodating," that we at once decided +to stop, particularly as the driver said the horses could not possibly +go enough farther to get to any better place that night. He ushered us +in very hospitably, and looking round the room--the chairs being rather +scarce--said, "There are plenty of seats--on the floor." I saw some +books on a shelf, and, going to look at them, found "Mill's Logic," and +"Tyndall on Sound," and several others, scientific and historical. We +found him, as he said we should, eager to make us comfortable. He +noticed that the baby did not look well, and went out into the woods, +and cut down a little tree that he said would do her good, and urged us +to take it with us. He said that he was generally called in by his +neighbors, in case of sickness or accident. He had learned to help +himself in most ways, as he came there originally with only fifty cents +in his pocket. + +Another old man, at the next stopping-place, made a beautiful picture, +as he sat inside his open door, in a great, rough, home-made armchair, +with a black bear-skin for a pillow,--a large, strong man, with long, +shining, silver hair. We were very much pleased to find that we were to +spend the night there, he looked so interesting. All his talk was about +fights with wild beasts and Indians, and cutting down the big trees, and +making the terrible roads we had been over. There was a good deal of +refinement and gentleness, too, about him. He had in his arms a dear +little child. He had adopted her, he said, because his were all grown +up. She seemed like a soft little bird, so timid and clinging. + +When we came to see our accommodations, we were delighted to find every +thing so clean and agreeable. We expressed our pleasure to him, and he +said, "Yes; a woman, I think, will go a mile or two farther for a clean +sheet; and even a man does not altogether like to be tucked into bed +with a stranger;" which suggests what the customs are there. + + + DECEMBER 20, 1873. + +We were startled to learn, a few days since, that one of our neighbors +had been found dead,--a man about whom there had always been a good +deal of mystery in the village. He lived alone, and never spoke of any +relations or friends. He was a man of very courteous manners, but on +this point he would allow no questions. There was no one to notify of +his death, and nobody appeared to claim his property. + +The first time we ever saw him, he was riding in the woods, on a +handsome horse, with a bright scarlet blanket. He looked so picturesque, +and there was so much grace and dignity about him, that I felt as if he +did not belong anywhere about here. It seemed as if he might have come +riding out of some foreign land, or some distant age,--like a knight +going to a tournament. + +When we came to know him, we could not help wondering what could induce +him to live here. He was thought to be Southern, and it was generally +supposed that some difficulties arising at the time of the war had +brought him here. He seemed disposed to make the best of our dull life, +and always had something that interested him to show us,--a new flower, +or curious shell, or some pretty Indian child. + +The last time we saw him was Saturday night. It must have been only a +few hours before his death, but he appeared in his usual fine health. +The next we knew of him was Monday morning, when some men who lived +near us said that nothing had been seen of him since his light +disappeared Saturday night. As he did not open his house, as usual, on +Sunday, they said to themselves, "He does not like to be disturbed," and +waited till Monday, when they went to the window; and the dog inside, +hearing the noise, came and tore down the curtain, and went back and sat +down beside his master, where he lay on the bed, and licked his face; +and they saw that he was dead. He was tenderly buried by the people of +the village, without religious ceremonies; but they dropped little green +branches into his grave in the way of the Free Masons. I was surprised +at the delicacy of feeling shown in regard to his desire to remain +unknown, rude curiosity concerning any thing peculiar being everywhere +so common. + + + MAY 20, 1874. + +This afternoon we went out a little farther than usual in our boat, and +saw a herd of whales in the distance,--great free creatures, puffing and +snorting, spouting and frolicking, together. The boatman said that a +flap from one of their tails would send our boat clean out of the water, +and turned hastily about, hallooing in the wildest way, to keep them +off. + +On our way back we passed some deserted buildings on a sandy point. We +inquired about them, and were told that they were the commencement of a +city, originally called "New York;" but, having disappointed its +founders, the Indian name of _Alki_ (By and By) was given to it in +derision. + +We saw in the woods near here some magnificent rhododendrons, ten or +twelve feet tall, covered with clusters of rose-colored flowers. + +One of the boatmen has a pet seal that we sometimes take out in the boat +with us. We put him occasionally into the water, feeling that he must be +longing to go; but he always stays near the boat, and comes back if we +whistle to him, and seems quite companionable. Who would have believed +that one of these cold sea creatures could ever have been enticed into +such intimacy? Our only idea of them, before this experience, had been +of a little dark head here and there in the distance, in the midst of +great wastes of water, where, as Lowell says, they-- + + "Solemnly lift their faces gray, + Making it yet more lonely." + +One of the captains we sailed with told us that he had at one time a +gray eagle he had tamed when young, that often took coasting-voyages +with him, leaving the vessel occasionally, and returning to it, even +when it had sailed many miles; never, by mistake, alighting on another +craft instead of his. Sometimes, when out on a voyage to San Francisco, +it would leave the vessel, and return to his house on Port Discovery +Bay. + + + OCTOBER 15, 1874. + +As we were passing along near the shore to-day, in our boat, we saw an +Indian woman sitting alone on the beach, moaning, and dipping her hands +continually in the water. Her canoe was drawn up beside her. We stopped, +and asked her if any one was dead. She pointed to a square box[2] in the +canoe, and said, "_mika tenas_" (my child). She said, afterwards, that +she was as tall as I, and "_hyas closhe_" (so good)! + +As the poor Indian mother looked round at the waves and the sky to +comfort her, I thought, what is there, after all, that civilization can +offer, beyond what is given by Nature alone, to every one in deepest +need? + +Yeomans, our old Port Angeles friend, called on us to-day. Every year +since we left there, he has included us in his annual visit to the +Seattle tribes. Each time we see him I think must be the last, he looks +so very old; but every autumn brings him back, apparently unchanged. He +seems to alter as slowly as the old firs about him. I am surprised +always at his light tread; he bears so little weight on his feet, but +glides along as if he were still in the woods, and would not have a leaf +rustle. + + + FOOTNOTES: + +[2] The crouching position, the favorite one of the Indians in life, is +preserved by them in the disposition of their dead. + + + + +XII. + + Puget Sound to San Francisco.--A Model Vessel.--The Captain's + Relation to his Men.--Rough Water.--Beauty of the Sea.--Golden-Gate + Entrance.--San Francisco Streets.--Santa Barbara.--Its + Invalids.--Our Spanish Neighbors.--The Mountains and the + Bay.--Kelp.--Old Mission.--A Simoom.--The Channel Islands.--A New + Type of Chinamen.--An Old Spanish House. + + + SAN FRANCISCO, March 20, 1875. + +We reached here last night, after a rough voyage from Puget Sound. We +had all our worst weather first. After three or four days came a bright, +clear morning, and the captain called me on deck to see the sunrise. It +was all so changed, so beautiful, so joyous,--all around the exquisite +green light flashing through the waves as they broke; and as far off as +we could see, in every direction, the water leaping and tossing itself +into spray. A strong wind had taken the vessel in charge; and it flew +swiftly over the water, with no changes needed, no altering of sails, no +orders of any kind, and nobody seemed to be about. The captain fixed me +a hammock in a sail; and I lay there hour after hour, with no company +but the warm, bright sunshine straying over the deck. I felt as if it +were an enchanted vessel, on which I was travelling alone. + +Cleopatra's barge could not have been more carefully kept. When the men +came out to their daily work, all their spare moments were spent in +polishing and cleaning every little tarnished or dingy spot. At first it +used to seem to me like a wanton risk of life, with the vessel rearing +and plunging so that we did not dare to stir on deck, to see them climb +the tall masts, and cling there, scraping and oiling them, to bring out +the veining of the wood. Perhaps it was partly as a discipline in +steadiness, that they were directed to do it,--to get used to working at +such a height. What a contrast to the tawdriness of the steamers we had +been accustomed to, to see every thing about us made beautiful by +exquisite neatness, done chiefly, too, for their own eyes! I saw, then, +why the sunshine was so pleasant on the deck; it was because there was +nothing about the vessel out of keeping with the pure beauty of nature. +I felt safer, too, to think how all things, small and great, conformed +to the laws of Heaven. + +One day I asked the captain if he had many of the same men with him as +on the last voyage we took with him. I remembered his pointing out to me +then the fair, honest face of a young Swedish sailor at the wheel. He +said most of his men made many voyages with him. I spoke of another +captain, who told us his men were almost all new every time. He said +that was generally the master's fault; that a captain should not speak +to his men just the same in fair weather and in foul. I looked with +interest, afterward, to see his management of them, and found that, +while every thing went on smoothly, he took pains to converse with them, +and to become somewhat acquainted with each man. Then, in emergencies, +his brief, clear directions were immediately comprehended, and promptly +obeyed. I began to understand the secret of his short voyages (for his +vessel had the reputation of being the fastest sailer between San +Francisco and the Sound): it was partly from his management of the ship, +and partly from his management of the men. + +We started in a snow-storm, and at first every thing seemed to be +against us. He had told us that March was not generally a very quiet +month on the water. We took a tug-boat to tow us out to the entrance of +the Straits; but, as the weather grew continually worse, the steamer +was obliged to leave us, with wind dead ahead, and against that we had +to beat out. As soon as we had made Cape Flattery, the wind changed, and +became what would have been a good wind for getting out, but was just +the opposite of what we wanted for going down the coast. These reverses +the captain received with unruffled serenity; although he dearly +delights in his quick trips, and was ready to seize with alacrity the +least breath in his favor. After all, he made one of his best voyages, +by the help of the strong, steady wind that drove him on at the last. It +was perhaps as much, however, from his vigilance in watching when there +was so little to take advantage of, and seizing all the little bits of +help it was possible to get, as it was from the great help of that +powerful wind; for other vessels that started with us, and even days +before us, have not come in yet, and they all had the great wind alike. + +R---- ventured to inquire of the captain one day, when we were beating +about the mouth of the Straits, as to the feasibility of going into +Neeah Bay, while it was yet possible to do so; but the captain said he +preferred to beat about, and then he was ready to take advantage of the +first chance in his favor, which he might lose if he were in shelter. + +One day it was more than I could enjoy. The wind roared so loud, and the +sound of the waves was so heavy, that I retreated to my berth, and lay +down; but I could not keep my mind off the thought of how deep the water +was under us. After a while I went on deck and sat there again, and the +vessel began to plunge so that it seemed as if it were trying to stand +upon one end. I felt so frightened that I thought I would speak to the +captain, and ask him if he ever knew a lumber-vessel to tip over; and if +I dared I would suggest that he should carry a little less sail. I knew +that he was once on a vessel that turned bottom upward in the Straits, +and he was left on the overturned hull for three days, in a snow-storm, +before help came to him. I spoke to him, and he did not give me much of +an answer; but, a little while after, he came to me, and said, "Are you +able to go to the forward part of the ship with me? I should like to +have you, if you can." So he helped me along to the bow, where it seemed +almost too frightful to go, and said, "Kneel down;" and knelt down by +me, and said, "Look under the ship." It was one of the most beautiful +sights I ever saw,--such a height of foam, and rainbows over it. The +dark water beside it seemed to be full of little, sharp, shining +needles. I suppose it was moving so quickly that made the elongated +drops appear so. Then he took me to the other side, that was in shadow; +and there the water was whirled into the most beautiful shapes, standing +out distinct from each other, from the swiftness of the motion, that +held them poised, like exquisite combinations of snowflakes, only more +airy. + +Presently he said, "Men don't often speak of these things to each other, +but I feel the beauty of it. Nights when the vessel is moving so fast, I +come and watch here for hours and hours, and dream over it." When I +thought about it afterward, I wondered how he could know that the way to +answer my fear was to show me what was so beautiful. I was not afraid +any more, whatever the vessel did. + +Those three days and nights of lonely watching, floating about in the +Straits, must have been a great experience to him, and made him +different from what he would otherwise have been; certainly different +from most men. + +Before sunrise, yesterday morning, we passed the "Seal-Rocks;" as the +light just began to reveal a little of the dark, dreamy hills on each +side of the long, beautiful entrance to the harbor. A flood of light +filled it as we entered, and it must have looked just as it did when it +was first named the "Golden Gate." All along, for miles, the water +throws itself up into the air, and falls in fountains on the rocky +shore. I cannot conceive of a more beautiful harbor in the world; and, +as we were two or three hours in coming from the sea up to the city, we +had time enough to enjoy it. + +The southern headland of the entrance is Point Lobos (_Punta de los +Lobos_, Point of Wolves); the northern, Point Bonita (Beautiful Point). + + + MARCH 25, 1875. + +We could never have stepped out of our wilderness into a stranger city +than this. From the variety of foreign names and faces that I see in the +streets, I should think I were travelling over the whole world. On one +side of us lives a Danish family, on the other a French. I walk along +and look up at the signs,--"Scandinavian Society;" "Yang Tzy Association +of Shanghae;" "Nuevo Continente Restaurant Mejicano;" "Angelo Beffa, +Helvetia Exchange," with the white cross and plumed hat of Switzerland. +One street is all Chinese, with shiny-haired women, and little mandarins +with long cues of braided red silk. The babies seem to be dressed in +imitation of the idol in the temple; their tight caps have the same +tinsel and trimmings, and the resemblance their little dry faces bear to +it is very curious. + +Next to "Tung Wo," "Sun Loy," and "Kum Lum," come "Witkowski," +"Bukofski," "Rowminski,"--who keep Russian caviar, etc. Some day, when +we feel a little tired of our ordinary food, we think of trying the +caviar, or perhaps a gelatinous bird's nest, for variety. + +Besides the ordinary residents, we meet many sailors from the hundreds +of vessels always in the harbor,--Greeks, Lascars, Malays, and Kanakas. +Their picturesque costumes and Oriental faces add still more to the +foreign look of the place. + +In the midst of the greatest rush and confusion of one of the principal +business streets, stands a man with an electrical machine, bawling in +stentorian tones, "Nothing like it to steady the nerves, and strengthen +the heart,"--ready, for a small fee, to administer on the spot a current +of greater or less intensity to whoever may desire it. The contrast is +most ludicrous between the need that undoubtedly exists for some such +quieting influence, and the utter inefficacy of it, if applied, under +such circumstances. + + + OCTOBER 20, 1875. + +We have just returned from Santa Barbara. How buoyant the air seems, and +how brisk the people, after our languid, dreamy life there! I, who went +there in robust health, spent six months in bed, for no other reason, +that I could understand, than the influence of the climate. Perhaps, on +homoeopathic principles, as Santa Barbara makes sick people well, it +makes well people sick. A physician that I have seen since coming here +tells me that he went there himself for his own health, and was so much +affected by the general atmosphere of sickness, that he was obliged to +return. It is a depressing sight, certainly, to see so many feeble, +consumptive-looking people about, as we did there. Where we lived I +think it was also malarious, from the _estero_ that winds like a snake +about the lowlands near the bay. The favorite part of the city is near +the foot-hills. It is probably more healthful there, but we cannot live +without seeing at least one little silver line of the sea. So we took up +our abode in the midst of the Spanish population, near the water. + +We found it very difficult to get any one to help us in our work, +although we had supposed that in the midst of poor people we should be +favorably situated in that respect. We were told, however, that the +true Castilian, no matter how poor, never works; that we might perhaps +find some one among the Mexicans to assist us. + +Our neighbors were quite interesting to watch, and we were pleased with +the simplicity of their lives. They had no apparent means of support, +unless it might be lassoing and taming some wild mustangs, which they +were sometimes engaged in doing; but this seemed to be more of a +recreation than a business with them. They were never harassed nor +hurried about any thing. They lived mostly outside their little dark +dwelling, only seeking it at noon for a _siesta_. In the morning they +placed a mat under the trees, and put the babies down naked to play on +it, shaking dawn the leaves for play-things. Sometimes they cut a great +piece of meat into narrow strips, and hung it all over our fence to dry. +This dried meat, and melons, constituted a large part of their food. The +old mother was called _Gracia_, but she could never in her youth have +been more graceful than now. She was as picturesque still as she could +ever have been, and perfectly erect. She wore a little black cap, like a +priest's cap, on the top of her head, and her long gray hair floated out +from it over her shoulders; and, with her black mantle thrown as +gracefully about her as any young person could have worn it, we used to +see her starting out every morning to enjoy herself abroad. She appeared +one morning at our window, before we were up, with her arms full of +roses covered with dew, eager to give them to us while they were so +fresh. + +We noticed her sometimes out in the yard, preparing some of the family +food, by the aid of a curious flat stone supported on three legs, and a +stone pestle or roller,--a very primitive arrangement. Kneeling down +upon the ground, she placed her corn, or Chili peppers--or whatever +article she wished to grind--upon the stone; and, taking the hand-stone, +she rolled it vigorously back and forth over the flat surface, crushing +up the material, which fell off at the lower end into a dish below. We +saw her making _tomales_, composed of bruised green corn,--crushed by +the process just described,--mixed with chopped meat, and seasoned with +Chili peppers or other pungent flavoring, and made up into slender +rolls, each enveloped in green-corn leaves, tied at the ends, and baked +in the ashes,--resulting in a very savory article of food. + +Our only New-England acquaintances at Santa Barbara had evidently +modified very much their ideas of living. We found them with bare +floors; a great bunch of pampas grass, and a guitar hanging against the +wall, in true Spanish fashion; the room being otherwise mostly empty. + +We had on one side the dark Santa Ynez Mountains, and on the other the +sea. The mountains are not very high but bold in their outlines; and the +number of crags and ravines gives them a beautiful play of light and +shadow. Very early one morning I saw a great gray eagle fly overhead, +back to his home in their dark recesses. Some of the slopes are covered +with grape-vines, and some with olive-trees. Far up in the hollows can +be seen the little white houses of the people who keep the bee-ranches. +They live up so high because the flowers last longer there. The +mountains form a semicircle on one side of the town; on the other is the +beach. An immense bed of kelp, extending for miles and miles along the +shore, forms the most beautiful figures, rising and falling as it floats +on the water,--so gigantic, and at the same time so graceful. It is of +every beautiful shade of pale yellow and brown. In winter the gales +sometimes drive it shoreward in such vast quantities that vessels are +compelled to anchor outside of it. + +There is an old mission there, built in the Moorish style, where all +visitors are hospitably received by the Franciscan friars in charge. +This mission, like all those we have seen, has a choice situation, +sheltered from wind, and with good soil about it. The old monks knew how +to make themselves comfortable. Their cattle roamed over boundless +pastures, herded by mounted _vaqueros_; their grain-fields ripened under +cloudless skies; their olive-orchards, carefully watered and tended by +their Indian subjects, yielded rich returns. + +We made the acquaintance of a gentleman from Morocco, who says that the +climate there is almost the same as that of Santa Barbara. I suppose the +simoom we had there in the summer was a specimen of it. A fierce, hot +wind blew from the Mojave desert. There was no possibility of comfort in +the house, nor out of it. We could escape the storm of wind and dust by +going in, but there was still the choking feeling of the air. The +residents of the place could say nothing in defence of it,--only that +did not occur often. + +We are told that on the 17th of June, 1859, there was much more of a +genuine simoom. So hot a blast of air swept over the town as to fill the +people with terror. This burning wind raised dense clouds of fine dust. +Birds dropped dead from the trees. The people shut themselves up in +their thick adobe houses. The mercury rapidly rose to 133 degrees, and +continued so for three hours. Trees were blighted, and gardens ruined. + +Sailors approaching the coast in a fog can recognize the Santa Barbara +Channel by the smell of bitumen which floats on the water. Some of the +old navigators thought their vessels were on fire when they noticed it. +It gives a luminous appearance to the water at night. + +On one side of Santa Barbara is a great table-land, called the _Mesa_, +where there is always a sea-breeze that blows across fields of grain and +fragrant grass. That would be a beautiful place to live, but there is no +water. The experiment of artesian wells is about being tried. + +From the _Mesa_ we looked off to the channel islands,--Santa Cruz, Santa +Rosa, San Miguel, and Anacapa,--bold, rocky, and picturesque. Anacapa +was formerly a great resort for the seal and otter; and the natives from +Alaska came down to hunt them, and collected large quantities of their +valuable skins. The island is of sandstone, all honeycombed with +cavities of different sizes, sometimes making beautiful arches. There is +no water on this island, and only cactus and coarse grass grow there. +Others of the group have wood and water, and settlements of fishermen. +On some of them, interesting historical relics have been +discovered,--supposed to be the remains of a temple to the sun, with +idols and images. There are also beautiful fossils and corals and +abalone shells. + +It was hard to make up our minds to leave so lovely a place; but as I +looked back, the last morning, to fix the picture of it in my mind, I +saw the little white clouds that come before the hot wind, rising above +the mountains, and was glad that we were going. Two immense columns of +smoke rose out of the canyons, and stood over the place, like genii. In +the dry weather it seems that the mountains are almost always on fire, +which modifies what is called the natural climate of Santa Barbara, so +as to make it very uncomfortable. Its admirers must come from some worse +place,--probably often from the interior; no one from Puget Sound ever +praises it. We met several families from that region; and they were all +anxious to get back to the clear mountain atmosphere of their northern +climate, which is as equable as that of Santa Barbara, though far +different in character. + +We saw there some Chinese quite unlike any that we have met before. We +have heard that most of those who come to the Pacific Coast are of an +inferior kind, chiefly Tartars. There we saw some quite handsome ones, +who had more of an Arab look, and had also elegant manners,--one, +especially, who had a little office near us. On the birthday of the +Emperor of China, his room was ornamented with a picture of Confucius, +before which he burned scented wood; and hanging over it was an +air-castle, with the motto, "God is Love." + +We visited one day an interesting-looking old house, near our quarter of +the town, to see if we could live in it. It was one of the finest there +before the place became Americanized, and belonged to an old Spanish +don. It stands in the centre of spacious and beautiful grounds, and the +avenue leading to it is bordered with olive-trees, which were in bloom. +There was a curious, delicate fragrance in the air, quite new to me, +which I attributed to them. It was as different from all other odors, as +their color is from that of all other trees. They have a little greenish +blossom, something like a daphne, and the foliage is of beautiful shades +of gray-green, from an almost black to light silvery color. They seem +like old Spaniards themselves, they have such an ancient, reserved look. +Two magnificent pepper-trees, with their light, graceful foliage +trailing from the branches, stand near the door. The house is shut in +with dark heavy porches on all sides, and covered with vines. The +windows are in such deep recesses, owing to the great thickness of the +walls of the house, that the rooms were but dimly lighted, although it +was early in the afternoon. Some of the windows are of stained glass, +and others of ground glass, to lessen the light still more. It is an +adobe house; and the walls are so damp that I gave up all idea of living +in it, as soon as I laid my hand on them. The Spaniards, I see, all +build their houses on a plan that originated in a hot country, where the +idea of comfort was all of coolness and shade. This house, and the one +opposite where we lived, are covered with passion-flowers. Near the +latter are two dark evergreen-trees,--the Santa Cruz spruce,--trimmed so +as to be very stiff and straight, standing like dark wardens before the +door. There is a hedge of pomegranate, with its flame-like flowers, +which seem to be filled with light. The pepper-tree abounds in Santa +Barbara, and the eucalyptus is being planted a good deal. It has a +special power to absorb malaria from the air, and makes unhealthy places +wholesome. + + + + +XIII. + + Our Aerie.--The Bay and the Hills.--The Little + Gnome.--Earthquake.--Temporary Residents.--The + Trade-Wind.--Seal-Rocks.--Farallon Islands.--Exhilarating + Air.--Approach of Summer.--Centennial + Procession.--Suicides.--Mission Dolores.--Father Pedro Font and his + Expedition.--The Mission Indians.--Chinese Feast of the + Dead.--Curious Weather. + + + SAN FRANCISCO, October 30, 1875. + +We have found a magnificent situation. Our little house is perched on +such a height, that every one wonders how we ever discovered it. The +site of the city was originally a collection of immense sandhills, on +the sides and tops of which the houses were built, many of them before +the streets were laid out and graded. When the grades were finally +determined, and the hills cut through,--as some of them were,--houses +were often left perched far above, on the edge of a cliff, and almost as +inaccessible as a feudal castle. I feel as if ours might be an eagle's +nest, and enjoy the wildness and solitude of it. So does our Scotch +shepherd dog, who has been used to lonely places. Sometimes, just as the +sun is rising, we see him sitting out on the sandhills, looking about +with such a contented expression that it seems as if he smiled. He opens +his mouth to drink in the wind, as if it were a delicious draught to +him. + +The hills are covered with sage-brush, full of little twittering birds. +My bed is between two windows, and they fly across from one to the +other, without minding me at all. Opposite is Alcatraz, a fortified +island, but very peaceful-looking, the waves breaking softly all around +it. It has still the Spanish name of the white pelicans with which it +used to be covered. The commander of the fort died since we came here, +and was carried across the water, with music, to Angel Island, to be +buried. + +Across the bay is a low line of hills, with softly rounded outlines. +They are of pale russet color, from the red earth, and thin, dried +grass, that covers them. Farther to the north is Mount Tamalpias, with +sharper outlines. + + + NOVEMBER 8, 1875. + +The China boys generally refuse to come out here to live with us, saying +it is "too far, too far." The unsettled appearance of this part of the +city does not please them. To-day we succeeded in securing a small one. +He is a curious-looking little creature, with a high pointed head, +stiff, black hair, and small, sparkling eyes. He seems like a little +gnome, and might have been living in the bowels of the earth, in mines +and caverns, with black coal and bright jewels about him. Before he +would agree to come, he said he must go and consult the idol in the +temple. He burned little fragrant sticks before him; but how he divined +what his pleasure might be, I could not tell. + +We hesitated about taking him, considering his very stunted appearance; +but he said, "Me heap smart," and that settled it. "Heap" must be a word +the Chinese have picked up at the mines. It is in constant requisition +in any attempt to converse with them. + +Last night we had a heavy shock of earthquake. How different it is from +merely reading that the crust of the earth is thin, and that there is +fire under it, to feel it tremble under your feet! I was glad to have +one thing more made real to me, that before meant nothing. It was a +strange, deep trembling, as if every thing were sliding away from us. + + + NOVEMBER 18, 1875. + +It gives one a lonesome feeling to see how many people here lead +unsettled lives, looking upon some other place as their home. Even the +children, hearing so much talk about the East, seem to have an idea that +they really belong somewhere else. One of our little neighbors said to +me, "I have never been home;" although she, and all her grown-up +brothers and sisters, were born and brought up here. Many of the customs +of the place are adapted to a temporary way of living. In most parts of +the city, it would be hard to find a street without signs of "Furnished +rooms to let." Besides innumerable restaurants, a flying kitchen travels +about, with every thing cooking as it goes along, and clean-looking men, +with white aprons, to serve the food; one ringing a bell, and looking +out in every direction, to see what is wanted. + +The numerous windmills, for raising water, give the city a lively look. +The wind keeps them always in motion. The constant whirring of the +wheels, and the general breezy look of things, distinguish this place +from all others that I have seen. Sir Francis Drake, entering the bay +nearly three hundred years ago, refers, with great delight, to "a franke +wind," that took him "into a safe and good baye." There was, for a long +time, some doubt as to which of several ports he made. I think that +mention of the wind settles it. The identical wind has been blowing with +undiminished vigor ever since. In summer (the time he was here), it will +carry a vessel in against the strongest tide. + +The city is built mostly of wood. The absence of foliage, and the +neutral color of the houses, give the streets a dull gray look, here and +there redeemed by the scarlet geranium, which, if not a native, is most +thoroughly naturalized,--it grows so sturdily, even in the poorest +yards. + + + APRIL 30, 1876. + +We had a long ride out to the Seal-Rocks, past great wavy hills, with +patches of gold, brighter than the dandelions and buttercups are at +home. This was the eschcholtzia, or California poppy. Occasionally we +passed great tracts of lupine. The lowland was a sea of blue iris. + +Suddenly, as we surmounted a height, the ocean rolled in before us, line +after line of breakers, on a broad beach. When we reached Point Lobos we +saw the two great rocks, far out in the water, covered with brown seals +that lay in the sun like flocks of sheep, and little slippery, shining +ones all the time crawling up out of the water, and dropping back again. +As the vessels pass out of the bay, they go near enough to hear them +bark; but nothing frightens them away, nor discomposes them in the +least, although they are only a few miles from the city, and have a +great many visitors. They are protected by law from molestation. + +We looked off to the Farallon Islands, which are one of the chief +landmarks for vessels approaching the Golden Gate. There was formerly a +settlement of Russians there, who hunted the seal and the otter. These +islands are still a great resort for seals, also for cormorants and +sea-gulls; and the large speckled eggs of the birds are gathered in +quantities, and brought to the San Francisco market for sale. They were +called by the Spaniards "_Farallons de los Frayles_" (Islands of the +Friars), _farallon_ being a sharp-pointed island. + +There is a marvellous exhilaration in the air. The enthusiastic Bayard +Taylor said, that, in his first drive round the bay, he felt like Julius +Caesar, Milo of Crotana, and Gen. Jackson, rolled into one. It is an +acknowledged fact, that both men and animals can work harder and longer +here, without apparent injury or fatigue, than anywhere on the Eastern +coast. We have heard it suggested that the abundant actinic rays in the +dry, cloudless atmosphere are the cause of this invigoration, and also +of the unusual brilliancy of the flowers. + + + JUNE 1, 1876. + +The only way in which we know that summer is coming is by the more +chilling winds, the increased dust, the tawny color of the hills, and +the general dying look of things. Every thing is bare, sunny, and sandy. + +We are surrounded with great wastes of sand, which the wind drives +against the house, so that it seems always like a storm. Sometimes, when +I sit at work at the window, a gopher comes out of the sandhill, and +sits down outside it. His company makes me feel still more remote from +all civilized things. + + + JULY 4, 1876. + +We had a splendid Centennial procession. Things that we imitate at home +are all real here. Instead of having our own people dressed up in +foreign costume, we have Italians, French, Swiss, Russians, Germans, +Chinese, Turks, etc., all ready for any occasion. The newspapers +mentioned as a remarkable fact, that there were no suicides for a week +beforehand; every one seemed to have something to look forward to. + +The night before the celebration, the French residents built up a great +arch, as high as the highest buildings, with fine decorations, for the +procession to pass under. Some doubt was expressed about the Germans +liking to pass beneath the French arch; so three thousand Germans, to +show their good-will, went and sung the Marseillaise under it. + +The Jews have the handsomest church in San Francisco, which they +decorated with the greatest enthusiasm, and had Centennial services, in +which they said that they, of all people in the world, ought to +appreciate America, as, before they came here, they were outcasts +everywhere, while here they were unmolested and prosperous. + +I liked best in the procession the Highlanders, who were real Scotchmen, +in plaids, and bonnets with eagle feathers. Every one had a claymore by +his side, and a thistle on his breast; and there were pipers playing on +bagpipes to lead them. + +There are a great many Germans in San Francisco, and the brewers had a +car dressed with yellow barley and other ripe grains. The great fat men +looked so full of enjoyment, it was really picturesque to see them, +under the nodding grain. For the first time in my life I appreciated +them, as I saw how poorly a thin man would convey the idea of comfort. +There are a good many Italian fishermen here too. They are always just +fit for processions, without any alteration whatever; their pretty green +boat "Venezia," and their Captain Caesar Celso Morena, seem made for it. +They had Roman guards, in golden scale armor. The California Jaegers +with their wild brown faces, that seemed to transport us to the great +hot plains where they herd and lasso the half-tamed animals, walked too +in the procession; and the baby camel, born lately in San Francisco, a +great pet. They were led by the silver cornet band, whose music was +exquisitely clear and sweet. + + + AUGUST 2, 1876. + +In this homeless city, built upon sandhills, and continually desolated +by winds, it is no wonder that the blue bay looks attractive, especially +to any one thrust aside in the continual vicissitudes of this unsettled +life. The first news we heard, on our return from Santa Barbara, was +that Ralston, the great banker, and one of the chief favorites in social +life, had sought the calm of its still depths as better than any thing +life could offer. How serenely the water lay in the sunshine, as we +looked at it, hearing this news, which had stirred the city to its +utmost! Here all secrets are guarded, all perplexities end. The passion +for suicide seeks mostly this pathway, though there is an unprecedented +number of intentional deaths of all kinds. + +This morning's paper records the suicide of a Frenchman, who half +reconciled me to his view, by the cheerful, intelligent way in which he +spoke. He left a letter stating that he died with no ill feeling toward +any one, and full of faith in God as a Father; that he did not consider +that he was to blame for what he was about to do, as he had tried in +vain to get work,--probably because he was wholly deaf. He made so +little fuss about what almost every one would have considered a terrible +calamity,--that his life should end in this way,--that it seemed a pity +it could not otherwise have been made known what kind of a man he was. +He gave a little account of himself, beginning, "I was born in the +province of Haute Vienne, in France, and have lived mostly at the +mines," going on to speak as quietly of what he was about to do, as he +might if he were going to move from one town to another, not having +succeeded in the first; ending by saying, "I have taken the poison,--an +acid taste, but not disagreeable." He made only one request,--that a +package of old letters should be laid on his breast, and buried with +him. A valuable member of society might have been saved, if the result +in his case could have been the same as with a man we knew in Santa +Barbara, who, becoming discouraged by continual rheumatism, combined +with poverty, took a large dose of strychnine, with suicidal intent, +but, to his astonishment, was entirely cured of his rheumatism; and the +notoriety he acquired presently procured him an abundance of work. + +In the winter a man who called himself Professor Blake, a "mind-reader," +gave some exhibitions of his power, which were considered wonderful. It +might have been better for him, however, not to know what people +thought, as it proved. A few weeks ago a man was discovered dead, with +this letter beside him: "I die of a weary and a heavy heart, but of a +sound mind. If there should be one or two persons to whom I should be +known, let them, out of charity to the living, withhold their knowledge. +Should my eyes be open, close them, that I may not chance, even in +death, to see any more of this hated world." Notwithstanding his wish, +of course every effort was made to find out who he was; and it proved to +be this "mind-reader." + +These cases are very depressing to think of; only that it makes one feel +more certain of another life, to see how unfinished and unsatisfactory +some things are here. + + + SEPTEMBER 6, 1876. + +I have found two beautiful places to visit,--the old Spanish graveyard +of the Mission Dolores, and Lone Mountain Cemetery. They have long, deep +grass, and bright, exquisite flowers. On the waste tracks about the +cemetery, I can still find the fragrant little _yerba buena_ (good +herb), from which the Spanish Fathers named the spot where San Francisco +now stands, in the primitive times, long before gold was discovered. The +cross on the summit of Lone Mountain, erected by the Franciscan friars, +is quite impressive from its height and size. It is seen from all parts +of the city. + +The Mission Dolores (Mission of our Lady of Sorrow) is south of the +city, sheltered from the wind, with a clear stream flowing near. The +fathers displayed their customary shrewdness in the selection of this +situation. The bleak sandhills to the north they left for the future +city, and settled themselves in this pleasant valley. The pioneer +missionary of Northern California--Father Junipero Serra, that rigorous +old Spaniard who used to beat his breast with stones--established +himself here, with his Franciscan monks, in the fall of 1776. His old +church is still standing,--an adobe building, with earthen floor, the +walls and ceiling covered with rude paintings of saints and angels. + +The Presidio of San Francisco was established in the spring preceding, +by a colony sent out by the Viceroy of Mexico, accompanied by a military +command. Father Pedro Font came with the expedition. He was a scientific +man, and recorded his observations of the country and the people. Just +before starting, a mass was sung for their happy journey, to the Most +Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, whom they chose for their patroness, +together with the Archangel Michael and their Father Saint Francis. + +When they reached the vicinity of the Gila River, the governors of +several of the rancherias came out to meet them, with the alcalde, and a +body of Pimas Indians, mounted on horses, who presented them with the +scalps of several Apaches they had slain the day before. At the next +stopping-place along the river, they were met by about a thousand +Indians, who were very hospitable, and made a great shed of green +boughs for them, in which to pass the night. + +Father Pedro observed that the country must formerly have been inhabited +by a different race, as the ground was strewn with fragments of painted +earthenware, which the Pimas did not understand making. He saw also the +ruins of an ancient building, with walls four and six feet thick. On the +east and west sides were round openings, through which, according to the +Indian traditions, the prince who lived there used to salute the rising +and setting sun. + +The company travelled on, singing masses, and resting by the way, until +they reached what Father Pedro called "a miracle of Nature, the port of +ports" (San Francisco Bay). He ascended a table-land, that ended in a +steep white rock, to admire what he calls the "delicious +view,"--including the bay and its islands, and the ocean, with the +_Farallons_ in the distance, of which he made a sketch. He mentioned +Angel Island, which still bears that name. The commandant planted a +cross on the steep white rock, as the symbol of possession, and also at +Point Reyes (Point of Kings), and selected the table-land for the site +of the Presidio. Father Font explored the country about the bay, and +made some surveys. He noticed some Indians with launches made of +_tules_ (bulrushes), in which they navigated the streams. + +It would have been fortunate for the Indians if all the priests sent +among them had been of as gentle a spirit as Father Pedro. He says, in +his account of this expedition, that they received him everywhere with +demonstrations of joy, with dancing and singing. But, some years after, +we hear that the soldiers were sent out from the Presidio to lasso the +Indians. They were brought in like wild beasts, immediately baptized, +and their Christianization commenced. Kotzebue, one of the early Russian +explorers, says that in his time (1824) he saw them at Santa Clara +driven into the church like a flock of sheep, by an old ragged Spaniard, +armed with a stick. Some of the more humane priests complained bitterly +of this violent method of converting the heathen, and insisted that all +the Indians who had been brought in by force should be restored "to +their gentile condition." + +In the old Mission of Santa Barbara, we saw some of the frightful +pictures considered so very effective in converting them. One special +painting, representing in most vivid colors the torments of hell, was +said of itself alone to have led to hosts of conversions; but a picture +of paradise, in the same church, which was very subdued in its +treatment and coloring, had failed to produce any effect. + +The services of the Indians belonged for life to the missions to which +they were attached. They were taught many useful things. They watered +and kept the gardens and fields of grain, and tended the immense herds +of cattle that roamed over the hills. Traders came to the coast to buy +hides and tallow from the ranches and the missions, and the product of +their fields. For seventy years, these old monks, supported by Spain, +were the rulers of California. Spain's foreign and colonial troubles, +however, led her to appropriate to other purposes the "Pious Fund" by +which the missions were maintained. Jealousy of their growing power, and +revolutions in Mexico, hastened their downfall. The discovery of gold in +1848 introduced the element which was to prove their final destruction. + +It is a curious fact that the first adventurer who ever set foot on this +soil, Sir Francis Drake, although he was here for only a month, +repairing his ship, became convinced that there was no earth about here +but had some probable show of gold or silver in it. If news had spread +then as rapidly as now, in these days of newspapers and telegraphs, it +would not have lain two hundred and seventy years untouched, and then +been discovered only by accident. + + + NOVEMBER 3, 1876. + +A few days ago, I wandered on to the solitary Chinese quarter of Lone +Mountain, and happened upon the celebration of the Feast of the Dead. +Hundreds and hundreds of Chinamen were bowing over the graves in the +sand. Each grave had on it little bright-colored tapers burning, +sometimes large fires beside, made of the red and silver paper they use +at the New Year. Each had curious little cups and teapots and +chop-sticks, rice, sugar-cane, and roast chicken. I saw some little +white cakes, inscribed with red letters, similar to children's Christmas +cakes with names on them. Every thing that seems nice to a Chinaman was +there. They were so engrossed in what they were doing, that they took no +notice whatever of my observation of them. At each grave they spread a +mat, and arranged the food. Then some one that I took for the nearest +friend clasped his hands, and bowed in a sober, reverent way over the +grave; then poured one of the little cups of rice wine out on the sand. +It reminded me of the offerings I saw made to the spirit of the dead +Indian child, at Port Townsend. Then two dead men were brought out to +be buried, while we stood there; and the instant they were covered with +the sand, the Chinamen called to each other, "fy, fy!" (quick, +quick!),--to light the fire, as if it were to guide them on the way, as +the Indians think. They threw into the air a great many little papers. I +asked if those were letters to the dead Chinamen, and they said, +"Yes,"--but I am not sure if they understood me. + +It produced such a strange effect, in this wild, desert-looking place, +to see all these curious movements, and the fires and the feasts on the +graves, that I felt utterly lost. It was as if I had stepped, for a few +moments, into another world. + +The Chinamen are so very saving, never wasting any thing, and they have +to work so hard for all their money, and pay such high duty on the +things they import from home, that they would not incur all this expense +unless they felt sure that it answered some end. It is a matter for +endless pondering what they really believe about it. They are satisfied +with a very poor, little, frugal meal for themselves; but on this +occasion every thing was done in the greatest style. At one place was a +whole pig, roasted and varnished; and every grave had a fat, roasted +chicken, with its head on, and dressed and ornamented in the most +fanciful manner. The red paper which they use for visiting-cards at the +New Year, and seem to be very choice of then, they sacrificed in the +most lavish way at this time. They fired off a great many crackers to +keep off bad spirits. + +Most of the graves were only little sand-mounds for temporary use, until +the occupants should be carried back to China; but one was a great +semi-circular vault, so grand and substantial-looking that it suggested +the Egyptian Catacombs. Over one division of the graveyard, I saw a +notice which I could partly read, saying that no woman or child could be +buried there. + +The Chinese are so out of favor here now, that the State Government is +trying to limit the number that shall be allowed to come. About a +thousand arrive on each steamer. How foolish it seems to be afraid of +them, especially for their good qualities! the chief complaint against +them being that they are so industrious, economical, and persevering, +that sooner or later all the work here will fall into their hands. + + + JANUARY 9, 1877. + +We have been having some very strange weather here,--earthquake weather, +it is called by some persons. It seems as if it came from internal +fires. It has been so warm at night that we could not sleep, even with +two open windows. + +The chief thought of every one is, "When will it rain?" Prayers are +offered in the churches for rain. It is also the subject of betting; and +the paper this morning said that several of the prominent stockbrokers +were confined to their rooms, with low spirits, on account of the +condition of stocks, caused by the general depression from the dry +season. We watch the sky a good deal. Strange clouds appear and +disappear, but nothing comes of them. To-day, when I first looked out of +my window, there were two together, before it, most human-like in +appearance, that seemed to hold out their arms, as if in appeal; but, as +I watched them, they only drew their beautiful trailing drapery after +them, and moved slowly away. + +There is a curious excitement about this weather, coming in the middle +of winter. These extremes of dryness, and this strange heat at this +season, reversing all natural order, may be one cause of the +peculiarities of the Californians; and they are certainly peculiar +people. I recently took a little excursion to Oakland, crossing the bay +by the ferry, and riding some distance in the cars. A pleasant feeling +came over me as I saw that it was like crossing the Merrimac from +Newburyport to Salisbury; the distance was about as far, and there were +the same low trees and green grass on the opposite side. I felt quite at +home, until, on entering the cars, my eyes lighted on this notice, +posted conspicuously everywhere: "Passengers will beware of playing +three-card monte, strap, or any other game of chance, with strangers. If +you do, you will surely be robbed." All visions of respectable New +England vanished at that sight. + + + + +XIV. + + Quong.--His _Protege_.--His Peace-Offering.--The Chinese and their + Grandmothers.--Ancient Ideas.--Irish, French, and Spanish + Chinamen.--Chinese Ingenuity.--Hostility against the + Chinese.--Their Proclamations.--Discriminations against + them.--Their Evasion of the Law.--Their Perseverance against all + Obstacles.--Their Reverence for their Ancestors, and Fear of the + Dead.--Their Medical Knowledge.--Their Belief in the Future.--Their + Curious Festivals.--Indian Names for the Months.--Resemblance + between the Indians and Chinese.--Their Superstitions. + + + SAN FRANCISCO, February 20, 1877. + +Some time since, we asked the washman to send us a new boy. One evening, +in the midst of a great storm of wind and rain, the most grotesque +little creature appeared at the door, with his bundle under his arm, as +if he were sure of being accepted. We thought we must keep him for a day +or two, on account of the weather, and just to show him that he could +not do what we wanted; but he proved too amusing for us to think of +letting him go. His name is Quong. He is shorter than Margie, who is +only nine, and has much more of a baby face, but a great deal of +dignity; and he assures me, when they go out together, that he shall +take good care of Margie and the baby, and if there is any trouble he +will call the police. We felt a little afraid to trust them with him at +first, because the Chinese are so often attacked in the streets; but he +has unbounded confidence in the police, and has a little whistle with +which to call them. It reminds me of Robin Hood; he takes such great +pleasure in making use of it, and comes out so safe from all dangers by +the help of it. + +The first Sunday that he was here, we told him that he could go out for +a while, as all the Chinese do on that day. When he came back, I asked +him where he had been. These little boys are all petted a good deal at +the wash-houses, and I supposed he had been there enjoying himself. But +he said that he went every Sunday to see a small boy that he had charge +of, who was too young to work; that he sent him now to school, but next +year he should tell him, "No work, no eat;" and, if he did not do +something to support himself, he should not give him clothes any more. I +remember reading that the Chinese were considered men at fourteen. It is +very comical to see such a little creature assume these +responsibilities, and take such pride in them. He says that he is ten, +but his face is perfectly infantine; and he is a baby too in his plays. +He rolls and tumbles about like a young dog or kitten. If it rains, he +seems like a wild duck, he is so pleased with it; and then, when the sun +comes out, he hardly knows how to express his enjoyment of it; he looks +at me with such a radiant face, saying, "Oh, nice sun, nice!" I feel +ready at that moment to forgive him for every thing that we ever have to +blame him for,--such a sun seems to shine out of him; and I feel as if +we made a mistake to be critical about his little faults, which are +mainly attributable to his extreme youth. + +He has lately been away to celebrate the new year. "Going home to +China," he calls it, because at that time the Chinese eat their national +food, and observe their own customs. We told him, before he left, that +he must be sure to come back in two days; but three passed, with no sign +of him. Then R---- went down to the wash-house, and left word that he +must come directly back. In the course of the afternoon, he walked in. +The moment he opened the door, we said to him, very severely, "What for +you stop too long?" But he walked up to me, without a word, and put down +before me a little dirty handkerchief, all tied up in knots, which I +finally made up my mind to open. It was full of the most curious +sweet-meats and candy, little curls of cocoanut, frosted with sugar; +queer fruits, speckled with seeds; and some nuts that looked exactly +like carved ram's-heads with horns. We had to accept this as a +peace-offering, and put aside our anger. + +He is much pleased to be where there is a woman. Although he is so +young, he says that he has lived generally only with men,--Spanish men, +he says, where there was "too much tree." I suppose it was some rather +unsettled place,--a sheep-ranch, perhaps. + +He is so unsophisticated that he will answer all our questions, as the +older ones will not, if they can. I asked him, one day, about the +ceremonies that I saw at Lone Mountain,--what they burned the red and +silver paper on the graves for; and he said that in the other world the +Chinamen were dressed in paper, and, if they did not burn some for them +on their graves, they would not have any clothes. I told him I saw a boy +kneel down on a grave, and take a cup of rice wine, and sip a little, +and then pour it out on the sand. He said, Oh, no, that he did not drink +any, only put it to his lips, and said, "Good-by, good-by," because the +dead Chinaman would come no more. + +Whenever he speaks of any thing mysterious, we can see, by the darkening +of his face, how he feels the awe of it. One of his friends, in hurrying +to get his ironing done, to get ready to celebrate the new year, brought +on an attack of hemorrhage of the lungs. Of course, it was necessary to +keep him entirely still, which his companions knew; but, at the same +time, they were so afraid that he might die where he was, that they +insisted on carrying him to another place, a long way off, which killed +him. For, they said, if he died at the wash-house, he would come back +there; and then all the Chinamen would leave, or they would have to move +the house. His grandmother, the boy said, came back in a blue flame, and +asked for something to eat, and they had to move the house; then she +came back to where the house stood before, but could not get any +farther. + +The Chinese stand in great awe of their grandmothers. In their estimate +of women, as in many of their other ideas, they are quite different from +the rest of the world; with them a woman increases in value as she grows +older. The young girl who is a slave to her mother can look forward to +the prospect of being a goddess to her grandchildren. + + + MARCH 20, 1877. + +Quong observes every thing, and asks endless questions about what he +sees. He says that the French and Spanish people here like the Chinamen +"too much" (a good deal); and that the "Melicans half likee, half no +likee;" but the Irishmen "no likee nothing,"--seeing so plainly who +their true enemies are. Many of the principal people here are Irish. On +St. Patrick's Day, R---- told him that he was going to take Margie to +see the procession, and that he could go too; but he said, with an air +of immense superiority, that he did not care to go and see the "whiskey +men;" he would rather stop at home, and do his work. + +I feel now that all my responsibilities are shared. A while ago, R---- +was obliged to stay out one night till twelve o'clock; and, when he came +home, he found the boy, with his little black head on the kitchen table, +fast asleep. When he waked him, and asked him what he was there for, he +said, that, as every one else was asleep, he staid there to take care of +the house. On another occasion, when R---- was to be out late again, I +took pains to tell him to go right to bed, as soon as he had washed the +dishes. He looked up at me, as if he were going to suggest the most +insuperable obstacle to that, and asked, "Who fuff the light?" (put it +out.) + +One thing that I am always very much impressed with, in regard to the +Chinese, is the feeling of there being something ancient about them, no +matter how young they may be themselves; not only because many of them +wear clothes which appear to have been handed down from their remotest +ancestors, but they have ancient ideas. This boy, although he is of such +a cheerful temperament, seems always to keep his own death in view, as +much as the old Egyptian kings ever did. He pays a kind of burial-fee, +amounting to nearly a quarter of his wages, every month, to some one +appointed by the Chinese company to which he belongs; and when R---- +remonstrated with him, and told him how foolish and unnecessary it was, +and how much better it would be to spend the money for something else, +he seemed to regard his remarks with great horror, and said he _must_ +pay it; to leave off wasn't to be thought of, for then, he said, he +should have "no hole to get into" (meaning no grave), and there would be +no apples thrown away at his funeral. + +We one day heard him speaking of one of his countrymen as an Irish +Chinaman; and, when we asked him what he meant, he said there were +Irish Chinamen, French Chinamen, and Spanish Chinamen. Our own +observation seems to confirm this idea. We see often among them the +light, careless temperament which marks the French; these are the men +who support the theatres, and patronize the gaming-dens. The grave, +serene Spanish is the common type; and, since the hoodlum spirit has +broken out among the Californians, it has called out a coarse, rough +class among the Chinese, corresponding to the lower grades of the Irish. +To this class belong the "Highbinders,"--men bound by secret oaths to +murder, robbery, and outrage. The actual crimes that can be justly +charged against the Chinese in this country are due, almost wholly, to +the spirit that evoked these men. + +Their ingenuity is equal to their perseverance in accomplishing an end. +The Six Companies having made a regulation in regard to the wash-houses, +that there should be at least fifteen houses between every two of them, +one of the washmen was notified that he must give up his business, there +being only fourteen houses between his and the next establishment. +Although the Six Companies' directions are absolute law, he had no idea +of doing this. He carefully examined the fourteen buildings, and found +among them a deserted pickle manufactory, which he hired for one day, +with the privilege of putting up a partition which would divide it into +two houses,--in that way fulfilling the requirements of the law. + + + APRIL 30, 1877. + +There has lately been a great excitement about the Chinese here, and +several meetings have been held to consider how to get rid of them; and +anti-Chinese processions, carrying banners with crossed daggers, have +paraded the streets. One night the Chinese armed themselves, and went up +on to the tops of their houses, prepared to fire on a mob. They issued a +proclamation, saying, that they were not much accustomed to fighting (I +remember learning, in the geography, that they dressed themselves in +quilted petticoats when they went to battle), but they should sell their +lives as dearly as they could. + +Another proclamation which they sent out was very characteristic of +them; it showed so good an understanding of the subject, suggesting so +artfully that, if the Chinamen were not allowed unlimited freedom to +come here, Americans should not be allowed to go to China. + +In an "Address to the Public" which they recently put forth, they +explained, that, instead of taking the places of better men, as they +are accused of doing, they considered that, in performing the menial +work they did, they opened the way to higher and more lucrative +employments for others; saying several times, in their simple, +impressive way, "We lift others up." + +In regard to the other chief accusation,--that they do not profit the +country any, do not invest any thing here, but send every thing home to +China,--they said, "The money that you pay us for our labor, we send +home; but the work remains for you,"--as, for instance, the Pacific +Railroad. + +In trying to accumulate arguments against them, the anti-Chinese party +have made a great deal of the fact that they are bound to companies, who +advance money for them to come here, and say that the cooly trade is +like the slave-trade. One of the anti-Chinese speakers said he helped +make California a free state, and seemed to think he was employed in the +same meritorious way now. Upon investigation, it proved that many of +them do mortgage themselves--that is, their services--for a number of +years, to get here; and that it is often in order that they may support +poor relatives at home, who would otherwise starve. This shows some of +their heathen virtues. A good deal of the objection to them seems to be +on the ground of their being Pagans; some of the speakers saying that it +is "so very demoralizing to our Christian youth," that they should be +here,--quite overlooking a very large class of the population who are +worse than Pagans, and vastly more dangerous. + +The idea now seems to be, to drive them away by discriminating against +them in State and city regulations; as, for instance, by enforcing the +"pure-air ordinance," by which every Chinaman who sleeps where there is +less than five hundred cubic feet of air for each person, pays a fine of +ten dollars, but white people sleep as they choose. Then, as they value +their cues above all things, and are greatly disgraced if they lose +them,--having even been known to commit suicide when deprived of +them,--an old ordinance is restored, by which every one who is put in +jail must have his hair cropped close. They are often arrested on false +charges. Then a special tax is levied on their wash-houses, and a new +regulation made, by which no one can carry baskets on poles across the +sidewalks; that being the way they carry about vegetables to sell. All +these little teasing things, and a great many other annoyances which +have not any pretence of legality, they bear with patience, and seem in +all ways to show more forbearance even, and give, if possible, less +ground for complaint, than before. + +The poll-tax, which is levied on all males over twenty-one years of age, +is rigorously collected from the Chinamen, while no special effort is +made to collect it from the whites. In crossing the ferry to Oakland, +they are often pounced upon by the collector,--in many instances when +they are under age; and, unless they can show a tax receipt, their +travelling bags or bundles are taken from them, and retained until the +requirements of the collector are satisfied. Their wit and shrewdness +avail them, however, to avoid this trouble; and a Chinaman who has +occasion to cross the ferry can usually borrow the tax receipt of some +one who has already paid. This serves as a passport, as it is not easy +for a white man to distinguish them as individuals, on account of their +similarity in dress, manners, and general appearance. + +The police, being extremely vigilant in respect to all violations of law +by the Chinese, have sought out their gambling-dens with great +diligence, and made many arrests. The Chinese, not to be +baffled,--besides resorting to labyrinthine passages, underground +apartments, barricades of various kinds, and other modes of secluding +themselves, to indulge in their games undisturbed,--have adopted one +medium after another in place of cards, substituting something that +could be quickly concealed in case the police should surprise them. At +one time they made use of squash or melon seeds for this purpose, +cutting on them the necessary devices. These could be much more easily +concealed about the folds of their loose garments than cards. When this +ruse was detected, they made use of almonds in the same way; and, when +surprised, hastily devoured them, leaving not a particle of evidence +upon which a policeman could base an arrest. + + + MAY 10, 1877. + +One of the strongest arguments against the Chinese has been that they +could never affiliate with our people, nor enter into the spirit of our +institutions; that they had no desire to become citizens, and had no +families here. Now that they have petitioned for common-school +privileges for their children, stating how many there are here, and to +what extent they are taxed to support schools, there is a louder outcry +than ever against them, for such audacity. They are slowly asserting +themselves, in different ways, and showing that they understand a good +deal that we thought they did not. One of them has now protested against +being imprisoned for violating the "pure-air ordinance." The city has +made a good deal of money by the fines paid on this account, but it has +been thought expedient to stop the arrests while this case is being +tried. + +Then they are making an effort against the injustice of the city in +discriminating against them by charging more for laundry licenses where +the clothes are carried about by hand, than where horses are used; in +this way obliging any one who does a small business to pay more in +proportion than one who does a large business. There are a great many +large French laundries here, that all send about wagons. The Chinese +carry every thing by hand; they seem altogether too meek and timid to +have horses; but, as they adapt themselves to every thing, they have +looked about, and met the difficulty, in part, by securing quite a +number of poor, abject animals, with which they are beginning to appear +in the streets. There is no change they are not willing to make; and +their patience and perseverance are unconquerable, about staying and +going on with their work. As an Eastern writer said of them: "They bow +to the storm, and rise up, and plod on in the intervals." It is very +true of them, as we see them here,--so unresisting, and yet so +resistless. + +We have lately made the acquaintance of a man who has lived thirty years +in Shanghae, who explained many of their customs and ideas. He confirmed +some things that our boys had told us, but we understood them better +from him. He said that the Chinese have such perfect faith in continued +life after death, and in a man's increased power in another life, that +it was not an unusual thing for any one who had some great injury to +avenge, to kill himself, in order to get into a position to do it more +effectually. To them a dead man is more important than a living one; and +the one great feature of their religion is the worship of their +ancestors. They make a great many offerings to them,--as we saw them do +at Lone Mountain. If any one dies at sea, or in a foreign country, where +there is no friend or relative to do this for him, he becomes a beggar +spirit. It is the duty of the Chinese at home to make offerings to +beggar spirits as well as to their own relatives. If any great +misfortune happens to a man, he thinks he must have neglected or +offended some dead relative, or perhaps one of these beggar spirits; and +will impoverish himself for years, to atone for it by a great feast. +They are very much afraid of the spirits, and build their houses with +intricate passages, and put up screens, to keep them from seeing what +happens; and they especially avoid openings north and south, as they +think the spirits move only in north and south lines. What is more +important than almost any thing in a man's life, is to be placed right +after his death,--toward the south, that he may receive genial and +reviving influences from it; but if he is toward the north, and gets +chilling influences from that direction, he wreaks his vengeance on his +living relatives who placed him there. + +We learn a good deal from the boys we have. I should like very much to +go into their schools, they are so well taught in many respects. One of +our boys once took some fruit-wax, and modelled a perfect little duck. +He said he was taught at school how to do it. He also drew several +animals with an exceedingly life-like appearance. This early instruction +is no doubt the basis of the acknowledged superiority of the Chinese as +carvers in wood and ivory. + +I have often wondered that more of them do not die in coming to a +climate so different from their own, and adopting such new modes of life +as most of them are obliged to do. But they all seem to have been +taught the rudiments of medicine. A young American boy, if he is sick, +has not the remotest idea what to do for himself; but the Chinese boys +know in most cases. We have often seen them steeping their little tin +cups of seeds, roots, or leaves on the kitchen stove, which they said +was medicine for some ailment or other, but "Melican man no sabbe +Chinaman medicine;" and sometimes, when they did not have their own +remedies at hand, I have offered them pellets or tinctures from my +homoeopathic supply, which they could rarely be induced to accept, +alleging that "Melican medicine no good for Chinaman." One of our little +boys went to a Chinese doctor for himself one day, and when he came +back, I asked him what the doctor said. He told me that he pressed with +his finger here and there on his flesh, to see if it rose readily, and +the color came back. I saw that he meant if any one was not very sick, +that the flesh was elastic; and I thought it was quite a good test, and +one that might perhaps be useful to our doctors. They have one curious +idea in their treatment, which is, that, if any one is sick, he is to +eat an additional meal instead of less. Nevertheless, they seem to get +well with this arrangement. + +The belief in a future life, and in improved conditions hereafter, +seems to be universal among them. A poor Chinaman was found dead near +us, with a letter beside him, which was translated at the inquest held +over the body. + + THIRD MONTH, 27th DAY [May 4]. + + TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER,--I came to this country, and spent my + money at the gambling-table, and have not accomplished any thing. + Where I am now, I cannot raise money to return home. I am sick, and + have not long to live. My life has been a useless one. When you + have read this letter, do not cry yourselves sick on my account. + Let my brothers' wives rear and educate my two cousins. I wish to + be known as godfather to one of them. I desire Chow He, my wife, to + protect and assist you. When you both are dead, she may marry if + she wishes. In this world I can do no more for you, father and + mother. You must look to the next world for any future benefit to + be received from me. + + TONG GOOT LOON. + + + SEPTEMBER 10, 1877. + +The Chinese generally appear unwilling to talk with us about their +religious customs and ideas, apparently from superstitious feelings. +Occasionally we meet with an intelligent one, who readily answers our +questions, and tells us about many of their festivals celebrated at +home, which are not recognized here. Notwithstanding their solemn faces +and methodical ways, they are as fond of celebrations as the San +Francisco people themselves. They celebrate the Festival of the Little +Cold, and of the Great Cold; of the Little Snow, and of the Great Snow; +of the Moderate Heat, and of the Great Heat. Early in the autumn comes +the Festival of Pak-lo, or the White Dew; later in the autumn, the +Festival of Hon-lo, or the Cold Dew. About the time of our harvest moon, +the fifteenth day of eighth moon, they celebrate the Festival of the +Full Moon, eating moon-cakes, and sending presents to their friends, of +tea, wine, and fruits; in February, the Festival of Rain and Water; +early in the spring (the sixth day of second moon), the Festival of +Enlivened Insects. On the third day of third moon they celebrate, for +three days and nights, the birthday of Pak Tai, god of the extreme +north; in spring, the birthday of the god of health; in spring also, the +great Festival of Tsing Ming (Clear and Bright). On this occasion, they +visit and worship at the tombs. In all great festivals the ancestors +must share. In early summer occurs the Festival of the Prematurely +Ripened. The hour for the offering of each sacrifice is most carefully +chosen,--that of the spring sacrifice being at the first glimmering of +dawn. + +This shows as close observation of nature on their part as the Indians +display, and reminds me of the names the Makahs give to the months: +December, the moon when the gray whale appears; March, the moon of the +fin-back whale; April, the moon of sprouts and buds; May, the moon of +the salmon-berry; June, the moon of the red huckleberry; November, the +moon of winds and screaming birds. The Makahs select the time of the +full moon as an especially favorable one to communicate with the Great +Spirit. + +I do not know whether it is now considered that our Indians are of +Oriental origin. It seems at first as if two races could hardly differ +more than Indians and Chinese; but, after living long among them, many +resemblances attract our attention. We have seen, occasionally, Indians +with quite Mongolian features, and short, square frames. Flattening the +head among the Indians is considered a mark of distinction, as +compressing the feet is with the Chinese; no slave being allowed to +practise either. The reverence of the Indians for the graves of their +fathers approaches the worship of ancestors among the Chinese. No +outrage is greater to the Indians than to desecrate the burial-places of +their dead. They often make sacrifices to them, and celebrate +anniversaries of the dead with dancing and feasting. The Chinese feast +their dead at regular intervals, and carry them thousands of miles +across the ocean from foreign countries to rest in their own land at +last. The Manitous (ruling spirits) of earth, air, and water, with the +Indians, are, in some respects, like the Shin of the Chinese,--spirits +that inhabit all nature; but the Shin are inferior deities, not having +much power, being employed rather as detectives,--as the kitchen god, or +hearth spirit, who at the end of the year reports the conduct of the +family to Shang-te, the God of Heaven. Both races are firm believers in +the power and efficacy of charms: the Chinaman, in his green-jade +bracelet, is demon-proof; the Indian warrior, in a white wolf-skin, +rides to certain victory. Both are excessively superstitious, +considering that the ruling spirits are sometimes friendly, sometimes +hostile; and feel it necessary, in all the commonest acts of their +lives, to be constantly on the watch to guard against malign +influences,--attributing great power for harm to the spirits of the +dead. An Indian, like a Chinaman, will frequently abandon his lodge, +thinking some dead relative whom he has offended has discovered him +there. He is afraid to speak the name of any one who is dead, and often +changes his own name, that the dead person, not hearing the old name +spoken, may not so readily find him. Indians and Chinese are alike in +the habit of changing their names, having one for youth, another for +manhood, and a third for old age; taking new names many times in the +course of their lives,--as after any great event or performance. + +They resemble each other in their infatuation for gambling,--a Chinaman, +after all his possessions have been staked and lost, sometimes selling +himself for a term of years, to keep up the game; or an Indian gambling +away a hand, an arm, a leg, and so on, and at last the head, until the +whole body is lost at the play, and then he goes into perpetual slavery. +The Indians will sometimes gamble away their children, though they are +usually very fond of them,--the typical "bad Indian" with them being one +who is cowardly, or who neglects his children. + + + + +XV. + + Chun Fa's Funeral.--Alameda.--Gophers and Lizards.--Poison + Oak.--Sturdy Trees.--Baby Lizards.--Old Alameda.--Emperor + Norton.--California Generosity.--The Dead Newsboy.--Anniversary of + the Goddess Kum Fa.--Chinese Regard for the Moon and Flowers.--A + Shin Worshipper. + + + ALAMEDA, CAL., April 5, 1878. + +We have left San Francisco, and come across the bay to live. The last +thing I did there was to go to a Chinawoman's funeral. I saw in the +papers that Chun Fa, the wife of Loy Mong, was dead; and he would like +to have all the Christian Chinese and their friends come to the funeral. +I thought I would go. Especially at this time, when the Chinese meet +with so much bad treatment, we are glad of an opportunity to show our +good-will and sympathy; but I did not expect to be so much interested as +I was. The columns in the chapel were wreathed with ivy and lilies, and +every thing was very quiet and pleasant in the bright forenoon. One side +of the church was filled with Chinese women and girls. It is very hard +to tell which are women, and which are children, they all have such +childlike faces. I suppose it is because they are so undeveloped. Their +uncovered heads, and smooth, shining black hair, looked to me at first +all exactly alike; all the company seemed of one pattern. But, when I +had noticed them longer, I saw some variety in their manners and +expressions. To sit there among them, and feel the differences between +them and us, and the resemblances,--so much stronger than the +differences,--was a curious experience. + +It was a school, I found, and Chun Fa seemed to have been the flower of +it. They all mourned very much at losing her. She was the wife of one of +their principal merchants,--but their wives are often children. She had +a sweet, innocent face; and we heard that she was very intelligent, and +eager to learn. With her fair, open look, it seemed as if one could have +done a great deal with her in the way of development. + +An American man first made a prayer in Chinese; then they all sang-- + + "Shall we gather at the river?" + +in English. They sang with so much fervor, that, although it was so +unmusical, I felt more like crying than laughing, to think it was for +one of those Chinese women who have been so badly spoken of; the papers +often saying that they are all prostitutes, that there are no families +among them, and that the California people must purify their State by +getting rid of them. Then a serene-looking Chinaman chanted something +that sounded very soothing and musical, and another made a prayer. Then +we went, each one, and took leave of poor little Chun Fa. I thought I +should have been willing to have it my funeral, every thing was so +genuine about it; no cant, and nothing superfluous. + +We met with quite a disappointment in leaving San Francisco, to find +that our little Quong could not go with us. We thought we had obtained +leave from the proper patron; but at the last a brother appeared who +claimed to be superior authority, and forbade his going. As he seemed a +very gruff, disagreeable person, and, as the boy said, had never treated +him kindly, we advised him to disobey him; but he said it would never do +for a little China boy to disobey a father or an older brother; but, +when he was old enough, he would take ten dollars, and buy a pistol, and +shoot him. + + + APRIL 30, 1878. + +We are only an hour's ride by cars and steamer from San Francisco. It is +hard to believe it, it is so wholly different a place. Before us is a +field of blue nemophilas. To see them waving in the wind, recalled to me +what Emerson said about its restoring any one to reason and faith to +live in the midst of nature,--so many trivial cares and anxieties +disappeared at the sight of it. On the other side, the water rolls +softly up to our very door. We bathe in it, floating about at will in +warm or cold currents. + +The first morning after we moved here, I noticed two small hills and +holes, newly dug, beside our door. A curious little head thrust itself +out of one, and two small eyes peered at me. They belonged to one of the +little underground creatures, called gophers, that we have all about us. +They eat roots, and it is almost impossible to cultivate any thing where +they are. They appeared to have come just because they saw that the +house was going to be occupied. I think they like human company, only +they want to keep their own distance. They and the lizards quite animate +the landscape. The gopher's wise, old-fashioned looking head is quite a +contrast to that of the lizard, with its eager, inquisitive expression. +There is always a little twisted-up head and bright eye, or a sharp +little tail, appearing and disappearing, wherever we look. They spend +their whole time in coming and going. Their purpose seems to be +accomplished, if they succeed in seeing us, and getting safely away. + +The wagoner who moved us over from San Francisco made some commiserating +remarks concerning me, as he deposited the last load of furniture; +saying that it was a good place to raise children, but would be very +solitary for the woman. + +It is a lonely place here, but the water is constant company. As I +write, the only sound I can hear is the gentle roll of waves, and now +and then an under sound that seems to come from far-off caverns,--so +soft and so deep. I never lived so close to the water before, so that +its changes made a part of my every-day life. Even when I am so busy +that I do not look at it, I feel how the tide is creeping in, filling up +all the little inlets, and making all waste places bright and full. + + + MAY 10, 1878. + +We made inquiries of some of the old residents, in reference to the +wind, before we decided to come here; but people who live in +half-settled places, I find, are very apt to misrepresent,--they are so +eager for neighbors. How much wiser we should have been to have +consulted the trees!--they show so plainly that they have fought all +their lives against a strong sea-wind, bending low, and twisting +themselves about, trying to get away from it. + +We find that where we live is not Alameda proper, but is called the +Encinal District,--_encinal_ being the Spanish for _oak_. I do not know +whether they mean by it the old dusky evergreens, or the poison oak +which is every where their inseparable companion. Soon after we arrived, +we found ourselves severely affected by it. It was then in flower, and +we attributed its strength to that circumstance; but every change it +passes through re-enforces its life,--when it ripens its berries, when +its leaves turn bright, or when the autumn rains begin. Every thing +suits it; moisture or dryness, whichever prevails, appears to be its +element. Thoreau, who liked to see weeds overrun flowers, would have +rejoiced in its vigor. We never touch it; but any one sensitive to its +influence cannot pass near it, nor breathe the air where it grows, +without being affected by it. Alameda seems hardly ready for human +occupancy yet, unless something effectual can be done to exterminate +it. We often see superficial means taken, like burning it down to the +level of the earth; but what short-sighted warfare is that which gives +new strength after a brief interval! On one account I forgive it many +injuries,--that it furnishes our only bright autumn foliage, turning +into most vivid and beautiful shades of red. Except for the poison oak, +and a few of the long, narrow leaves of the Eucalyptus, that hang like +party-colored ribbons on the trees, we have no change in the foliage +between summer and winter; there are always the same old dingy evergreen +oaks everywhere about us. + +There are some cultivated grounds and gardens in the neighborhood, but +everywhere interspersed among them are wild fields. The trees have a +determined look, as they stand and hold possession of them. The +cultivated ones that border the streets, in contrast with them, appear +quite tame. I find myself thinking of the latter sometimes as if they +were artificial, and only these old aborigines were real; they have so +much more character and expression. I heard a lady criticising Alameda, +saying that there were so many trees, you could not see the place. We +have a general feeling, all the time, as if we were camping out, and +everybody else were camping out too. The trees are scattered +everywhere; and it is quite the fashion, in this humble part of the +town, for people to live in tents while they build their own houses. +These trees are of a very social kind, bending low, and spreading their +branches wide, so that any one could almost live in them just as they +are. They are a great contrast to the firs which we had wholly around us +on Puget Sound. They have strange fancies for twisting and turning. I +have never seen two alike, nor one that grew up straight. It is not +because they are so yielding,--they are as stiff and rugged as they can +be,--it must be their own wild nature that makes them like to grow in +strange, irregular ways. Sometimes, when I look at great fields of them, +I feel as if I were in the midst of a storm, every thing has such a +wind-swept look, although it is perfectly still at the time. One day I +came upon a body of them, that appeared as if they had all been stopped +by some sudden enchantment, in the midst of running away. Often we see +trees that look as if they had come out of the wars, with great clefts +in their sides, and holes through them. Their foliage is very slight; +there is very little to conceal their muscular look. It seems as if we +could feel in them the will that tightened all the fibres. + + + MAY 15, 1878. + +The great event to us lately has been the advent of the baby lizards. +The streets are all laid with planks, clean and sunny. The lizards +delight in them, they are so bright and warm. I like to see, as I walk +along, these curious little bodies, in old-fashioned scale armor, +stopping and looking about, as if they were drinking in the comfort of +the sunshine, just as I am. Although they stop a great deal, it is very +difficult to catch one, for their movements are like a flash. I did +succeed once in holding one long enough to examine his beautiful +steel-blue bands. The babies are as delicate as if they were made of +glass, and as light and airy as if they belonged to fairy-land. They +run, all the time, backward and forward, just for the pleasure of +moving, over the sidewalk, and under it. + +When I read in the papers, every week, about the people who kill +themselves in San Francisco,--and they generally say that they do it +because there does not seem to be any thing worth living for,--I wonder +if it would not make a difference to them if they lived in the country, +and saw how entertaining the world looks to the lively little creatures +about us, who think it worth while to move so quickly, and look well +about on every side, for fear they may miss seeing something. + + + JULY 2, 1878. + +When we first came here in the spring, and found the ground all blue and +yellow and white with blossoms, I thought how interested I should be, to +watch the succession of flowers. But that was all. In these dry places, +we have only _spring_ flowers. I did, though, the other day, see +something red in the distance, and, going to it, found a clump of +thistles, almost as tall as I am, of a bright crimson color. The fields +are very dry now, and it seems to be the season of the snakes. Under the +serpent-like branches, we find nothing but the cast-off skins of the +snakes. + +There are some curious old men here who tend cattle, sitting under the +trees, with their knitting. I think they are Germans. They do not appear +to understand when I speak to them. I thought they might be "broke +miners," who are generally the most curious people here-abouts. + +One of these "broke miners" is employed to take care of two little +children near us, whose mother is dead. He dresses them with their +clothes hind-side before, and liable at any moment to drop entirely off; +but seems to succeed very well in amusing them, quilting up his +dishcloths into dolls for them, and transforming their garments into +kites. His failing seems to be that a kind of dreamy mood is apt to +steal over him, in which he wanders on the beach, regardless of hours; +and the master of the house, coming home, has to hunt high and low for +him, to come and prepare the meal. On the last bright moonlight night, +he wholly disappeared. + + + OCTOBER 15, 1878. + +We have finally been driven off by the wind from our cottage on the bay. +Margie has been so accustomed to moving, that she takes it as easily as +an Indian child would. A few days before we left, she gave me an account +of the moving of the man opposite, which was all accomplished before +breakfast in the morning. First, she said, he put all his things on a +wagon, and then took his house to pieces, and put that on; and then he +and the wagoner sat down and drank a pot of coffee together, and started +off, on their load. + +We did not take our house with us, but found a rather dilapidated one, +in what is called Old Alameda. It is quite attractive, from the trees +and vines about it, and the spacious garden in which it stands. It is +owned by an old German woman, who lives next to us. She is rich now, +and owns the whole block, but still holds to her old peasant customs, +and wears wooden shoes. Opposite is a French family, who go off every +year to a vineyard, to make wine; and, next to them, a poor Spanish +family, who carry round mussels to sell. + + + MARCH 3, 1879. + +We have had a real winter; not that it was very cold or snowy,--that it +never is here,--but so excessively rainy as to keep us a good deal +in-doors. The grass grew up in the house, and waved luxuriantly round +the edges of the rooms. The oak-trees surprised us by bursting out into +fresh young green, though we had not noticed that they had lost any of +their hard, evergreen leaves. + + + APRIL 10, 1879. + +While we were crossing the ferry between San Francisco and Oakland one +day, a peculiar-looking person appeared on the deck of the boat, who +saluted the assembled company in a most impressive manner. He was a +large man, serene and self-possessed, with rather a handsome face. On +his broad shoulders he wore massive epaulets, a sword hung by his side, +and his hat was crowned with nodding peacock feathers. I noticed that he +passed the gates where the tickets are delivered, unquestioned, giving +only a courteous salute, instead of the customary passport. Upon +inquiry, I learned that he was the "Emperor Norton, ruler of +California," according to his fancy; and that he passed free wherever he +chose to go,--theatres opening their doors to him, railroads and +steamers conveying him without charge. He was an old pioneer, distraught +by misfortunes, and humored in this hallucination by the people. He was +in the habit of ordering daily telegraphic despatches sent to the +different crowned heads of Europe. He had once been known to draw his +sword upon his washer-woman, because she presumed to demand payment for +his washing; whereupon the Pioneer Society, learning of the affair, took +upon itself the charge of meeting all little expenses of this nature. + +The Californians have a jolly, good-natured way of regarding +idiosyncrasies, and a kind of lavish generosity in the distribution of +their alms, quite different from the careful and judicious method of the +Eastern people. We hear that some of the early miners, passing along the +streets of San Francisco, just after it had been devastated by one of +the terrible fires that swept every thing before them, and seeing a lone +woman sitting and weeping among the ruins, flung twenty-dollar gold +pieces and little packages of gold dust at her, until all her losses +were made good, and she had a handsome overplus to start anew. + +I noticed in Oakland a man who drew the whole length of his body along +the sidewalk, like an enormous reptile, moving slowly by the help of +his hands, unable to get along in any other way, holding up a bright, +sunny, sailor face. On his back was a pack of newspapers, from which men +helped themselves, and flung him generally a half or a quarter of a +dollar, always refusing the change. That such a man could do business in +the streets, was a credit to the kindliness of the people incommoded by +him. I hardly think he would have been tolerated in New York or Boston; +but his pleasant face and fast-disappearing papers showed that he was +not made uncomfortably aware of the inconvenience he caused. + +One day, while waiting at the ferry, I saw two men employed in a way +that attracted the attention of every one who passed. One of them, who +had in his hand a pair of crutches, ascended some steps, and, crossing +them, nailed them to the wall, close to the gateway where the passengers +passed to the boat. The other arranged some light drapery in the form +of wings above them. Below they put a small table, with the photograph +of a little newsboy on it. All the business-men, the every-day +passengers crossing to their homes on the Oakland side, appeared to +understand it, and quietly laid some piece of money beside the picture. +It seems that it was the stand of a little crippled boy who had for a +year or two furnished the daily papers to the passengers passing to the +boat. The money was for his funeral expenses, and to help his family. It +was very characteristic of the Californians to take this dramatic and +effective way of collecting a fund. Men who would have been very likely +to meet a subscription-paper with indifference, on being appealed to in +this poetic manner, with no word spoken, only seeing the discarded +crutches and the white wings above, with moist eyes laid their little +tribute below, as if it were a satisfaction to do so. I thought how the +little newsboy's face would have brightened if he could have seen it, +and hoped that he might not be beyond all knowledge of it now. + +We have had an opportunity to observe some fine-looking Chinamen who +have been at work on the railroad all winter opposite our house. There +are a hundred or more of them. We understand that they are from the +rural districts of China. They are large, strong, and healthy, quite +different from the miserable, stunted, sallow-faced creatures from the +cities, of whom we see so many, showing that this inferiority is not +inherent in the race, but is the effect of unfavorable circumstances. + + + MAY 15, 1879. + +Day before yesterday was the anniversary of the birthday of the Chinese +goddess Kum Fa, or Golden Flower, guardian of children. She is +worshipped chiefly by women; but some of the workers on the railroad +begged branches of the feathery yellow acacia, which is now in bloom, to +carry with them to the temple in San Francisco. They are so unpoetic in +many ways, that we should hardly expect them to be so fond of flowers; +but they mourn very much if the bulbs which they keep growing in stones +and water in their houses in the winter do not open for the new year. + +The moon and the flowers they enjoy more than any thing else. In many +things they are children, and like what children like. The moon holds a +very important place to them, and the dates of the new year and all +their festivals are determined by its changes. We used to see one of our +boys standing, sometimes for hours together, with his arms folded, +gazing into the moonlit sky. When questioned as to what he was doing, he +said he was "looking at the garden in the moon," and listening to "hear +the star-men sing." + +This boy appeared to be a Shin worshipper. He made many drawings +representing these spirits, with astonishing facility and artistic +skill, but, when pressed to explain them, said it was not good to speak +much about them. Some rode upon clouds; some thrust their heads out of +the water, or danced upon the backs of fishes; some looked out of caves +among the hills. There were serene, peaceful ones, with flowers or +musical instruments in their hands; others were fierce and hostile, +brandishing weapons, and exploding bombs. Everywhere was the wildest +freedom and grace, and apparently much symbolic meaning which we could +not understand. + + + + +LEE AND SHEPARD'S NEW BOOKS. + + +_LIFE AT PUGET SOUND_ + +WITH SKETCHES OF TRAVEL IN + +WASHINGTON TERRITORY, BRITISH COLUMBIA, OREGON, AND CALIFORNIA. +1865-1881. + +BY + +CAROLINE C. LEIGHTON. + +The vast inland sea, popularly known as Puget Sound, ramifying in +various directions, the wide-spreading and majestic forests, the ranges +of snow-capped mountains on either side, the mild and equable climate, +and the diversified resources of this favored region, excite the +astonishment and admiration of all beholders. To the lovers of the grand +and beautiful, unmarred as yet by any human interference, and +untrammelled by the conventionalities which pertain to longer settled +portions of the globe, it presents an endless field for observation and +enjoyment. There is already a steady stream of emigration to this new +"land of promise," and everything seems to indicate for it a vigorous +growth and development, and a brilliant and substantial future. + + +THE GOLDEN TRUTH SERIES. + +A uniform edition of unequalled selections from the best religious +authors. Edited by Mrs. C.A. Means. Dainty volumes, in gold and colors, +each, $1.25. Comprising:-- + +GOLDEN TRUTHS. + + "Abounds in gems of truth and beautiful suggestions. A book from + which the thoughtful will gather hope."--_Baltimore American._ + +LIVING THOUGHTS. + + "A sweet volume of selections from the best writers for Christian + instruction, meditation, and comfort."--_Christian Secretary, + Hartford._ + +WORDS OF HOPE. + + "A volume of religious selections designed for the cheer and + consolation of sorrowing friends. Sympathy for a friend in sorrow + can be expressed in no more delicate or acceptable manner than by + the presentation of these words of hope."--_Boston Post._ + + +EUROPEAN BREEZES. + +By MARGERY DEANE. Cloth. gilt top, $1.50. Being chapters of travel +through Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland. + + "It is just the story that a bright, intelligent woman could relate + to a circle of friends, and is written in a snappy, off-hand style. + The travels of the writer were mostly confined to the German + countries of Europe and to an incursion into that little-travelled + country of Hungary. The last chapter in the book is in some + respects the best, for it is the most practical, giving, as it + does, information in regard to the expenses of a European trip that + many an extended traveller has searched for long and far, in + vain."--_Oregonian._ + +Sold by all booksellers, or sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of +price. + +LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers, +Boston, Mass. + + +LEE AND SHEPARD'S NEW BOOKS. + +WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH OUR DAUGHTERS? + +Superfluous Women and other Lectures. By Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. Price, +$1.25. + + "Earnest, sensible and elevating in tone, these discourses express + with sincerity and power the best thoughts of the day regarding the + momentous topics with which they deal, and will long be a beacon + light to guide the aspirations of the future."--_Boston Traveller._ + + "Mrs. Livermore's book is something to be glad of, and will always + have an historic interest as marking the evolution of an existing + social question."--_Boston Transcript._ + + +TWELVE MONTHS IN AN ENGLISH PRISON. + +By Mrs. S.B. Fletcher. 12mo. Cloth. $1.50. + + "This volume contains a most thrilling narrative of the experiences + of a well-known spiritualist in a situation where the visible + ministrations of invisible forces are proven by the testimony of + the jailers themselves. Its appearance is destined in create a + profound impression, and probably a most lively discussion. + + "Many of the scenes and incidents are startling, and if the book + should fail to change certain notions in regard to spiritualism, it + certainly will confound sceptical thinkers and writers."--_Boston + Transcript._ + + +HIS TRIUMPH. + +By Mrs. Mary A. Denison. Author of "That Husband of Mine," "Like a +Gentleman," etc. 16mo. Cloth. $1.00. + + "This brightly old domestic idyl deals with actors and theatrical + affairs, in the midst of which personages and scenes, the heroine, + a charming young wife, acts out a little comedy of her own. This + sprightly account of how a modern Eve circumvented a nineteenth + century serpent is sure to find favor with novel readers."--_The + Art Interchange._ + +Uniform with Lee and Shepard's Dollar Novels. + + LIKE A GENTLEMAN. + NUMA ROUMESTAN. + KINGS IN EXILE. + THE PUDDLEFORD PAPER. + THE FORTUNATE ISLAND. + THE TIGHT SQUEEZE. + + +FORE AND AFT. + +A Personal Narrative of Sea Experiences. By Robert B. Dixon. 16mo. +Cloth. 320 pages. Price, $1.25. + + This is a book which, like the famous "Two Years Before the Mast," + interests young and old alike, and is decidedly pleasant reading to + a sea-lover. It has the air of VRAISEMBLANCE, and holds one with + the fascination of real struggles with storms and fire and mutiny, + and all the perils and marvels of the ever-changing sea. + +Sold by all Booksellers, and sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of +price. + +LEE AND SHEPARD, Publishers, +BOSTON. + + + + +TRANSCRIBERS NOTE: + +Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as +possible, including obsolete and variant spellings. Date entries have +been normalized. Obvious typographical errors in punctuation have been +fixed. Corrections [in brackets] in the text are noted below: + + Page 168 succestion [succession] + Page 198 heavp [heavy] + Page 201 boy [boys] + Page 204 comorants [cormorants] + Page 204 in in [in] + Page 255 the the [the] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life at Puget Sound: With Sketches of +Travel in Washington Territory, British Columbia, Oregon and California, by Caroline C. 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