nd it ex
tended with varying power over the entire region North of California and West of the Rocky Mountains. His word was law to a lawless people, and the great chief was known as such among all the Indians. He had all the characteristics of a chief—a quick temper, an arbitrary will and the heart and the head of a governor of men. He lived in impressive pomp, and all down the river the story of the stately halls and the wealth and magnificence of Fort Vancouver was told by Indian to Indian with bated breath. The present generation can never fully realize that Fort Vancouver was once in this Northwest country, the court of a King, and that poor Indians wandering chieftainless and alone looked to it as a center of power, culture and wealth. In the lodges of Cathlamet, the Indian mothers told their children of the wonderful
