oasis in the desert, the party found a trading-post, where some fresh potatoes and onions made a welcome change in the diet.
On the 13th of September Jean wrote: "Old friends and relatives, tried and true, have come to meet us from the Willamette valley, and their unexpected coming fills us with gratitude unspeakable/ After stopping merely to exchange greetings and gather what meagre tidings they could obtain from each end of the long and tedious road, the jaded immigrants pushed onward through the heat and dust till nightfall, when they came to a small stream, where they were compelled to halt for the night on account of the water, though the grass was poor and the cattle fared badly.
The relief party reported the Willamette valley as the *' Garden of Eden," and gave glowing accounts of the soil, climate, scenery, and plenty with which the western part of the great Oregon country abounded. Even the dumb animals seemed to understand and take courage; for they stepped more briskly under the yoke and chewed the cud to a later hour than had been their wont.
Guided by the advice of the relief party, the train was again put in motion at midnight.
"It is fully twenty miles to the next camping-ground where there are wood and water," said a kindly recruit who had recently been over the road. It was a forced march, but the animals were well repaid for making it, as they found good water and a tolerable supply of grass.
"September 16. We are encamped near the mouth of the Des Chutes River," wrote Jean. "It is a clear, swift, and considerable stream which empties its waters into the Columbia.
- ' I know to-night just how Balboa must have felt when he discovered the Pacific Ocean. For have I not set eyes upon the lordly Columbia, the mighty river of the West, which
^' * Hears no sound save its own dashings '?"
