and thither the families and goods were removed. Mrs Kone, who had been ill, was carried in a chair the greater part of the way, while Mrs Frost and the children walked, there being as yet no horses or cattle on the plains, and the distance by the beach, the only practicable route, being seven miles.
As soon as the household goods were transported to the new place, Smith and Tibbets put up cabins near the mission house, and the settlement of Clatsop may be said to have begun,[1] especially as Smith set about cultivating a vegetable garden on the plains as soon as spring opened; and with much difficulty brought down two horses by boat from the Willamette settlements.
During the summer, Frost and Solomon Smith explored a route to the Willamette by way of the coast and the Tillamook country. So far as known, no white men had visited this part of the coast since 1806, when Captain Clarke partially explored it, and the trail from Tillamook Bay to the Willamette Valley was then known to the Indians only. But Smith and Frost, with an Indian guide, reached the settlements in safety at the end of two weeks, and drove back to Clatsop by the same route some cattle and horses, to stock the plains of that excellent grazing region.
In November of this year, in view of his wife's health, Mr Kone applied for permission to return to the states, which was granted, and he took leave of Oregon after a residence of a year and a half, leaving no grand achievement, and harboring in his breast no regrets for his lost occupation. Before leaving, he had been detailed to superintend the mission farm opened at Clatsop, and a house was in process of erection for him, at the original spot chosen by Lee and Frost, on the plains. In 1842 Mr Raymond and family, with Miss Phillips, occupied this house, and took charge of the farm. Frost also removed thither
- ↑ Wilkes' Nar., U. S. Explor. Ex., iv. 344.
