them being still in doubt from the representations made to them of the difficulties in the way, finally agreed with McKinlay to leave their cattle with him and take orders on the Hudson's Bay Company for the same number and description of California cattle in the Willamette Valley. Among those making this arrangement was Jesse Applegate,[1] who with Waldo owned more stock than any other two men in the emigration.[2] Waldo proceeded with the main body to the Dalles by land, while Burnett, Beagle, McClane, the Applegates, and others, seventy-one in all, decided to take the advice of Whitman and descend the Columbia in boats. Whitman accompanied them to bring home his wife, who was still at the Dalles, where she had taken refuge from the violence of the Cayuses. Burnett had a Hudson's Bay boat and an Indian pilot. Beagle, who was with him, was steersman. He was a good boatman, and familiar with the rapids of the Ohio at Louisville; but those compared to the rapids of the Columbia were insignificant, and Burnett relates that Beagle's cheeks often paled, though he obeyed the intrepid Indian pilot implicitly.[3] This party arrived in safety at the Dalles.
- ↑ Frémont's Explor. Ex., 184. Gray says Applegate sold or mortgaged his cattle to get supplies at Walla Walla. Hist. Or., 422. But Burnett denies this, and says it was an exchange, or one dollar a head for herding them; and that when Applegate arrived at Vancouver, McLoughlin protested against Applegate making such a bargain to his injury, and not only gave him his American cattle back but refused compensation for the care they received during the winter.
- ↑ Burnett's Recollections, MS., i. 274-5, Concerning this matter, Waldo himself says: 'I started from Missouri with 108 head, and got here with 68. They were worth in Missouri $48 a head.' Here, horses were worth from $7 to $10, while American cattle were worth $100, Spanish, $9. Critiques, MS., 10.
- ↑ 'On one occasion, I remember, we were passing down a terrible rapid with a speed almost like a race-horse, when a huge rock arose above the water before us, against which the swift and mighty volume of the river furiously dashed in vain, and then suddenly turned to the right, almost at right angles. The Indian told Beagle to hold the bow of the boat directly towards the rock as if intending to run plumb upon it, while the rest of us pulled upon our oars with all our might, so as to give her such a velocity as not to be much affected by the surging waves. The Indian stood cool and motionless in the bow, paddle in hand, with features set as if to meet immediate death, and when we were within from 20 to 30 feet of that terrible rock, as quick almost as thought he plunged his long paddle-blade into the water on the left side of
