I was told that I ought to have $10. but five will help us very much. We have been baking for a Grocery since we have been here, and board the man that keeps it, at $4.50 cts pr week. Ann is quite unwell and has been for the last week or more. This place is one of the greatest ague[1] holes in the whole teritory. There is the river on the west and two Mill Ponds on the south side and two on the north side of it, besides a small stream,[2] large enough for a tanery, that comes in from the east into the north part of the town. This stream comes from a spring that is only a few steps from Mr. Whitcombs door.
But the country is what you wish to know the most about. Of course I can say but little from my own knowledge, but I have worked as hard as I could to get information and what I send you will be from persons that I think can be relied upon. From about Salem, along up near the head of the Willamette there is a portions of Prairai that is not taken up, but I suppose it is impossible to get Prairai and Timber together, and I am told that a farm in one of these prairais is worth but little for there is no water on them. The farms that are now made, are either on the river or back under the hills, at the latter places there is wood & water a plenty, but the water soon sinks into the sand, and does not make its appearance again untill it gets near the river, so I have been told by people that have been through the vally for the purpos of making a location. But there is a great many good claims, that is owned by single men that are anxious to sell out, and will part with them for about what they have cost
In my first letter I told you all that I could about Pugets Sound. What I said then was as near the truth as I can get at it according to the information that I have received since. I spoke of a Mr. Brown in my other letter that had gon up there
- ↑ Malaria "appears to have been introduced over one hundred years ago, to have been an important factor in the decimation of the Indian tribes at that time, and since to have remained endemic to at least the Willamette Valley, in Oregon ... Many living residents of Oregon recall considerable ague, particularly in the Willamette Valley, after 1850;" H. H. Stage and C. M. Gjullin, "Anophelines and Malaria in the Pacific Northwest," reprinted from Northwest Science, September, 1935.
- ↑ Probably Johnson Creek.
