but they were shapely like orchard trees and afforded a pleasant shade.
The fruit of th black haw was in demand, for we had not had any berries for a long time. They were black and near the size of buckshot, with a single seed, very sweet and otherwise pleasant to the taste. It was a thorny tree and grew ten, fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five feet high. The people ate large quantities of this fruit. It was told for a fact in camp that a woman died during the night we stayed there, from the effects of a gorge of black haws. I ate about all I could get my hands on, but experienced no bad results—they were ripe and mellow.
The Indians in this country were the Kiuse (Cayuse), who had many horses and some cattle, and the grass was scarce. The Indians were friendly and even sociable and brought late vegetables from their gardens to trade for clothes and trinkets, scraps of iron, and probably ammunition. There were pumpkins and potatoes; the latter I call to mind with feelings of special gratitude. They had no price on anything, but would take all they could get, and one Indian wanted much more. He had a yellow pumpkin not larger than a man's head, which first one and then another made a bid for, until the Indian's head was completely turned as to the value of his vegetable. After refusing a new suit of clothes worth twentyfive dollars, he went away with the pumpkin under his arm. Many old timers will remember the saying, "Like the Indian with his pumpkin," even unto this day.
On account of the lateness of the season—we had already had a snow storm—and the scarcity of feed, we probably did not stop at this place more than one night. Journeying from our camp on the Umatilla, we passed across what seemed to me to be a kind of sandy desert, with at times rocky ground, sage brush, grease wood, and occasionally a few willows.
We passed Whitman's Mission (some called it a station), situated in about such a country as last above described. There was nothing cheerful or inviting about the place; a low and very modest looking house or two, the doctor in the yard and one or two other persons about the premises, are about all I remember of this hostoric place where the slaughter was to be three years later. I think we did not halt here but just passed
