passed into the woods. Seeing I was alone with the dead, I hurried after them. I came to a pen built of logs and in this were bodies rolled up like those on the rafts. This did not frighten me, but near the pen was an object that did. A little old black man stood there. I took a long breath and stood for a moment to see if the thing were alive. It seemed to move, and I ran for my life. Others who passed that way across the island said they saw dead bodies everywhere, on rocks, on rafts, in old broken canoes, and these little wooden devils were legion. Some one said they were put there to protect the dead, a sort of scarecrow. No beast or bird would face that diabolical array for the sake of a feast. [1]Mimaluse Island was the Golgotha of the Waskopum tribe.
Still following the path along the river, we seemed to be getting through the mountains, for there was quite a stretch of beach sloping to uplands and foothills overgrown with shrubs and oak timber. We passed a few native huts and a store house containing, among other provisions, acorns of the white oak, which were sweet and quite palatable. We helped ourselves, and being very hungry, ate many of the nuts. It was a fair day, and after our acorn feast we felt quite cheerful. We soon came to a place where the Waskopum Indians were drying fish eggs. The eggs were hanging in festoons on poles that were supported by forks stuck in the ground. Of course this sort of dry house had no attractions for us and we held our noses and fled.
Robert Shortis met us at The Dalles with supplies. He came in a canoe with two Indians. He lived at Tamchuk (the falls), now Oregon City. I don't remember what he brought besides flour and sugar. I suppose the reason we children grew tired of sugar was because the quantity was too great in proportion to the supply of other food. Shortis did not come as a speculator, but as "a friend indeed to friends in need." He had made his home with the Applegate families before he came to Oregon. He had written letters from Oregon to his friends, advising them to come to the new country, giving as reasons the healthful climate and mild winters of the northwest coast. His letters were published in the newspapers and
- ↑ Dead, in Chinook language.
