vague but deeply
interesting intelligence of that part of the enterprise which had
proceeded by sea to the mouth of the Columbia. The Indians spoke of
a number of white men who had built a large house at the mouth of the
great river, and surrounded it with palisades. None of them had been
down to Astoria themselves; but rumors spread widely and rapidly from
mouth to mouth among the Indian tribes, and are carried to the heart of
the interior by hunting parties and migratory hordes.

The establishment of a trading emporium at such a point, also, was
calculated to cause a sensation to the most remote parts of the vast
wilderness beyond the mountains. It in a manner struck the pulse of the
great vital river, and vibrated up all its tributary streams.

It is surprising to notice how well this remote tribe of savages had
learnt, through intermediate gossips, the private feelings of the
colonists at Astoria; it shows that Indians are not the incurious and
indifferent observers that they have been represented. They told Mr.
Hunt that the white people at the large house had been looking anxiously
for many of their friends, whom they had expected to descend the great
river; and had been in much affliction, fearing that they were lost.
Now, however, the arrival of him and his party would wipe away all their
tears, and they would dance and sing for joy.

On the 31st of January, Mr. Hunt arrived at the falls of the Columbia,
and encamped at the village of the Wish-ram, situated at the head of
that dangerous pass of the river called "the Long Narrows".

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

The Village of Wish-ram.--Roguery of the Inhabitants.--Their
Habitations.--Tidings of Astoria.--Of the Tonquin Massacre.
--Thieves About the Camp.--A Band of Braggarts--Embarkation.--
Arrival at Astoria.--A Joyful Reception.--Old Comrade.--
Adventures of Reed, M'Lellan, and M'Kenzie Among the Snake
River Mountains.--Rejoicing at Astoria.

OF the village of Wish-ram, the aborigines' fishing mart of the
Columbia, we have given some account in an early chapter of this work.
The inhabitants held a traffic in the productions of the fisheries of
the falls, and their village was the trading resort of the tribes
from the coast and from the mountains. Mr. Hunt found the inhabitants
shrewder and more intelligent than any Indians he had met with. Trade
had sharpened their wits, though it had not improved their honesty;
for they were a