ng winter, was ready to retrace
his steps and brave every danger and hardship, rather than remain at
Astoria. This little handful of adventurous men we propose to accompany
in its long and perilous peregrinations.

The several parties we have mentioned all set off in company on the
29th of June, under a salute of cannon from the fort. They were to
keep together for mutual protection through the piratical passes of the
river, and to separate, on their different destinations, at the forks of
the Columbia. Their number, collectively, was nearly sixty, consisting
of partners and clerks, Canadian voyageurs, Sandwich Islanders, and
American hunters; and they embarked in two barges and ten canoes.

They had scarcely got under way, when John Day, the Kentucky hunter,
became restless and uneasy, and extremely wayward in his deportment.
This caused surprise, for in general he was remarkable for his cheerful,
manly deportment. It was supposed that the recollection of past
sufferings might harass his mind in undertaking to retrace the scenes
where they had been experienced. As the expedition advanced, however,
his agitation increased. He began to talk wildly and incoherently, and
to show manifest symptoms of derangement.

Mr. Crooks now informed his companions that in his desolate wanderings
through the Snake River country during the preceding winter, in which
he had been accompanied by John Day, the poor fellow's wits had been
partially unsettled by the sufferings and horrors through which they had
passed, and he doubted whether they had ever been restored to perfect
sanity. It was still hoped that this agitation of spirits might pass
away as they proceeded; but, on the contrary, it grew more and more
violent. His comrades endeavored to divert his mind and to draw him into
rational conversation, but he only became the more exasperated, uttering
wild and incoherent ravings. The sight of any of the natives put him
in an absolute fury, and he would heap on them the most opprobrious
epithets; recollecting, no doubt, what he had suffered from Indian
robbers.

On the evening of the 2d of July he became absolutely frantic, and
attempted to destroy himself. Being disarmed, he sank into quietude, and
professed the greatest remorse for the crime he had meditated. He then
pretended to sleep, and having thus lulled suspicion, suddenly
sprang up, just before daylight, seized a pair of loaded pistols, and
endeavored to blow out his brains.