owing, therefore,
that the chief could not be supported by his warriors, I was resolved
not be imposed upon, and as I knew where the firearms of the fugitives
had been deposited, I would have them at all hazards; but we were
obliged to give him all our blankets, amounting to eight, a brass
kettle, a hatchet, a small pistol, much out of order, a powder-horn, and
some rounds of ammunition: with these articles placed in a pile before
him, we demanded the men's clothing, the three fowling-pieces, and
their canoe, which he had caused to be hidden in the woods. Nothing but
our firmness compelled him to accept the articles offered in exchange;
but at last, with great reluctance, he closed the bargain, and suffered
us to depart in the evening with the prisoners and the property.

We all five (including the three deserters) embarked in the large canoe,
leaving our Kreluit and his wife to follow in the other, and proceeded
as far as the Cowlitzk, where we camped. The next day, we pursued our
journey homeward, only stopping at the Kreluit village to get some
provisions, and soon entered the group of islands which crowd the river
above Gray's bay. On one of these we stopped to amuse ourselves with
shooting some ducks, and meanwhile a smart breeze springing up, we split
open a double-rush mat (which had served as a bag), to make a sail, and
having cut a forked sapling for a mast, shipped a few boulders to stay
the foot of it, and spread our canvass to the wind. We soon arrived in
sight of Gray's bay, at a distance of fourteen or fifteen miles from our
establishment. We had, notwithstanding, a long passage across, the
river forming in this place, as I have before observed, a sort of lake,
by the recession of its shores on either hand: but the wind was fair. We
undertook, then, to cross, and quitted the island, to enter the broad,
lake-like expanse, just as the sun was going down, hoping to reach
Astoria in a couple of hours.

We were not long before we repented of our temerity: for in a short time
the sky became overcast, the wind increased till it blew with violence,
and meeting with the tide, caused the waves to rise prodigiously, which
broke over our wretched canoe, and filled it with water. We lightened it
as much as we could, by throwing overboard the little baggage we had
left, and I set the men to baling with our remaining brass kettle. At
last, after having been, for three hours, the sport of the raging
billows, and threaten