f him, and
among the Indians, 130 horses, they resumed their route, in the
beginning of August, to the number of some sixty-five persons, to
proceed across the mountains to the river Columbia. Wishing to avoid the
_Blackfeet_ Indians, a warlike and ferocious tribe, who put to death all
the strangers that fall into their hands, they directed their course
southwardly, until they arrived at the 40th degree of latitude. Thence
they turned to the northwest, and arrived, by-and-by, at an old fort,
or trading post, on the banks of a little river flowing west. This post,
which was then deserted, had been established, as they afterward
learned, by a trader named Henry. Our people, not doubting that this
stream would conduct them to the Columbia, and finding it navigable,
constructed some canoes to descend it. Having left some hunters (or
trappers) near the old fort, with Mr. Miller, who, dissatisfied with the
expedition, was resolved to return to the United States, the party
embarked; but very soon finding the river obstructed with rapids and
waterfalls, after having upset some of the canoes, lost one man by
drowning, and also a part of their baggage, perceiving that the stream
was impracticable, they resolved to abandon their canoes and proceed on
foot. The enterprise was one of great difficulty, considering the small
stock of provisions they had left. Nevertheless, as there was no time to
lose in deliberation, after depositing in a _cache_ the superfluous part
of their baggage, they divided themselves into four companies, under
the command of Messrs. M'Kenzie, Hunt, M'Lellan and Crooks, and
proceeded to follow the course of the stream, which they named _Mad
river_, on account of the insurmountable difficulties it presented.
Messrs. M'Kenzie and M'Lellan took the right bank, and Messrs. Hunt and
Crook the left. They counted on arriving very quickly at the Columbia;
but they followed this Mad river for twenty days, finding nothing at all
to eat, and suffering horribly from thirst. The rocks between which the
river flows being so steep and abrupt as to prevent their descending to
quench their thirst (so that even their dogs died of it), they suffered
the torments of Tantalus, with this difference, that he had the water
which he could not reach above his head, while our travellers had it
beneath their feet. Several, not to die of this raging thirst, drank
their own urine: all, to appease the cravings of hunger, ate beaver
skins roa