less than was reported to the Congress of the
United States, and 4000 more than Mr Wilkes' calculation.

That there are errors in this there can be no doubt; and it is probable
that some smaller tribes may be omitted in the above calculation; the
number, therefore, between parallels 42 degrees and 54 degrees 40
minutes may be roughly estimated at 30,000.

Through the care of the Hudson's Bay Company and the semi-civilised
habits they have adopted, the number of Indians to the north of the
Columbia is not on the decrease; to the south it is; and the total must
be very considerably less than it was before the settlement was made
among them.

The Indian nations in Oregon may be divided into three classes,
differing in habits and character according to their locality and means
of sustenance--the Indians of the coast, the mountains, and the plains.
The first feed mostly on fish, and weave cloth for clothing from the
wool or hair of the native sheep, having to a great extent settled
residences, though these last characteristics are rapidly disappearing;
the second, trappers and hunters, wandering for the most part in pursuit
of game; and the third, the equestrian tribes, who, on the great plains
about the waters of the rivers, chase on their fleet horses the gigantic
bison, whose flesh supplies them with food, and whose hide covers them.
The former bear some resemblance to the native inhabitants of the
islands of the Pacific. The two latter are in every respect Red men.
Those on the coast were first known, and when visited by the early
voyagers had the characteristics which, from contiguity to White men,
have deteriorated in the south, but which have been retained in the
north--high courage, determination, and great ingenuity, but joined to
cruelty and faithlessness; and as in the south Destruction Island
obtained its name from their savage cruelty, so does the coast
throughout its length afford the same testimony. Cook, who first
discovered them, says, "They were thieves in the strictest sense of the
word, for they pilfered nothing from us but what they knew could be
converted to the purposes of utility, and had a real value according to
their estimation of things."

Their form is thick and clumsy, but they are not deficient in strength
or activity; when young, their colour is not dark nor their features
hard, but exposure to the weather, want of mental culture, and their
dirty habits, soon reduce them all to the same