June, 1679.
THfe WEST SHORE.
5
joina the preater river. and thst I
half a century ago a pestilence, that
must have been chills and fever or
measles, or both, came among them,
and that their practice of bathing while
in the midst of the fever attack caused
the death of thousands. The various
ills that more civilized flesh is heir to,
rapidly depopulated the villages nnd
almost destroyed the tribes before the
advent of American civilization, so the
early emigrants found little hostility
to their occupation of the Willamette
valley and the early missionaries little
material to work on. By disease and pes
tilence the victorious Calipooias were in
turn defeated, and to-day the miserable
remnants of those who were once Cal
ipooias or Multnomahs are hardly to be
tound on the face of the earth. Very
naturally they lay their troubles at our
doors, but we have the satisfaction to
know that while history may reproach
us for not respecting the rights of the
wild tribes who preceded us, there is
scarce an individual left of them to rise
up as our accuser. The aboriginal
epoch is gone, and even in the interior,
east of the Cascade range, where the
native races included such great nations
as the Nez Perccs, Cayuses and others
too numerous to mention, the little
handful that remain are a mockery of
the power and numbers they once pos
sessed, and our so-called civilisation has
scarce left them a rest for the soles of
their feet, while it envies tl.em every
acre of arable land where they feebly
try to cam their bread.
The Indian is born to be a hunter,
and yet, through the length and breadth
of this vast continent no hunting
grounds arc left him. Within a few
years "the pi tins" have ceased to exist
as we knew them a generation ago,
even the haunts of the buffalo will soon
become the home of civilised man.
If one could obtain a fair picture ot this
"Columbian region, as it was in the
time before the fur companies appeared
here, or say, when the mouth of the
great river was first discovered, it
Would be a rich contribution to history,
w hich seems to lack any definite record
of what tribes possessed the Northwest,
their numbers and habits, prior to the
nineteenth century. It would seem as
if the early history of the fur traders
should show all the facts needed,
enough to found a definite idea of num
bers and habits upon ; but if they had
1
.. 1. :.. .. . . 1 . 1 t
urn luiui uiauuii 11 iut uol Oven lumuctl
down. Bancroft's "Native R
probably contains all the information
extant, in brief summary, and he has
given what idea was possible to le de
rived from such sources; but the Indian
tribes that occupied our region have
faded away, ami what of their tradi
tions have been handed down cannot
le said to constitute authentic history,
or to give any definite details of tin-
life of the savage trilics who dwelt
here previous to our coming.
Dr. W. C. McKay, himself partly of
Indian blood, and an educated mid ac
complished man, whose father was one
of those who accompanied Astor's un
fortunate expedition for the settlement
of Astoria, has given the writer of
this the Indians' statement of how dis
ease and cstilencc spread first among
them. Before the comimr of the white
man there were no such dreadful and
deadly diseases, but the Indians assert
that they were brought by the great
ships that came into the Columbia
river from the ocean. As they watched
the first comer one evening when the
sun went down, they saw a flash of
lightning and heard a mar of thunder
from her sides, and a black cloud MM
forth and spread upon the waters of the
bay. This smoke, they say, spread far
and wide. It ascended the great river,
all the branches and the creeks, where
the Indians had their villages, and
wherever it went it carried the seeds of
death and pestilence, and the Indians
faded from the earth. Such is the be
lief they entertained at the time of the
causes of disease. They accepted the
issue as fate and mode no complaint.
It is not surprising in their ignorance
and simplicity, blessed as they were with
only the wild and untutored lessons
of savage life, that they mistook what
was an every day occurrence among
civilised people, the firing of the even
ing gun on board the Tonfuti, for a
supernatural visitation ami a signal of
doom. The idea was poetic and the
expression of it pathetic, while the
facts almost bear out the conclusion.
Everywhere the advent of riviliialion
teals the doom of the native races.
m 1 s ses
Blessed is the man who give his
wife ten cents without asking her what
she is going to do with it.
Sleighing all the year around At
the slaughter house.
lltk ai ihm HONS or i (His COUNTY.
ORKUON.
There is scarcely a snot In Oreiron
that has not had its numerous attrac
tions, beautiful scenery, etc., written up
by the gushing qnill-slingcr, or ex
tolled from the rostrum by the senti
mental tourist or traveling lecturer.
Without detracting in the least from
any other locality, we assure the rentier
that our county hsscsscs as many at
tractions for the pleasure seeker, as
tnc most popular summer resort on
the coast. If you arc in search of
game, here's where you will find it;
water-fowl in abundance can be found
along our shore, and our forests abound
with the finest lcar, deer, elk, iunil,
grouse, pheasant, etc., enough to satisfy
the ambition of the most anient sport
man. But perhas you are a disciple
of Walton, and prefer the rod to the
rifle ? The streams which meander
through our picturesque woods, arc the
home of the trout, and it requires but
a skillful cast of tnv fly, to lure them
from their shady xoU. To wander
along our cbbled bench, or clamber
over the rocks at cape Aragn, Is a
pleasure of which our alley neighbors
should not fail to avail themselves; to
watch the sea-lions sp-trting on the
cliffs, or behold the setting sun color
the water like a sea of blood; a hlp
lading from sight on the edge of the
far-away horixon, appearing as a speck
of gold in the sunset's last glow, is a
beautiful sight even to the dweller
down by the " deep sad sen."
True, our resources In this line have
never lieen so loudly lauded, as those
of other localities of mora frequent
resort for pleasure, as the public have
labored under a false impression In re
gard to Coot Bay, thinking that it was
but a little coal mining district some
where on the coast they knew not
where. But now and then, some ad
venturous tourist who has wandered
from the great thoroughfares of travel,
down through onr woods and valleys,
publishes a sketch from his note-book,
descriptive of sombrs forest, through
whose shadowy glades reigned an aw
ful silence, a crystal stream whose
banks were fringed with the loveliest
of flowers, or some magnificent sheet
of water, in whose clear waves ha had
seen reflected the fleeting clouds nf a
summer day, or the starry firmament
of night.
You deniaens of the valley may wall
envy us the cool sca-hrccae which fans
our brows, while you are sweltering in
the scorching sun, with the tharmom
cter willing in the shade. Come down
here to spend your summer holidays,
where w don't dry up like Egyptian
mummies in the summer, or frawae as
stiff as a gate-post in winter. Come
down ami take a look at our country,
and tee the work of improvement on
our barwhen we get it under wav