Hunt and his party.
The weary travellers gladly took possession of the deserted log huts
which had formed the post, and which stood on the bank of a stream
upwards of a hundred yards wide, on which they intended to embark.
There being plenty of suitable timber in the neighborhood, Mr. Hunt
immediately proceeded to construct canoes. As he would have to leave
his horses and their accoutrements here, he determined to make this a
trading post, where the trappers and hunters, to be distributed about
the country, might repair; and where the traders might touch on their
way through the mountains to and from the establishment at the mouth of
the Columbia. He informed the two Snake Indians of this determination,
and engaged them to remain in that neighborhood and take care of the
horses until the white men should return, promising them ample rewards
for their fidelity. It may seem a desperate chance to trust to the faith
and honesty of two such vagabonds; but, as the horses would have, at all
events, to be abandoned, and would otherwise become the property of the
first vagrant horde that should encounter them, it was one chance in
favor of their being regained.
At this place another detachment of hunters prepared to separate from
the party for the purpose of trapping beaver.
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