On the 20th of January, Mr. Hunt took leave of
these friendly Indians, and of the river on which they encamped, and
continued westward.
At length, on the following day, the wayworn travellers lifted up their
eyes and beheld before them the long-sought waters of the Columbia. The
sight was hailed with as much transport as if they had already reached
the end of their pilgrimage; nor can we wonder at their joy. Two hundred
and forty miles had they marched, through wintry wastes and rugged
mountains, since leaving Snake River; and six months of perilous
wayfaring had they experienced since their departure from the Arickara
village on the Missouri. Their whole route by land and water from that
point had been, according to their computation, seventeen hundred and
fifty-one miles, in the course of which they had endured all kinds of
hardships. In fact, the necessity of avoiding the dangerous country of
the Blackfeet had obliged them to make a bend to the south and traverse
a great additional extent of unknown wilderness.
The place where they struck the Columbia was some distance below the
junction of its two great branches, Lewis and Clarke rivers, and not
far from the influx of the Wallah-Wallah. It was a beautiful stream,
three-quarters of a mile wide, totally free from trees; bordered in some
places with steep rocks, in others with pebbled shores.
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