The Indians in this vicinity were better clad and altogether in more
prosperous condition than those above, and, as Mr. Hunt thought, showed
their consciousness of ease by something like sauciness of manner. Thus
prosperity is apt to produce arrogance in savage as well as in civilized
life. In both conditions, man is an animal that will not bear pampering.
From these people Mr. Hunt for the first time received vague but deeply
interesting intelligence of that part of the enterprise which had
proceeded by sea to the mouth of the Columbia. The Indians spoke of
a number of white men who had built a large house at the mouth of the
great river, and surrounded it with palisades. None of them had been
down to Astoria themselves; but rumors spread widely and rapidly from
mouth to mouth among the Indian tribes, and are carried to the heart of
the interior by hunting parties and migratory hordes.
The establishment of a trading emporium at such a point, also, was
calculated to cause a sensation to the most remote parts of the vast
wilderness beyond the mountains. It in a manner struck the pulse of the
great vital river, and vibrated up all its tributary streams.
It is surprising to notice how well this remote tribe of savages had
learnt, through intermediate gossips, the private feelings of the
colonists at Astoria; it shows that Indians are not the incurious and
indifferent observers that they have been represented.
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