They told Mr.
Hunt that the white people at the large house had been looking anxiously
for many of their friends, whom they had expected to descend the great
river; and had been in much affliction, fearing that they were lost.
Now, however, the arrival of him and his party would wipe away all their
tears, and they would dance and sing for joy.
On the 31st of January, Mr. Hunt arrived at the falls of the Columbia,
and encamped at the village of the Wish-ram, situated at the head of
that dangerous pass of the river called "the Long Narrows".
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
The Village of Wish-ram.--Roguery of the Inhabitants.--Their
Habitations.--Tidings of Astoria.--Of the Tonquin Massacre.
--Thieves About the Camp.--A Band of Braggarts--Embarkation.--
Arrival at Astoria.--A Joyful Reception.--Old Comrade.--
Adventures of Reed, M'Lellan, and M'Kenzie Among the Snake
River Mountains.--Rejoicing at Astoria.
OF the village of Wish-ram, the aborigines' fishing mart of the
Columbia, we have given some account in an early chapter of this work.
The inhabitants held a traffic in the productions of the fisheries of
the falls, and their village was the trading resort of the tribes
from the coast and from the mountains. Mr. Hunt found the inhabitants
shrewder and more intelligent than any Indians he had met with.
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