This appeared to be a great thoroughfare
for the tribes from the neighborhood of the Falls of the Columbia, in
their expeditions to make war upon the tribes of the Rocky Mountains; to
hunt buffalo on the plains beyond, or to traffic for roots and buffalo
robes. It was the season of migration, and the Indians from various
distant parts were passing and repassing in great numbers.
Mr. M'Kenzie now detached a small band, under the conduct of Mr. John
Reed, to visit the caches made by Mr. Hunt at the Caldron Linn, and to
bring the contents to his post; as he depended, in some measure, on them
for his supplies of goods and ammunition. They had not been gone a week,
when two Indians arrived of the Pallatapalla tribe, who live upon a
river of the same name. These communicated the unwelcome intelligence
that the caches had been robbed. They said that some of their tribe had,
in the course of the preceding spring, been across the mountains, which
separated them from Snake River, and had traded horses with the Snakes
in exchange for blankets, robes and goods of various descriptions. These
articles the Snakes had procured from caches to which they were guided
by some white men who resided among them, and who afterwards accompanied
them across the Rocky Mountains.
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