She therefore packed up the remainder, slung it on her back,
and, with her helpless little ones, set out again on her wanderings.
Crossing the ridge of mountains, she descended to the banks of the
Wallah-Wallah, and kept along them until she arrived where that river
throws itself into the Columbia. She was hospitably received and
entertained by the Wallah-Wallahs, and had been nearly two weeks among
them when the two canoes passed.
On being interrogated, she could assign no reason for this murderous
attack of the savages; it appeared to be perfectly wanton and
unprovoked. Some of the Astorians supposed it an act of butchery by a
roving band of Blackfeet; others, however, and with greater probability
of correctness, have ascribed it to the tribe of Pierced-nose Indians,
in revenge for the death of their comrade hanged by order of Mr. Clarke.
If so, it shows that these sudden and apparently wanton outbreakings of
sanguinary violence on the part of the savages have often some previous,
though perhaps remote, provocation.
The narrative of the Indian woman closes the checkered adventures
of some of the personages of this motley story; such as the honest
Hibernian Reed, and Dorion the hybrid interpreter. Turcot and La
Chapelle were two of the men who fell off from Mr.
Pages:
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669