During our stay at Colville, we visited McDonald’s camp. Near it there is a mission, under the charge of Père Lewis, whom we visited. The Indians about the mission are well disposed and religious. As we returned to the fort, Mr. Stanley was just going into camp, having made a march of thirty-five miles. In the evening we listened to the thrilling stories and exciting legends of McDonald, with which his memory seems to be well stored. He says intelligence had reached him through the Blackfeet of the coming of my party; that the Blackfeet gave most singular accounts of everything connected with us. For instance, they said that our horses had claws like the grizzly bear; they climbed up the steep rocks and held on by their claws; that their necks were like the new moon; and that their neighing was like the sound of distant thunder. McDonald has, of course, given a free translation of the reports made by Indians. We listened to his accounts of his own thrilling adventures of his mountain life, and a description of an encounter with a party of Blackfeet is well worth relating. At the head of a party of three or four men he was met by a band of these Indians, who showed evidences of hostility. By signs he requested the chief of the Blackfeet to advance and meet him, both being unarmed. When the chief assented, and met him half way between the two parties, McDonald caught him by the hair of the head, and, holding him firmly, exacted from the remaining Indians promises to give up their arms, which they accordingly did, and passed on peaceably. He has lived here many years, and is an upright, intelligent, manly, and energetic man.
October 21. We moved off. McDonald presented us with a keg filled with cognac to cheer the hearts of the members of all the parties, and obliged us also to take a supply of port wine. We passed his gristmill on Mill River, the only one in the neighborhood. A march of twelve miles brought us into camp, McDonald accompanying us. We had a glorious supper of smoking steaks and hot cakes, and the stories added to the relish with which it was eaten. McDonald again charmed us with a recital of his thrilling adventures.
October 22. We got off early, and at Brown’s we stopped to purchase horses, and succeeded in obtaining two, one for McClellan and the other for myself. McDonald accompanied me some distance farther, when, bidding each other adieu, I pushed ahead, and, reaching a small stream, I found that McClellan’s party had taken the left bank, and that the captain had gone on to join them. We took the right, and thus avoided a bad crossing in which McClellan’s party became involved. We encamped upon the borders of the stream. Our train is larger and more heavily laden than heretofore, in consequence of the increased supplies. To-day we have thirteen packs. At night we killed a cow purchased of Brown, and we still have an ox in reserve, to be killed when we meet Donelson. The air is cool and fresh, and our appetites keen. I may say here that two pounds of beef and half a pound of flour per man are not too much for a day’s allowance.
October 23. Snow is falling this morning, and it has cleaned our beef admirably. We journeyed but ten miles, encamping near where we had seen Antoine’s family in going to Colville. The snow ceased falling about noon, with five inches upon the ground. It is light, and we think it will disappear in a few days. The Indians inform me that we shall not probably find it south of the Cœur d’Alene, and from their statements it would seem that this river is a dividing line as regards climate.
October 24. We started this morning with the intention of reaching the appointed place of meeting to-night. McClellan, Minter, Osgood, Stanley, and myself pushed ahead, and at noon we reached the old Chemakane Mission, so called from a spring of that name near by. The mission was occupied by Messrs. Walker and Eells, but in 1849, in consequence of the Cuyuse difficulties, it was abandoned. These gentlemen labored ardently for the good of the Indians. Walker was a good farmer and taught them agriculture, and by them his name is now mentioned with great respect. The house occupied by Walker is still standing, but Eells’s has been burned down. The site of the mission is five miles from the Spokane River, in an extensive open valley, well watered and very rich. Here we met Garry and two hundred Spokanes. Garry has forwarded the letter to Donelson, but has received no intelligence of his arrival in the Cœur d’Alene plain. We therefore concluded to encamp here, and to-morrow McClellan and myself are to accompany Garry to the Spokane House. The Colville or Slawntebus and Chemakane valleys have a productive soil, and are from one to three miles wide, and bordered by low hills, covered with larch, pine, and spruce, and having also a productive soil. In the evening the Indians clustered around our fire, and manifested much pleasure in our treatment of them. I have now seen a great deal of Garry, and am much pleased with him. Beneath a quiet exterior he shows himself to be a man of judgment, forecast, and great reliability, and I could see in my interview with his band the ascendency he possesses over them.
In the Colville valley there is a line of settlements twenty-eight miles long. The settlers are persons formerly connected with the Hudson Bay Company, and they are anxious to become naturalized, and have the lands they now occupy transferred to themselves. I informed them that I could only express my hopes that their case would be met by the passage of a special act. They are extensive farmers, and raise a great deal of wheat.
October 25. Having left the necessary directions for moving camp to the place of meeting with Donelson, Captain McClellan and myself accompanied Garry to the Spokane House. The road was slippery in consequence of the melting of the snow, and we were obliged frequently to dismount. We found Garry’s family in a comfortable lodge, and he informed us that he always had on hand flour, sugar, and coffee, with which to make his friends comfortable. We then went to our new camp south of the Spokane, which had been established whilst we were visiting Garry’s place. From the Chemakane Mission the train left the river, and, passing through a rolling country covered with open pine woods, in five miles reached the Spokane, and crossing it by a good and winding ford, ascended the plain, and in six miles, the first two of which was through open pine, reached Camp Washington.
October 26, 27, 28, and 29. During these days I was occupied at our camp (Camp Washington) in making the arrangements for moving westward. Lieutenant Donelson arrived on the 28th, and we all sat down to a fine supper prepared for the occasion. All the members of the exploration were in fine spirits; our table was spread under a canopy, and upon it a great variety of dishes appeared, roasted beef, bouillon, steaks, and abundance of hot bread, coffee, sugar, and our friend McDonald’s good cheer. But the best dish was a beef’s head cooked by friend Minter in Texas fashion. It was placed in a hole in the ground on a layer of hot coals, with moss and leaves around it to protect it from the dirt, and then covered up. There it remained for some five or six hours, when, removing it, the skin came off without difficulty, and it presented a very tempting dish, and was enjoyed by every member of the party.
Having given the necessary instructions to McClellan and Donelson to proceed with their parties to the Walla Walla, thence to the Dalles, Vancouver, and Olympia, making careful survey of the country on the route, the governor, with his small party, pushed on ahead, having Garry and his brother as guides. Starting late in the afternoon of the 29th, they journeyed thirteen miles over undulating hills and a high table-land, and encamped upon a small stream called Se-cule-eel-qua, with fine grass and fertile soil.
October 30. We commenced to move at sunrise, and at three P.M. encamped on a small lake twenty-two miles from our place of departure in the morning. In view of this camp were the graves of a number of Spokane Indians, indicated by mounds of stones, designed to protect the bodies from the wolves, and by poles supported in an upright position by the stones. It was the usage until within a few years past, for the Spokanes and other northern tribes towards the Pacific to slay the horses and cattle of the deceased at his grave, and also to sacrifice his other property, but they are gradually relinquishing this pernicious practice, under the influence of the counsels and example of the white man.