[78] All these posts have been before noted: Fort Thompson (Kamloops) in our volume vii, p. 199, note 64; Kootenay and Flathead in notes 45, 46, ante; Fort Hall in our volume xxi, p. 210, note 51; Fort Boise, in our volume xxviii, p. 321, note 199; Fort Colville in De Smet’s Letters, our volume xxvii, p. 330, note 166; Okanagan in our volume vi, p. 260, note 71; Walla Walla in our volume xxi, p. 278, note 73.—Ed.
[79] Usually known as Fort Umpqua, this post was founded in 1832 by John McLeod, being situated about forty miles up the Umpqua River, on the south bank, on a small prairie of about two hundred acres. It was usually in charge of a French Canadian clerk, who needed to be vigilant because of the treacherous nature of the savages. The post was attacked in 1840 by ten times the number of defenders, but the assault was repulsed. The stockade having been burned (1851), the Hudson’s Bay Company declined to rebuild, leasing the land to an American settler, W. W. Chapman.—Ed.
[80] The idea of a transcontinental railway had not yet dawned. Farnham’s plan shows, however, boldness of conception for these early days of railway building.—Ed.
[81] Alexander Simpson, a relation of Sir George, and brother of the Arctic explorer Thomas Simpson, whose early death was a loss to geographical science. Alexander Simpson was on his way to the Sandwich Islands, to investigate the trade conditions therein. See his Life and Travels of Thomas Simpson (London, 1845), pp. 345, 351.—Ed.
[82] For the history of Fort Vancouver see our volume xxi, p. 297, note 82.—Ed.
[83] The site of the present St. Helens, a small town, the seat of Columbia County, Oregon.—Ed.
[84] This epidemic began in 1829, and wrought great mortality among the natives. By 1832 it was particularly severe around Fort Vancouver. One village visited contained but two infants living—the remainder of the inhabitants having died of the plague. Various causes have been given, some regarding the disease as scarlet fever, others as some form of malaria due to putrid food, others thinking it attributable to immoral habits, etc. By its ravages nearly three-fourths of the native population was swept from the lower Columbia before the advent of American immigrants.—Ed.
[85] For Tongue Point see our volume vi, p. 242, note 44.—Ed.
[86] For James Birnie, the clerk in charge, see Townsend’s Narrative in our volume xxi, p. 361, note 130.—Ed.
[87] For Baker’s Bay see our volume vi, p. 234, note 38.—Ed.