region to the westward: steering our course by
Mount Jefferson and Mount Hood, and crossing
the Columbia a little below the point where it
is joined by John Dyer's River. This was
certainly the most direct route, the usual Oregon
road being very circuitous; but it led through an
unknown tract of country, and its adoption
deprived us of our escort.

"Fierce remonstrances and a long debate
ensued, but the doctor was obstinate. He
believed, or affected to believe, the assurances
of the Indian guides, that the western region
was safe, easy of access, and abounding in
grass, water, and game. Indeed, some of us
shrewdly suspected that this rumoured plenty
of buffalo-meat, salmon, and venison was the
main attraction in the eyes of our chief; for it
would save his stores, which were nearly
exhausted, and afford cheap sustenance for the
hungry folks under his charge. Be that as it
might, Dr. I. F. Smith was peremptory. In vain
the officers, both the lieutenant commanding
the dragoons and the captain who was governor
of the fort, advised him to "keep on along with
the Oregon emigrants, by way of Grande Ronde
and the Walla Walla." He was deaf to all
persuasion, and peevishly informed us that we might
leave him if we chose, but that it was for him to
select the route. It was a melancholy morning
for us when, after two days' rest at Fort Boisé,
we saw the Oregon caravan start, waggon after
waggon, with the dragoons riding in front and
rear, their arms and accoutrements glancing in
the sun. Under their guardianship we had
travelled safely for hundreds of weary miles, and
a gloom that seemed prophetic of coming evil
settled upon us as the last horseman vanished
among the swells of the prairie.

"The commandant of Fort Boisé could not
spare us a guard. His garrison consisted almost
wholly of invalids or convalescent soldiers of
infantry, dragoons, and rifle-rangers. These
pallid veterans, most of whom were suffering
under wearing intermittent fevers caught by
long exposure on the swampy plains, were
well able to man the stockades and crumbling
earthen curtain of the little fort, but active
service seemed beyond them.—I say seemed,
because these poor sick soldiers were capable
of much more exertion, under the influence
of generous feeling, than would have appeared
possible.

"We set forth on our lonely westward march.
The doctor affected to rely implicitly on the
knowledge and skill of the guides, but there were
alarmists who noticed that a strange sort of
understanding appeared to exist between Dr.
Smith, the half-breed, and the two 'deputies.'
These men had grown undisguisedly surly and
insolent since the departure of the escort, while
there was a sinister expression in the half-breed's
cunning eyes as he pointed his finger northward,
and spoke of the 'plenty grass, plenty meat'
up there. Our journey was now very difficult.
The grazing was bad, the springs were brackish,
and we had to travel plains where the white salt
crystals lay strewn like sand in an Arabian desert,
dazzling our eyes as the sun glared upon us.
Then there were innumerable slimy creeks to be
crossed, where much exertion was needed to push
or drag the waggons out of the deep mud.
Worse than all, our provisions began to fail.
The public stores were nearly spent, and inroads
had been made on those supplies which a few of
the more thoughtful farmers had taken with
them in the waggons. Sickness appeared among
us, and five children and a woman died of
fever, while many suffered more or less in
health from the effects of constant wettings and
privations.

"Then the doctor showed the cloven foot.
On the third day after leaving Fort Boisé he
demanded payment of the second moiety of our
passage money. I ought to have told you that,
before starting, we paid down one half of the
doctor's demand: the rest being to be paid,
according to stipulation, on our arrival in
British Columbia. Thus his sudden call for a
second instalment was not only a very suspicious
proceeding, but a direct breach of agreement.
There was a warm dispute, for the doctor was
by this time unpopular. His varnish of
gentleness and politeness had long been rubbed
off, and his hard grasping nature stood
revealed. Besides, we were all half fed, weary and
sickly, and it was but that very morning that
one of the poor German women had been buried
under the prairie turf, in a shallow grave scooped
by the hands of her husband and son. The
doctor's claim, then, came with a very ill grace,
and so we flatly told him.

"But we found out, to our cost, the use of
the doctor's human bull-dogs. Hall and Tubber
came forward into the conclave, bristling like
boars at bay, and armed to the teeth.

"'Jest look here, chaps,' said Hall, cocking
his rifle, 'I'm not a man for many speeches, I
ain't. You jest pay up the shiners, or I'm
scrunched if we won't kick every tarnation
emigrant, Britisher, or Dutch, or Irish, out of
our waggons, and set 'em afoot on the parara,
to pad the hoof to the diggins. As for you,
western citizens, your traps is your own, but the
grub's ourn, the Injuns air our Injuns, and if
you don't like us, jest fish for yourselves. If
any gentleman ain't satisfied, hyar's a
convincing argument. He won't need two, I
guess.'

"The ruffian tapped the brown barrel of
his rifle and ran his wicked eye over our party,
while the women set up a scream and clung to
their husbands' arms, as if to restrain them.
There were several present who had guns and
knives, and who were no cowards; and at one
time I really thought a bloody scuffle would
have ensued. But Hall and Tubber were backed
by the two Missourian teamsters; the doctor
himself, though his face was very sallow and
his eye unsteady, had turned out with rifle
and revolver; and the guns and tomahawks
of the six guides were plainly ready to be
employed against us. The Irish and Germans
were unarmed, or nearly so, while the western
farmers could not resist the entreaties of