Part 24

We finally arrived upon the summit of a high hill in a mountainous country; the valley filled with tents, and the earth thrown up by the diggers as by an earthquake. We lodged in an open cabin, built of staves rived out of the tree, without floor; a rude pine table; fried beef and potatoes, with coffee, and hot, hard, wheaten cakes was our food. The quartz rock produced abundantly. The opening, ten feet by seven, and ten feet in depth, had already produced the value of fifty thousand dollars. There were three casks in the cabin, headed up, full of quartz strongly charged with gold, besides sacks and bags. This important discovery was not yet known, otherwise it would have been dangerous; we were six persons sleeping upon straw, with a blazing fire, which gave light sufficient for an enemy to point through the opening anywhere, and kill the party. I felt anxious, and was glad to get away within three days. The operation of breaking the quartz was performed with rollers of stone drawn by mules; the more valuable pieces were broken with a pestle; some lumps weighed eight pounds. There were seven partners in this valuable claim. We came down with a quantity of the specimens, accompanied by Jack Hayes, the famous Texian ranger, who exhibited his skill with pistols in shooting the gopher, a little animal not unlike a ground mole. Ground squirrels abound in California, and are destructive to the crops. The scenery was at times magnificent; the thick heather, or undergrowth of the grizzly bear, in some parts is prominent. At one ranche the owner showed us some young cubs. There was some beautiful prairie country, capable of fine cultivation, and excellent grazing, which produces fine horses and horned cattle.

The wood-pecker provides for himself singularly in this country. I was struck with the mosaic appearance of some trees, and on examination found that this bird had bored holes in the thick bark, and set in the acorns for his winter’s supply. At one ranche the hogs, sheep, and cattle looked remarkably well. At another stopping point, the owner has a pet ram, who knew a Mexican at sight, and bucked him with his head; he had a perverted taste for an animal, and was very fond of tobacco. His owner had an inveterate hate for an Indian, who had killed a brother of his. The Indians are fast disappearing. I was glad to get back to San Francisco, to prepare for my Oregon trip.

1851.

LVI.

OREGON TERRITORY, _May 5, 1851_.

By the powerful agency of ocean and river steamers, without disparagement to horse and mule force, I find myself transported from the southern mines of California, a distance of some nine hundred miles, and can scarcely realize that I am now writing in a log cabin of the Upper Willamette Valley, in which the first legislative committee of nine persons were sworn in office by the missionary (Rev. Jason Lee) after their election by a mass meeting of the early emigrants, in 1846, to decide if laws should be enacted for the territory. The interpreter, Dr. Newell, who is present, drove the first pair of oxen across the plains, and now occupies his claim of a mile square, or six hundred and forty acres.

After returning from the mines via Stockton, to San Francisco, I embarked with the ocean steamer Columbia for Astoria, and had the pleasure of meeting with an old friend, in the person of the Hon. Thomas Nelson, from Peekskill, recently appointed Chief Justice of Oregon, in company with the Surveyor General, J.B. Preston, and several ladies; among the number were five who came out from the States as school teachers, under the auspices of the Hon. Mr. Thurston, Delegate to Congress, who died at Acapulco, after having crossed the isthmus, and whose death creates a great sensation in the territory. He was a candidate for Member of Congress for the next term, against Gen. Lane, who now meets no opposition. We had an agreeable passage to the mouth of the Columbia, whose far-famed breakers troubled us but little, the weather being favorable. Cape Disappointment at the north, and Point Adams at the south, with its eight-mile entrance, scarcely showed us where lie hidden the frightful sand banks which have so long been the terror of the mariner.

Another hour brought us to Astoria, which lies under the mountain range with a dense forest in the rear, and is a miserable town, without comfort or convenience, just the reverse in short of what you would expect from the name of its founder, and the writings of Washington Irving. We found here a steamer which carried us to Vancouver, a distance of one hundred and ten miles up the Columbia, the river narrowing from Astoria, as you proceed up stream, down to a mile in width, and sometimes less. The shores are mostly high lands, and are covered with impenetrable forests of firs of the most gigantic growth. Vancouver is the military post, and we found here the Mounted Rifle Regiment; it is in a most desirable position, situated upon a beautiful rising plain in an old settled part of the country, the establishments of the Hudson Bay Company being located here, and well worth visiting. They are in an immense inclosure, picketed with piles thirty feet in height, and containing several acres, with block-houses and towers fortified, and inside are immense store-houses for goods, and the dwellings of the governor and employees. Six miles below this point is the mouth of the Willamette, which river we ascended twelve miles to Portland, nearly the head of navigation for three-masted vessels, where we take whale boats or bateaux to proceed to Oregon City, which lies below the falls.

We chartered a boat with six Indian oarsmen, and, as it had a windlass in the bow, and an immense coil of rope to fasten to the trees for hauling up the rapids, we proceeded well until night overtook us within two miles of the town, where the rush of water was too much for us. After making ineffectual efforts until nine o’clock, we abandoned all hope until morning unless we should find shelter in a log-cabin, there being one, we were told, on that side of the Clackamas river. We divided our party of gentlemen, leaving enough for the protection of eight ladies, and commenced pioneering through the dense forest, without the aid of a lantern, until we discovered the timber burning in clearing up the land, and found the log cabin, but our only success was the borrowing of a dug-out to cross the Clackamas and to try to get to town to procure whale boats. Judge Nelson, our guide, and myself squatted in the bottom of this egg-shell canoe, and were paddled across this turbulent stream. We got to town about midnight, worn down with fatigue, our boots and clothes torn from contact with fallen logs, and from crossing ravines; but we were too late to obtain assistance until morning, so the party were obliged to camp in the open boat. Having been recommended to Gen. Gaines, a noble-hearted Kentuckian, who has seen service in Mexico, now Governor of the Territory, I was invited to join him and meet the commissioners now in treaty with the Indians. Our route of twenty-five miles through dense forests, ravines, and cane-brakes, and over prairies and streams, was intensely exciting, and to one who had not had some experience in California and Texas, it would have been startling. I found here three tribes of Indians encamped upon the plain, and was not a little amused by their ball plays, their war and other dances around the camp fires in the evening, and their gambling games which are sometimes kept up noisily all night.

The Yam Hill and Lukamuke bands of the Callapooya tribes are rapidly diminishing in numbers by disease. The Molalla tribe are mostly horsemen and warriors, and are a fine-looking race. The commissioners have just succeeded in effecting treaties with two of the bands, which I was called upon to witness; and it was an interesting sight to see Governor Gaines, Judge Spencer, and Colonel Allen, opposite the three Indian chiefs belonging to each tribe, with the interpreter and secretary, in grave council, while in the interior of the log cabin and around the door were collected many of the tribe, anxiously zealous of their rights, and suspicious lest any one band should get more than the other. The commissary distributes daily the flesh of a bullock, with rations of potatoes, flour, and salt, and the camp fires are constantly smoking. Their horses are hobbled and grazing on the prairie and in the woods; occasionally they mount them, and dash over the plain with the speed of the wind. The distribution of blankets, calicoes, and various articles, will take place when they leave. By the treaties for sale of lands and removals, they are provided with agricultural implements, supplies of provisions and clothing, horses, and in some cases, log houses instead of tents which they now occupy. This is to continue for twenty years, which is liberal on the part of the government.

The French prairies, a few miles from here, are mostly settled by French Canadians, who were the early settlers, having been engaged in trapping. I found one who was with the first expedition of Astor, some forty years since, and who has now his family of half-breeds, and his mile square of land.

From this point we have travelled in the country on the opposite side of the river, and from the summits of the highest hills had some magnificent views of the mountains of St Helena, Hood, and Rainer, eternally covered with snow, and of the immense forest of firs and pines, intervening with prairie land, the whole forming a panorama of surpassing wildness and beauty.

LVII.

SAN FRANCISCO, _May 20, 1851_.

On my return to this city from Oregon, a scene of desolation presented itself. The boatman who brought me and an elderly gentleman ashore, who had lost property largely, as also friends who had perished in the flames, was ordered to land us on the beach near a hotel which had escaped, as I knew not whether the house where I left my effects was saved; but fortune had favored me once again, for the second time in this voyage--the first being in the destruction of the St. Charles hotel, in New Orleans. As we guided our boat between the blackened piles and charred dock timbers, with scarcely a landmark for a circuit of acres, which had so recently been covered with stores filled with merchandise, the heart sickened at the sight, and the old man, with his grey locks, sobbed aloud and wept, and leaned upon me for support. I took my way up the street, and discovered with satisfaction that I had a home, although thousands were scattered, many without a shelter or a change of clothing. I found the outbuildings and fences burned off the lot, but a change of wind and great efforts had saved our house. You have before this had full particulars of the destruction of property in this, the greatest conflagration that the city has ever experienced, and one which will cause distress and immense loss to many in the Atlantic States. I have never yet found a people who meet disaster with so much fortitude, and who possess the same recuperative faculties.

While the ruins are still smoking, some of the most business streets are being rebuilt, and the rapidity with which the work progresses is magical. The buildings now constructing being of wood and of frail material, are soon erected; and many house-frames were in the market, the remains of former speculations, which enables the builders to advance rapidly. The activity of the workman is exhausting; and as the rainy season has passed, many places are occupied with goods while the roofs are not fully covered, and fortunately the store ships in harbor contained abundant supplies to recommence business.

The temporary buildings must give way in time to fire-proof structures, otherwise another conflagration must be the result, as the winds are high from the north-west during the summer, and calculated to sweep the flames towards the business streets, wharves, and shipping. It was a singular fact that the fire should have occurred on the anniversary of the disaster of last year, and many persons fear the torch of the incendiary on the 14th of next month, that being the date of the second misfortune the last summer. The citizens are now enrolling themselves as a special night patrol.

From early morn until night is now heard the constant serenade of the saw and hammer of the carpenter, and the trowel of the mason. Many who have lost their all, retire in disgust; others start for the mines; others, even after the third or fourth visitation, if they have anything left, try it again, believing that the same elements of prosperity still exist in the country. It is a harvest for laborers and mechanics, and attracts many from other points about the country. The former obtain six dollars per day, while carpenters and painters have ten dollars per day.

I attended yesterday the funeral of a worthy young man who lost his life from over-exertion at the fire, and to-day looked at the ruins of an iron building, with the only survivor out of six who were within during the fire, and who made his escape by the scuttle and passed over the burning roofs of the adjoining buildings, while his brother and the remainder of the party were roasted alive. The streets, being planked, added fuel to the flames, and made it difficult for persons to escape. We have had a shock of an earthquake as a closing scene; it was felt so sensibly as to rattle the crockery of the ladies in the houses, but more positively down the coast, sufficiently there to remind one in a slight degree of Naples and Messina.

The smoke rising from the charred timbers, with the dust and ashes carried by the high cool winds which prevail every evening, makes the climate at present very disagreeable, particularly to those affected with any bronchial difficulty. I shall avail myself of the advantage of a trip down the valley of San Josè, called the Garden of California, where I will have an opportunity of visiting another great source of wealth to the country, the Quicksilver Mines.

LVIII.

LAHAINA, SANDWICH ISLANDS, _June 23, 1851_.

In my last communication from California, I think I intimated, at least I meant to intimate, my departure for China, via the Hawaiian group of islands. I have never known the same difficulties experienced by shipmasters in procuring crews; we were considerably delayed, waiting for the sailors, notwithstanding the enormous wages of one hundred dollars per month, which are paid, and which is not in their estimation equal to the allurements of the mines, until they find themselves without means, and obliged to take to their ordinary avocation.

Our list being finally filled by the rapacious landlords, who devour the substance of the poor Jacks, and force them on board after getting them well in debt, we proceeded to sea with a mutinous crew, and nothing but the rigid deportment and treatment of the officers brought them to their duties.

We were becalmed the first four days, which monotony was partially relieved by shooting at a species of Albatross, a large aquatic bird, and by fishing for sharks, of which we had large numbers, and sending an occasional rifle-ball into the backs of the large whales which were playing and spouting about us, producing a sound not unlike the escape-pipe of a Mississippi high-pressure steamer. At length our captain grew weary of the continued calm so near the coast, and charging my only fellow cabin-passenger with being a Jonah, he would now feed him on sea-fowls’ eggs, of which we had a supply from the small islands, and shark-stew and steak, which was the last recourse to raise a breeze. As Prince Murat, who died in Florida, said he found all animals eatable except the turkey buzzard, we concluded to take the dishes dressed from a young shark which seemed to be enjoyed by the crew, and, if prejudice had not interposed, the repast would not have been unsavory. Fortune favored us and filled our sails, and in a few days we found ourselves in a latitude of the trade-winds, which blew steadily with agreeable weather until we made the island of Hawaii, with its volcanic fires illuminating the heavens at night; and moderate breezes prevailing under the lee of the island of Moui, commonly known as Mowee, gave us an opportunity of coasting, and examining the peculiar formation of the frightful rocks and chasms of extinct craters, as well as the verdant valleys produced from the decomposed lava. We finally made the harbor of Lahaina, most resorted to by whalers, to obtain fresh supplies of meats, fruits, and vegetables, of which there is an abundance, and here nature presented herself in her most luxuriant garb of tropical vegetation, with cocoa-nut trees filled with fruit, bananas, figs, grapes, melons, &c., reminding us much of the West India Islands, but with an entirely different population. One would suppose from the number of Kanakas of both sexes, and of all ages, that the inhabitants were amphibious, as they were rolling and dashing in the surf among the breakers.

Some of the most extraordinary anecdotes are related of them. They have been known to swim thirty miles when wrecked midway between the islands, and often stories of credible parties give greater distances. The missionaries wrought great changes; a fair proportion now read and write, and have a capacity for arithmetic; many are members of the church, and their condition is so unlike their barbarous cannibal existence when they were visited by Capt. Cook, who was murdered on Hawaii island, known as Owyhee, that one cannot but thank the cause of the missions. Mr. Balding, one of the pioneers of the work, with whom I dined, and who had resided for twenty-one years among those then barbarians, gave me much valuable information. The native population suffer much from measles and other diseases, contracted in their intercourse with foreigners; and their numbers, not unlike the Indians of Oregon, seem to diminish gradually as the whites supplant them. Their taro is the chief article of food, being a root easily cultivated, and when pounded and baked, or boiled, is called Poi, and it is amusing to see groups squatted around the large gourd shells containing it, while each member puts his finger in and twists it round until well loaded, which he conveys to his mouth. Its consistency is denominated single, double, or three-fingered Poi.

They still have their propensity for raw fish with a sauce of salt water and pepper, which they relish with great gusto. Instead of going in a state of nudity as formerly, the largest proportion now wear clothing, and those who have the means, in the towns, wear the most gay-colored dresses of light materials.

Passages are not unfrequently made in about nineteen days from San Francisco, a distance of two thousand two hundred miles, with the stormy north-west winds, to the tropics, where begin the trades, which will enable those from California who desire a warmer climate to escape a more rigorous latitude. Our passage was only an average one of eighteen days, but looking forward to my embarcation for Hong Kong from Honolulu, eighty miles further on the island of Oahu, I could wish the aid of steam for traversing the ocean waste of five thousand miles, and also to escape with certainty the frightful typhoons of the China sea, in August and September. But I expect at the latter place, the arrival of a clipper ship, which was to succeed us at San Francisco, and will give me an opportunity of seeing King Kamehameha’s dominions, of which Honolulu is the great port of entry of the Pacific Islands for the whalers, and also the residence of his majesty. Such information as I think may interest you I will communicate from there.

LIX.

HONOLULU, _June 27, 1851_.

From Lahaina I came to this place, the capital of the Sandwich group, upon the Island of Oahu, and I find to my satisfaction the arrival of the clipper ship Samuel Appleton, of eight hundred tons burden, by which I shall embark for China. I must say I am agreeably disappointed in the aspect of things here, and the advancement through the instrumentality of the Missions and American residents. During the season for the return of the whalers from their fishing grounds, large numbers of vessels are seen in port, and the conveniences now offered far surpass those of any of the other small islands. It is the residence of King Kamehameha, and all the principal functionaries of government. The town is regularly laid out upon the margin of a deep bay, with an extended valley in the rear, and an undulating country between the high mountain, volcanic ridges extending towards the north part of the island, through which draw refreshing winds, without which the heat would be insupportable.

The houses of the natives are formed of bamboo cane frames, and thatched with wild grass; the sides are covered with like material, which resists the action of the sun and rain. The houses of foreigners are constructed mostly of wood, with verandas, and are well adapted to the climate. Some of the public buildings are of stone.

I found a comfortable hotel, delivered my letters and papers, and passed the first evening very agreeably at a social tea party, where was present the daughter of one of the chiefs, who had been educated, and spoke English well. While sitting in the veranda we heard the most strange, discordant cries, and wailing sounds, proceeding from one of the palaces, and were told there was a new arrival of relatives from some one of the islands to attend the funeral of the princess Kepanonohe, grand-daughter of Kamehameha I., which will take place in a few days, and for which extraordinary preparations are making.

She was an elderly woman, and is now deceased three weeks, and lying in state. I proceeded to the house and found some fifteen persons, old and young, sitting and prostrating themselves on the floor, and uttering deep tones of distress that were pitiable to hear, and calculated to excite one’s sympathy, supposing them to be sincere.

I have heard the lamentations of the Jews under the walls of the ancient Temple at Jerusalem, and the hired mourners of Egypt, whose doleful cries rend the air, and who, from long practice, seem to experience all the anguish of the afflicted relative, and I was at a loss to subscribe to the divine command, “Weep with those who weep.” These wailings were continued until eleven o’clock, and were the last sounds I heard as I returned to my hotel, half a mile distant. Mr. Wylie, Minister of Foreign Affairs, gave us a letter to one of the chiefs called Paaki, who has the title of Chamberlain to the king; you will perceive there is no want of high-sounding names. We found that he occupied a fine house, which was built by an architect named Charles Nelson, from our town, whom I knew when a boy, and who has resided here for many years. The chief received us kindly, bade us enter, and showed us his establishment. He is a man of muscular frame, over six feet in height, well proportioned, and weighs three hundred pounds; he was dressed in modern style, with white duck suit, and Panama hat, a noble-appearing person, who looked the chief.

He spoke but little English. It is said he prefers his mat upon the floor of one of his cabins, and his dish of Poi, to the refined modes of life. He accompanied us to the palace of the king, which is a fine wooden mansion, recently constructed, and situated in the centre of a square inclosure surrounded by trees, and got up with considerable taste for this country. Some native troops at the lodge presented arms as we passed, to sustain the dignity of the place. The throne room contains the portraits of the royal family, some respectable furniture, and the portraits of Louis Philippe, Frederick, King of Prussia, and some views; which were more than I expected to find in a country so recently reclaimed from barbarism.