the oars, poles, the capsized barge, and every lighter article it had contained. Here and there I beheld the unhappy bargemen vainly struggling in the midst of the vortex. Five of them sank never to rise again. My interpreter had twice touched bottom and after a short prayer was thrown upon the bank. An Iroquois saved himself by means of my bed; and a third was so fortunate as to seize the handle of an empty trunk, which helped him to sustain himself above water until he reached land.
The rest of our journey was more fortunate. We stopped at Forts Okinagan7 and Walla Walla,' where I baptized several children.
The savages who principally frequent the borders of the Columbia river are from the lakes; the chief of whom, with several of the nation, have been baptized; also the Skoyelpi or Chaudicres, the Okinagans, Cinqpoils, Walla Wallas, Pierced Noses, Cayuses, Attayes, Spokans, the Indians from tile falls and cascades, and the Chinooks and Clatsops.
We arrived at Fort Vancouver' on the morning of the 8th of June. I enjoyed the happiness and great consolation of meeting in these distant parts two respectable Canadian priests - the Reverend Mr. Blanchet, grand vicar of all the countries west of the mountains claimed
7 See note page 553
a A Northwest Company trading post, built in r8r8 by Donald hicKenzie; first called Fort Nez Percc; burned in 1842 and rebuilt the year following of adobe; abandoned in 1855. The later military post and the present city, both of the same name, were located in the vicinity, though not upon the site of the old fort.
e " The metropolitan establishment of the Hudson Bay Company on the Pacific between the years 1825, when it was begun, and 1847, when the headquarters of the company were removed to Victoria. "-Bancroft. The fort consisted of an inclosure 75o by 500 feet, surrounded by a palisade over twenty feet in height, within which were some forty buildings, including a Catholic chapel. There was a village of sixty houses adjacent, and a farm some nine square miles in extent, 1,5oo acres or over being in cultivation.