succeed; and that the want of pecuniary means may not oppose an insurmountable obstacle to the generous sacrifice, which, we are all well assured, the pious Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame are disposed to make again in our behalf.
On the 3d of October [ 1844] I left the [regular] mission of St. Paul and our new [Jesuit] establishment called St. Francis Xavier, after having thanked and taken fare well of the Very Reverend Mr. Blanchet and of my dear brothers in Jesus Christ. I reached Vancouver on the 5th, just in time to take my place, with the Governor's permission, in a barge," manned by eight men, which was starting for Walla Walla. The next day we camped near Cape Horn, a rock which rises from the middle of the river in the form of a sugar loaf. As far as this cape, the river may be navigated freely by ships drawing fourteen feet of water. On the 7th we carried our goods over the portage to the head of the Cascades. The distance from this point to the Dalles is about forty miles and no obstacles are encountered on the way. We passed by several basaltic islands, where the savages deposit their dead on scaffolds or in huts made of split cedar planks, covered with mats. This is to preserve them from the rapacity of wolves, who in this region have the same tastes as the hyenas of Barbary. Between Wappatoo Island, at the mouth of the Willamette, and the sea, the corpses are generally deposited in canoes which are covered in like manner. Certain rocky islets, called the Islands of the Dead, are covered with coffins of this kind. At the Dalles I was politely invited to come and take din
9 The account here given of the period between October 3d and November 6, 1844, is taken from a manuscript journal. This journey is not described in any of the published works, but the incidents are largely transferred to a journey over the same ground in 1846; see hereafter.
10 This statement is at variance with the itinerary prepared for publication by Father De Smet in 1854, where it is said that 11e made this journey on horseback from the establishments on the Willamette.