Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/246

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238 J. NEILSON BARRY Mr. Crooks and John Day, with the aid of information gained from the Indians, managed to cross the Blue Mountains, and followed the Umatilla River to the Columbia, near Umatilla, where Chief Yeck-a-tap-am befriended them. From here they followed along the route of the present Oregon-Washington Railway to the mouth of the river, which has ever since been called the John Day, where they were treacherously robbed and stripped by some Indians, after which they managed to make their way back to Chief Yeck-a-tap-am near Umatilla, whose kindness to them was afterwards rewarded by a scarlet suit, like the household of King Lemuel. The party under Mr. Robert Stuart, which was returning from the Okanogan in Washington, fortunately picked them up and carried them to Astoria, where they arrived May llth, 1812, nearly two months later than the second group of the overland expedition. (Chapter 41.) While Mr. Hunt was at the junction of Hobach River and the south fork of the Snake, in what is now Uinta County, Wyoming, Carson and three other hunters were detached Sep- tember 28th, 1811 (Chapter 31). After a successful hunt they were attacked and robbed by Indians and one of the trappers was killed. Carson and his two companions made their way to the Boise Valley, Idaho, where they fell in with the four Canadians who had been with Mr. Crooks and John Day. These seven were picked up by John Reed, the clerk, while on his trip, during the summer of 1812, to visit the caches at "Caldron Linn," Milner, Idaho, and they accompanied him to the post Mr. McKenzie was attempting to establish on the "Shahaptan," probably the Clearwater River, Idaho (Chapter 52). When Mr. McKenzie abandoned that post, they went with him to As- toria, where this fourth and last group of the overland expedi- tion arrived January 15th, 1813, almost a year later than the first party to reach the goal of their long journey, and nearly two years and three months after the main expedition had left St. Louis. (Chapter 53.) When we read of the experiences of these travelers a century ago, we can understand something of the development of civil-