THE DALLES-CELILO CANAL 147
eternal waters which in life time af(f)orded them sustenance, and will to all eternity to their posterity."
During this fur trade period there were some interesting visitors along the Columbia; scientific men and travelers, the most of whom have left a record as to these Dalles. Among these were Paul Kane and John H. Stanley making sketches and portraits of the Indians; Thos. Nuttall and J. K. Town- send collecting specimens of natural history; Samuel Parker, spying out the country in behalf of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The limits of this nar- rative admit mention of only one of these, selected because of the intimate connection of his name with an important article of our commerce, DAVID DOUGLAS, after whom our Doug- las Fir or Pine is named. David Douglas came from England to gather the flora of this region in behalf of the Horticultural Society of London. In the summer of 1826 he was descending the Columbia in a canoe, accompanied only by his dog and In- dian servant, and spent the night of Aug. 28th near the Dalles Portage. He was safe in wandering alone among the Indians because they believed he had some supernatural power over the flowers and trees, but the residents of this locality could not overlook their opportunities and after supper he discovered that his tobacco box had been stolen. His journal states : "As soon as I discovered my loss I perched myself on a rock, and in their own tongue, gave the Indians a furious reprimand, ap- plying to them all the epithets of abuse which I had often heard them bestow on another ; and reminding them that though they saw me only a Blanket Man, I was more than that, I was the Grass Man, and therefore not at all afraid of them. I could not, however, recover my box, but slept unmolested after all the bustle."
The first white people to reside in the interior of the Co- lumbia River Basin (not meaning those connected with the Fur Companies) were missionaries. In the year 1836 at Lapwai Creek a few miles above Lewiston, Idaho, Mrs. Eliza Spalding and Rev. H. H. Spalding, and at Waiilatpu a few
