an injury received while riding a spirited horse. Dr. Whitman attended him.
Fort Nez Perce (Walla Walla) was established in the early summer of 1818 by Donald McKenzie of the North West Company. The first officer in charge was Alexander Ross, who described it as built with four towers or bastions and a double stockade.[1] At the time the Indians thereabouts were hostile and resented intrusion by the whites and construction was unusually high and strong. With early change of sentiment by the Indians the establishment seems to have been reduced to normal form and size. Nathaniel Wyeth, in 1832, described it as of "no strength, merely sufficient to frighten Indians . . . having two bastions at the opposite corners of a square enclosure.”[2] This description agrees very well with the sketch made by Drayton of the Wilkes party in June, 1841.[3] Buildings for living and trade were inside the visible stockade; enclosures and shelter for the domestic animals were outside. The fort was entirely destroyed by accidental fire in October, 1841, and a new stockade of adobe built immediately by Mr. McKinlay, the officer in charge.
Here ended the land journey of these two courageous women over plains and mountains from the Missouri to the Columbia. After a few days at this hospitable destination they became the guests of Mr. Pambrun in a batteau bound for Fort Vancouver,
nearly three hundred miles down the Columbia.[4]
