Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 37.djvu/218

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180
T. C. Elliott

plum & Fig trees in abundance. Cucumbers melons beans peas beats cabbage, tammatoes, & every kind of vegitable, to numerous to be mentioned. Every part is very neat & tastefully arranged fine walks each side lined with strawberry vines. On the opposite end of the garden is a good Summer house covered with grapes vines. Here I must mention the origin of these Apples & grapes A gentleman twelve years ago, while at a party in London put the seeds of the grapes & apples, he eat in his vest pocket & soon after took a voyage to this country and left them here. Now they are greatly multiplied. After promonading as much as we wished & returning were met by Mrs. Capendel, a Lady from England who arrived in the Ship Columbia last May & Miss Mariah, Daughter of Doct McLaughlin quite an interesting young Lady. After dinner were introduced to Rev. Mr Beaver & Lady Clergiman of the Church of England, who arrived last week in the Ship Neriade. I mentioned in a former letter that they were expected by the way of Montreal. But they have come by sea around Cape Horn. This is more than we expected when we left home that we should be privaleged with the accquaintance & society of two English Ladies. Indeed we seem to be nearly allied to old England itself, for most of the Gentlemen of the Company are from thence & Scotland. We have not found Mr Parker[1] here to our great disappointment. He went to Oahu in the Ship Columbia a few weeks before we arrived. We have mourned about it considerably for we thought it would be so acceptable to our dear Parents & friends at home, to hear him say that he had seen us alive here, after completing this long unheard of journey & besides I wish to send home many things which I cannot now. More than all this his counsels & advice would have been such a relief to us at this important time concerning location character of the Indians &c. But it is wisely ordered & we submit. He appears to have been a favourite here & to have done much good. The Messers Lees left Vancouver on Sat. last for their Station on the Wallamut. Mr Daniel Lee has been out of health, & for


  1. Samuel Parker, companion of Doctor Whitman as far as Rendezvous in 1835; author of Journal of an Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains, 1838.