CHAPTER X.
JOURNEY TO VANCOUVER AND THE WILLAMETTE AND RETURN - 1842.
Start for Fort Vancouver - Visit to the Kalispels and Kootenais - Digestive feats of the natives-Beginning of work among the C(EUr d'Alènes - Their territory - The Cabinets - Protestant missionaries' methods - Iconoclast Parker - Visit to the Skoyelpi and Okinagans - Accident to interpreter Charles - Down Columbia in Ogden's barge - Boat crew drowned - Meets Blanchet and Demers at Vancouver - Kindness of Dr. McLoughlin-Mortality among inhabitants-Across country from \Valla Walla-Follows Flatheads after buffalo-Decides to return to States.
TROT having been able this year to obtain either provisions or sufficient clothes to supply the wants of our mission. I started (April 13th) for Fort Vancouver, the great mart of the honorable Hudson Bay Company, and distant about a thousand miles from our establishment. The continuation of this narrative will show you that this necessary journey was providential. I found myself during this trip a second time amongst the Kalispel tribe.
Thev continue with much fervor to assemble every morning and evening to recite prayers in common, and manifest the same attention and assicluity in listening to our instructions. The chiefs on their side are incessant in exhort in; the people to the practice of every good work. The two principal obstacles that prevent a great number from receiving baptism are - first, the plurality of wives; many have not the courage to separate themselves from those by whom they have children. The second is their fondness for gambling, in which they risk everything. I baptized sixty adults amongst them during this last journey. Crossing a beautiful plain near the Clark or Flathead 13701