know how to appreciate a kind act and to be grateful for a favor received.
I left Walla Walla on the 13th of October, with. my companions, glad and free, the Coeur d'Alenes and Spokans. They acted as my guides. Throughout the journey, they
showed me unceasing signs of gratitude. Their exactiture in their religious duties was to me a source of consolation and happiness.
We encamped the first night on Little Dry Fork, where we found water and brush enough for our cooking and abundant forage for our pack animals. Here we had an annoying accident, caused by a good half-breed whom the commandant had given me to take care of my horses and
serve as my interpreter. I cannot say what he was doing with his powder horn, but anyway it exploded in his hands, severely burning his fingers, arms and face. We sent word of the sad occurrence to the fort, and in a short time a surgeon and two employees came to the rescue of the wounded man and took him back to the hospital in a kind of carriage.
The distance from Walla Walla to the Traverse, a place called thus because Snake river is traversed there, is about fifty miles. There are rather uneven plains, covered with rich pasturage, and in some places mountains entirely bare of timber. We reached the Traverse on October 15th, by the valley of a little well-wooded river, called the Two
Canyons. At the mouth of this stream the small fort bear
ing the name Taylor has been built. Here there was a numerous camp of Palooses. The chiefs received us with kindness, and eagerly aided us in getting across the main river with our horses and baggage. We went on and camped in the Paloos valley, at the foot of the Bad Rock, four miles above the mouth of that river. A large number of Palooses came and spent the evening with us; they seemed hungry for news, in the critical situation in which they were with regard to the whites. They were charged with having taken an active part in the attack on Colonel