A year or more ago one of the librarians in charge of the young people'sbooks in the Boston Public Library called my attention to the fact thatthere were few books of popular information in regard to the pioneers ofthe great Northwest. The librarian suggested that I should write a storythat would give a view of the heroic lives of the pioneers of Oregon andWashington.
Soon after this interview I met a distinguished educator who had latelyreturned from the Columbia River, who told me the legend of the old chiefwho died of grief in the grave of his son, somewhat in the mannerdescribed in this volume. The legend had those incidental qualities thathaunt a susceptible imagination, and it was told to me in such a dramaticway that I could not put it out of my mind.
A few weeks after hearing this haunting legend I went over the RockyMountains by the Canadian Pacific Railway, and visited the Columbia Riverand the scenes associated with the Indian story. I met in Washington,Yesler, Denney, and Hon. Elwood Evans, the historian; visited the daughterof Seattle, the chief, "Old Angeline"; and gathered original stories inregard to the pioneers of the Puget Sound country from many sources. Inthis atmosphere the legend grew upon me, and the outgrowth of it is thisvolume, which, amid a busy life of editorial and other work, has forceditself upon my experience.
H.B.
28 WORCESTER STREET, BOSTON, July 4, 1890
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I. GRETCHEN'S VIOLIN
II. THE CHIEF OF THE CASCADES
III. "BOSTON TILICUM"
IV. MRS. WOODS'S TAME BEAR, LITTLE "ROLL OVER"
V. THE NEST OF THE FISHING EAGLE
VI. THE MOUNTAIN LION
VII. THE "SMOKE-TALK"
VIII. THE BLACK EAGLE'S NEST OF THE FALLS OF THE MISSOURI
IX. GRETCHEN'S VISIT TO THE OLD CHIEF OF THE CASCADES
X. MRS. WOODS MEETS LITTLE "ROLL OVER" AGAIN
XI. MARLOWE MANN'S NEW ROBINSON CRUSOE
XII. OLD JOE MEEK AND MR. SPAULDING
XIII. A WARNING
XIV. THE POTLATCH
XV. THE TRAUMEREI AGAIN
XVI. A SILENT TRIBE
XVII. A DESOLATE HOME AND A DESOLATE PEOPLE
XVIII. THE LIFTED CLOUD--THE INDIANS COME TO THE SCHOOLMASTER
HISTORICAL NOTES.
I. Vancouver
II. The Oregon Trail
III. Governor Stevens
IV. Seattle the Chief
V. Whitman's Ride for Oregon
VI. Mount Saint Helens
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Gretchen at the Potlatch Feast E. J. Austen (Frontispiece)
Indians spearing fish at Salmon Falls
"Here were mountains grander than Olympus." The North Puyallup Glacier, Mount Tacoma
In the midst of this interview Mrs. Woods appeared at the door of the cabin A. E. Pope
The eagle soared away in the blue heavens, and the flag streamed after him in his talons E.J. Austen
The mountain lion D. Carter Beard
An Indian village on the Columbia
Afar loomed Mount Hood
A castellated crag arose solitary and solemn
At the Cascades of the Columbia
Multnomah Falls in earlier years. Redrawn by Walter C. Greenough
The old chief stood stoical and silent. E. J. Austen