Walla Walla County, Washington - Biographical sketches (1 of 2 so headed), 1901 (part 2 of 2)

But it is well worth noting that these Indians, like all others on the coast, were disposed at first to be frientlly, and only the indignities and \'iolence of traders transformed their pacific disposition to one of sullen treachery. Captain Thorn had been repeatedly and urgently warned by Mr. Astor and his associates against trusting to the Indians. One standing rule was that nut more than four or five should be allowed on the deck at once. But the choleric Thorn treated with equal contempt the suggestions of caution and savage hucksters. A great quantity of the finest kind of sea otter skins had been brought on deck and to all appearance a most lucrative and amicable trade was before them. But twenty years of traffic with the whites and a long

-course of instruction from the diplomatic and .successful chief Maquinna had rendered the Nootka Indians less pliable and less innocent than Thorn expected. His small stock of patience was soon exhausted. At one cunning and leering old chief, who seemed to be urging the others to hold out for higher prices, the captain soon began to scowl with special rage. But the oily visage was scowl-proof, -and the impatient sailor had the mortification to see that he was likely to be out-Jewed by one of those dirty and despised redskins. He -could stand it no longer. In his most impressive and naval manner he bids the Indians to leave. But the obnoxious chieftain stands motionless, a perfect statue of savage impudence. All sense and judgment \anished from the -captain's mind. Seizing him by the hair he propelled him rapidly toward the ship-ladder. Then, with a convenient bundle of furs, snatched up furiously, he emphasized the -chieftain's exit. Xor is it likely that he spared a liberal application of boot leather to tlie most accessible part of the savage trader's anatomy. Instantly, as if by magic, the Indians left the ship. In place of the babel of jabbering traffickers were only the hair-brained captain and his astonished and silent crew. ^Nlr. Mc- Kay, the partner on board, was very indignant when, on returning from a short trip ashore, he learned of the untimely cessation of trade. He assured Captain Thorn that he had not only spoiled their business but had endangered all their lives. He therefore urged making sail from the place at once. The Chehalis Indian, Lamanse, also enforced jMcKay's wish, asserting that further intercourse with the Indians could result only in disaster. But the stubborn captain would listen to no advice. So long as he had a knife or a handspike they needn't try to scare him into running before a lot of naked redskins. The night passed in (piiet. Early the next morning a number of Indians, demure and peaceable as can be imagined, paddled alongside. Bundles of furs held aloft signified their wish to trade. In great triumph Captain Thorn pointed out to McKay the successful issue of his discipline. "That is the way to treat them," he said; "just show them that you are not afraid and they will behave themelves." The Indians were very respectful and exchanged their furs for whate\er was offered.

Pretty soon another large boat load, well supplied with the choicest peltries, asked permission to go aboard. The now good natured and self-satisfied skipper gladly complied. Then another canoe, and a fourth, and a fifth disgorged a perfect horde on board. But some of the more watchful sailors noticed with alarm that contrary to custom, no women left the canoes, and that certain of the fur bundles the savages would not sell at any price, while as to others they were perfectly indifferent. Pretty soon it was noticed that, moving as if by accident, the Indians had somehow become massed at all the assailable points of the vessel. Even Captain Thorn was startled when this fact became unmistakable. But putting a bold front upon his sudden fear, he gave the order to up anchor and man the top-mast, preparatory to sailing. He then cHxlered the Indians to return to their boats. With a scarce perceptible flush darkening their listless faces, they picked up their remaining bundles and started for the ladder. As they went, their cat-like tread scarce audible even in the oppressive stillness their knotted fingers stole into their bundles. Out again like a flash and in them long knives and cruel bludgeons !

(|uin's deck saw a slaughter grim and pitiless. Lewis, the clerk, and McKay were almost instantly dispatched. Then a crowd with fiendish triumph set upon the captain, hent on evening up at once the old score. The brawny frame and iron will of the brave, though foolhardy old salt, made him a dangerous object of attack. And not until a half dozen of his assailants had measured their breeding lengths on the slippery deck did he succumb. Then he was hacked to pieces with savage glee. Meanwhile four sailors, the only survivors, besides the interpreter, Lamanse, from whom the whole stgry is told, having gained access to the hold, began firing on the triumphant Indians. And with such effect did they work that the whole throng left the ship in haste and sought the shore. Lamanse, meanwhile, was spared, but held in captivity for two years. The next day the four surviving sailors attempted to put to sea in a small boat, but were pursuetl and probably miu^dered by the Indians. And then, like a band of buzzards circling around a carcass, the Indian canoes began to cluster around the deserted ship.

The night had been spent in savage mirth, and now in prospect of the rifling of an entire ship their joy knew no bounds. All was silent. The hideous tumult of the day before was succeeded by an equally hideous calm. Cautiously at first, then emboldened by the utter lifelessness, in throngs the Indians clambered to the deck. Their instinctive fears of strategem were soon lost in gloating over the disfigured forms of their vanquished foes, and in rifling the store-houses of the ship. Arrayed in gaudy blankets and adorned with multiplied strands of beads, thcv strutted proudly over the deck. Five hundred men, women and children now swarmed the ship.

boom, the luckless Tonquin with all its loatl of living and dead is flung in fragments around the sea. Her powder magazine had imitated Samson auKing the Phillistines, and she had made one common ruin of herself and her enemies in the very scene of their triumph. Dismembered bodies, fragments of legs and arms, and spattered brains, stained and darkened the peaceful water far and wide. According to Lamanse, as quoted by Franchere, two hundred Indians were thus destroyed. Franchere also says that no one knows who blew up the ship though he thinks it most likely that the four sailors left a slow train on board when thev abandoned her. Irving most thrillingly describes Lewis as having been wounded, and remaining on board after the four survivors had gone, for the purpose of enticing the savages on board and then letting off the train so as to destroy himself and them in one final and awful retribution. Bancroft, however, finding no warrant for this in the narrative of Franchere, the only known authority, does not hesitate to accuse Irving of fabricating it.

may have been the details, the general fact, with its horrible results to both whites and natives, rapidly spread abroad. Ere long it began to be whispered with bated breath among the Chinooks around Astoria. Then it reached the ears of the traders there. At first entirely disbelieved, it began to be painfully sure, after the lapse of months, and no Tonquin in sight, that there must be something in it. The floating fragments of stor\- finally assumed an accepted form, though not until the reappearance of Lamanse, two years after the e\'ent, was it fully understood.

A more extended narration of that absorbingly interesting era of disco\-ery, exploration, and beginnings of trade, would lead us beyond -the jiurpose of this work. We desire rather to present a picture of our heroic age sufficiently full to make plain the steps of our subsecjuent evolution. The glimpses into our earliest history already given indicate to us something of the stages of our progress as a civilized American state. Exploration followed discovery; trade, exploration; settlement, trade. Development is now treading on the pathway of settlement. We have seen before our very eyes in the close of the nineteenth century, this development assume a new form. The genius of our railroad age has realized the dream of the old navigators, and has created from rails of steel the Strait of Anian. The northwest passage has been found, but it is dry land instead of water. And not alone have we put a northwest passage through our own land, but we have extended our hands into the Pacific ocean for more land. Great already, our territory, by the events of the past few years, has become larger, and our international influence vastly wider. Our nation is entering now, with this new century, upon an epoch of international power which will transcend the previous epoch as much as that transcends the era of our old colonialism.

In this new age of world development, our good state of Washington seems surely destined to bear a conspicuous part. The treasures of the Orient and of tropic islands, the golden sands of Alaska, and the industries of the great states of our own Union, find their exchange point on Puget sound. Our queen city, Seattle, holds the keys to the golden caskets of Asia and of the north.

In variety and quality of resources, in the thrift and energy of her population, and in the excellence of her system of education and social life, the state of Washington gives promise that she will prove adequate to the vast opportunities which her situation has placed within her grasp.

Standing thus on the threshold of a material development whose possibilities dazzle the imagination, we are in some danger of forgetting the small and feeble advances of the first era of American settlement in this land, we are apt to forget the heroic striving which planted homes here and there in the wilderness.

In that epoch of the making of a state the county of Walla Walla bore no inconspicuous part. Containing the first settlement between the Cascades and the Rocky mountains, being the scene of more tragic and stirring events tlian an\- other community in this portion of Old Oregon, having for many years the largest population anywhere within the state, and in its later development possessing, in some respects, the highest results of industrj' and production to l)e found within the inland empire, Walla Walla county may justly be regarded as one of the foremost counties of the state, both from a historical and a present point of view.

In the early history of Walla W'alja county we find much of the pathos and tragedy which have marked the settlement of most pioneer -Vmerican communities. In its present, with its unfolding industrial activity, we see a part of that great movement which we have already pointed out as marking the present epoch of our state. In its future we plainly read the fulfillment of the promise of growth which will outrun even the most eager imaginations of the present.

^\'e invite therefore to the perusal of this history both the old-timer and the new-timer. The old-timer will traverse again some of the difficult or dangerous or amusing experiences of the past, and by opening his eyes now upon one again something of the distance that he has what he sees about" him will more clearly untraversed. The new-timer will learn by the derstand what it has taken to make Walla