Cajouses, with part of the Walla-Wallas, were armed with guns, and the others with bows and arrows. The names of the principal chiefs were (in the order of the tribes) Tummatapam, Quill-Quills-Tuck-a-Pesten, and Allowcatt. The plains were literally covered with horses, of which there could not have been less than four thousand in sight of the camp.
On the 13th, we prepared to be off as early as {128} possible; but Tummatapam would not let us go till we had breakfasted on some fine fresh salmon. He told us he would be at the forks before us. We then embarked, and continued our voyage. The banks on both sides of the river, above the Walla-Walla, are low, and the country agreeable. After passing three islands, we arrived at the forks late in the evening, and there encamped for the night. The crowd of Indians assembled at that place was immense, and among the rest was our friend Tummatapam. The Indians smoked, danced, and chanted all night, as usual, while we kept watch in turn.
On the 14th, early in the morning, what did we see waving triumphantly in the air, at the confluence of the two great branches, but a British flag, hoisted in the middle of the Indian camp, planted there by Mr. Thompson, as he passed, with a written paper, laying claim to the country north of the forks, as British territory.[38]
- [Footnote: for trial and executed. Five years later, the Cayuse formally ceded their lands
and retired to the Umatilla reservation, where three hundred and ninety-one are now (1902) reported. They have abandoned their language for that of the Wallawalla.—Ed.]River with this the Columbia, here I erected a small Pole, with a half Sheet of Paper well tied about it, with these words on it—Know hereby that this country is claimed by Great Britain as part of its Territories, & that the N W Company of Merchants from Canada, finding the Factory for this People inconvenient for them, do intend to erect a Factory in this Place for the Commerce of the Country around. D. Thompson."—Henry-Thompson Journals, p. 748.—Ed.]
