John Work's Journey to Umpqua River, 1834 245
15 miles. Encamped on a small creek at the head of an extensive plain. After leaving the river where we slept last night, the road lay through a point of woods, and two small plains of fine rich soil, but subject to be under water at times during the rainy season. Then over a few hills mostly covered with wood and bushes, and along an extensive plain of rich soil with a kind of swamp or lake running all along the West side of it. Parts of this plain are subject to be partially inundated. Before reaching the southern extremity we struck across to the Eastward over a portion of low hilly country covered with bushes and some trees, principally [189] oak to the head of the
Comments
"Sand's Encampment" was Champoeg, otherwise known as Campment du Sable, Camp au Sable and Sand Point. Depatty's house was near Champoeg and appears in the map of Nathaniel J. Wyeth (1832-33. See Correspondence and Journals of Nathaniel J. Wyeth, 1831-36, edited by F. G. Young, Eugene, Oregon, 1899, p. 178. See also p. 233, "Duportes House." Gagnion was apparently J. B. Gagnion, or Gagnier, number 821 on the list of employes of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, where the name is given J. B. Gagmon. This employee was assigned to Fort Umpqua as interpreter in 1840. Lucius Gagnion, said to have opposed the American party at Champoeg in 1843, may have been the same. In Gustavus Hines' Oregon, VI, 99, Gagnion is referred to as follows: "We were kindly received at the fort (Umpqua) by an old Frenchman, having charge of it, by the name of Goniea. * * * * * The Frenchman, it is said, belongs to a wealthy and honorable family in Montreal, and though frequent efforts have been made to reclaim him from his wanderings, yet all have been unavailing. He lives with an Indian woman whom he claims as his wife." The Umpqua Indians, whose habitat was the river of that name, are classed as belonging to the Athapascan family.
