expedition was now in what we know as Walla Walla County,
Washington, and they were travelling along the river Walla Walla,
leaving the Columbia, which has here a general direction of northerly.
The course of the party was northeast, their objective point being that
where Waitesburg is now built, near the junction of Coppie Creek and
the Touchet River. They were in a region of wood in plenty, and for the
first time since leaving the Long Narrows, or Dalles, they had as much
fuel as they needed. On the Touchet, accordingly, they camped for the
sake of having a comfortable night; the nights were cold, and a good
fire by which to sleep was an attraction not easily resisted. The
journal, April 30, has this entry:--

"We were soon supplied by Drewyer with a beaver and an otter, of which
we took only a part of the beaver, and gave the rest to the Indians.
The otter is a favorite food, though much inferior, at least in our
estimation, to the dog, which they will not eat. The horse is seldom
eaten, and never except when absolute necessity compels them, as the
only alternative to dying of hunger. This fastidiousness does not,
however, seem to proceed so much from any dislike to the food, as from
attachment to the animal itself; for many of them eat very heartily of
the horse-beef which we give them."

On the first day of May, having travelled forty miles from their camp
near the mouth of the Walla Walla, they camped between two points at
which are now situated the two towns of Prescott, on the south, and
Waitesburg, on the north. Their journal says:--

"We had scarcely encamped when three young men came up from the
Wollawollah village, with a steel-trap which had inadvertently been
left behind, and which they had come a whole day's journey in order to
restore. This act of integrity was the more pleasing, because, though
very rare among Indians, it corresponded perfectly with the general
behavior of the Wollawollahs, among whom we had lost carelessly several
knives, which were always returned as soon as found. We may, indeed,
justly affirm, that of all the Indians whom we had met since leaving the
United States, the Wollawollahs were the most hospitable, honest, and
sincere."

Chapter XXI -- Overland east of the Columbia

It was now early in May, and the expedition, travelling eastward along
Touchet Creek, were in the country of their friends, the Chopunnish. On
the third, they were agreeably surprised to meet Weahkoo