Bounded on the north, south, and east by snow -topped and on the west by shining waters holding in its mountains, the sources of six great rivers; bearing on its rocky passes; and plains measureless slopes spruce its; meadows gardens treasure-houses of fertility, tiful, and cedar and summer bloom and fruit, and Oregon wide, healthful, beau no wonder it was coveted and lies abundant, and inviting, fought for. forests of pine of:

When Lewis and Clarke visited it, eighty years ago, they found living there many tribes of Indians, numbering in all, at the lowest estimates, between twenty and thirty thousand of; all these tribes the most To Nez Perces were the and gentle.

the Cayuses, one of the most warlike of these tribes, Messrs. Lewis and Clarke presented an them richest, noblest, it American flag, telling was an emblem of peace. of the flag, allied to this The gay coloring and beauty significance, made a deep impression on the poetic minds of these savages. They a beautiful valley called the Grande Ronde set the flag up in a fertile basin some twenty-five miles in diameter, surrounded by high walls of basaltic rock, and watered by a branch of the Snake River: they met their old enemies the Shoshones, and swore to keep perpetual peace with them and the spot became consecrated to an annual meeting of the tribes a sort of fair, around this flag; where the Cayuse, Nez Perce, and Walla Walla Indians came every summer and traded their roots, skins, elk and buffalo