beans,

and other vegetables, the first instance of native agriculture Parker had seen west of the Kocky Mountains, although the Hudson's Bay Company would at any time have encouraged the Indians in planting in the neighborhood of their forts had they cared to cultivate the soil. The Indians about Puget Sound, more than any others, seem to have taken to the cultivation of the potato for food

Encamping for the night, sixty miles from Colville, he found many Spokanes and Nez Perces gathered, who had heard from others that a teacher oi reli- gion was passing through the country, and they were anxious to see and listen to so great a personage. They brought with them, with wise forethought an interpreter of their own, a young Spokane who had attended school at the Red River settlement, and who understood English fairly. There was present also a Nez Perce chief who knew the Spokane tongue. H or their edification religious services were held m the evening, and as the interpreter rendered the sermon into Spokane, the Nez Perce translated it into his language, which was done without disturbance, and was entirely the idea of the Indians themselves So wonderfully interesting did the preacher find these people, that he regarded it as a special providence that he had suffered several detentions which pre- vented his passing them; and as he rone next day through a very fertile but narrow valley extending north° and south for fifty miles, he settled in his mind that here too should be a mission from which the tribes of the Spokanes Cceurs dAlene Pends d'Oreille, and Shuyelpi, or Kettle Falls, could all be

Reaching Fort Colville after a hard ride, on the evening of "the 28th, in an almost starving condition having exhausted his supplies, he found himself just too late to see McDonald, the gentleman in charge who had a few days before gone with the annual bro-ade to Fort Vancouver. Every attention was