et 14, 1851.
head-waters of a stream flowing, it was believed, into
the ocean near Cape Blanco. They were therefore,
though designing to go south-eastwardly, actually
some distance north as well as east from Port Orford,
the nature of the country and the direction of the
ridges forcing them out of their intended course.
Finding an open country on this stream, they followed
it down some distance, and chancing to meet an Indian
boy engaged him as a guide, who brought them to the
southern branch of a river, down which they travelled,
finding the bottoms covered with a thick growth of
trees peculiar to low, moist lands. It was now deter
mined to abandon their horses, as they could advance
with difficulty, and had no longer anything to carry
which could not be dispensed with. They therefore
procured the services of some Indians with canoes
to take them to the mouth of the river, which they
found to have a beautiful valley of rich land, and to
be, after passing the junction of the two forks, about
eighty yards wide, with the tide ebbing and flowing
from two to three feet. 40 On the 14th, about ten
o clock in the morning, having descended to within a
few miles of the ocean, a member of the party, Mr
Hedden, one of those driven out of Port Orford in
Juvie, and who escaped up the coast, recognized the
stream as the Coquille River, which the previous party
had crossed on a raft. Too exhausted to navigate a
boat for themselves, and overcome by hunger, they
engaged some natives 47 to take them down the river,
instead of which they were carried to a large rancheria
situated about two miles from the ocean.
Savages thronged the shore armed with bows and arrows, long knives, 43 and war-clubs, and were upon them the moment they stepped ashore. T Vault
46 On Coquille River, 12 miles below the north fork, is a tree with the name Dennis White, 1834, to which some persons have attached importance. Armstrong s Or., G5.
47 One of the Indians who paddled their canoes had with him * the identi cal gun that James H. Eagan had broken over an Indian s head at Port Or ford in June last. Williams S. W. Or., MS., 28.
48 These knives, two and two and a half feet long, were manufactured by