The stream is now more generally known as the Willamette, or
Wallamet. The large city of Portland, Oregon, is built on the river,
about twelve miles from its junction with the Columbia. The Indian
tribes along the banks of the Multnomah, or Willamette, subsisted
largely on the wappatoo, an eatable root, about the size of a hen's egg
and closely resembling a potato. This root is much sought after by the
Indians and is eagerly bought by tribes living in regions where it is
not to be found. The party made great use of the wappatoo after they had
learned how well it served in place of bread. They bought here all that
the Indians could spare and then made their way down the river to an
open prairie where they camped for dinner and found many signs of elk
and deer. The journal says:--
"When we landed for dinner, a number of Indians from the last village
came down for the purpose, as we supposed, of paying us a friendly
visit, as they had put on their favorite dresses. In addition to their
usual covering they had scarlet and blue blankets, sailors' jackets and
trousers, shirts and hats. They had all of them either war-axes, spears,
and bows and arrows, or muskets and pistols, with tin powder-flasks.
We smoked with them and endeavored to show them every attention, but we
soon found them very assuming and disagreeable companions. While we
were eating, they stole the pipe with which they were smoking, and
the greatcoat of one of the men. We immediately searched them all, and
discovered the coat stuffed under the root of a tree near where they
were sitting; but the pipe we could not recover.
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