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The tribe of Indians known as the Wahkiacums has entirely disappeared;
but the name survives as that of one of the counties of Washington
bordering on the Columbia. Wahkiacum is the county lying next west of
Cowlitz. When the explorers passed down the river under the piloting of
their Indian friend wearing a sailor's jacket, they were in a thick fog.
This cleared away and a sight greeted their joyful vision. Their story
says:--
"At a distance of twenty miles from our camp, we halted at a village of
Wahkiacums, consisting of seven ill-looking houses, built in the same
form with those above, and situated at the foot of the high hills on the
right, behind two small marshy islands. We merely stopped to purchase
some food and two beaver skins, and then proceeded. Opposite to these
islands the hills on the left retire, and the river widens into a kind
of bay, crowded with low islands, subject to be overflowed occasionally
by the tide. We had not gone far from this village when, the fog
suddenly clearing away, we were at last presented with the glorious
sight of the ocean--that ocean, the object of all our labors, the reward
of all our anxieties. This animating sight exhilarated the spirits of
all the party, who were still more delighted on hearing the distant
roar of the breakers. We went on with great cheerfulness along the high,
mountainous country which bordered the right bank: the shore, however,
was so bold and rocky, that we could not, until at a distance of
fourteen miles from the last village, find any spot fit for an
encampment.
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