I liked that very
much,--the river, and the city glittering in sunset, and the lively
undulating line all round, and the light smokes, seen in some weather.
* * * * *
LETTER TO THE SAME.
_Milwaukie, July _29, 1848.
DEAR R.: * * * Daily I thought of you during my visit to the
Rock-river territory. It is only five years since the poor Indians
have been dispossessed of this region of sumptuous loveliness, such as
can hardly be paralleled in the world. No wonder they poured out their
blood freely before they would go. On one island, belonging to a Mr.
H., with whom we stayed, are still to be found their "caches" for
secreting provisions,--the wooden troughs in which they pounded their
corn, the marks of their tomahawks upon felled trees. When he first
came, he found the body of an Indian woman, in a canoe, elevated on
high poles, with all her ornaments on. This island is a spot, where
Nature seems to have exhausted her invention in crowding it with all
kinds of growths, from the richest trees down to the most delicate
plants. It divides the river which there sweeps along in clear and
glittering current, between noble parks, richest green lawns, pictured
rocks crowned with old hemlocks, or smooth bluffs, three hundred feet
high, the most beautiful of all.
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