Draw from the cask the vintage of the year+,
And spread the home-made cheer ;

Than Lucrine® oysters daintier meal ’tywould be,
Or fish from the Eastern sea,

Turbot or scar*, that when the tempest roars
Fly to these sheltering shores.

Pheasant, nor guinea-fowl, nor woodcock rare
Feed me with choicer fare

Than those rich olives which that careful spouse
Culls from the laden boughs,

With meadow-loving sorrel, mallow, food
For laden stomachs good,

Kid rescued from the wolf’, or lambkin slain
When Terminalia * reign

How sweet while feasting thus one’s flock to see
Home hurrying o’er the lea!

One’s tired oxen the inverted® share
On drooping necks that bear;

One’s wealth of slaves seated where Lares? bright
Flash back the cheerful light.” ;

With thoughts like these the usurer Alphius warm
Will straightway buy a farm:

Payment of loans on settling-day ? requires—
Lends ere the month expires.

4 It is still customary about Rome to drink the wine of the
ear.
z ° A Jake famous with Roman epicures.

6 Jé is not known what fish thisis. Of course not the char,
which is a fresh-water fish.

7 And therefore eaten only by thrifty folk.

® The festivities held in the spring in honour of the boun-
dary god.

* To prevent the plough cutting into the ground as it was
dragged along. This for London readers.

1 Household gods whose images consecrated the hearth.
They were kept well furbished, as are now the cooking utensils
that adorn the kitchen chimney-piece; and being ranged
near the fire, they gleamed in its light.

* Such settlements were made monthly, on the Ides, or
fifteenth of March, May, July, and October, and thirteenth of
the other months.

KLATSASSAN.
A TRUE STORY OF COLONIAL AND MISSIONARY
LIFE,

By tHe Rey. R. C. Lunp1In Brown,

Vicar or Lynesx-cum-Cormerz, SALop; LATE MISSIONARY IN
British CoLumBira.

VI.
ARRIVAL OF THE GOVERNOR.

SSA|FTER a longer delay at Puntzeen than was

gi expected, the stock of provisions in the
camp had become exhausted, and a pack-
train was accordingly despatched to Alex-
andria, for a fresh supply. A packer
known as Missouri Dick was sent in charge of the train.
Now this Dick was by nature a coward ; he had, moreover,
a very special dread of Indians. His thoughts by night
and by day were of mounted Chilcoatens suddenly appear-
ing, or of sounds of musket-shots from the brush. An
escort of ten men had been told off to accompany the
mule-train as far as the Chilco river. When they left to

KLATSASSAN.

243

return to Puntzeen, the men, aware of Dick’s weakness,
discharged their rifles-within ear-shot of him. The
packer thought it was the Indians at last. He put spurs
to his horse, with vigorous blows he urged on his mules,
all set off at a gallop, and never stopped for more than
an hour till they reached their destination. Yet these
animals performed this journey of sixty miles, on no
other provender than the grass of the country. Doubtless
fear can inspire man, and through man, beast, to perform
prodigies; but the fact that these animals could have
done so much on such feed, speaks volumes for the
property of the bunch-grass of British Columbia. But
indeed, it is well known to botanists and to farmers, in
parts of North America, that the bunch-grass of the
plateaux of British Columbia, and adjacent countries
(elymus condensatus) has amarvellously nutritious virtue.
Pack-animals will work on it better than on oats.

On the 16th of June, Maclaine returned from his
journey in quest of Alexis. He reported having fallen
in with the Indians, eighteen miles from Puntzeen. At
first the Indians seemed inclined to show fight; but on
Maclaine intimating that it was peace, they became
quite friendly. They said Alexis was not at home, he was
out hunting on the mountains, and promised to send for
him. He would be with them in two days, they said.
Two days passed, and still no signs of him. In fact
he did not turn up at all at that time. He probably
felt that although Klatsassan was his enemy, still he
was an Indian, and it would never do to betray him to the
pale-faces, whom he, no doubt, in common with all the
natives, in his heart considered the natural enemies of
their race.

One day, July 6th, news reached our friends of a large
party of white men having been seen on the trail from
tlie coast. This proved to be the other force under Mr.
Brew. This party was formed at New Westminster,
and came to the North-West coast in H.M.S. “ Sutlej.”
They were landed at the head of navigation, at Bentinck
Arm. The first few days they made but little progress,
for they had the greatest difficulty in bringing their
pack-train into subjection. This consisted of wild half-
broken native horses, which gave incessant trouble. Indeed
on the fourth or fifth day after they left the coast, the
whole cavalcade “ stampeded,” resulting in what one of the
party! describes as “a Bull-Run, on a small scale; pack-
saddles here, ropes there, flour, blankets, bacon, beans,
buckets, and a heterogeneous mass of fixins, scattered
along the trail in the most delectable confusion, all |
caused by starting before we were ready, and stopping
before we wanted to.” The pack-horses, this writer |
goes on to say, were loaded with about three hundred
pounds, instead of about one hundred and fifty pounds, |
and consequently would occasionally endeavour to lighten
their grievances as well as their loads by kicking till
every thing went flying.

On the 28th of June this party arrived at the foot of |
the Great Slide. A rather startling incident occurred at
this point. As the packers were toilsomely wending their
way up the steep, they were startled by the sudden
appearance of a stalwart savage, painted and plumed, who,
springing up from behind a clump of firs, fiercely shouted,
“ Kar mika chako?” (* Why come you?”) After glaring
on them for a few seconds, the “ brave” sunk down behind |

1 «Diary of a Volunteer,” in the British Colonist, Oct. 18,
1864.

R 2