With few exceptions, the emigration of 1843 was made up of strong, vigorous, courageous men and women.  Most of them had descended from families that had settled and lived for generations upon the outskirts of civilization.  Only a stouthearted, determined people would have attempted the long, tedious journey through the unfriendly, uncivilized Indian country and into a country that so little was known about.  The Columbia River District had been considered so remote that the Washington Government had been reluctant to even lay claim to it.  The round trip was a year's journey under the most favorable conditions.

     In so far as we knew, when we started, it was a "no man's land".  We had of course, no means of knowing it, but a few days before we left Westport, a small group of men, almost the entire white population of Oregon, had met at Champoeg and organized a provisional government.  That it should be organized under the stars and stripes was decided by a vote of fifty two to fifty.  The Northwest came just so near belonging to England.  It is the only part of the United States that has never been under a foreign flag.  Our people knew the frontier.  They were used to Indians.  They did not fear them, neither were they foolish enough to trust them.  When they made a promise to them, they were wise enough to keep it.

     Later emigrations were of tenderer stock.  They knew little or nothing about the Indians or how to handle them.  So they had a great deal of trouble and many of them were killed.  Some of the trouble they brought upon themselves because they did not deal fairly and because they showed that they were afraid.

     Men of our party, who were wise in the ways of the savages, warned our boys and younger men against wandering too far away from camp while we were in the Indian country.  At first the advice was listened to and followed, but after a while some of the boys became careless and came and went at will.  Nothing happened and they became more and more heedless, till at last a couple of our young men learned a bitter and most embarrassing lesson.  We had made camp rather early in the day, perhaps it was at a place where we had lain over, I do not know for sure.  I only remember that a young man, whose name I have forgotten, and another, whose name was Rogers, left the camp early in the afternoon and strolled along for some distance.  They were a mile or so away, when a small band of Indians came onto them.  The savages did them no personal violence, but they made them disrobe to the very last stitch, then rode away, leaving our young men alone on the prairie and in no condition to return to camp before nightfall.

     They crept in as close as they dared and hid behind rocks and small bushes or clumps of weeds and shivered in terror whenever they heard feminine voices near them.  Young Rogers had passed as a bit of a Beau Brummel at the camp and he was surely in a distressing predicament.  I have no doubt that he would almost rather have been scalped and left on the prairie then had any of the girls discovered him as the Indians had left him, without clothes and without glory.  It was bad enough without that, for they knew that even their friends would not keep the matter quiet.

     They hid out till the friendly darkness had clothed them sufficiently that they felt it was safe to call for help.  Some of the men heard them and went to the rescue.  Then they returned to the camp for a couple of blankets and in a few minutes our two bold young Indian fighters sneaked into their tents to rummage around in search of clothes and their lost dignity.  The Indians that we encountered were not inclined to be murderous, but they were thievish and quite bold about it.  At one place, the wagon that Brother Adam drove was the last one in line.  A small band of Indians tried to detain him.  They insisted upon shaking hands and kept saying: "How do, How do" Adam realized the trick and jerked loose from them.  They would have held him behind the rest of the emigration and have robbed the wagon that he drove.  So he whipped up and got away from them.