There were not over a dozen houses at Oregon City when we got there.  It was mostly round about near the falls.  There were but few people & they were very kind and generous.  There was a Missionary store there, there were some packers that had come there with their animals over the Cascade Mountains on the trail, but they lost their animals repeatedly through the Indians and had to buy them back.  Some of them had to give the Indians their shirts to have the animals brought back; so that when they got in they had not any shirts themselves - only their coats on.  It was a very narrow trail and a rough road to travel.  Those that had teams and stock came down the Columbia swam their animals at the Cascades and came down on the north side below the Cascades to opposite the mouth of the Sandy; there they crossed back to the south side.  From there they drove them along the shore to Oregon City over a level country.  Among those of our party who came over the Cascades by the trail were General McCarver and a man by the name of Chase, two Doughty's and perhaps a dozen others.  After we arrived at Vancouver with our wagons, we sent up for the balance of the wagons.

     Another party behind me got wind bound behind Cape Horn.  They remained weather bound in a canoe on the rocks for some days and got out of provisions.  They had raw hide on the boat.  They boiled that at times and used it for rations until they used that up.  A man by the name of Delaney had a boxfull of hemp seed.  He ate all that, a small quantity daily to sustain life.  One man who remembered that on their way up they had taken breakfast at the same place when he was about famishing thought he could find something that they had dropped.  He got down on his knees and hunted in the snow for crumbs that they might have dropped when they went up.  They had been to Vancouver and went back to get the balance of their stuff.  He wept bitterly at the situation because they thought they would have to perish.  Dr. McLaughlin knowing the time that they would be due and satisfied that they were in distress somewhere, [and] sent a boat and a canoe of provisions to them and saved them..  They got there just in time to save them from perishing.