| OCR Text |
Show INDIAN DEPREDATIONS 91 their houses of logs, on one side of the fort. Bas-tions were built at each corner of the fort. The country through which they traveled was a dreary waste, very forbidding, and covered thick ly with wild sage, and at that time was but little known to white people. It was eastern Oregon, ( now in Idaho.) On their arrival they found a large number of Indians consisting of Bannocks, Sho- shones and Nez- Perses, who were on their annual fishing trip. Through their interpreter, Geo. W. Hill, the Indians were made to understand that the colony had come there to settle, that they were their friends, that they were there to help them, to teach them how to till the ground, how to build houses and live like white people. The Indians gave the colonists a friendly welcome. In the afternoon of the same day on which they arrived, the colony commenced to build their irri-ation canal. David Moore and B. F. Cummings, surveyed the ditch with a bottle filled with water for a level and steel square for a straight edge. A part of the company commenced work on the water ditch, while others were engaged in herding cattle The water for irrigation was brought from a creek on the east side of the valley, about forty rods above the fort, where the dam was built, to flood the land before it could be ploughed. About the 22nd of June the colony planted peas, potatoes, turnips, etc. This was the first irrigation that was done in the Great Northwest. Bancroft gives this credit to these first settlers. The crops of the first year were a failure, being destroyed by heavy frost on the night of the 4th of September. |
