Chapter 1
SHALL THE GREAT COUNCIL BE HELD?The comet burns the wings of night,
And dazzles elements and spheres;
Then dies in beauty and a blaze of light
Blown far through other years.
Joaquin Miller.
Two hundred years ago—as near as we can estimate the time from
the dim and shadowy legends that have come down to us—the
confederacy of the Wauna or Columbia was one of the most powerful
the New World has ever seen. It was apparently not inferior to that
of the Six Nations, or to the more transitory leagues with which
Tecumseh or Pontiac stayed for a moment the onward march of the
white man. It was a union of the Indian tribes of Oregon and
Washington, with the Willamettes at the head, against their great
hereditary enemies, the Nootkas, the Shoshones, and the
Spokanes.
Sonorou
