PREFACE.


A year or more ago one of the librarians in charge of the young people's
books in the Boston Public Library called my attention to the fact that
there were few books of popular information in regard to the pioneers of
the great Northwest. The librarian suggested that I should write a story
that would give a view of the heroic lives of the pioneers of Oregon and
Washington.

Soon after this interview I met a distinguished educator who had lately
returned from the Columbia River, who told me the legend of the old chief
who died of grief in the grave of his son, somewhat in the manner
described in this volume. The legend had those incidental qualities that
haunt a susceptible imagination, and it was told to me in such a dramatic
way that I could not put it out of my mind.

A few weeks after hearing this haunting legend I went over the Rocky
Mountains by the Canadian Pacific Railway, and visited the Columbia River
and the scenes associated with the Indian story. I met in Washington,
Yesler, Denney, and Hon. Elwood Evans, the historian; visited the daughter
of Seattle, the chief, "Old Angeline"; and gathered original stories in
regard to the pioneers of the Puget Sound country from many sources. In
this atmosphere the legend grew upon me, and the outgrowth of it is this
volume, which, amid a busy life of editorial and other work, has forced
itself upon my experience.