In this neighborhood they met with wild horses, the first they had seen west of the Rocky Mountains.

From hence they made their way to Lewis River, where they fell in with a friendly tribe of Indians, who freely administered to their necessities.

On this river they procured two canoes, in which they dropped down the stream to its confluence with the Columbia, and then down that river to Astoria, where they arrived haggard and emaciated, and perfectly in rags.
Thus, all the leading persons of Mr.Hunt's expedition were once more gathered together, excepting Mr.Crooks, of whose safety they entertained but little hope, considering the feeble condition in which they had been compelled to leave him in the heart of the wilderness.
A day was now given up to jubilee, to celebrate the arrival of Mr.Hunt and his companions, and the joyful meeting of the various scattered bands of adventurers at Astoria.

The colors were hoisted; the guns, great and small, were fired; there was a feast of fish, of beaver, and venison, which relished well with men who had so long been glad to revel on horse flesh and dogs' meat; a genial allowance of grog was issued, to increase the general animation, and the festivities wound up, as usual, with a grand dance at night, by the Canadian voyageurs.

* *The distance from St.Louis to Astoria, by the route travelled by Hunt and M'Kenzie, was upwards of thirty-five hundred miles, though in a direct line it does not exceed eighteen hundred..