An account of the Clatsops, Killamucks, Chinnooks and
Cathlamahs--their uniform custom of flattening the
forehead--the dress of these savages, and their ornaments,
described--the licensed prostitution of the women, married
and unmarried, of which a ludicrous instance is given--the
character of their diseases--the common opinion, that the
treatment of women is the standard by which the virtues of an
Indian may be known, combatted, and disproved by examples--the
respect entertained by these Indians for old age, compared
with the different conduct of those nations who subsist by the
chase--their mode of government--their ignorance of ardent
spirits, and their fondness for gambling--their dexterity
in traffic--in what articles their traffic consists--their
extraordinary attachment to blue beads, which forms their
circulating medium.
Tuesday, 21. Two of the hunters came back with three elk, which form a
timely addition to our stock of provisions. The Indian visiters left us
at twelve o’clock.
The Killamucks, Clatsops, Chinnooks, and Cathlamahs, the four
neighbouring nations with whom we have had most intercourse, preserve
a general resemblance in person, dress, and manners. They are commonly
of a diminutive stature, badly shaped, and their appearance by no
means prepossessing. They have broad thick flat feet, thick ankles,
and crooked legs: the last of which deformities is to be ascribed,
in part, to the universal practice of squatting, or sitting on the
calves of their legs and heels, and also to the tight bandages of
beads and strings worn round the ankles, by the women, which prevent
the circulation of the blood, and render the legs, of the females,
particularly, ill shaped and swollen. The complexion is the usual
copper coloured brown of the North American tribes, though the
complexion is rather lighter than that of the Indians of the Missouri,
and the frontier of the United States: the mouth is wide and the lips
thick; the nose of a moderate size, fleshy, wide at the extremities,
with large nostrils, and generally low between the eyes, though there
are rare instances of high acqueline noses; the eyes are generally
black, though we occasionally see them of a dark yellowish brown, with
a black pupil. But the most distinguishing part of their physiognomy,
is the peculiar flatness and width of their forehead, a peculiarity
which they owe to one of these customs by which nature is sacrificed to
fantastic ideas of beauty. The custom, indeed, of flattening the head
by artificial pressure during infancy, prevails among all the nations
we have seen west of the rocky mountains. To the east of that barrier,
the fashion is so perfectly unknown, that there the western Indians,
with the exception of the Alliatan or Snake nation, are designated by
the common name of Flatheads. The singular usage, which nature could
scarcely seem to suggest to remote nations, might perhaps incline
us to believe in the common and not very ancient origin of all the
western nations. Such an opinion might well accommodate itself with
the fact, that while on the lower parts of the Columbia, both sexes
are universally flatheads, the custom diminishes in receding eastward,
from the common centre of the infection, till among the remoter tribes
near the mountains, nature recovers her rights, and the wasted folly
is confined to a few females. Such opinions, however, are corrected
or weakened by considering that the flattening of the head is not, in
fact, peculiar to that part of the continent, since it was among the
first objects which struck the attention of Columbus.
But wherever it may have begun, the practice is now universal among
these nations. Soon after the birth of her child, the mother, anxious
to procure for her infant the recommendation of a broad forehead,
places it in the compressing machine, where it is kept for ten or
twelve months; though the females remain longer than the boys. The
operation is so gradual, that it is not attended with pain; but the
impression is deep and permanent. The heads of the children, when
they are released from the bandage, are not more than two inches thick
about the upper edge of the forehead, and still thinner above: nor with
all its efforts can nature ever restore its shape; the heads of grown
persons being often in a straight line from the nose to the top of the
forehead.
The hair of both sexes is parted at the top of the head, and thence
falls loosely behind the ears, over the back and shoulders. They use
combs, of which they are very fond, and indeed, contrive without the
aid of them, to keep their hair in very good order. The dress of the
man consists in a small robe, reaching to the middle of the thigh,
tied by a string across the breast, with its corners hanging loosely
over their arms. These robes are, in general, composed of the skins
of a small animal, which we have supposed to be the brown mungo. They
have besides, those of the tiger, cat, deer, panther, bear, and elk,
which last is principally used in war parties. Sometimes they have a
blanket woven with the fingers, from the wool of their native sheep;
occasionally a mat is thrown over them to keep off rain; but except
this robe, they have no other article of clothing during winter or
summer, so that every part of the body, but the back and shoulders, is
exposed to view. They are very fond of the dress of the whites, whom
they call pashisheooks or clothmen; and whenever they can procure any
clothes, wear them in our manner: the only article, indeed, which we
have not seen among them is the shoe.
The robe of the women is like that worn by the men, except that it does
not reach below the waist. Those most esteemed are made of strips of
sea-otter skin, which being twisted are interwoven with silk-grass,
or the bark of the white cedar, in such a manner that the fur appears
equally on both sides, so as to form a soft and warm covering. The skin
of the racoon or beaver are also employed in the same way, though on
other occasions these skins are simply dressed in the hair, and worn
without further preparation. The garment which covers the body from the
waist as low as the knee before and the thigh behind, is the tissue
already described, and is made either of the bruised bark of white
cedar, the twisted cords of silk-grass, or of flags and rushes. Neither
leggings nor moccasins are ever used, the mildness of the climate not
requiring them as a security from the weather, and their being so much
in the water rendering them an incumberance. The only covering for the
head is a hat made of bear-grass, and the bark of cedar, interwoven
in a conic form, with a knob of the same shape at the top. It has no
brim, but is held on the head by a string passing under the chin,
and tied to a small rim inside of the hat. The colours are generally
black and white only, and these are made into squares, triangles, and
sometimes rude figures of canoes and seamen harpooning whales. This is
all the usual dress of females; but if the weather be unusually severe,
they add a vest formed of skins like the robe, tied behind, without
any shoulder-straps to keep it up. As this vest covers the body from
the armpits to the waist, it conceals the breasts, but on all other
occasions they are suffered to remain loose and exposed, and present,
in old women especially, a most disgusting appearance.
Sometimes, though not often, they mark their skins by puncturing and
introducing some coloured matter: this ornament is chiefly confined to
the women, who imprint on their legs and arms, circular or parallel
dots. On the arm of one of the squaws we read the name of J. Bowman,
apparently a trader who visits the mouth of the Columbia. The favourite
decoration however of both sexes, are the common coarse blue or white
beads, which are folded very tightly round their wrists and ancles, to
the width of three or four inches, and worn in large loose rolls round
the neck, or in the shape of earrings, or hanging from the nose, which
last mode is peculiar to the men. There is also a species of wampum
very much in use, which seems to be worn in its natural form without
any preparation. Its shape is a cone somewhat curved, about the size of
a raven’s quill at the base, and tapering to a point, its whole length
being from one to two and a half inches, and white, smooth, hard and
thin. A small thread is passed through it, and the wampum is either
suspended from the nose, or passed through the cartilage horizontally,
and forms a ring, from which other ornaments hang. This wampum is
employed in the same way as the beads, but is the favourite decoration
for the noses of the men. The men also use collars made of bears’
claws, the women and children those of elks’ tusks, and both sexes are
adorned with bracelets of copper, iron, or brass, in various forms.
Yet all these decorations are unavailing to conceal the deformities
of nature and the extravagance of fashion; nor have we seen any more
disgusting object than a Chinnook or Clatsop beauty in full attire.
Their broad flat foreheads, their falling breasts, their ill shaped
limbs, the aukwardness of their positions, and the filth which intrudes
through their finery; all these render a Chinnook or Clatsop beauty in
full attire, one of the most disgusting objects in nature. Fortunately
this circumstance conspired with the low diet and laborious exercise
of our men, to protect them from the persevering gallantry of the
fair sex, whose kindness always exceeded the ordinary courtesies
of hospitality. Among these people, as indeed among all Indians,
the prostitution of unmarried women is so far from being considered
criminal or improper, that the females themselves solicit the favours
of the other sex, with the entire approbation of their friends and
connexions. The person is in fact often the only property of a young
female, and is therefore the medium of trade, the return for presents,
and the reward for services. In most cases, however, the female is so
much at the disposal of her husband or parent, that she is farmed out
for hire. The Chinnook woman, who brought her six female relations
to our camp, had regular prices, proportioned to the beauty of each
female; and among all the tribes, a man will lend his wife or daughter
for a fish-hook or a strand of beads. To decline an offer of this
sort is indeed to disparage the charms of the lady, and therefore
gives such offence, that although we had occasionally to treat the
Indians with rigour, nothing seemed to irritate both sexes more than
our refusal to accept the favours of the females. On one occasion we
were amused by a Clatsop, who having been cured of some disorder by
our medical skill, brought his sister as a reward for our kindness.
The young lady was quite anxious to join in this expression of her
brother’s gratitude, and mortified that we did not avail ourselves of
it, she could not be prevailed on to leave the fort, but remained with
Chaboneau’s wife, in the next room to ours, for two or three days,
declining all the solicitations of the men, till finding, at last,
that we did not relent, she went away, regretting that her brother’s
obligations were unpaid.
The little intercourse which the men have had with these women is,
however, sufficient to apprise us of the prevalence of the venereal
disease, with which one or two of the party had been so much afflicted,
as to render a salivation necessary. The infection in these cases was
communicated by the Chinnook women. The others do not appear to be
afflicted with it to any extent: indeed, notwithstanding this disorder
is certainly known to the Indians on the Columbia, yet the number
of infected persons is very inconsiderable. The existence of such a
disorder is very easily detected, particularly in the men, in their
open style of dress; yet in the whole route down the Columbia, we have
not seen more than two or three cases of gonorrhœa, and about double
that number of lues venerea. There does not seem to be any simples
which are used as specifics in this disorder, nor is any complete
cure ever effected. When once a patient is seized, the disorder ends
with his life only; though from the simplicity of their diet, and
the use of certain vegetables, they support it for many years with
but little inconvenience, and even enjoy tolerable health; yet their
life is always abridged by decrepitude or premature old age. The
Indians, who are mostly successful in treating this disorder, are the
Chippeways. Their specifics are the root of the lobelia, and that of a
species of sumac, common to the United States, the neighborhood of the
rocky mountains, and to the countries westward, and which is readily
distinguished by being the smallest of its kind, and by its winged rib,
or common footstalk, supporting leaves oppositely pinnate. Decoctions
of the roots are used very freely, without any limitation, and are said
to soften the violence of the lues, and even to be sovereign in the
cure of the gonorrhœa.
The Clatsops and other nations at the mouth of the Columbia, have
visited us with great freedom, and we have endeavoured to cultivate
their intimacy, as well for the purpose of acquiring information, as
to leave behind us impressions favourable to our country. In their
intercourse with us they are very loquacious and inquisitive. Having
acquired much of their language, we are enabled with the assistance
of gestures, to hold conversations with great ease. We find them
inquisitive and loquacious, with understandings by no means deficient
in acuteness, and with very retentive memories; and though fond of
feasts, and generally cheerful, they are never gay. Every thing they
see excites their attention and inquiries, but having been accustomed
to see the whites, nothing appeared to give them more astonishment than
the air-gun. To all our inquiries they answer with great intelligence,
and the conversation rarely slackens, since there is a constant
discussion of the events, and trade, and polities, in the little but
active circle of Killamucks, Clatsops, Cathlamahs, Wahkiacums, and
Chinnooks. Among themselves, the conversation generally turns on the
subjects of trade, or smoking, or eating, or connexion with females,
before whom this last is spoken of with familiarity which would be in
the highest degree indecent, if custom had not rendered it inoffensive.
The treatment of women is often considered as the standard by which the
moral qualities of savages are to be estimated. Our own observation,
however, induced us to think that the importance of the female in
savage life, has no necessary relation to the virtues of the men,
but is regulated wholly by their capacity to be useful. The Indians
whose treatment of the females is mildest, and who pay most deference
to their opinions, are by no means the most distinguished for their
virtues; nor is this deference attended by any increase of attachment,
since they are equally willing with the most brutal husband, to
prostitute their wives to strangers. On the other hand, the tribes
among whom the women are very much debased, possess the loftiest sense
of honour, the greatest liberality, and all the good qualities of
which their situation demands the exercise. Where the women can aid
in procuring subsistence for the tribe, they are treated with more
equality, and their importance is proportioned to the share which they
take in that labour; while in countries where subsistence is chiefly
procured by the exertions of the men, the women are considered and
treated as burdens. Thus, among the Clatsops and Chinnooks, who live
upon fish and roots, which the women are equally expert with the men
in procuring, the former have a rank and influence very rarely found
among Indians. The females are permitted to speak freely before the
men, to whom indeed they sometimes address themselves in a tone of
authority. On many subjects their judgments and opinions are respected,
and in matters of trade, their advice is generally asked and pursued.
The labours of the family too, are shared almost equally. The men
collect wood and make fires, assist in cleansing the fish, make the
houses, canoes, and wooden utensils; and whenever strangers are to be
entertained, or a great feast prepared, the meats are cooked and served
up by the men. The peculiar province of the female is to collect roots,
and to manufacture the various articles which are formed of rushes,
flags, cedar-bark, and bear-grass; but the management of the canoes,
and many of the occupations, which elsewhere devolves wholly on the
female, are here common to both sexes.
The observation with regard to the importance of females, applies with
equal force to the treatment of old men. Among tribes who subsist by
hunting, the labours of the chase, and the wandering existence to
which that occupation condemns them, necessarily throws the burden of
procuring provisions on the active young men. As soon, therefore, as a
man is unable to pursue the chase, he begins to withdraw something from
the precarious supplies of the tribe. Still, however, his counsels may
compensate his want of activity; but in the next stage of infirmity,
when he can no longer travel from camp to camp, as the tribe roams
about for subsistence, he is then found to be a heavy burden. In this
situation they are abandoned among the Sioux, Assiniboins, and the
hunting tribes on the Missouri. As they are setting out for some new
excursion, where the old man is unable to follow, his children, or
nearest relations, place before him a piece of meat and some water, and
telling him that he has lived long enough, that it is now time for him
to go home to his relations, who could take better care of him than
his friends on earth, leave him, without remorse, to perish, when his
little supply is exhausted. The same custom is said to prevail among
the Minnetarees, Ahnahawas, and Ricaras, when they are attended by
old men on their hunting excursions. Yet, in their villages, we saw
no want of kindness to old men. On the contrary, probably because in
villages, the means of more abundant subsistence renders such cruelty
unnecessary, the old people appeared to be treated with attention, and
some of their feasts, particularly the buffaloe dances, were intended
chiefly as a contribution for the old and infirm.
The dispositions of these people seem mild and inoffensive, and they
have uniformly behaved to us with great friendship. They are addicted
to begging and pilfering small articles, when it can be done without
danger of detection, but do not rob wantonly, nor to any large amount;
and some of them having purloined some of our meat, which the hunters
had been obliged to leave in the woods, they voluntarily brought some
dogs a few days after, by way of compensation. Our force and great
superiority in the use of firearms, enable us always to command, and
such is the friendly deportment of these people, that the men have
been accustomed to treat them with the greatest confidence. It is
therefore with difficulty that we can impress on our men a conviction
of the necessity of being always on our guard, since we are perfectly
acquainted with the treacherous character of Indians in general. We are
always prepared for an attack, and uniformly exclude all large parties
of Indians from the fort. Their large houses usually contain several
families, consisting of the parents, their sons and daughters-in-law,
and grand children, among whom the provisions are common, and whose
harmony is scarcely ever interrupted by disputes. Although polygamy
is permitted by their customs, very few have more than a single wife,
and she is brought immediately after the marriage into the husband’s
family, where she resides until increasing numbers oblige them to seek
another house. In this state the old man is not considered as the head
of the family, since the active duties, as well as the responsibility,
fall on some of the younger members. As these families gradually
expand into bands or tribes or nations, the paternal authority is
represented by the chief of each association. This chieftain however
is not hereditary; his ability to render service to his neighbours,
and the popularity which follows it, is at once the foundation and the
measure of his authority, the exercise of which does not extend beyond
a reprimand for some improper action.
The harmony of their private life is indeed secured by their ignorance
of spirituous liquors, the earliest and most dreadful present which
civilization has given to the other natives of the continent. Although
they have had so much intercourse with whites, they do not appear to
possess any knowledge of those dangerous luxuries; at least they have
never inquired after them; which they probably would have done if
once they had been introduced among them. Indeed we have not observed
any liquor of an intoxicating quality used among these or any Indians
west of the Rocky mountains, the universal beverage being pure water.
They however sometimes almost intoxicate themselves by smoking tobacco
of which they are excessively fond, and the pleasures of which they
prolong as much as possible, by retaining vast quantities at a time,
till after circulating through the lungs and stomach it issues in
volumes from the mouth and nostrils. But the natural vice of all these
people is an attachment for games of hazard which they pursue with a
strange and ruinous avidity. The games are of two kinds. In the first,
one of the company assumes the office of banker, and plays against
the rest. He takes a small stone, about the size of a bean, which he
shifts from one hand to the other with great dexterity, repeating at
the same time a song adapted to the game, and which serves to divert
the attention of the company, till having agreed on the stake, he
holds out his hands, and the antagonist wins or loses as he succeeds
or fails at guessing in which hand the stone is. After the banker has
lost his money, or whenever he is tired, the stone is transferred to
another, who in turn challenges the rest of the company. The other
game is something like the play of ninepins; two pins are placed on
the floor, about the distance of a foot from each other, and a small
hole made behind them. The players then go about ten feet from the
hole, into which they try to roll a small piece resembling the men
used at draughts; if they succeed in putting it into the hole, they
win the stake; if the piece rolls between the pins, but does not go
into the hole, nothing is won or lost; but the wager is wholly lost if
the chequer rolls outside of the pins. Entire days are wasted at these
games, which are often continued through the night round the blaze of
their fires, till the last article of clothing or even the last blue
bead is won from the desperate adventurer.
In traffic, they are keen, acute and intelligent, and they employ
in all their bargains a dexterity and finesse, which, if it be not
learnt from their foreign visitors, may show how nearly the cunning
of savages is allied to the little arts of more civilized trade. They
begin by asking double or treble the value of their merchandise, and
lower the demand in proportion to the ardor or experience in trade
of the purchaser; and if he expresses any anxiety, the smallest
article, perhaps a handfull of roots, will furnish a whole morning’s
negotiation. Being naturally suspicious, they of course conceive
that you are pursuing the same system. They, therefore, invariably
refuse the first offer, however high, fearful that they or we have
mistaken the value of the merchandise, and therefore cautiously wait
to draw us on to larger offers. In this way, after rejecting the most
extravagant prices, which we have offered merely for experiment, they
have afterwards importuned us for a tenth part of what they had before
refused. In this respect, they differ from almost all Indians, who will
generally exchange in a thoughtless moment the most valuable article
they possess, for any bauble which happens to please their fancy.
These habits of cunning, or prudence, have been formed or increased by
their being engaged in a large part of the commerce of the Columbia;
of that trade, however, the great emporium is the falls, where all
the neighbouring nations assemble. The inhabitants of the Columbian
plains, after having passed the winter near the mountains, come down as
soon as the snow has left the valleys, and are occupied in collecting
and drying roots, till about the month of May. They then crowd to
the river, and fixing themselves on its north side, to avoid the
incursions of the Snake Indians, continue fishing, till about the first
of September, when the salmon are no longer fit for use. They then
bury their fish and return to the plains, where they remain gathering
quamash, till the snow obliges them to desist. They come back to the
Columbia, and taking their store of fish, retire to the foot of the
mountains, and along the creeks, which supply timber for houses, and
pass the winter in hunting deer or elk, which, with the aid of their
fish, enables them to subsist till in the spring they resume the circle
of their employments. During their residence on the river, from May to
September, or rather before they begin the regular fishery, they go
down to the falls, carrying with them skins, mats, silk grass, rushes,
and chappelell bread. They are here overtaken by the Chopunnish, and
other tribes of the Rocky mountains, who descend the Kooskooskee and
Lewis’s river for the purpose of selling bear-grass, horses, quamash,
and a few skins which they have obtained by hunting, or in exchange for
horses, with the Tushepaws.
At the falls, they find the Chilluckittequaws, Eneeshurs, Echeloots,
and Skilloots, which last serve as intermediate traders or carriers
between the inhabitants above and below the falls. These tribes prepare
pounded fish for the market, and the nations below bring wappatoo,
roots, the fish of the seacoast, berries, and a variety of trinkets and
small articles which they have procured from the whites.
The trade then begins. The Chopunnish, and Indians of the Rocky
mountains, exchange the articles which they have brought for wappatoo,
pounded fish, and beads. The Indians of the plains being their own
fishermen, take only wappatoo, horses, beads, and other articles,
procured from Europeans. The Indians, however, from Lewis’s river
to the falls, consume as food or fuel all the fish which they take;
so that the whole stock for exportation is prepared by the nations
between the Towahnahiooks and the falls, and amounts, as nearly as
we could estimate, to about thirty thousand weight, chiefly salmon,
above the quantity which they use themselves, or barter with the more
eastern Indians. This is now carried down the river by the Indians
at the falls, and is consumed among the nations at the mouth of the
Columbia, who in return give the fish of the seacoast, and the articles
which they obtain from the whites. The neighbouring people catch
large quantities of salmon and dry them, but they do not understand or
practice the art of drying and pounding it in the manner used at the
falls, and being very fond of it, are forced to purchase it at high
prices. This article, indeed, and the wappatoo, form the principle
subjects of trade with the people of our immediate vicinity. The
traffic is wholly carried on by water; there are even no roads or paths
through the country, except across the portages which connect the
creeks.
But the circumstance which forms the soul of this trade, is the visit
of the whites. They arrive generally about the month of April, and
either remain until October, or return at that time; during which
time, having no establishment on shore, they anchor on the north side
of the bay, at the place already described, which is a spacious and
commodious harbour, perfectly secure from all except the south and
southeast winds; and as they leave it before winter, they do not suffer
from these winds, which, during that season, are the most usual and
the most violent. This situation is recommended by its neighbourhood
to fresh water and wood, as well as to excellent timber for repairs.
Here they are immediately visited by the tribes along the seacoast, by
the Cathlamahs, and lastly by the Skilloots, that numerous and active
people, who skirt the river between the marshy islands and the grand
rapids, as well as the Coweliskee, and who carry down the fish prepared
by their immediate neighbours the Chilluckittequaws, Eneeshurs, and
Echeeloots, residing from the grand rapids to the falls, as well as
all the articles which they have procured in barter at the market in
May. The accumulated trade of the Columbia now consists of dressed and
undressed skins of elk, sea-otter, the common otter, beaver, common
fox, spuck, and tiger cat. The articles of less importance, are a
small quantity of dried or pounded salmon, the biscuits made of the
chapelell roots, and some of the manufactures of the neighbourhood.
In return they receive guns (which are principally old British or
American muskets), powder, ball and shot, copper and brass kettles,
brass tea-kettles, and coffee-pots, blankets, from two to three points,
coarse scarlet and blue cloth, plates and strips of sheet copper and
brass, large brass wire, knives, tobacco, fish-hooks, buttons, and a
considerable quantity of sailors’ hats, trowsers, coats and shirts. But
as we have had occasion to remark more than once, the object of foreign
trade which is the most desired, are the common cheap, blue or white
beads, of about fifty or seventy to the penny weight, which are strung
on strands a fathom in length, and sold by the yard, or the length of
both arms: of these blue beads, which are called tia commashuck, or
chief beads, hold the first rank in their ideas of relative value:
the most inferior kind, are esteemed beyond the finest wampum, and
are temptations which can always seduce them to part with their most
valuable effects. Indeed, if the example of civilized life did not
completely vindicate their choice, we might wonder at their infatuated
attachment to a bauble in itself so worthless. Yet these beads are,
perhaps, quite as reasonable objects of research as the precious
metals, since they are at once beautiful ornaments for the person,
and the great circulating medium of trade with all the nations on the
Columbia.
These strangers who visit the Columbia for the purpose of trade or
hunting, must be either English or Americans. The Indians inform us
that they speak the same language as we do, and indeed the few words
which the Indians have learnt from the sailors, such as musket, powder,
shot, knife, file, heave the lead, damned rascal, and other phrases of
that description, evidently show that the visitors speak the English
language. But as the greater part of them usually arrive in April, and
either remain till autumn, or revisit them at that time, which we could
not clearly understand, the trade cannot be direct from either England
or the United States, since the ships could not return thither during
the remainder of the year. When the Indians are asked where these
traders go on leaving the Columbia, they always point to the southwest,
whence we presume that they do not belong to any establishment at
Nootka Sound. They do, however, mention a trader by the name of Moore,
who sometimes touches at this place, and the last time he came, he
had on board three cows; and when he left them, continued along the
northwest coast, which renders it probable, that there may be a
settlement of whites in that direction. The names and description
of all these persons who visit them in the spring and autumn are
remembered with great accuracy, and we took down, exactly as they were
pronounced, the following list. The favourite trader is
Mr. Haley, who visits them in a vessel with three masts, and continues
some time. The others are
Youens, who comes also in a three masted vessel, and is a trader.
Tallamon, in a three masted vessel, but he is not a trader.
Callalamet in a ship of the same size, he is a trader, and they say has
a wooden leg.
Swipton three masted vessel. trader.
Moore four do. do.
Mackey three do. do.
Washington three do. do.
Mesship three do. do.
Davidson three do. does not trade, but hunts elk.
Jackson three do. trader.
Bolch three do. do.
Skelley, also a trader, in a vessel with three masts, but he has been
gone for some years. He had only one eye.
It might be difficult to adjust the balance of the advantages or the
dangers of this trade to the nations of the Columbia, against the sale
of their furs, and the acquisition of a few bad guns and household
utensils.
The nations near the mouth of the Columbia enjoy great tranquillity;
none of the tribes being engaged in war. Not long since, however,
there was a war on the coast to the southwest, in which the Killamucks
took several prisoners. These, as far as we could perceive, were
treated very well, and though nominally slaves, yet were adopted into
the families of their masters, and the young ones placed on the same
footing with the children of the purchaser.
The month of February and the greater part of March were passed in the
same manner. Every day, parties as large as we could spare them from
our other occupations were sent out to hunt, and we were thus enabled
to command some days’ provision in advance. It consisted chiefly of
deer and elk; the first is very lean, and the flesh by no means as
good as that of the elk, which, though poor, is getting better: it is
indeed our chief dependence. At this time of the year it is in much
better order in the prairies near the point, where they feed on grass
and rushes, considerable quantities of which are yet green, than in
the woody country up the Netul. There, they subsist on huckleberry
bushes and fern, but chiefly on evergreen, called shallun, resembling
the laurel, which abounds through all the timbered lands, particularly
along the broken sides of hills. Toward the latter end of the month,
however, they left the prairies near Point Adams, and retired back to
the hills; but fortunately, at the same time the sturgeon and anchovies
began to appear, and afforded us a delightful variety of food. In the
mean time, the party on the seacoast supplied us with salt: but though
the kettles were kept boiling all day and night, the salt was made but
slowly; nor was it till the middle of this month that we succeeded in
procuring twenty gallons, of which twelve were put in kegs for our
journey as far as the deposits on the Missouri.
The neighbouring tribes continued to visit us, for the purpose of
trading or merely to smoke with us. But on the 21st, a Chinnook chief,
whom we had never seen, came over with twenty-five of his men. His name
was Taheum, a man of about fifty years of age, with a larger figure
and a better carriage than most of his nation. We received him with
the usual ceremonies, gave the party something to eat, smoked most
copiously with them all, and presented the chief with a small medal.
They were all satisfied with their treatment; and though we were
willing to show the chief every civility, could not dispense with our
rule of not suffering so many strangers to sleep in the fort. They,
therefore, left us at sunset. On the twenty-fourth, Comowool, who
is by far the most friendly and decent savage we have seen in this
neighbourhood, came with a large party of Clatsops, bringing among
other articles, sturgeon and a small fish, which has just begun, within
a day or two past, to make their appearance in the Columbia.
From this time, as the elk became scarce and lean, we made use of these
fish whenever we could catch them, or purchase them from the Indians.
But as we were too poor to indulge very largely in those luxuries,
the diet was by no means pleasant, and to the sick, especially, was
unwholesome. On the 15th of March we were visited by Delashilwilt, the
Chinnook chief, and his wife, accompanied by the same six damsels,
who in the autumn had encamped near us, on the other side of the bay,
and whose favours had been so troublesome to several of the men. They
formed a camp close to the fort, and began to renew their addresses
very assiduously, but we warned the men of the dangers of intercourse
with this frail society, and they cautiously abstained from connexion
with them.
During the greater part of this month, five or six of the men were
sick; indeed, we have not had so many complaining since we left Wood
river; the general complaint is a bad cold and fever, something in the
nature of an influenza, which, joined with a few cases of venereal, and
accidental injuries, complete our invalid corps. These disorders may
chiefly be imputed to the nature of the climate.