“Tyee Davidson; three mast; hunt elk.”
And so forth, all of which the captains, particularly Captain Lewis,
carefully wrote down.
The visitors brought provisions and goods to trade: fish, a little elk
and deer, high-crowned hats woven of grass and bark, grass bowls that
held water, so tight they were; grass mats, furs. Some of the chiefs
wore splendid robes of sea-otter skin. These were priced very dear, for
the Indians were shrewd traders. They wanted fish-hooks, knives, and
files, in exchange for ordinary articles; but only blue beads would buy
the otter-skin robes.
For one otter-skin robe Captain Clark offered a watch, a handkerchief,
a dollar, and a bunch of red beads.
“No, no! Tyee ka-mo-suck!” refused the Indian. “Chief beads.”
But Sa-ca-ja-we-a gave to the captain her own girdle of blue “chief
beads,” and for it he bought a robe.
There were several new roots that the men grew to like. One root,
sha-na-taw-hee, was a thistle root, purple after it had been roasted.
“Tastes like a parsnip, only swater,” declared Pat.
Another root was cul-whay-ma; two feet long and slender. It also was
sweet and wholesome. But the best root was the wappatoo――“a rale Irish
p’tatie,” said Pat.
This was brought down by Skilloots and the Wah-ki-a-cums, from
up-river. It was a species of lily, and grew in the lakes. The Indian
women waded in, breast-deep, and poking with their toes loosened the
bulbs, which rose then to the surface. That was cold work.
The wappatoo roots were held at a rather stiff figure, because they
could be traded to the other Indians, if not to the white men.
The Clatsops were the best Indians. The Cath-lam-ets were treacherous;
one would have killed Hugh McNeal had not a Chinook woman warned Hugh.
The Chinooks were thievish.
“No Chinook shall be admitted into the fort without special invitation,”
finally ordered Captain Lewis.
So after that when Indians appeared outside they always shouted: “No
Chinook. Clatsop.” Or “Skilloot,” or whatever they chanced to be or
pretended to be. Another order was issued that no Indians should remain
in the fort over night.
The Indians brought many fleas, too――“the wan thing for which we’ve
nothin’ to trade,” as said Pat.
The greatest excitement of the winter was the arrival of a whale. Chief
Co-bo-way of the Clatsops came with the news, and also with three dogs
and some blubber. He said that the whale had been stranded ashore near
the Tillamooks’ village down the coast. He was given a pair of old
satin breeches, and went away much pleased.
Joe Fields and George Gibson appeared at the fort with the gallon of
salt from the salt camp, and with some more of the whale blubber. They
said that the Indians all were flocking to the whale and cutting it up.
The blubber, when cooked, looked and tasted like beaver tail――it was
very good; and Captain Clark immediately organized a party to go to
the spot and get what blubber they might.
Naturally, everybody was anxious to see the whale.
“You’d better take Peter, hadn’t you, Captain?” suggested Captain
Lewis. “He’s a boy――he ought to see what there is to be seen.”
“By all means,” agreed Captain Clark. “Do you know what a whale is,
Peter?”
“A big fish,” answered Peter, eagerly.
“Yes; a big warm-blooded fish; a fish bigger than a buffalo.”
Now, Sa-ca-ja-we-a had heard; she had helped Chaboneau cook the blubber
for the captains. But she had not been invited to go. In fact, all this
time the Bird-woman had not been even so far as the big water. She had
worked in the fort.
Suddenly she did a very surprising thing, for an Indian woman. When she
believed that she was to be left out of the sightseeing party, she wept.
“Why you want to go?” scolded Chaboneau. “Ze capitaines no haf time to
wait for woman with baby. You stay by ze lodge fire; dat is place for
womans.”
Sa-ca-ja-we-a tilted her chin at him and went straight to Captain Clark.
“Capitin! I speak a leetle.”
“What is it, Sa-ca-ja-we-a?”
“I come long way, capitin. I carry baby, I cold, hungry, wet, seeck,
I keep up an’ I no complain. I show you trail; when you no know which
way, I say ‘Snake people here,’ an’ you find Snakes. When Indians see
me, dey say: ‘Dis no war party,’ an’ dey kind to you. When you get
hungry for bread, I gif you one leetle bit I carry all way from Mandan
town, so you can taste. When you want otter robe, I gif you my belt,
an’ you get otter robe. I been here all dis time, an’ I not yet go near
de big water dat I travel many days to see. Now dere is a big fish;
odders go, Chaboneau say I mus’ stay an’ care for Toussaint an’ help
cook. I feel bad, capitin――I――I――――” and poor little Bird-woman hid her
face in her shawl and sobbed.
The captain placed his hand kindly upon her shoulder.
“You shall go, Sa-ca-ja-we-a. You shall go with us and see the ocean
and the big fish; and Chaboneau can stay by the fire and tend to the
baby.”
Sa-ca-ja-we-a smiled and dried her eyes. Very proud, she made ready.
But Chaboneau went, too――because he, likewise, wished to inspect the
great wonder which had been cast ashore.
The whale was 105 feet long. The busy Indians had stripped it to the
bones, and with difficulty Captain Clark managed to buy 300 pounds of
blubber and some oil.
Thus, with hunting, trading, and making garments of leather, the winter
passed. An astonishingly mild winter it was, too, of little frost and
wet snow, but of much rain and fog which gave the men rheumatism, and
which, by spoiling the food and cutting down exercise, gave them boils
and stomach complaint, also.
The captains were constantly hoping for a ship and fresh supplies. None
was sighted.
So February merged with March. The elk were retiring from the low
country to the high, following the grass. On some days the fort had
only one day’s provisions in store.
“I can find no elk, notting,” complained Drouillard, the chief hunter.
The Indians hoarded their own food very close, to make it last until
the salmon began to run again, in the spring.
“Six blue blankets, wan red wan, five striped wans that used to be our
big United States flag, some old breeches an’ waistcuts, an’ Cap’n
Clark’s artillery dress-coat an’ hat――faith, that’s all we’ve got an’
at prisent prices they wouldn’t buy a square meal,” reported Patrick
Gass. “We’ll be atin’ ourselves naked.”
“Dose t’ings be need’ for boats an’ hosses,” said Cruzatte. “Of de
leetle t’ings we haf scarce one hat full. How we go back four t’ousand
miles I do not know.”