Near the mouth of the river which the explorers named Quicksand River
(now Sandy), they met a party of fifteen Indians who had lately been
down to the mouth of the Columbia. These people told the white men that
they had seen three vessels at anchor below, and, as these must needs
be American, or European, the far-voyaging explorers were naturally
pleased. When they had camped that night, they received other visitors
of whom the journal makes mention:--
“A canoe soon after arrived from the village at the foot of the last
rapid, with an Indian and his family, consisting of a wife, three
children, and a woman who had been taken prisoner from the Snake
Indians, living on a river from the south, which we afterward found to
be the Multnomah. Sacajawea was immediately introduced to her, in hopes
that, being a Snake Indian, they might understand each other; but their
language was not sufficiently intelligible to permit them to converse
together. The Indian had a gun with a brass barrel and cock, which he
appeared to value highly.”
The party had missed the Multnomah River in their way down, although
this is one of the three largest tributaries of the Columbia, John Day’s
River and the Des Chutes being the other two. A group of islands
near the mouth of the Multnomah hides it from the view of the passing
voyager. The stream is now more generally known as the Willamette, or
Wallamet. The large city of Portland, Oregon, is built on the river,
about twelve miles from its junction with the Columbia. The Indian
tribes along the banks of the Multnomah, or Willamette, subsisted
largely on the wappatoo, an eatable root, about the size of a hen’s egg
and closely resembling a potato. This root is much sought after by the
Indians and is eagerly bought by tribes living in regions where it is
not to be found. The party made great use of the wappatoo after they had
learned how well it served in place of bread. They bought here all that
the Indians could spare and then made their way down the river to an
open prairie where they camped for dinner and found many signs of elk
and deer. The journal says:--
“When we landed for dinner, a number of Indians from the last village
came down for the purpose, as we supposed, of paying us a friendly
visit, as they had put on their favorite dresses. In addition to their
usual covering they had scarlet and blue blankets, sailors’ jackets and
trousers, shirts and hats. They had all of them either war-axes, spears,
and bows and arrows, or muskets and pistols, with tin powder-flasks.
We smoked with them and endeavored to show them every attention, but we
soon found them very assuming and disagreeable companions. While we
were eating, they stole the pipe with which they were smoking, and
the greatcoat of one of the men. We immediately searched them all, and
discovered the coat stuffed under the root of a tree near where they
were sitting; but the pipe we could not recover. Finding us determined
not to suffer any imposition, and discontented with them, they showed
their displeasure in the only way which they dared, by returning in an
ill-humor to their village.
“We then proceeded and soon met two canoes, with twelve men of the same
Skilloot nation, who were on their way from below. The larger of the
canoes was ornamented with the figure of a bear in the bow and a man in
the stern, both nearly as large as life, both made of painted wood
and very neatly fixed to the boat. In the same canoe were two Indians,
finely dressed and with round hats. This circumstance induced us to give
the name of Image-canoe to the large island, the lower end of which we
now passed at the distance of nine miles from its head.”
Here they had their first full view of Mt. St. Helen’s, sometimes called
Mt. Ranier. The peak is in Washington and is 9,750 feet high. It has
a sugar-loaf, or conical, shape and is usually covered with snow. The
narrative of the expedition continues as follows:--
“The Skilloots that we passed to-day speak a language somewhat different
from that of the Echeloots or Chilluckittequaws near the long narrows.
Their dress, however, is similar, except that the Skilloots possess
more articles procured from the white traders; and there is this farther
difference between them, that the Skilloots, both males and females,
have the head flattened. Their principal food is fish, wappatoo roots,
and some elk and deer, in killing which with arrows they seem to be very
expert; for during the short time we remained at the village, three deer
were brought in. We also observed there a tame blaireau, (badger).”
The journal, November 5, says:--
“Our choice of a camp had been very unfortunate; for on a sand-island
opposite us were immense numbers of geese, swan, ducks, and other wild
fowl, which during the whole night serenaded us with a confusion of
noises which completely prevented our sleeping. During the latter part
of the night it rained, and we therefore willingly left camp at an early
hour. We passed at three miles a small prairie, where the river is only
three-quarters of a mile in width, and soon after two houses on the
left, half a mile distant from each other; from one of which three men
came in a canoe merely to look at us, and having done so returned home.
At eight miles we came to the lower point of an island, separated from
the right side by a narrow channel, on which, a short distance above
the end of the island, is situated a large village. It is built more
compactly than the generality of the Indian villages, and the front
has fourteen houses, which are ranged for a quarter of a mile along the
channel. As soon as we were discovered seven canoes came out to see
us, and after some traffic, during which they seemed well disposed and
orderly, accompanied us a short distance below.”
The explorers now met Indians of a different nation from those whom they
had seen before. The journal says:--
“These people seem to be of a different nation from those we have just
passed; they are low in stature, ill shaped, and all have their heads
flattened. They call themselves Wahkiacum, and their language differs
from that of the tribes above, with whom they trade for wappatoo-roots.
The houses are built in a different style, being raised entirely above
ground, with the caves about five feet high and the door at the corner.
Near the end, opposite this door, is a single fireplace, round which are
the beds, raised four feet from the floor of earth; over the fire
are hung the fresh fish, which, when dried, are stowed away with the
wappatoo-roots under the beds. The dress of the men is like that of the
people above, but the women are clad in a peculiar manner, the robe not
reaching lower than the hip, and the body being covered in cold weather
by a sort of corset of fur, curiously plaited and reaching from the arms
to the hip; added to this is a sort of petticoat, or rather tissue of
white cedar bark, bruised or broken into small strands, and woven into
a girdle by several cords of the same material. Being tied round the
middle, these strands hang down as low as the knee in front, and to the
mid-leg behind; they are of sufficient thickness to answer the purpose
of concealment whilst the female stands in an erect position, but in any
other attitude form but a very ineffectual defence. Sometimes the
tissue is strings of silk-grass, twisted and knotted at the end. After
remaining with them about an hour, we proceeded down the channel with an
Indian dressed in a sailor’s jacket for our pilot, and on reaching the
main channel were visited by some Indians who have a temporary residence
on a marshy island in the middle of the river, where is a great
abundance of water-fowl.”
The tribe of Indians known as the Wahkiacums has entirely disappeared;
but the name survives as that of one of the counties of Washington
bordering on the Columbia. Wahkiacum is the county lying next west of
Cowlitz. When the explorers passed down the river under the piloting of
their Indian friend wearing a sailor’s jacket, they were in a thick fog.
This cleared away and a sight greeted their joyful vision. Their story
says:--
“At a distance of twenty miles from our camp, we halted at a village of
Wahkiacums, consisting of seven ill-looking houses, built in the same
form with those above, and situated at the foot of the high hills on the
right, behind two small marshy islands. We merely stopped to purchase
some food and two beaver skins, and then proceeded. Opposite to these
islands the hills on the left retire, and the river widens into a kind
of bay, crowded with low islands, subject to be overflowed occasionally
by the tide. We had not gone far from this village when, the fog
suddenly clearing away, we were at last presented with the glorious
sight of the ocean--that ocean, the object of all our labors, the reward
of all our anxieties. This animating sight exhilarated the spirits of
all the party, who were still more delighted on hearing the distant
roar of the breakers. We went on with great cheerfulness along the high,
mountainous country which bordered the right bank: the shore, however,
was so bold and rocky, that we could not, until at a distance of
fourteen miles from the last village, find any spot fit for an
encampment. Having made during the day thirty-four miles, we now spread
our mats on the ground, and passed the night in the rain. Here we were
joined by our small canoe, which had been separated from us during the
fog this morning. Two Indians from the last village also accompanied us
to the camp; but, having detected them in stealing a knife, they were
sent off.”
It is not very easy for us, who have lived comfortably at home, or who
have travelled only in luxurious railway-cars and handsomely equipped
steamers, to realize the joy and rapture with which these far-wandering
explorers hailed the sight of the sea,--the sea to which they had so
long been journeying, through deserts, mountain-passes, and tangled
wildernesses. In his diary Captain Clark thus sets down some indication
of his joy on that memorable day, November 8, 1805: “Great joy in camp.
We are in view of the Ocean, this great Pacific Ocean which we have
been so long anxious to see, and the roaring or noise made by the waves
breaking on the rocky shores (as I suppose) may be heard distinctly.”
Later, same day, he says, “Ocean in view! O! the joy!” Fortunately, the
hardships to be undergone on the shores of the ocean were then unknown
and undreamed of; the travellers were thankful to see the sea, the
goal of all their hopes, the end of their long pilgrimage across the
continent.
That night they camped near the mouth of the river in what is now known
as Gray’s Bay, on the north side of the river, in the southwest corner
of Wahkiacum County. Before they could reach their camping-place,
the water was so rough that some of the men had an unusual
experience,--seasickness. They passed a disagreeable night on a narrow,
rocky bench of land. Next day they say:
“Fortunately for us, the tide did not rise as high as our camp during
the night; but being accompanied by high winds from the south, the
canoes, which we could not place beyond its reach, were filled with
water, and were saved with much difficulty. Our position was very
uncomfortable, but as it was impossible to move from it, we waited for a
change of weather. It rained, however, during the whole day, and at two
o’clock in the afternoon the flood tide set in, accompanied by a high
wind from the south, which, about four o’clock, shifted to the southwest
and blew almost a gale directly from the sea. The immense waves now
broke over the place where we were camped; the large trees, some of them
five or six feet thick, which had lodged at the point, were drifted over
our camp, and the utmost vigilance of every man could scarcely save
our canoes from being crushed to pieces. We remained in the water, and
drenched with rain, during the rest of the day, our only food being
some dried fish and some rain-water which we caught. Yet, though wet
and cold, and some of them sick from using salt water, the men were
cheerful, and full of anxiety to see more of the ocean. The rain
continued all night.”
This was the beginning of troubles. Next day, the wind having lulled,
the party set forth again, only to be beaten back and compelled to take
to the shore again. This was their experience for several days. For
example, under date of the eleventh the journal says:--
“The wind was still high from the southwest, and drove the waves against
the shore with great fury; the rain too fell in torrents, and not only
drenched us to the skin, but loosened the stones on the hillsides,
which then came rolling down upon us. In this comfortless situation we
remained all day, wet, cold, with nothing but dried fish to satisfy our
hunger; the canoes in one place at the mercy of the waves, the baggage
in another, and all the men scattered on floating logs, or sheltering
themselves in the crevices of the rocks and hillsides. A hunter was
despatched in hopes of finding some fresh meat; but the hills were so
steep, and so covered with undergrowth and fallen timber, that he could
not penetrate them, and he was forced to return.”
And this is the record for the next day:--
“About three o’clock a tremendous gale of wind arose accompanied with
lightning, thunder, and hail: at six it lightened up for a short time,
but a violent rain soon began, and lasted through the day. During the
storm, one of our boats, secured by being sunk with great quantities of
stone, got loose, but, drifting against a rock, was recovered without
having received much injury. Our situation now became much more
dangerous, for the waves were driven with fury against the rocks
and trees, which till now had afforded us refuge: we therefore took
advantage of the low tide, and moved about half a mile round a point to
a small brook, which we had not observed before on account of the thick
bushes and driftwood which concealed its mouth. Here we were more safe,
but still cold and wet; our clothes and bedding rotten as well as wet,
our baggage at a distance, and the canoes, our only means of escape from
this place, at the mercy of the waves. Still, we continued to enjoy good
health, and even had the luxury of feasting on some salmon and three
salmon trout which we caught in the brook. Three of the men attempted to
go round a point in our small Indian canoe, but the high waves rendered
her quite unmanageable, these boats requiring the seamanship of the
natives to make them live in so rough a sea.”
It should be borne in mind that the canoes of the explorers were poor
dug-outs, unfit to navigate the turbulent waters of the bay, and the men
were not so expert in that sort of seamanship as were the Indians whom
they, with envy, saw breasting the waves and making short voyages in the
midst of the storms. It continued to rain without any intermission,
and the waves dashed up among the floating logs of the camp in a very
distracting manner. The party now had nothing but dried fish to eat,
and it was with great difficulty that a fire could be built. On
the fifteenth of the month, Captain Lewis having found a better
camping-place near a sandy beach, they started to move their luggage
thither; but before they could get under way, a high wind from the
southwest sprung up and they were forced to remain. But the sun came out
and they were enabled to dry their stuff, much of which had been spoiled
by the rain which had prevailed for the past ten days. Their fish also
was no longer fit to eat, and they were indeed in poor case. Captain
Lewis was out on a prospecting trip, and the party set out and found a
beach through which a pleasant brook flowed to the river, making a very
good camping-place. At the mouth of this stream was an ancient Chinook
village, which, says the journal, “has at present no inhabitants but
fleas.” The adventurers were compelled to steer wide of all old Indian
villages, they were so infested with fleas. At times, so great was
the pest, the men were forced to take off all their clothing and soak
themselves and their garments in the river before they could be rid
of the insects. The site of their new camp was at the southeast end
of Baker’s Bay, sometimes called Haley’s Bay, a mile above a very high
point of rocks. On arriving at this place, the voyagers met with an
unpleasant experience of which the journal gives this account:--
“Here we met Shannon, who had been sent back to meet us by Captain
Lewis. The day Shannon left us in the canoe, he and Willard proceeded
till they met a party of twenty Indians, who, having never heard of us,
did not know where they (our men) came from; they, however, behaved with
so much civility, and seemed so anxious that the men should go with them
toward the sea, that their suspicions were excited, and they declined
going on. The Indians, however, would not leave them; the men being
confirmed in their suspicions, and fearful that if they went into the
woods to sleep they would be cut to pieces in the night, thought it best
to pass the night in the midst of the Indians. They therefore made a
fire, and after talking with them to a late hour, laid down with their
rifles under their heads. As they awoke that morning they found that
the Indians had stolen and concealed their guns. Having demanded them
in vain, Shannon seized a club, and was about assaulting one of the
Indians, whom he suspected as a thief, when another Indian began to
load a fowling-piece with the intention of shooting him. He therefore
stopped, and explained by signs that if they did not give up the guns
a large party would come down the river before the sun rose to such a
height, and put every one of them to death. Fortunately, Captain Lewis
and his party appeared at this time. The terrified Indians immediately
brought the guns, and five of them came on with Shannon. To these men we
declared that if ever any one of their nation stole anything from us,
he should be instantly shot. They reside to the north of this place, and
speak a language different from that of the people higher up the river.
“It was now apparent that the sea was at all times too rough for us to
proceed further down the bay by water. We therefore landed, and having
chosen the best spot we could select, made our camp of boards from
the old (Chinook) village. We were now situated comfortably, and being
visited by four Wahkiacums with wappatoo-roots, were enabled to make an
agreeable addition to our food.”
On the seventeenth Captain Lewis with a small party of his men coasted
the bay as far out as Cape Disappointment and some distance to the north
along the seacoast. Game was now plenty, and the camp was supplied with
ducks, geese, and venison. Bad weather again set in. The journal under
date of November 22 says:--
“It rained during the whole night, and about daylight a tremendous gale
of wind rose from the S.S.E., and continued through the day with great
violence. The sea ran so high that the water came into our camp, which
the rain prevents us from leaving. We purchased from the old squaw, for
armbands and rings, a few wappatoo-roots, on which we subsisted. They
are nearly equal in flavor to the Irish potato, and afford a very good
substitute for bread. The bad weather drove several Indians to our camp,
but they were still under the terrors of the threat which we made on
first seeing them, and behaved with the greatest decency.
“The rain continued through the night, November 23, and the morning was
calm and cloudy. The hunters were sent out, and killed three deer, four
brant, and three ducks. Towards evening seven Clatsops came over in a
canoe, with two skins of the sea-otter. To this article they attached an
extravagant value; and their demands for it were so high, that we were
fearful it would too much reduce our small stock of merchandise, on
which we had to depend for subsistence on our return, to venture on
purchasing it. To ascertain, however, their ideas as to the value
of different objects, we offered for one of these skins a watch, a
handkerchief, an American dollar, and a bunch of red beads; but neither
the curious mechanism of the watch, nor even the red beads, could tempt
the owner: he refused the offer, but asked for tiacomoshack, or chief
beads, the most common sort of coarse blue-colored beads, the article
beyond all price in their estimation. Of these blue beads we had but
few, and therefore reserved them for more necessitous circumstances.”
The officers of the expedition had hoped and expected to find here some
of the trading ships that were occasionally sent along the coast to
barter with the natives; but none were to be found. They were soon to
prepare for winter-quarters, and they still hoped that a trader might
appear in the spring before they set out on their homeward journey
across the continent. Very much they needed trinkets to deal with the
natives in exchange for, the needful articles of food on the route. But
(we may as well say here) no such relief ever appeared. It is strange
that President Jefferson, in the midst of his very minute orders and
preparations for the benefit of the explorers, did not think of sending
a relief ship to meet the party at the mouth of the Columbia. They would
have been saved a world of care, worry, and discomfort. But at that time
the European nations who held possessions on the Pacific coast were very
suspicious of the Americans, and possibly President Jefferson did not
like to risk rousing their animosity.
The rain that now deluged the unhappy campers was so incessant that they
might well have thought that people should be web-footed to live in such
a watery region. In these later days, Oregon is sometimes known as “The
Web-foot State.” Captain Clark, in his diary, November 28, makes this
entry: “O! how disagreeable is our situation dureing this dreadfull
weather!” The gallant captain’s spelling was sometimes queer. Under that
date he adds:--
“We remained during the day in a situation the most cheerless and
uncomfortable. On this little neck of land we are exposed, with a
miserable covering which does not deserve the name of a shelter, to
the violence of the winds; all our bedding and stores, as well as
our bodies, are completely wet; our clothes are rotting with constant
exposure, and we have no food except the dried fish brought from the
falls, to which we are again reduced. The hunters all returned hungry
and drenched with rain, having seen neither deer nor elk, and the swan
and brant were too shy to be approached. At noon the wind shifted to the
northwest, and blew with such tremendous fury that many trees were blown
down near us. This gale lasted with short intervals during the whole
night.”
Of course, in the midst of such violent storms, it was impossible to get
game, and the men were obliged to resort once more to a diet of
dried fish, This food caused much sickness in the camp, and it became
imperatively necessary that efforts should again be made to find game.
On the second of December, to their great joy an elk was killed, and
next day they had a feast. The journal says;
“The wind was from the east and the morning fair; but, as if one whole
day of fine weather were not permitted, toward night it began to rain.
Even this transient glimpse of sunshine revived the spirits of the
party, who were still more pleased when the elk killed yesterday was
brought into camp. This was the first elk we had killed on the west side
of the Rocky Mountains, and condemned as we have been to the dried
fish, it formed a most nourishing food. After eating the marrow of the
shank-bones, the squaw chopped them fine, and by boiling extracted a
pint of grease, superior to the tallow itself of the animal. A canoe of
eight Indians, who were carrying down wappatoo-roots to trade with
the Clatsops, stopped at our camp; we bought a few roots for small
fish-hooks, and they then left us. Accustomed as we were to the sight,
we could not but view with admiration the wonderful dexterity with which
they guide their canoes over the most boisterous seas; for though the
waves were so high that before they had gone half a mile the canoe was
several times out of sight, they proceeded with the greatest calmness
and security. Two of the hunters who set out yesterday had lost their
way, and did not return till this evening. They had seen in their ramble
great signs of elk and had killed six, which they had butchered and left
at a great distance. A party was sent in the morning.”
On the third of December Captain Clark carved on the trunk of a great
pine tree this inscription:--
“WM. CLARK DECEMBER 3D 1805 BY LAND FROM THE
U. STATES IN 1804 & 5.”
A few days later, Captain Lewis took with him a small party and set out
to find a suitable spot on which to build their winter camp. He did not
return as soon as he was expected, and considerable uneasiness was felt
in camp on that account. But he came in safely. He brought good news;
they had discovered a river on the south side of the Columbia, not far
from their present encampment, where there were an abundance of elk and
a favorable place for a winter camp. Bad weather detained them until the
seventh of December, when a favorable change enabled them to proceed.
They made their way slowly and very cautiously down-stream, the tide
being against them. The narrative proceeds:--
“We at length turned a point, and found ourselves in a deep bay: here we
landed for breakfast, and were joined by the party sent out three days
ago to look for the six elk, killed by the Lewis party. They had lost
their way for a day and a half, and when they at last reached the place,
found the elk so much spoiled that they brought away nothing but the
skins of four of them. After breakfast we coasted round the bay, which
is about four miles across, and receives, besides several small creeks,
two rivers, called by the Indians, the one Kilhowanakel, the other
Netul. We named it Meriwether’s Bay, from the Christian name of Captain
Lewis, who was, no doubt, the first white man who had surveyed it. The
wind was high from the northeast, and in the middle of the day it rained
for two hours, and then cleared off. On reaching the south side of the
bay we ascended the Netul three miles, to the first point of high land
on its western bank, and formed our camp in a thick grove of lofty
pines, about two hundred yards from the water, and thirty feet above the
level of the high tides.”