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December 20, 1805
Friday 20. A succession
of rain and hail during the night. At ten o'clock it cleared
off for a short time, but the rain soon recommenced; we now
covered in four of our huts; three Indians came in a canoe with
mats, roots, and the berries of the sacacommis. These people
proceed with a dexterity and finesse in their bargains, which,
if they have not learnt from their foreign visiters, it may
show how nearly allied is the cunning of savages to the little
arts of traffic. They begin by asking double or treble the value
of what they have to sell, and lower their demand in proportion
to the greater or less degree of ardor or knowledge of the purchaser,
who with all his management is not able to procure the article
for less than its real value, which the Indians perfectly understand.
Our chief medium of trade consists of blue and white beads,
files with which they sharpen their tools, fish-hooks, and tobacco:
but of all these articles blue beads and tobacco are the most
esteemed.
December
21, 1805
Saturday 21. As usual
it rained all night and continued without intermission during
the day. One of our Indian visiters was detected in stealing
a horn spoon, and turned out of the camp. We find that the plant
called sacacommis forms an agreeable mixture with tobacco, and
we therefore dispatched two men to the open lands near the ocean,
in order to collect some of it, while the rest continued their
work.
December
22, 1805
Sunday 22. There was
no interval in the rain last night and to-day; so that we cannot
go on rapidly with our buildings. Some of the men are indeed
quite sick, others have received bruises, and several complain
of biles. We discover too, that part of our elk meat is spoiling
in consequence of the warmth of the weather, though we have
kept a constant smoke under it. Monday 23. It continued raining
the whole day, with no variation except occasional thunder and
hail. Two canoes of Clatsops came to us with various articles
for sale; we bought three mats and bags neatly made of flags
and rushes and also the skin of a panther seven feet long, including
the tail. For all these we gave six small fish-hooks, a worn-out
file, and some pounded fish which had become so soft and mouldy
by exposure that we could not use it: it is, however, highly
prized by the Indians of this neighborhood. Although a very
portable and convenient food, the mode of curing seems known,
or at least practised only by the Indians near the great falls,
and coming from such a distance, has an additional value in
the eyes of these people, who are anxious to possess some food
less precarious than their ordinary subsistence. Among these
Clatsops was a second chief to whom we gave a medal, and sent
some pounded fish to Cuscalah, who could not come to see us,
on account of sickness.
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