The Only Entrance
Was By A Small Door At The Gable End, Cut Out Of The Middle Piece
Of Timber, Twenty-Nine And A Half Inches High, Fourteen Inches Broad,
And Reaching Only Eighteen Inches Above The Earth.
Before this hole
is hung a mat; on pushing it aside and crawling through, the descent
is by a
Small wooden ladder, made in the form of those used among us.
One-half of the inside is used as a place of deposit for dried fish,
of which large quantities are stored away, and with a few baskets
of berries form the only family provisions; the other half,
adjoining the door, remains for the accommodation of the family.
On each side are arranged near the walls small beds of mats placed on
little scaffolds or bedsteads, raised from eighteen inches to three feet
from the ground; and in the middle of the vacant space is the fire,
or sometimes two or three fires, when, as is usually the case,
the house contains three families."
Houses very like these are built by the Ahts or Nootkas, a tribe of
Indians inhabiting parts of Vancouver Island and the adjacent mainland.
A Nootka calls his house an ourt.
The good offices of Lewis and Clark, who were always ready to make
peace between hostile tribes, were again successful here.
The Echeloots received the white men with much kindness, invited them
to their houses, and returned their visits after the explorers had camped.
Lewis and Clark told the Echeloot chiefs that the war was destroying
them and their industries, bringing want and privation upon them.
The Indians listened with attention to what was said, and after
some talk they agreed to make peace with their ancient enemies.
Impressed with the sincerity of this agreement, the captains
of the expedition invested the principal chief with a medal
and some small articles of clothing.
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