On Entering One Of The Apartments Of The House,
Captain Clark Offered Several Articles To The Indians In Exchange
For Wappatoo; But They Appeared Sullen And Ill-Humored, And Refused To Give
Him Any.
He therefore sat down by the fire opposite the men, and taking
a port-fire match from his pocket,
Threw a small piece of it into the flame;
at the same time he took his pocket-compass, and by means of a magnet,
which happened to be in his inkhorn, made the needle turn round very briskly.
The match now took fire and burned violently, on which the Indians,
terrified at this strange exhibition, immediately brought a quantity
of wappatoo and laid it at his feet, begging him to put out the bad fire,
while an old woman continued to speak with great vehemence, as if praying
and imploring protection. Having received the roots, Captain Clark put up
the compass, and as the match went out of itself tranquillity was restored,
though the women and children still took refuge in their beds and behind
the men. He now paid them for what he had used, and after lighting his pipe
and smoking with them, continued down the river."
The excursion from which Captain Clark had returned, as noted in this extract,
was up the Multnomah River. As we have already seen, the explorers missed
that stream when they came down the Columbia; and they had now passed
it again unnoticed, owing to the number of straggling islands that hide
its junction with the Columbia.
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