It Was Estimated That The Salt-Makers Could Turn
Out Three Or Four Quarts A Day, And There Was Good
Prospect of an
abundant supply for present needs and for the homeward journey.
An expedition to the seashore was now
Planned, and the journal
goes on to tell how they set out: -
"The appearance of the whale seemed to be a matter of importance to all
the neighboring Indians, and as we might be able to procure some of it
for ourselves, or at least purchase blubber from the Indians, a small parcel
of merchandise was prepared, and a party of the men held in readiness to set
out in the morning. As soon as this resolution was known, Chaboneau and
his wife requested that they might be permitted to accompany us.
The poor woman stated very earnestly that she had travelled a great way
with us to see the great water, yet she had never been down to the coast,
and now that this monstrous fish was also to be seen, it seemed hard
that she should be permitted to see neither the ocean nor the whale.
So reasonable a request could not be denied; they were therefore suffered
to accompany Captain Clark, who, January 6th, after an early breakfast,
set out with twelve men in two canoes."
After a long and tedious trip, the camp of the saltmakers was reached,
and Captain Clark and his men went on to the remains of the whale,
only the skeleton being left by the rapacious and hungry Indians. The whale
had been stranded between two shore villages tenanted by the Killamucks,
as Captain Clark called them. They are now known as the Tillamook Indians,
and their name is preserved in Tillamook County, Oregon. The white
men found it difficult to secure much of the blubber, or the oil.
Although the Indians had large quantities of both, they sold it
with much reluctance. In Clark's private diary is found this entry:
"Small as this stock [of oil and lubber] is I prize it highly;
and thank Providence for directing the whale to us; and think him
more kind to us than he was to Jonah, having sent this monster
to be swallowed by us instead of swallowing us as Jonah's did."
While here, the party had a startling experience, as the journal says: -
"Whilst smoking with the Indians, Captain Clark was surprised,
about ten o'clock, by a loud, shrill outcry from the opposite village,
on hearing which all the Indians immediately started up to cross
the creek, and the guide informed him that someone had been killed.
On examination one of the men [M'Neal] was discovered to be absent,
and a guard [Sergeant Pryor and four men] despatched, who met him
crossing the creek in great haste. An Indian belonging to another band,
who happened to be with the Killamucks that evening, had treated
him with much kindness, and walked arm in arm with him to a tent
where our man found a Chinnook squaw, who was an old acquaintance.
From the conversation and manner of the stranger, this woman
discovered that his object was to murder the white man for the sake
of the few articles on his person; when he rose and pressed our man
to go to another tent where they would find something better to eat,
she held M'Neal by the blanket; not knowing her object, he freed
himself from her, and was going on with his pretended friend,
when she ran out and gave the shriek which brought the men
of the village over, and the stranger ran off before M'Neal knew
what had occasioned the alarm."
The "mighty hunter" of the Lewis and Clark expedition was Drewyer,
whose name has frequently been mentioned in these pages.
Under date of January 12, the journal has this just tribute
to the man: -
"Our meat is now becoming scarce; we therefore determined to jerk it,
and issue it in small quantities, instead of dividing it among
the four messes, and leaving to each the care of its own provisions;
a plan by which much is lost, in consequence of the improvidence of the men.
Two hunters had been despatched in the morning, and one of them, Drewyer,
had before evening killed seven elk. We should scarcely be able
to subsist, were it not for the exertions of this most excellent hunter.
The game is scarce, and nothing is now to be seen except elk, which for
almost all the men are very difficult to be procured; but Drewyer,
who is the offspring of a Canadian Frenchman and an Indian woman,
has passed his life in the woods, and unites, in a wonderful degree,
the dexterous aim of the frontier huntsman with the intuitive sagacity
of the Indian, in pursuing the faintest tracks through the forest.
All our men, however, have indeed become so expert with the rifle
that we are never under apprehensions as to food; since, whenever there
is game of any kind, we are almost certain of procuring it."
The narrative of the explorers gives this account of the Chinooks: -
"The men are low in stature, rather ugly, and ill made; their legs being small
and crooked, their feet large, and their heads, like those of the women,
flattened in a most disgusting manner. These deformities are in part
concealed by robes made of sea-otter, deer, elk, beaver or fox skins.
They also employ in their dress robes of the skin of a cat peculiar
to this country, and of another animal of the same size, which is light
and durable, and sold at a high price by the Indians who bring it from above.
In addition to these are worn blankets, wrappers of red, blue, or spotted
cloth, and some old sailors' clothes, which are very highly prized.
The greater part of the men have guns, with powder and ball.
"The women have in general handsome faces, but are low and disproportioned,
with small feet and large legs, occasioned, probably, by strands of beads,
or various strings, drawn so tight above the ankles as to prevent
the circulation of the blood.
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