Travels in North America Part 17

It happened fortunately for the travellers, in the prosecution of their journey by land, that the horses of the country were good, and that there was no difficulty in purchasing as many as were necessary, for the conveyance of themselves and their baggage. They were thus enabled to set out about the end of August, under the guidance of an old man, who, notwithstanding the dissuasion of his countrymen, undertook to conduct them to the Indians who live westward of the mountains.

Arriving, soon afterwards, in a district where no tract could be discovered, they were obliged to cut their way through thickets of trees and brushwood, along the sides of hills. Here their horses suffered great fatigue; and the season was still so little advanced, that the ground was covered with snow. On the 9th of September they reached the road or path commonly taken by the Indians in crossing from the Columbia to the Missouri; and here they learned that they might have lessened the hardships of the mountain journey, had they laid up their canoes and struck off to the west, before they navigated the latter river to its furthest-point. A small creek at this station received the name of _Traveller's Rest-creek_.

From this spot the party proceeded nearly due west, along the Indian path; but they still experienced considerable inconvenience, from a deficiency of provisions. On some days they killed only a few birds; and, being obliged to turn their horses loose at night to feed, the morning hours were frequently pa.s.sed in finding and catching them. On the 15th of August, they reached the upper parts of the river _Koos-koos-kee_, which affords one of the most direct channels of communication with the Columbia; but there is no timber, in its neighbourhood, of size large enough for canoes; nor did its channel promise an easy navigation. The travellers were consequently obliged to continue their journey by land; and on the 19th they were cheered with the prospect, towards the south-west, of an extensive plain, which, though still distant, a.s.sured them of an outlet from the barren region which they were traversing. By this time they had suffered so much from hunger, that horse-flesh was deemed a luxury.

At last, on the 22d, having reached the plain, they found themselves once more in an inhabited country. They explained their pacific intentions to the people, who were Indians of a tribe called _Chopunnish_. The removal, however, from a cold to a warm district, and, still more, the sudden change from scarcity to an abundance of food, proved very detrimental to the health of the men; and it was fortunate that the most laborious part of their task was now, for a time at least, at an end.

The river Koos-koos-kee being navigable in the place which the party had now reached, it remained only to build the requisite canoes. The wood was soon obtained; and such of the men as had sufficient strength for the undertaking, worked at the canoes, during the intervals of cool weather, and were not very long in completing them. In this part of the country the weather was cool during an easterly wind; exactly as, on the opposite side of the mountains, it had been in a westerly one. Their horses, to the number of thirty-eight, they consigned to the care of three Indian chiefs, to be kept till their return; and the saddles, with a small supply of ammunition, they buried in a hole, dug for the purpose, near the river.

On the 8th of October, the travellers once more proceeded by water; and they now occupied five canoes. Exertion was still requisite, in the shoals and other difficult places; but the change was, on the whole, extremely favourable to them, and their progress down the current was proportionally rapid.

This part of the country is inhabited by the _Shoshonees_, a tribe of _Snake Indians_, which, at present, consists of about a hundred warriors, and thrice as many women and children. Within their own recollection these Indians had lived in the plains; but they had been driven thence by the Pawkees and other powerful tribes, and they now live a wandering and precarious life. From the middle of May till the beginning of September they reside on the western waters; but, when the salmon, on which they chiefly subsist there, disappear, they cross the ridge and descend, slowly and cautiously, till they are joined, near the Three Forks, by other bands, either of their own nation, or of the Flat-heads, who make common cause with them. They then venture to hunt buffaloes in the plains eastward; but such is their dread of the Pawkees, that, so long as they can obtain the scantiest subsistence, they do not leave the interior of the mountains; and, as soon as they collect a large stock of dried meat, they again retreat: thus they alternately obtain food at the hazard of their lives, and hide themselves to consume it. Two-thirds of the year they are forced to live in the mountains, pa.s.sing whole weeks with no other subsistence than a few fish and roots. The salmon were, at this time, fast retiring; roots were becoming scarce, they had not yet attained strength to hazard a meeting with their enemies, and nothing could be imagined more wretched than their condition.

Notwithstanding their miseries they were cheerful, and, in many important points of character, were superior to any other tribes whom the travellers had seen. They never begged: they were not tempted to a single act of dishonesty by the sight of the treasures which their visitors displayed; and they were ready to share with their guests, the little which they themselves possessed. They were also a high-spirited people. The Spaniards, the only white men with whom they had hitherto had any intercourse, would not supply them with fire-arms, alleging that, if they were possessed of such weapons, they would only be the more induced to kill one another. The Shoshonees, perhaps, do not perceive that policy is the real motive of the Spaniards; but they clearly see that the plea of humanity is fallacious, and they complain that they are thus left to the mercy of their enemies the Minnetarees, who, having fire-arms, plunder them of their horses, and slay them at pleasure.

Though many of their stock had lately been stolen, the Shoshonees possessed, at this time, not fewer than seven hundred horses, of good size, vigorous, and patient of fatigue, as well as of hunger. They had also a few mules, which had been purchased or stolen from the Spaniards, by the frontier Indians. These were the finest animals of the kind, that Captain Clarke had ever seen; even the worst of them was considered worth the price of two horses.

The horse is a favourite animal with this people. His main and tail, which are never mutilated, they decorate with feathers, and his ears they cut into various patterns. A favourite horse, also, is sometimes painted; and a warrior will suspend, at the breast of his horse, the finest ornaments which he possesses.

The Shoshonees always fight on horseback. They have a few bad guns among them, which are reserved, exclusively, for war; but their common weapons are bows and arrows. The bows that are chiefly prized, are made of the argali's horn, flat pieces of which are cemented together with glue.

They have also lances, and a formidable sort of club, consisting of a round stone, about two pounds in weight, fastened, by a short thong, to a wooden handle. Their defensive armour is a shield of buffalo's hide, manufactured with equal ingenuity and superst.i.tion. The skin must be the whole hide of a male buffalo, two years old, and never suffered to dry, since it was flayed off. A feast is held, to which all the warriors, old men, and jugglers, are invited. After the repast, a hole is dug in the ground, about eighteen inches deep, and of the same diameter as the intended shield. Red hot stones are thrown into this hole; and water is poured upon them, to produce a strong steam. Over this, the skin is laid, with the fleshy side to the ground; and stretched, in every direction, by as many persons as can take hold of it. As it becomes heated, the hair separates, and is taken off; and the skin is, at last, contracted into the compa.s.s designed for the shield. It is then removed, placed on a dry hide; and, during the remainder of the festival, is pounded by the bare heels of the guests. This operation sometimes continues for several days. The shield is then actually proof against any arrow; and, if the old men and the jugglers have been satisfied with the feast, they p.r.o.nounce it impenetrable by bullets also, which many of the warriors believe. It is ornamented with feathers, with a fringe of dressed leather, and with paintings of strange figures. This people have also a sort of arrow-proof mail, with which they cover themselves and their horses. It is made of dressed antelope-skins, in many folds, united by a mixture of glue and sand.

The Shoshonees are a diminutive and ill-formed race; with flat feet, thick ancles, and crooked legs. The hair of both s.e.xes is usually worn loose over the face and shoulders; some of the men, however, divide it, by leather thongs, into two equal queues, which they allow to hang over the ears. Their tippet, or rheno, as it is called, is described to have been the most elegant article of Indian dress, that the travellers had ever seen. It is of otter-skin, ta.s.selled with ermine; and not fewer than an hundred ermine-skins are required for each.

The inhabitants of the plains, to the west of the Rocky Mountains, appear to differ considerably from their neighbours on the higher grounds. The _Chopunnish_ or _Pierced Nose nation_, who reside on the Kooskooskee, and the river now called Lewis's river, are, in person, stout, portly, and, good-looking men. The women are small, with regular features; and are generally handsome, though dark. Their chief ornaments are a buffalo or elk-skin robe, decorated with beads; and sea-sh.e.l.ls, or mother-of-pearl, attached to an otter-skin collar, and hung in the hair, which falls in front in two queues. They likewise ornament themselves with feathers and paints of different kinds; princ.i.p.ally white, green, and light blue, all of which they find in their own country. In winter, they wear a shirt of dressed skins, long painted leggings and moccasins, and a plat of twisted gra.s.s round the neck.

The dress of the women is more simple: it consists of a long shirt of argali-skin, which reaches down to the ankles, and is without a girdle: to this are tied sh.e.l.ls, little pieces of bra.s.s, and other small articles; but their head is not at all ornamented.

The Chopunnish Indians have very few ornaments; for their life is painful and laborious; and all their exertions are necessary to earn their subsistence. During the summer and autumn they are busily occupied in fishing for salmon, and collecting their winter store of roots. In the winter, with snow-shoes on their feet, they hunt deer over the plains; and, towards the spring, they cross the mountains to the Missouri, for the purpose of trafficking for buffalo-robes.

In descending the _Kooskooskee_, the travellers had many opportunities of observing the arrangements of the Indians for preserving fish, particularly salmon, which are here very abundant. In some places, especially in the Columbia, the water was so clear, that these fish were seen at the depth of fifteen or twenty feet. During the autumn, they float down the stream in such numbers, that the Indians have only to collect, split, and dry them. Scaffolds and wooden houses, piled up against each other, for the purpose of fishing, were frequently observed. Indeed fish are here so abundant, that, in a scarcity of wood, dried salmon are often used as fuel.

A considerable trade is carried on in dried fish, which is thus prepared. The salmon, having been opened, and exposed some time to the sun, is pounded between two stones; then packed in baskets, neatly made of gra.s.s and rushes, which are lined and covered with salmon-skins, stretched and dried for that purpose. In these baskets, the pounded salmon is pressed down as hard as possible. Each basket contains from ninety to one hundred pounds; seven baskets are placed side by side, and five on the top. They are then covered with mats, and corded; and then again matted, thus forming a stack. In this manner the fish is kept sweet and sound for many years.

The Koo-koos-kee is greatly augmented by the junction of Lewis's river from the south; and the united streams, after flowing a considerable distance, fall into the still larger flood of the Columbia. At their junction, the width of the Columbia is nine hundred and sixty yards.

The Indians, in this part of America, are called _Solkuks_; and seem to be of a mild and peaceable disposition, and to live in a state of comparative happiness. Each man is contented with a single wife, with whom he shares the labours of procuring subsistence, much more than is usual among savages. What may be considered as an unequivocal proof of their good disposition, is the great respect which is shown to old age.

Among other instances of it, the travellers observed, in one of the houses, an old woman perfectly blind; and who, as they were informed, had lived more than a hundred winters. In this state of decrepitude she occupied the best position in the house, seemed to be treated with great kindness, and whatever was said by her, was listened to with much attention.

The fisheries supply the _Solkuks_ with a competent, if not an abundant subsistence. Fish is, indeed, their chief food; except roots, and the casual supplies of the antelope, which, to those who have only bows and arrows, must be very scanty. Most of the Solkuks have sore eyes, and many of them are blind of one or both eyes; and decayed teeth are very common among them.

The party proceeded down the Columbia. Fish was here so abundant, that in one day's voyage, they counted no fewer than twenty stacks of dried salmon.

They pa.s.sed the falls of this river. These are not great; but, at a little distance below them, a very remarkable scene is presented to the view. At a place where the river is about four hundred yards wide, and where the stream flows with a current more rapid than usual, it widens into a large bend or basin, at the extremity of which a black rock, rising perpendicularly from the right sh.o.r.e, seems to run wholly across.

So completely did it appear to block up the pa.s.sage, that the travellers could not, as they approached, see where the water escaped; except that the current appeared to be drawn with peculiar velocity towards the left of the rock, where there was a great roaring. On landing, to survey it, they found that, for about half a mile, the river was confined within a channel only forty-five yards wide, whirling, swelling, and boiling, the whole way, with the wildest agitation imaginable. Tremendous as the pa.s.s was, they attempted it; and, to the astonishment of the Indians, they accomplished it in safety.

In the vicinity of this place, a tribe of Indians, called _Echeloots_, were settled. Here the travellers, for the first time, since they had left the Illinois country, observed wooden buildings. The floors were sunk about six feet in the ground, a custom implying at the same time a cold and dry climate.

Proceeding on their way, they saw an Indian, dressed in a round hat and a sailor's jacket, with his hair tied. Jackets, bra.s.s kettles, and other European or American articles, were observed to be common. These Indians are fond of ornamenting their boats and houses with rude sculptures and paintings. One of the chiefs exhibited, from what was called his great medicine-bag, fourteen fore-fingers, the trophies taken from as many enemies, whom he had killed in war. This was the first time that the travellers had known any other trophy preserved than the scalp. The great medicine-bag, among these Indians, is an useful invention; for, as it is deemed sacrilegious for any person, except the owner, to touch it, this bag serves the purpose of a strong-box, in which the most valuable articles may safely be deposited.

The Echeloots in their mode of sepulture, differ much from the generality of North American Indians. They have common cemeteries, where the dead, carefully wrapt in skins, are laid on mats, in a direction east and west. The vaults, or rather chambers, in which the bodies are deposited, are about eighty feet square, and six in height. The whole of the sides are covered with strange figures, cut and painted; and wooden images are placed against them. At the top of these sepulchral chambers, and on poles attached to them, bra.s.s-kettles are hung, old frying-pans, sh.e.l.ls, skins, and baskets, pieces of cloth, hair, and other similar offerings. Among some of the tribes, the body is laid in one canoe and covered with another. Every where the dead are carefully deposited, and with like marks of respect. Captain Clarke says it is obvious, from the different articles which are placed by the dead, that these people believe in a future state of existence.

On the 2d of November, the travellers perceived the first tide-water; four days afterwards, they had the pleasure of hearing a few words of English, spoken by an Indian, who talked of a Mr. Haley, as the princ.i.p.al trader on the coast; and, on the 7th, a fog clearing off, gave them a sight of the _Pacific Ocean_.

They suffered great hardships near the mouth of the river. At one place, where they were detained two nights by the violence of the wind, the waves broke over them, and large trees, which the stream had carried along with it, were drifted upon them, so that, with their utmost vigilance, they could scarcely save the canoes from being dashed to pieces. Their next haven was still more perilous: the hills rose steep over their heads, to the height of five hundred feet; and, as the rain fell in torrents, the stones, upon their crumbling sides, loosened, and came rolling down upon them. The canoes, in one place, were at the mercy of the waves; the baggage was in another place; and the men were scattered upon floating logs, or were sheltering themselves in the crevices of the rocks.

The travellers, having now reached the farthest limits of their journey, once more began to look out for winter-quarters. But it was not till after a long search, that they discovered, at some distance from the sh.o.r.e, and near the banks of the Columbia, a situation in all respects convenient. But so incessant was the rain, that they were unable to complete their arrangements, till about the middle of December. Here, in lat.i.tude 46 degrees, 19 minutes, they pa.s.sed three months, without experiencing any thing like the cold of the interior; but they were, in other respects, exposed to numerous inconveniences. The supply of food was precarious; being confined to the fish caught along the sea-coasts, and to a few elks and other animals, which were killed in the adjacent country.

The Indians, in this part of America, had been accustomed to traffic, along the sh.o.r.e, with European vessels, and had learned to ask exorbitant prices for their commodities. Their circulating money consisted of blue beads; but with these, as well as with other merchandise, their visitors were, at this time, very scantily supplied.

These Indians were unacquainted with the use of ardent spirits, but they were no strangers to the vice of gaming.

During the winter, Captains Lewis and Clarke occupied much of their time in acquiring information concerning the country; and obtained some account of the number of tribes, languages, and population of the inhabitants, for about three hundred and sixty miles southward, along the coast; but of those in an opposite direction, they were unable to learn any thing more than their names.

The people of the four nations with whom they had the most intercourse; the _Killamucks_, _Clatsops_, _Chinnoocks_, and _Cathlamahs_, were diminutive and ill-made. Their complexions were somewhat lighter than those of the other North American Indians: their mouths were wide, their lips thick, and their noses broad, and generally flat between the eyes.

All the tribes who were seen west of the Rocky Mountain, have their foreheads flattened. The child, in order to be thus beautified, has its head placed in a kind of machine, where it is kept for ten or twelve months; the females longer than the males. The operation is gradual, and seems to give but little pain; but if it produces headache, the poor infant has no means of making its sufferings known. The head, when released from its bandage, Captain Clarke says, is not more than two inches thick, about the upper part of the forehead; and still thinner above. Nothing can appear more wonderful, than that the brain should have its shape thus altered, without any apparent injury to its functions.

There is an extensive trade carried on upon the Columbia, which must have existed before the coast was frequented by foreign traders; but to which the foreign trade has given a new impulse. The great emporium of this trade is at the falls, the _Shilloots_ being the carriers between the inhabitants above and below. The Indians of the Rocky Mountains bring down bear's-grease, horses, and a few skins, which they exchange for beads, pounded fish, and the roots of a kind of water-plant, which are produced, in great abundance, in a tract of land between the Multomah and a branch of the Columbia. The mode of obtaining these roots is curious. A woman carries a canoe, large enough to contain herself, and several bushels of them, to one of the ponds where the plants grow; she goes into the water breast high, feels out the roots with her feet, and separates the bulbs from them with her toes. These, on being freed from the mud, float. The women often continue in the water at this employment for many successive hours, even in the depth of winter. The bulbs are about the size of a small potato, and, when roasted in wood ashes, const.i.tute a palatable food.

These Indians are a very ingenious race. Even with their own imperfect tools, they make, in a few weeks, a canoe, which, with such implements, might be thought the work of years. A canoe, however, is very highly prized: it is considered of equal value with a wife, and is what the lover generally gives a father in exchange for his daughter. The bow and stern are ornamented with a sort of comb, and with grotesque figures of men or animals, sometimes five feet high, composed of small pieces of wood, skilfully inlaid and morticed, without a spike of any kind. Their bowls or troughs are scooped out of a block of wood; in these they boil their food. Their best manufacture is a sort of basket, of straw-work or cedar bark, and bear-gra.s.s, so closely interwoven as to be water-tight.

Further south the natives roast their corn and pulse over a slow charcoal-fire, in baskets of this description, moving the basket about in such manner that it is not injured, though every grain within it is completely browned.

Among these Indians the women are well treated, and enjoy an extraordinary degree of influence. On many subjects their opinions are consulted: in matters of trade, their advice is generally asked and pursued. Sometimes they even take upon themselves a tone of authority; and the labours of the family are almost equally divided. No account is given by Captain Lewis of the superst.i.tions of these people; and no inquiry seems to have been made concerning their religious belief.

_Narrative of the return of Captains_ LEWIS _and_ CLARKE, _from the Pacific Ocean to St. Louis._

The commanders of the expedition were desirous of remaining on the coast of the Pacific till the arrival of the annual trading ships, hoping from them to be able to recruit their almost exhausted stores of merchandise; but, though these were expected in April, it was found impossible to wait. The elks, on which they chiefly depended for subsistence, had retreated to the mountains; and, if the Indians could have sold them food, they were too poor to purchase it. The whole stock of goods, on which they had to depend, for the purchase of horses and food, during a journey homeward, of nearly four thousand miles, was so much diminished, that it might all have been tied in two pocket-handkerchiefs. Their muskets, however, were in excellent order, and they had plenty of powder and shot.

On the 23d of March, 1806, the canoes were loaded, and they took a final leave of their encampment. Previously to their departure, they deposited, in the hands of the Indian chiefs, some papers specifying the dates of the arrival and departure of the expedition. This was done in a hope that at least some one of them might find its way into a civilized country. The course homeward was, during the first month, by water; the canoes being dragged, or carried overland, in places where the current of the Columbia was too strong to be navigated. On these occasions, the travellers were exposed to much annoyance from the pilfering habits of the Indians; and their provisions were so scanty that they were obliged to subsist on dog's-flesh: a diet which, at first, was extremely loathsome to them, but to which they in time became reconciled.

The difficulties of the navigation made it expedient for them to leave the canoes at some distance below the junction of the _Columbia_ with _Lewis's river_, after which they prosecuted their journey on horseback.

Proceeding in an easterly direction, they arrived, on the seventh of May, within sight of the _Rocky Mountains_, and saw the tops of these mountains completely covered with snow. Anxious, however, to cross them as early as they could, they lost no time in recovering their horses from the Chopunnish Indians, and in extracting their stores from the hiding places in the ground. Still it was necessary for them to encamp for a few weeks, that they might occupy themselves in hunting, and that the health of the invalids might be reinstated.

Here Captains Lewis and Clarke practised physic among the natives, as one means of supplying themselves with provisions. Their stock of merchandise was reduced so low, that they were obliged to cut off the b.u.t.tons from their clothes, and to present them, with phials and small tin boxes, as articles of barter with the Indians; and, by means of these humble commodities, they were enabled to procure some roots and bread, as provision during their pa.s.sage over the Rocky Mountains, which they commenced on the tenth of June.

Towards the middle of June the fall of the rivers showed that the great body of snow on the mountains was at last melted; and they ventured to leave their encampment, against the advice of several of the Indians.

They, however, soon found that they had been premature in their motions; for, on the higher grounds, there was no appearance whatever of vegetation. The snow, which covered the whole country, was indeed sufficiently hard to bear the horses, but it was still ten or twelve feet deep; so that a further prosecution of their journey was, at present, impossible; and the travellers, after having deposited, in this upper region, their baggage, and such provisions as they could spare, reluctantly traced back their steps to the plain. There they remained ten days; and, on the 26th, they again began to ascend the lofty ridge; the snow on which had, in the interval, melted nearly four feet, leaving still a depth of six or seven. They now implicitly followed the steps of their guides, who traversed this trackless region with a kind of instinctive sagacity: these men never hesitated respecting the path, and were never embarra.s.sed. In three days they once more reached the stream which, in their former journey, they had named _Traveller's Rest Creek_.

Here Captains Lewis and Clarke agreed to separate, for the purpose of taking a more comprehensive survey of the country in their journey homeward. It was considered desirable to acquire a further knowledge of the Yellow-stone, a large river which flows from the south-west, more than one thousand miles before it reaches the Missouri; and it was of importance to ascertain, more accurately than they had hitherto done, the course of Maria's river.

The separation took place on the 3d of July; and Captain Lewis, holding on an eastern course, crossed a large stream which flowed towards the Columbia, and which had already been named _Clarke's river_. On the 18th of July he came to _Maria's river_, the object of his search; and he continued for several days, his route along its northern bank. After having ascertained the course of this river, he again set out on his journey homeward, that he might not lose the opportunity of returning before the winter.

He and his companions were only four in number; and, in one part of their journey, they had an alarming intercourse with a party of Indians.

Not very long after this they embarked on the _Missouri_; and, with the aid of their oars and the current, they proceeded at the rate of between sixty and eighty miles a day. On the 7th of August they reached the mouth of the _Yellow-stone river_, the place of rendezvous, appointed with Captain Clarke. Here, by a note stuck upon a pole, they were informed that he had accomplished his voyage along that river, and would wait for them lower down the Missouri.

Captain Clarke, on quitting the central encampment at _Traveller's Rest Creek_, had marched in a southerly direction, and had traversed a distance of one hundred and sixty-four miles, to the head of _Jefferson's river_. This journey was performed, on horseback, and in six days, over a country by no means difficult; so that, in future, the pa.s.sage of this elevated region will be divested of a considerable portion of its terrors. He also discovered that the communication between the _Upper Missouri_ and the _Yellow-stone river_, was attended with little trouble; for Gallatin's river, one of the tributary streams of the Missouri, approaches within eighteen miles of the Yellow-stone, and, at a place, where the latter is completely navigable.

Being unable to find wood of sufficient magnitude for the formation of canoes, Captain Clarke and his men were obliged to proceed on horseback, about one hundred miles down the side of this river. At length they succeeded in constructing boats, and sailed down the remainder of this stream with great rapidity. On the 27th, at the distance of two hundred miles from the Rocky Mountains, they beheld that elevated region for the last time. The Yellow-stone being easy of navigation, they reached the place of rendezvous earlier than they had expected.