Friday, April 4, 1804. The hunters were still out in every direction. Those from the opposite side of the river returned with the flesh of a bear and some venison, but the flesh of six deer and an elk which they had killed was so meagre and unfit for use, that they had left it in the woods. Two other deer were brought in, but as the game seemed poor, we despatched a large party to some low grounds on the south, six miles above us, to hunt there until our arrival. As usual many of the Indians came to our camp, some descending the rivers with their families, and others from below with no object except to gratify their curiosity.
The visit of captain Clarke to the Multnomahs, now enabled us to combine all that we had seen or learnt of the neighbouring countries and nations. Of these the most important spot is Wappatoo island, a large extent of country lying between the Multnomah, and an arm of the Columbia, which we have called Wappatoo inlet, and separated from the main land by a sluice eighty yards wide, which at the distance of seven miles up the Multnomah connects that river with the inlet. The island thus formed is about twenty miles long, and varies in breadth from five to ten miles: the land is high and extremely fertile, and on most parts is supplied with a heavy growth of cottonwood, ash, the large-leafed ash, and sweet-willow, the black alder, common to the coast, having now disappeared. But the chief wealth of this island consists of the numerous ponds in the interior, abounding with the common arrowhead (sagittaria sagittifolia) to the root of which is attached a bulb growing beneath it in the mud. This bulb, to which the Indians give the name of wappatoo, is the great article of food, and almost the staple article of commerce on the Columbia. It is never out of season; so that at all times of the year, the valley is frequented by the neighbouring Indians who come to gather it. It is collected chiefly by the women, who employ for the purpose canoes from ten to fourteen feet in length, about two feet wide, and nine inches deep, and tapering from the middle, where they are about twenty inches wide. They are sufficient to contain a single person and several bushels of roots, yet so very light that a woman can carry them with ease; she takes one of these canoes into a pond where the water is as high as the breast, and by means of her toes, separates from the root this bulb, which on being freed from the mud rises immediately to the surface of the water, and is thrown into the canoe. In this manner these patient females remain in the water for several hours even in the depth of winter. This plant is found through the whole extent of the valley in which we now are, but does not grow on the Columbia farther eastward. This valley is bounded westward by the mountainous country bordering the coast, from which it extends eastward thirty miles in a direct line, till it is closed by the range of mountains crossing the Columbia above the great falls. Its length from north to south we are unable to determine, but we believe that the valley must extend to a great distance: it is in fact the only desirable situation for a settlement on the western side of the Rocky mountains, and being naturally fertile, would, if properly cultivated, afford subsistence for forty or fifty thousand souls. The highlands are generally of a dark rich loam, not much injured by stones, and though waving, by no means too steep for cultivation, and a few miles from the river they widen at least on the north side, into rich extensive prairies. The timber on them is abundant, and consists almost exclusively of the several species of fir already described, and some of which grow to a great height. We measured a fallen tree of that species, and found that including the stump of about six feet, it was three hundred and eighteen feet in length, though its diameter was only three feet. The dogwood is also abundant on the uplands; it differs from that of the United States in having a much smoother bark, and in being much larger, the trunk attaining a diameter of nearly two feet. There is some white cedar of a large size, but no pine of any kind. In the bottom lands are the cottonwood ash, large leafed ash, and sweet willow. Interspersed with those are the pashequaw, shanataque, and compound fern, of which the natives use the roots; the red flowering current abounds on the upland, while along the river bottoms grow luxuriantly the watercress, strawberry, cinquefoil, narrowdock, sand-rush, and the flowering pea, which is not yet in bloom. There is also a species of the bear’s-claw now blooming, but the large leafed thorn has disappeared, nor do we see any longer the huckleberry, the shallun, nor any of the other evergreen shrubs which bear berries, except the species, the leaf of which has a prickly margin.
Among the animals, we observe the martin, small geese, the small speckled woodpecker, with a white back, the blue-crested corvus, ravens, crows, eagles, vultures, and hawks. The mellow bug, long-legged spider, as well as the butterfly and blowingfly, and tick, have already made their appearance, but none of all these are distinguished from animals of the same sort in the United States. The musquetoes too have resumed their visits, but are not yet troublesome.
The nations who inhabit this fertile neighbourhood are very numerous. The Wappatoo inlet extends three hundred yards wide, for ten or twelve miles to the south, as far as the hills near which it receives the waters of a small creek whose sources are not far from those of the Killamuck river. On that creek resides the Clackstar nation, a numerous people of twelve hundred souls, who subsist on fish and wappatoo, and who trade by means of the Killamuck river, with the nation of that name on the seacoast. Lower down the inlet, towards the Columbia, is the tribe called Cathlacumup. On the sluice which connects the inlet with the Multnomah, are the tribes, Cathlanahquiah, and Cathlacomatup: and on Wappatoo island, the tribes of Clannahminamun, and Clahnaquah. Immediately opposite, near the Towahnahiooks, are the Quathlapotles, and higher up on the side of the Columbia, the Shotos. All these tribes, as well as the Cathlahaws, who live somewhat lower on the river, and have an old village on Deer island, may be considered as parts of the great Multnomah nation, which has its principal residence on Wappatoo island, near the mouth of the large river to which they give their name. Forty miles above its junction with the Columbia, it receives the waters of the Clackamos, a river which may be traced through a woody and fertile country to its sources in mount Jefferson, almost to the foot of which it is navigable for canoes. A nation of the same name resides in eleven villages along its borders: they live chiefly on fish and roots, which abound in the Clackamos and along its banks, though they sometimes descend to the Columbia to gather wappatoo, where they cannot be distinguished by dress or manners, or language from the tribes of Multnomahs. Two days’ journey from the Columbia, or about twenty miles beyond the entrance of the Clackamos, are the falls of the Multnomah. At this place are the permanent residences of the Cushooks and Chahcowahs, two tribes who are attracted to that place by the fish, and by the convenience of trading across the mountains and down Killamuck river, with the nation of Killamucks, from whom they procure train oil. These falls were occasioned by the passage of a high range of mountains; beyond which the country stretches into a vast level plain, wholly destitute of timber. As far as the Indians, with whom we conversed, had ever penetrated that country, it was inhabited by a nation called Calahpoewah, a very numerous people whose villages, nearly forty in number, are scattered along each side of the Multnomah, which furnish them with their chief subsistence, fish, and the roots along its banks.
All the tribes in the neighbourhood of Wappatoo island, we have considered as Multnomahs; not because they are in any degree subordinate to that nation; but they all seem to regard the Multnomahs as the most powerful. There is no distinguished chief, except the one at the head of the Multnomahs; and they are moreover linked by a similarity of dress and manners, and houses and language, which much more than the feeble restraints of Indian government contribute to make one people. These circumstances also separate them from nations lower down the river. The Clatsops, Chinnooks, Wahkiacums and Cathlamahs understand each other perfectly; their language varies, however, in some respects from that of the Skilloots; but on reaching the Multnomah Indians, we found that although many words were the same, and a great number differed only in the mode of accenting them, from those employed by the Indians near the mouth of the Columbia, yet there was a very sensible variation of language. The natives of the valley are larger and rather better shaped than those of the seacoast: their appearance too is generally healthy, but they are afflicted with the common disease of the Columbia, soreness of the eyes. To whatever this disorder may be imputed it is a great national calamity: at all ages their eyes are sore and weak, and the loss of one eye is by no means uncommon, while in grown persons total blindness is frequent, and almost universal in old age. The dress of the men has nothing different from that used below, but are chiefly remarked by a passion for large brass buttons, which they fix on a sailor’s jacket, when they are so fortunate as to obtain one, without regard to any arrangement. The women also wear the short robe already described; but their hair is most commonly braided into two tresses falling over each ear in front of the body, and instead of the tissue of bark, they employ a piece of leather in the shape of a pocket handkerchief tied round the loins. This last is the only and ineffectual defence when the warmth of the weather induces them to throw aside the robe. The houses are in general on a level with the ground, though some are sunk to the depth of two or three feet into the ground, and like those near the coast adorned or disfigured by carvings or paintings on the posts, doors and beds: they do not possess any peculiar weapon except a kind of broad sword made of iron, from three to four feet long, the blade about four inches wide, very thin and sharp at all its edges, as well as at the point. They have also bludgeons of wood in the same form; and both kinds generally hang at the head of their beds. These are formidable weapons. Like the natives of the seacoast, they are also very fond of cold, hot, and vapour baths, which are used at all seasons, and for the purpose of health as well as pleasure. They, however, add a species of bath peculiar to themselves, by washing the whole body with urine every morning.
The mode of burying the dead in canoes, is no longer practised by the natives here. The place of deposit is a vault formed of boards, slanting like the roof of a house from a pole supported by two forks. Under this vault the dead are placed horizontally on boards, on the surface of the earth, and carefully covered with mats. Many bodies are here laid on each other, to the height of three or four corpses, and different articles, which were most esteemed by the dead, are placed by their side; their canoes themselves being sometimes broken to strengthen the vault.
The trade of all these inhabitants is in anchovies, sturgeon, but chiefly in wappatoo, to obtain which, the inhabitants both above and below them on the river, come at all seasons, and supply in turn, beads, cloth, and various other articles procured from the Europeans.
Saturday, April 5. We dried our meat as well as the cloudy weather would permit. In the course of his chase yesterday, one of our men who killed the bear, found a nest of another with three cubs in it. He returned to-day in hopes of finding her, but he brought only the cubs, without being able to see the dam, and on this occasion, Drewyer, our most experienced huntsman, assured us that he had never known a single instance where a female bear, who had once been disturbed by a hunter and obliged to leave her young, returned to them again. The young bears were sold for wappatoo to some of the many Indians who visited us in parties during the day, and behaved very well. Having made our preparations of dried meat, we set out next morning,
Sunday 6, by nine o’clock, and continued along the north side of the river for a few miles, and then crossed to the river to look for the hunters, who had been sent forward the day before yesterday. We found them at the upper end of the bottom with some Indians, for we are never freed from the visits of the natives. They had killed three elk, and wounded two others so badly, that it was still possible to get them. We therefore landed, and having prepared scaffolds and secured the five elk, we encamped for the night, and the following evening,
Monday 7, the weather having been fair and pleasant, had dried a sufficient quantity of meat to serve us as far as the Chopunnish, with occasional supplies, if we can procure them, of dogs, roots, and horses. In the course of the day several parties of Shahalas, from a village eight miles above us, came to visit us, and behaved themselves very properly, except that we were obliged to turn one of them from the camp for stealing a piece of lead. Every thing was now ready for our departure, but in the morning,