Clark: January 9, 1806

January 9th Thursday 1806. A fine morning, wind from the N.E. We set out at daylight, every man carrying some of the whale meat and a little oil, and proceeded on the track. We came out to a house at a branch where we halted half an hour to rest. This house is at a place where an old village formerly stood, on the coast at the commencement ____ 27 feet wide, 35 feet long, sunk in the ground 5 feet, with 2 doors and 2 fireplaces. The doors are 29 inches high and 14 1/4 wide, with handsome steps to descend down. A post in the middle is covered with boards split thin and 2 feet wide. There were old graves in canoes 3 feet 8 inches wide and 5 feet long, neatly made, high at the bow. We proceeded on to the top of the hill, passing 3 bad rocky points. From the point — Clarks Point of View — Cape Disappointment bears S. 12° E., passing a great point at 15 miles and one at 40 miles. Rocks extend out to the 1st large point. From the creek there are 4 points, and between the 1st large point and the 2nd is a point of many large rocks. The day clouded up. I can see a point bearing N. 5° E. a long way off, just in sight. From Clarks Point of View to Cape Disappointment is N. 20° W. To Point Adams and the open slope point is north and a sharp point.

We met a party of Chinooks going to get whale blubber to eat, and oil, each of which they eat together. We also overtook several parties of the Clatsops loaded with immense loads of the blubber and oil. Many of those loads I could lift only with difficulty — astonishing what custom will do. At 2 o'clock we arrived at the camp of our salt makers, very much fatigued, more so than I ever was before. The Indians all proceeded on. I concluded to stay all night, as the party was much fatigued, and to send out 2 men whom I had left here to hunt ducks up the little river. Jo. Fields had killed an elk and brought in a quarter on which we dined; he had also killed and brought in a deer. The Indians with the oil and blubber told me they had to purchase it from the Calenix, and that they would come to the fort and sell to us in 3 days' time. I encouraged this, as I expect to purchase at the fort as cheap as at the village where I was. The day proved fine. It rained the greater part of the night. I went into an Indian lodge; they were poor and dirty and the house full of fleas. He offered me roots which they gather on the sea coast, a kind of rush, of which they offered me to eat.

Thursday 9th of January 1806. A fine morning, wind from the N.E. Last night about 10 o'clock, while smoking with the natives, I was alarmed by a loud shrill voice from the cabins on the opposite side. The Indians all ran immediately across to the village. My guide, who continued with me, made signs that someone's throat had been cut. By inquiry I found that one man, McNeal, was absent. I immediately sent off Sergt. N. Pryor and 4 men in quest of McNeal, whom they met coming across the creek in great haste. He informed me that the people were alarmed on the opposite side at something, but what he could not tell. A man had very friendly invited him to go and eat in his lodge; the Indian had locked arms with him and went to a lodge in which a woman gave him some blubber. The man invited him to another lodge to get something better, and the woman held him by the blanket which he had around him. Another ran out and hollered, and his pretended friend disappeared. I immediately ordered every man to hold himself in a state of readiness and sent Sergt. Pryor and 4 men to know the cause of the alarm, which was found to be a premeditated plan of the pretended friend of McNeal to assassinate him for his blanket and what few articles he had about him. This was found out by a Chinook woman who alarmed the men of the village who were with me in time to prevent the horrid act. This man was of another band at some distance and ran off as soon as he was discovered.

We have now to look back and shudder at the dreadful road on which we have to return, 45 miles S.E. of Point Adams and 35 miles from Fort Clatsop. I had the blubber and oil divided among the party and set out about sunrise, returning by the same route we had gone out. We met several parties of men and women of the Chinook and Clatsop nations on their way to trade with the Kilamox for blubber and oil. On the steep descent of the mountain I overtook five men and six women with immense loads of the oil and blubber of the whale. Those Indians had passed by some route by which we missed them as we went out yesterday. One of the women, in the act of getting down a steep part of the mountain, had her load somehow slip off her back. She was holding the load by a strap which was fastened to the mat bag in which it was, in one hand, and holding a bush with the other. As I was in front of my party, I endeavored to relieve this woman by taking her load until she could get to a better place a little below, and to my astonishment I found the load as much as I could lift, and it must have exceeded 100 lbs. The husband of this woman, who was below, soon came to her relief. Those people proceeded on with us to the salt works, at which place we arrived late in the evening. We found them without meat, and 3 of the party — J. Field, Gibson, and Shannon — out hunting. As I was excessively fatigued and my party appeared very much so, I determined to stay until the morning and rest ourselves a little. The Clatsops proceeded on with their loads.

The Clatsops, Chinooks, Kilamox, etc., are very loquacious and inquisitive. They possess good memories and have repeated to us the names and capacities of the vessels, etc., of many traders and others who have visited the mouth of this river. They are generally low in stature, proportionably small, rather lighter complected, and much more poorly formed than the Indians of the Missouri and those of our frontiers. They are generally cheerful but never gay. With us their conversation generally turns upon the subject of trade, smoking, eating, or their women. About the latter they speak without reserve in their presence, of every part of them, and of the most familiar connection. They do not hold the virtue of their women in high estimation, and will even prostitute their wives and daughters for a fishing hook or a strand of beads. In common with other savage nations, they make their women perform every species of domestic drudgery; but in almost every species of this drudgery the men also participate. Their women are compelled to gather roots and assist them in taking fish, which articles form much the greater part of their subsistence. Notwithstanding the servile manner in which they treat their women, they pay much more respect to their judgment and opinion in many respects than most Indian nations. Their women are permitted to speak freely before them, and sometimes appear to command with a tone of authority. They generally consult them in their trade and act conformably to their opinions.

I think it may be established as a general maxim that those nations treat their old people and women with most deference and respect where they subsist principally on such articles that these can participate with the men in obtaining them; and that that part of the community are treated with least attention when the act of procuring subsistence devolves entirely on the men in the vigor of life. It appears to me that nature has been much more deficient in her filial ties than in any others of the strong affections of the human heart, and therefore I think our old men equally with our women indebted to civilization for their ease and comfort. I am told that among the Sioux, Assiniboines, and others on the Missouri who subsist by hunting, it is a custom when a person of either sex becomes so old and infirm that they are unable to travel on foot from camp to camp as they rove in search of subsistence, for the children or near relations of such person to leave them without compunction or remorse. On those occasions they usually place within their reach a small piece of meat and a platter of water, telling the poor old superannuated wretch, for their consolation, that he or she had lived long enough, and that it was time they should die and go to their relations who can afford to take care of them much better than they could.

I am informed that the Minetares (Me-ne-tar-es), Ahwahharways (Ar-war-har-mays), and Arikaras (Ricares), when attended by their old people on their hunting expeditions, pursued the same custom. But in justice to those people I must observe that it appeared to me at their villages that they provided tolerably well for their aged persons, and several of their feasts appear to have principally for their object a contribution for their aged and infirm persons. In one of the Mandan villages I saw an old man to whom I gave a knife and inquired his age. He said he had seen more than 100 winters, and that he should soon go down the river to their old village. He requested I would give him something to prevent the pain in his back. His grandson, a young man, rebuked the old man and said it was not worth while, that it was time for the old man to die. The old man occupied one side of the fire and was furnished with plenty of covering and food, and every attention appeared to be paid him, etc.

Jo. Field, in my absence, had killed an elk and a deer, and brought in the deer and half of the elk, on a part of which we supped. Some rain a little after dark. I visited a house near the salt boilers and found it inhabited by 2 families. They were poor and dirty, and their house swarming with fleas.