OCR Text |
Show I' Lewis awl Clm·kc' s Expedition oouns (which at-e principally old British or American mus• ~ kcts) powder, ball and shot, copller and brass kettles, brass tea-kettles, and coffee-pots, blankets, fL·om two to three points, coarse scarlet and blue cloth, Jllatcs and sh·ips of sheet copper and br·ass, large bt·ass wire, knives, tobacco, :fish-hooks, buttons, mul a considet•ablc quantity of sailors' bats, t1·owsers, coats and shil·ts. But as we Jmve had occasion to l'l'IU:U'k JllOl'C than once, tlac oiJjeet of fot•eign trade which is the most desired, at·c the common cheap, blue or white beads, ofa.l.Jout fifty or seventy to the penny weight, which arc strung on strands a fathom in length, and sold by the yard, Ol' the length of IJoth al'mS; of these blue beads, which at•e called tia commashuck, or chief beads, hold the Jil·st rank in their ideas of relative value: the most inferior Jdnd, are esteemed beyond the finrst wampum, and are temptations which can always seduce them to Ilart with their most ,·aluahlc effects. Indeed, if the cxan1plc or civili: led lire did not completely Yinlli<"ate tlu>:il' choice, we might wonllcr at their infatuated attachment to a bauble in itself so wo•·thlcss. Yet these beads arc, perhaps, quite as reasonable objects of research as the 111'ecious metals, since tltcy arc at once beautiful o1·namcnts for the person, and the gt·cat circulating medium of trade with all t.hc nations Oil the Collunbia. 'l'hcsc strangers who vi it the Columbia for the purpose or trade ot· hunting, must be either J~nglish or Americans. 'rhc Indians inform us that they speak the same language as we do, and indeed the few words which the Indians ha\'C learnt from t.hc . ailors, such as musket. powder, shot, knife, file, he a vc the !cad. damned rascal, anl1 other llhrases of that •lescrjption, cndt:ntly show that the v isitet·s speak the English language. But as the greater part of them annually at·rive in April, and either t•emain till autumn, or revisit them at that time, whieh we could not clearly understand, the trade eannot be direct f1·om either England or the United States, since the sl1ips could not return tbithcr during the remain· U11 tlte JJfissouri. 1-t5 t}cr of tltc year. 'Vhen the Imlians are asked where these tra<lct·s go on leaving the Columbia, they always point tQ the southwest, whence we presume that they do uot belong to any cstabli hmcnt at. Nootka Sounl1. 'I'hey do., however, mention a tJ·:uleJ• by the name of ~fool'c, who sometimes 1 ouches at this place, ami the last time he came, lac had on board three cows; aJHl when he left them, continued along tl10 northwest coast, which renders it prouable, that t.hc1·c may he a settlement ol' whites in that direction. 'l'~hc names and dc3cription oi" all these persons who ,·isit them in the spring ami autumn m·c rcmcmbet•cd with gt·cat arcuracy, ~nd we took down, exactly as thry were 11ronouneed, the following list: The favourite tra«ler is M1·. Haley, who visits them in a. vessd with three masts, and continues some time. 'rhc othct·s arc Youens, who comes also in a three masted vessel, and is a tratlcr. Tallamon, in a three masted vessel, but lac it:l not. a trader. CaiJalamrt in a ship of the same size, he is a trader,. nntl they say hcts a wooden leg. Swipton · three masted vessel, trader. Moore fout~ do. do. Mackey three do. do. \Vashington three do. do. Mcsship three do. uo. Davidson three do. docs not t1·ade, but hunts elk. Jackson tht·ce do. trader. nolch iht·ee do. do. Skelley, also a tratler, in a vessel with thl'ec masts, but lw lms been gone for some yrars. lie had only one rye. It might be difficult to adjust t.he balance of the ad vaninges or the «langct·s of this tJ•ade to the nations of the Columbia, against tho sale of theh· furs, and the acquisitiop uf a few bad guns and household. utensils. The nations ncm· the mouth of t.he Columbia enjoy great tl'anquillity; none of the tribes being ~ngagcd in wa.r. Not VOL. JI. V |