[Clark:]
Sunday [Friday] 24th. of January 1806
Drewyer and Bapteist laPage returned this morning in a
large Canoe with Commowol and six Clatsops. they brought
two Deer and three Elk and one elk Skin, haveing given the
flesh of one other Elk they killed and three Elk skins to the
Indians as the price of their assistance in transporting the
ballance of the meat to the Fort; these Deer and Elk were
killed near pt. Adams and those Indians Carried them on their
Backs near 4 miles, before the waves were Sufficiently low to
permit their being taken on board their canoes. The indians
remain'd with us all day. The Clapsots witnessed Drewyers
shooting some of those Elk, which has given them a very
exolted opinion of us as marksmen and the Superior excellency
of our rifles compared with their guns; this may probably be
of service to us, as it will deter them from any acts of hostility
if they have ever meditated any such. our air gun also
astonishes them very much, they cannot comprehend its Shooting
So often and without powder, and think that it is great
medison which comprehends every thing that is to them incomprehensible.
The nativs of this neighbourhood ware no further Covering
than a light roabe, their feet legs & every other part exposed
to the frost Snow & ice &c.
