[Lewis:]
Saturday January 4th 1806.
Comowooll and the Clatsops who visited us yesterday left
us in the evening. These people the Chinnooks and others
residing in this neighbourhood and speaking the same language
have been very friendly to us; they appear to be a mild inoffensive
people but will pilfer if they have an opportunity to do
so where they conceive themselves not liable to detection.
they are great higlers in trade and if they conceive you anxious
to purchase will be a whole day bargaining for a handfull of
roots; this I should have thought proceeded from their want
of knowledge of the comparitive value of articles of merchandize
and the fear of being cheated, did I not find that they
invariably refuse the price first offered them and afterwards
very frequently accept a smaller quantity of the same article;
in order to satisfy myself on this subject I once offered a
Chinnook my watch two knives and a considerable quantity
of beads for a small inferior sea Otter's skin which I did not
much want, he immediately conceived it of great value, and
refused to barter except I would double the quantity of beads;
the next day with a great deal of importunity on his part I
received the skin in exchange for a few strans of the same beads
he had refused the day before. I therefore believe this trait
in their character proceeds from an avaricious all grasping disposition.
in this rispect they differ from all Indians I ever
became acquainted with, for their dispositions invariably lead
them to give whatever they are possessed off no matter how
usefull or valuable, for a bauble which pleases their fancy,
without consulting it's usefullness or value. nothing interesting
occurred today, or more so, than our wappetoe being all
exhausted.
