[Clark:]
Saturday 4th January 1806
Comowool and the Clatsops who visited us yesterday left us
in the morning. Those people the Chinnooks and others resideing
in this neighbourhood and Speaking the Same language
have been verry friendly to us; they appear to be a Mild
inoffensive people, but will pilfer if they have an oppertunity
to do so when 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 hand full of
roots; this I should have thought proceeded from their want
of Knowledge of the comparitive value of articles of Merchindize
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 point, I onc[e] offered a Clatsop
man my watch a knife, a Dollar of the coin of U States
and a hand full of beeds, for a Small Sea otter Skin, which I
did not much want, he imediately Conceived it of great value,
and refused to Sell unless I would give as maney more blue
beeds; the next day with a great deel of importunity on his
part we received the Skin in exchange for a fiew Strans of the
Same beeds he had refused the day before. I therefore beleive
this treat [trait] in their Charector proceeds from an avericious
all grasping disposition. in this respect 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 valueable, for a bauble which pleases
their fancy, without consulting its usefullness or value. nothing
occured to day, or more So, than our
Wappato being all
exhausted.
