the water came into our camp, which
the rain prevents us from leaving. We purchased from the old squaw, for
armbands and rings, a few wappatoo-roots, on which we subsisted. They
are nearly equal in flavor to the Irish potato, and afford a very good
substitute for bread. The bad weather drove several Indians to our camp,
but they were still under the terrors of the threat which we made on
first seeing them, and behaved with the greatest decency.

"The rain continued through the night, November 23, and the morning was
calm and cloudy. The hunters were sent out, and killed three deer, four
brant, and three ducks. Towards evening seven Clatsops came over in a
canoe, with two skins of the sea-otter. To this article they attached an
extravagant value; and their demands for it were so high, that we were
fearful it would too much reduce our small stock of merchandise, on
which we had to depend for subsistence on our return, to venture on
purchasing it. To ascertain, however, their ideas as to the value
of different objects, we offered for one of these skins a watch, a
handkerchief, an American dollar, and a bunch of red beads; but neither
the curious mechanism of the watch, nor even the red beads, could tempt
the owner: he refused the offer, but asked for tiacomoshack, or chief
beads, the most common sort of coarse blue-colored beads, the article
beyond all price in their estimation. Of these blue beads we had but
few, and therefore reserved them for more necessitous circumstances."

The officers of the expedition had hoped and expected to find here some
of the trading ships that were occasionally sent along the coast to
barter with the natives; but none were to be found. They were soon to
prepare for winter-quarters, and they still hoped that a trader might
appear in the spring before they set out on their homeward journey
across the continent. Very much they needed trinkets to deal with the
natives in exchange for, the needful articles of food on the route. But
(we may as well say here) no such relief ever appeared. It is strange
that President Jefferson, in the midst of his very minute orders and
preparations for the benefit of the explorers, did not think of sending
a relief ship to meet the party at the mouth of the Columbia. They would
have been saved a world of care, worry, and discomfort. But at that time
the European nations who held possessions on the Pacific coast were very
suspicious of the Americans, and possibly P