learned that the expedition was an
English one, the second chief of the Chilkoot Indians recalled some
memories of an old quarrel which the tribe had with the English many
years ago, in which an uncle of his was killed, and he thought we should
pay for the loss of his uncle by being charged an exorbitant price for
our packing, of which he had the sole control. Commander Newell told him
I had a permit from the Great Father at Washington to pass through his
country safely, that he would see that I did so, and if the Indians
interfered with me they would be punished for doing so. After much talk
they consented to carry our stuff to the summit of the mountain for $10
per hundred pounds. This is about two-thirds of the whole distance,
includes all the climbing and all the woods, and is by far the most
difficult part of the way.

"On the 6th of June 120 Indians, men, women and children, started for
the summit. I sent two of my party with them to see the goods delivered
at the place agreed upon. Each carrier when given a pack also got a
ticket, on which was inscribed the contents of the pack, its weight, and
the amount the individual was to get for carrying it. They were made to
understand that they had to produce these tickets on delivering their
packs, but were not told for what reason. As each pack was delivered one
of my men receipted the ticket and returned it. The Indians did not seem
to understand the import of this; a few of them pretended to have lost
their tickets; and as they could not get paid without them, my
assistant, who had duplicates of every ticket, furnished them with
receipted copies, after examining their packs.

"While they were packing to the summit I was producing the survey, and I
met them on their return at the foot of the canon, about eight miles
from the coast, where I paid them. They came to the camp in the early
morning before I was up, and for about two hours there was quite a
hubbub. When paying them I tried to get their names, but very few of
them would give any Indian name, nearly all, after a little reflection,
giving some common English name. My list contained little else than
Jack, Tom, Joe, Charlie, &c. some of which were duplicated three and
four times. I then found why some of them had pretended to lose their
tickets at the summit. Three or four who had thus acted presented
themselves twice for payment, producing first the receipted ticket,
afterwards the one they claimed to have lost,