Reaching the Pacific Coast nearly finished off the Corps. At no other time during the Expedition were physical conditions so threatening as they were in the Columbia River estuary, where there were lashing rains, strong winds that whipped up a furious chop on the river, and very few campsites. The Columbia held the Corps hostage for several days in November at Point Ellice, just a few miles from the ocean. The fierce conditions had driven the Corps up against the northern river bank, where falling stones, driftwood, and high winds put them “at the mercy of the waves . . . our Selves and party Scattered on floating logs and Such dry Spots as can be found on the hill Sides, and Crivices of the rocks.” Clark wrote despondently of the situation:
The rainey weather Continued without a longer intermition than 2 hours at a time from the 5th in the morng. untill the 16th is eleven days rain, and the most disagreeable time I have experienced Confined on a tempiest Coast wet, where I can neither get out to hunt, return to a better Situation, or proceed on: in this Situation have we been for Six days past.
They persevered and made their way around Baker Bay and across the Long Beach peninsula to the coast on November 19, where Expedition members tramped the coastline and Clark carved his name “on a Small pine, the Day of the month & year, &c.”
Achieving their goal had brought elation to the Corps, even though the weather continued unpleasant and discouraged them from staying at the coast for the winter. The captains, as Joseph Whitehouse recorded, “had the whole party assembled in order to consult which place would be the best, for us to take up our Winter Quarters at.” Two objectives guided their choice. First, they needed salt and plentiful game for sustenance. Second, and perhaps as important, the captains held out for visitation by one of the maritime traders that frequented the Columbia. A trading ship could bring goods and a means to send collected materials home.
Meeting a trade ship on the coast was important enough for economic and political reasons that the captains queried Indians during the winter about how often traders came, what they traded, how they conducted themselves, and what nations they represented. It became evident that coastal peoples not only bargained assiduously and successfully with maritime traders, but they also formed relationships with specific ship captains and crews. Lewis and Clark soon realized that the people of the coast were discerning and sharp traders. The Clatsop and Chinookan people, Lewis wrote in January 1806, were friendly, but they were as likely to “pilfer” as trade, and they were tough bargainers.
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.
© William L. Lang, 2004
