Lewis: January 4, 1806

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 opportuny 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.