Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/15



THE INDIAN OF THE NORTHWEST

recorded by Mackenzie, Lewis and Clark, Fraser, and Ross, 20 the sick were brought to be healed and even the dead to be restored to life. The Cowlitz, according to Franchere, 21 lifted up the legs of their visitors' trousers and opened their shirts with amazement. The Haidas, when Perez first visited them, 22 placed their hands gently upon their visitors' breasts. The Spanish friars had on board an image of Our Lady ; the Haidas- touched it in greatest astonishment, to see whether it were alive. The astonishment at the sound of the rifles, at quick- silver, at the air gun, at the burning-glass, and even at Clark's negro servant York are well known. On the terrible rapids of the Fraser River, 23 a chief said that though Indians did not run the rapids, his confidence in the superiority of the whites was such that he would not hesitate to accompany them wher- ever they thought proper to venture. Many of the tribes on the Fraser 24 and the Columbia danced and sang all night when the white men first came.

The Indian's attitude at first was clearly that of admiration for superior beings, but not of worship of a supreme being. More valuable still, their attitude was uniformly and almost without exception friendly, until it had reason to be inimical. "Thank Heaven for the favors we find among this numerous people!" exclaims Thompson 25 with his usual fervent heart, after months of traveling among them. He had good reasons for that devout thanksgiving. "Frank," "communicative," "generous," "by no means beggarly," "friendly," "cheerful," "most hospitable," "good humored," and "sincere" these are some of the epithets from Lewis and Clark, and these honest observers are not alone. "They vied with each other in acts of kindness," writes Ross; "very friendly," "communicative," "very kind," "very hospitable," "very peaceable," "generous," and "charitable." "Confident," "respectful," "foremost in showing marks of greatest hospitality," "courteous," "liberal,"

20 Adventures: p. 133.

21 Narrative: p. 107.

22 Crespi: Diary.

23 Journal: p. 163.

24 journal: p. 182.

25 Oregon Hist. Quart. : Vol. XV., p.

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