Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/267

 On the 28th we got under way again and stood down the straits. When off Cape Flattery, the wind being ahead, we put into Neah Harbor. It is the first in the straits after rounding the cape, and is sheltered on the  northeast by Neah Island. While surveying this harbor the ship was fairly surrounded by canoes. A vigilant watch was kept on them, and only a few Indians were  allowed on board at a time.

There were two tribes, the Classet and Patouche. They brought many fine furs, seal and sea-otter skins, to trade, and were taken all aback when they found that  we were not eager to make a bargain. The furs were cheap enough, but we did not want them. They offered us two or three fine fur-seal skins for a pound of tobacco,  a pound of powder, or fifty leaden bullets. A bottle of New England rum would fetch half a dozen of the  finest furs. This showed what sort of trade was carried on when the Boston ships traded on this coast for furs  and salmon. They would keep asking, "What for so big ship? What for so many mans? and no trade for  furs for a lite rumie?"

This would be a good field for a missionary, for these Indians appear to be quite ignorant of any religious  notions.

On the 1st of August we witnessed a beautiful eclipse of the moon. We found the Indians very numerous in the woods, wearing nothing but old dirty blankets. The men were very short and had extremely broad faces,  which were besmeared with salmon oil, soot, and red  ochre. The inside of their wigwams was very filthy. The squaws of the Classet tribe were much better looking