Their fish also
was no longer fit to eat, and they were indeed in poor case. Captain
Lewis was out on a prospecting trip, and the party set out and found a
beach through which a pleasant brook flowed to the river, making a very
good camping-place. At the mouth of this stream was an ancient Chinook
village, which, says the journal, "has at present no inhabitants but
fleas." The adventurers were compelled to steer wide of all old Indian
villages, they were so infested with fleas. At times, so great was
the pest, the men were forced to take off all their clothing and soak
themselves and their garments in the river before they could be rid
of the insects. The site of their new camp was at the southeast end
of Baker's Bay, sometimes called Haley's Bay, a mile above a very high
point of rocks. On arriving at this place, the voyagers met with an
unpleasant experience of which the journal gives this account:--
"Here we met Shannon, who had been sent back to meet us by Captain
Lewis. The day Shannon left us in the canoe, he and Willard proceeded
till they met a party of twenty Indians, who, having never heard of us,
did not know where they (our men) came from; they, however, behaved with
so much civility, and seemed so anxious that the men should go with them
toward the sea, that their suspicions were excited, and they declined
going on. The Indians, however, would not leave them; the men being
confirmed in their suspicions, and fearful that if they went into the
woods to sleep they would be cut to pieces in the night, thought it best
to pass the night in the midst of the Indians.
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