Note 337 — Chapter III · COLUMBIANS. (continued 2)

'Their native bashfulness renders all squaws peculiarly sensitive to any public notice or ridicule.' Probably the laziest people in the world. The mails are intrusted with safety to Indian carriers, who are perfectly safe from interference on the part of any Indian they may meet. Kane's Wand., p. 209-16, 227-8, 234, 247-8. 'La mémoire locale et personelle du sauvage est admirable; il n'oublie jamais un endroit ni une personne.' Nature seems to have given him memory to supply the want of intelligence. 'Much inclined to vengeance. Those having means may avert vengeance by payments.' Rossi, Souvenirs, pp. 113, 295-9. 'Perfectly indifferent to exposure; decency has no meaning in their language.' Although always begging, they refuse to accept any article not in good condition, calling it Peeshaaak, a term of contempt. Seemann's Voy. Herald, vol. i., pp. 108-9. Murder of a Spanish boat's crew in latitude 47° 20´. Maurelle's Jour., pp. 29, 31. 'Cheerful and well disposed' at Port Orchard. At Strait of Fuca 'little more elevated in their moral qualities than the Fuegians.' At Nisqually, 'addicted to stealing.' 'Vicious and exceedingly lazy, sleeping all day.' The Skagits are catholics, and are more advanced than others in civilization. Wilkes' Nar., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. iv., pp. 317, 444, 510-11, 517. Both at Gray Harbor and Puget Sound they were uniformly civil and friendly, fair and honest in trade. Each tribe claimed that 'the others were bad people and that the party questioned were the only good Indians in the harbor.' Vancouver's Voy., vol. i., p. 256; vol. ii., pp. 83-4. 'The Clallam tribe has always had a bad character, which their intercourse with shipping, and the introduction of whiskey, has by no means improved.' Ind. Aff. Rept., 1854, p. 243. 'The superior courage of the Makahs, as well as their treachery, will make them more difficult of management than most other tribes.' Stevens, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. i., p. 429. The Lummis and other tribes at Bellingham Bay have already abandoned their ancient barbarous habits, and have adopted those of civilization. Coleman, in Harper's Mag., vol. xxxix., pp. 795-7; Simpson's Overland Journ., vol. i., pp. 240-2. 'The instincts of these people are of a very degraded character. They are filthy, cowardly, lazy, treacherous, drunken, avaricious, and much given to thieving. The women have not the slightest pretension to virtue.' The Makahs 'are the most independent Indians in my district—they and the Quilleyutes, their near neighbors.' Ind. Aff. Rept., 1858, pp. 225, 231; Id., 1862, p. 390; Id., 1870, p. 20; Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iv., p. 601; Winthrop's Canoe and Saddle, p. 58; Cram's Top. Mem., p. 65.