Received with Great Kindness, Examined with Much Attention

Journal 2005 10 21
Received with Great Kindness, Examined with Much Attention

“Those people recived us with great kindness, and examined us with much attention, their employments custom Dress and appearance Similar to those above; Speak the same language, here we Saw two Scarlet and a blue cloth blanket, also a Salors Jacket  …”

For the last couple of days the men begin to see evidence of the tribes trading with sailors who have explored the Columbia. Today scarlet and blue blankets and a sailor’s jacket. Many pictures you’ll see following this period (as photographs displaced paintings) show these same tribes with a mix of traditional animal skins and western jackets, hats and other adornments. Clark and the other men keeping journals all record with embarrassment the dress of the women who have a traditional buck or goatskin blouse over a very short and revealing wrap that barely hides their private areas.

Again, no comment is made regarding the reaction of the Corps to the increasing evidence that they are, like two train rails started at opposite compass ends, about to join the easternmost explorations of British ships with the westernmost exploration of American troops. Great satisfaction and increasing pride must have filled them as they saw the fulfillment of their mission just over the western horizon at the mouth of the very river they are sailing. Tonight they camp a few miles west of the mouth of the John Day River at Celilo, OR or Wishram, WA after covering forty-two miles each of the past two days. They don’t know this, but they are about one hundred fifty miles from the Pacific as the crow flies, less than two hundred miles via the circuitous route of the river.

This final push down the Columbia almost has the ring of a victory parade more commonly seen in the streets of Paris, Rome and Berlin as troops victoriously entered ground once claimed by another nation. The fear of the last few days is replaced by curiosity as the white men with red, brown, blonde and black hair are “checked out” by those who may have heard about them downriver but have yet to see one.

We heard about those who had ears to hear what the Captains declared to them (in sign language and by whatever Indian languages could be chained together). Today we see a great example of curiosity fulfilled. We also see great kindness extended toward the visitors as the Indians desire to know more about them.

How do we receive visitors? Do we extend “great kindness” and “much attention” as we find out who they are and how far they’ve journeyed to get to where we live and worship? We should. Many times I am suspicious and slow to open to visitors. I hope you are not quite so circumspect as I have become. I set my mind to extend greater kindness and be more hospitable. Hospitality is a spiritual gift that must be evidenced in our daily living and in our receiving of visitors.

“And the foreigners showed us not the common kindness. For they kindled a fire and welcomed all of us, …”  (Act 28:2)
“Do not be forgetful of hospitality, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.”  (Hebrews 13:2)