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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lewis and Clark, by William R. Lighton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Lewis and Clark
+       Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
+
+Author: William R. Lighton
+
+Release Date: October 4, 2008 [EBook #26775]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LEWIS AND CLARK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Wm Clark
+               Meriwether Lewis]
+
+
+
+
+LEWIS AND CLARK
+
+
+
+MERIWETHER LEWIS
+
+AND
+
+WILLIAM CLARK
+
+
+
+BY
+
+WILLIAM R. LIGHTON
+
+
+
+BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
+The Riverside Press, Cambridge
+PORTLAND, OREGON
+THE J. K. GILL COMPANY
+
+1905
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY WILLIAM R. LIGHTON
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: The symbol "^" in "Miss^ie" is used to indicate
+that the letters following it are printed in superscript.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAP.                                                         PAGE
+
+   I. CHARACTERISTICS                                            1
+
+  II. THE EXPEDITION                                            15
+
+ III. TERMS OF THE COMMISSION                                   25
+
+  IV. THE START                                                 34
+
+   V. WITH THE SIOUX                                            51
+
+  VI. TO THE FALLS OF THE MISSOURI                              69
+
+ VII. OVER THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE                               82
+
+VIII. THE LAST STAGE OF THE WESTWARD JOURNEY                    93
+
+  IX. WINTER ON THE COAST                                      107
+
+   X. HOMEWARD: IN THE MOUNTAINS                               117
+
+  XI. RECROSSING THE DIVIDE                                    134
+
+ XII. HOME                                                     142
+
+XIII. AFTER LIFE                                               149
+
+
+
+
+LEWIS AND CLARK
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+CHARACTERISTICS
+
+
+In the years 1804, 1805, and 1806, two men commanded an expedition
+which explored the wilderness that stretched from the mouth of the
+Missouri River to where the Columbia enters the Pacific, and dedicated
+to civilization a new empire. Their names were Meriwether Lewis and
+William Clark.
+
+As a rule, one who tries to discover and to set down in order the
+simple signs that spell the story of a large man's life is confused by
+a chaos of data. No such trouble arises in this case. There is great
+poverty of fact and circumstance in the records of the private lives of
+these men; so careless were they of notoriety, so wholly did they merge
+themselves in their work. Anything like ostentation was foreign to
+their taste, and to the spirit of their time, which took plain, dutiful
+heroism as a matter of course. No one knows any "characteristic
+anecdotes" of Meriwether Lewis; and the best stories about Clark are
+those preserved in the tribal histories of Western Indians. The
+separate identity of the two men is practically lost to all except the
+careful reader. Each had his baptismal name, to be sure; but even their
+private names are fused, and they are best known to us under the joint
+style of Lewis and Clark. In effect they were one and indivisible. For
+evidence of their individuality we must look to the labors which they
+performed in common.
+
+When, several years after the conclusion of the great expedition, the
+manuscript journals were being prepared for publication, the editor
+could not find sufficient material out of which to make a memoir of
+Captain Lewis, and was forced to appeal to Mr. Jefferson for aid; for
+Jefferson had been an early neighbor and friend of the Lewis family,
+and later, on becoming President, had made the lad Meriwether his
+private secretary, and had afterwards appointed him to direct the
+exploration. The sketch written by Mr. Jefferson is, like most of his
+papers, appreciative and vital. It is to this document, dated at
+Monticello, August 18, 1813, that every biographer must have recourse:--
+
+    "Meriwether Lewis, late governor of Louisiana, was born on the 18th
+    of August, 1774, near the town of Charlottesville, in the county of
+    Albemarle, in Virginia, of one of the distinguished families of
+    that State. John Lewis, one of his father's uncles, was a member of
+    the king's council before the Revolution. Another of them, Fielding
+    Lewis, married a sister of General Washington. His father, William
+    Lewis, was the youngest of five sons of Colonel Robert Lewis of
+    Albemarle, the fourth of whom, Charles, was one of the early
+    patriots who stepped forward in the commencement of the Revolution,
+    and commanded one of the regiments first raised in Virginia, and
+    placed on continental establishment.... Nicholas Lewis, the second
+    of his father's brothers, commanded a regiment of militia in the
+    successful expedition of 1776 against the Cherokee Indians.... This
+    member of the family of the Lewises, whose bravery was so usefully
+    proved on this occasion, was endeared to all who knew him by his
+    inflexible probity, courteous disposition, benevolent heart, and
+    engaging modesty and manners. He was the umpire of all the private
+    differences of his county,--selected always by both parties. He was
+    also the guardian of Meriwether Lewis, of whom we are now to speak,
+    and who had lost his father at an early age.
+
+    "He (Meriwether) continued some years under the fostering care of a
+    tender mother, of the respectable family of Meriwethers, of the
+    same county; and was remarkable, even in infancy, for enterprise,
+    boldness, and discretion.
+
+    "When only eight years of age he habitually went out in the dead of
+    night, alone with his dogs, into the forest to hunt the raccoon and
+    opossum, which, seeking their food in the night, can then only be
+    taken. In this exercise, no season or circumstance could obstruct
+    his purpose--plunging through the winter's snows and frozen streams
+    in pursuit of his object. At thirteen he was put to the Latin
+    school, and continued at that until eighteen, when he was returned
+    to his mother, and entered on the cares of his farm; having, as
+    well as a younger brother, been left by his father with a
+    competency for all the correct and comfortable purposes of
+    temperate life. His talent for observation, which led him to an
+    accurate knowledge of the plants and animals of his own country,
+    would have distinguished him as a farmer; but at the age of twenty,
+    yielding to the ardor of youth and a passion for more dazzling
+    pursuits, he engaged as a volunteer in the body of militia which
+    was called out by General Washington, on occasion of the
+    discontents produced by the excise taxes in the western parts of
+    the United States [the Whiskey Rebellion]; and from that station he
+    was removed to the regular service as a lieutenant of the line. At
+    twenty-three he was promoted to a captaincy; and, always attracting
+    the first attention where punctuality and fidelity were requisite,
+    he was appointed paymaster to his regiment."
+
+That is about all that is definitely known of Lewis's family and early
+life. It is not much; but it suffices to show that he came of fine,
+fearless stock, mettlesome and reliant,--the sort of stock that brings
+forth men of action. The invertebrate vanity of blood is kept out of
+this story, in accord with the democratic belief of the time that a
+strong man's ancestors are what he himself makes them. They may have
+done their part well, but it remains for him to put the finishing
+touches to their reputation. Given a few sturdy souls, quick and
+willing to serve in time of need, and that was enough of family
+distinction. Behavior, rather than pedigree, made the Lewis character.
+
+When Captain Lewis was appointed to command the expedition, he had
+served Mr. Jefferson for two years as private secretary. Concerning his
+fitness for public duties, Mr. Jefferson wrote:--
+
+    "I had now had opportunities of knowing him intimately. Of courage
+    undaunted; possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose which
+    nothing but impossibilities could divert from its direction;
+    careful as a father of those committed to his charge, yet steady in
+    the maintenance of order and discipline; intimate with the Indian
+    character, customs, and principles; habituated to the hunting life;
+    guarded, by exact observation of the vegetables and animals of his
+    own country, against losing time in the description of objects
+    already possessed; honest, disinterested, liberal, of sound
+    understanding, and a fidelity to truth so scrupulous that whatever
+    he should report would be as certain as if seen by ourselves--with
+    all these qualifications, as if selected and implanted by Nature in
+    one body for this express purpose, I could have no hesitation in
+    confiding the enterprise to him. To fill up the measure desired, he
+    wanted nothing but a greater familiarity with the technical
+    language of the natural sciences, and readiness in the astronomical
+    observations necessary for the geography of his route. To acquire
+    these, he repaired immediately to Philadelphia, and placed himself
+    under the tutorage of the distinguished professors of that place,
+    who, with a zeal and emulation enkindled by an ardent devotion to
+    science, communicated to him freely the information requisite for
+    the purposes of the journey. While attending at Lancaster to the
+    fabrication of the arms with which he chose that his men should be
+    provided, he had the benefit of daily communication with Mr. Andrew
+    Ellicott, whose experience in astronomical observation, and
+    practice of it in the woods, enabled him to apprise Captain Lewis
+    of the wants and difficulties he would encounter, and of the
+    substitutes and resources afforded by a woodland and uninhabited
+    country."
+
+It is plain that this astute judge of men reposed perfect confidence in
+his friend. From January, 1803, when Congress sanctioned the
+undertaking, until May, 1804, when the party set out from St. Louis,
+the young officer had full charge of the intricate and difficult
+details of preparation. It was he who superintended the building of
+boats and the making of arms, accoutrements, scientific apparatus, and
+all equipment; and, what was of more importance, he selected the men
+who were to form his command. That was a nice matter. It would have
+been worse than useless to lead a company of fretful dissenters. The
+expedition was to be conducted on a military basis; but it was not
+ordinary field service; it was a mission for picked men. Much would
+depend upon each man's natural aptitude for his task; much more would
+depend upon the integrity of the corps as a whole. The consummate
+wisdom of Lewis's selection of his aids shines from every page of the
+journals. None of the men seemed to need instruction in the cardinal
+elements of conduct; each was as sensible of his trust as Lewis
+himself. It was in this spirit of the subordinates, rather than in the
+absolute authority of the captain, that success was to lie.
+
+To guard against untoward accident, that might thwart the work, Lewis
+wished to have a companion in command. This pleased Mr. Jefferson, and
+the choice fell upon Captain William Clark.
+
+William Clark was the ninth of a family of ten children. His father was
+John Clark, second, who, like his father before him, was a Virginian,
+living in King and Queen County. The pioneering spirit was strong in
+the family,--the _Wanderlust_, that keeps man's nature fluid and
+adaptable. This led John, second, to remove first to Albemarle County,
+and later to Caroline County, where William was born on August 1, 1770,
+not far from the birthplace of Meriwether Lewis.
+
+When the boy was about fourteen years of age, the family moved once
+more, into the dim West, settling at the place now known as Louisville,
+in Kentucky. William's elder brother, George Rogers Clark, had preceded
+the others, and had built the first fortification against the Indians
+at the Falls of the Ohio, around which were clustered a few of the rude
+dwellings of the frontiersmen. At this place, amidst the crudest
+conditions of the Kentucky border, the lad grew to maturity. That was
+not an orderly life; it was rather a continuing state of suspense,
+demanding of those who shared in it constant hardihood and fortitude.
+For the right-minded man, however, it had incalculable value. Many of
+the strongest examples of our national character have been men who owed
+the best that was in them to the apparently unkindly circumstances of
+their youth. What was denied to Clark in easy opportunity had ample
+compensation in the firmness and self-reliance which came from
+mastering difficulties.
+
+To read Clark's letters and papers is to discover that his education in
+the politer branches of learning was as primitive as the surroundings
+of his home. It is plain that the training which prepared him for
+manhood was got mostly outside the schoolroom.
+
+Like Lewis, he chose a military career. When he was but eighteen years
+of age, he was appointed ensign in the regular army; and two years
+later he was made captain of militia in the town of Clarksville, "in
+the Territory of the United States North West of the Ohio River." In
+1791 he was commissioned as a lieutenant of infantry, under Wayne, and
+served afterward as adjutant and quartermaster. Ill health led him to
+resign his commission in the army in 1796.
+
+A few months before his resignation he first became acquainted with
+Meriwether Lewis, who, as an ensign, was put under his command. Then
+began one of those generous and enduring friendships that are all too
+rare amongst men. It is not known just what their private relations
+were in the mean time; but in 1803, upon Lewis's earnest solicitation,
+Captain Clark consented to quit his retirement upon his Kentucky farm
+and join in that work which was destined to be but the beginning of his
+real usefulness.
+
+He comes to us out of the dark. We must forego intimate knowledge of
+his growth, being content with finding him full-grown and ready. No
+doubt his service in the army, where he was associated with men of
+ability, had helped him to master many details of engineering craft,
+which he was to use in his later service. But this was at most
+incidental; his strength, his power to serve, was native, not acquired.
+
+That they might share alike in all particulars of rank and
+responsibility in the expedition, it was understood that Lewis would
+endeavor to procure for Clark a captain's commission. Clark wrote to
+Nicholas Biddle (the editor of the journals) in 1811:--
+
+    "On these conditions I agreed to undertake the expedition made my
+    arrangements, and set out, and proceeded on with Capt. Lewis to the
+    mouth of the Missouri where we remained the winter 1803 made every
+    necessary arrangement to set out early in spring 1804 everything
+    arranged I waited with some anxiety for the commission which I had
+    reason to expect (Capt. of Indioneers [Engineers]) a few days
+    before I set out I received a Commission of 2d Lieutenant of
+    Artillerist, my feelings on this occasion was as might be expected.
+    I wished the expedition suckcess, and from the assurence of Capt.
+    Lewis that in every respect my situation command &c. &c. should be
+    equal to his; viewing the Commission as mearly calculated to
+    authorise punishment to the soldiers if necessary, I proceeded. No
+    difficulty took place on our rout relative to this point...."
+
+In the very nature of things, personal difficulty of a petty sort could
+not arise. Official rank was as nothing between them. They were capable
+and loyal; the morale of their party was ideal; and under their
+guidance was wrought out what has been well called our national epic of
+exploration.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE EXPEDITION
+
+
+For almost twenty years prior to the organization of the Lewis and
+Clark expedition, and long before the general public was more than
+passively curious upon the subject of Louisiana, Jefferson had
+nourished the plan for exploring the Louisiana Territory. In the memoir
+above referred to, he wrote:--
+
+"While I resided in Paris, John Ledyard, of Connecticut, arrived there,
+well known in the United States for energy of body and mind. He had
+accompanied Captain Cook on his voyage to the Pacific Ocean, and
+distinguished himself on that voyage by his intrepidity. Being of a
+roaming disposition, he was now panting for some new enterprise. His
+immediate object at Paris was to engage a mercantile company in the fur
+trade of the western coast of America, in which, however, he failed. I
+then proposed to him to go by land to Kamchatka, cross in some of the
+Russian vessels to Nootka Sound, fall down into the latitude of the
+Missouri, and penetrate to and through that to the United States. He
+eagerly seized the idea, and only asked to be assured of the permission
+of the Russian government."
+
+The consent of the Empress of Russia was obtained, together with an
+assurance of protection while the course of travel lay across her
+territory; and Ledyard set out. While he was yet two hundred miles from
+Kamchatka, winter overtook him, and there he was forced to remain
+through many months. In the spring, as he was preparing to go on, he
+was put under arrest. The Empress, exercising the inalienable right of
+sovereign womanhood, had changed her mind. The reason for this change
+is not apparent. There may have been no reason more potent than
+international jealousy, which was lively in those days. At any rate,
+Ledyard was put into a close carriage and conveyed to Poland, traveling
+day and night, without once stopping. He was left in Poland penniless
+and broken in body and spirit, and soon afterward died.
+
+Later, in 1792, Jefferson proposed to the American Philosophical
+Society that a subscription be raised to engage some one to ascend the
+Missouri, cross the mountains, and descend to the Pacific. In order to
+preclude alarm to the Indians or to other nations, it was intended that
+this expedition should consist of only two persons. Meriwether Lewis,
+then eighteen years of age, begged to have this commission, and it was
+given him. His one companion was to be a French botanist, Andre
+Michaux. The journey was actually begun, when it was discovered that
+Michaux was residing in the United States in the capacity of a spy.
+Once again the plan was deferred.
+
+"In 1803," wrote Mr. Jefferson, "the act for establishing trading
+houses with the Indian tribes being about to expire, some modifications
+of it were recommended to Congress by a confidential message of January
+18th, and an extension of its views to the Indians of the Missouri. In
+order to prepare the way, the message proposed the sending an exploring
+party to trace the Missouri to its source, to cross the Highlands, and
+follow the best water communication which offered itself from thence to
+the Pacific Ocean. Congress approved the proposition, and voted a sum
+of money for carrying it into execution. Captain Lewis, who had then
+been near two years with me as private secretary, immediately renewed
+his solicitations to have the direction of the party."
+
+Naturally, Mr. Jefferson was strongly inclined to intrust this work to
+his friend Lewis. Their official and private relations had been
+intimate; Mr. Jefferson had had ample opportunities for testing the
+fibre of the young man's character under strain; besides, Lewis's
+confidential position had no doubt made him acquainted with the inner
+details of the plan, its broader significance, and the political
+obstacles to be overcome in carrying it into effect. Aside from his
+temperamental disposition for such an enterprise, his public service
+had strengthened his grasp of national interests; enthusiasm for
+adventure had been supplemented by maturity of judgment in affairs of
+state. Altogether, a better man for the place could not have been
+found.
+
+To carry out the work of the organized expedition would consist largely
+in surmounting physical difficulties; but to organize it and get it
+fairly started demanded considerable delicacy of diplomatic
+contrivance. The life of the nation, as it sought to expand and take
+form, was beset and harassed, north, south, and west, by international
+complications growing out of direct contact with unfriendly neighbors.
+In that day the United States did not sustain cordial relations with
+any of the strong nations of the world. The internal machinery of the
+new government was not yet in perfect adjustment; domestic crises were
+constantly recurring; permanence of democratic forms and methods was
+not by any means assured; the country had not established an
+indisputable right to be reckoned with in matters of international
+concern. Russia alone, of all the powers, was considered as friendly.
+Even in that case, however, there was nothing warmer than watchful
+neutrality. Russian and American interests had not yet conflicted.
+
+The British, through the strong trading companies of Canada, were hot
+for getting control of the Indian traffic of the Northwest--indeed,
+their prestige was already quite firmly fixed, and they were on their
+guard against any semblance of encroachment upon that domain of
+activity. This condition, coupled with other and acuter differences,
+made it highly probable that England would not take kindly to the
+expedition, should its object be openly avowed.
+
+Spanish opposition would be even stronger. Spain had but lately
+surrendered possession of the Louisiana Territory, whence her agents
+had for a long time derived large revenues from the Indian trade, after
+the age-long manner she has pursued in dealing with her colonies and
+dependencies. Spain still held the Floridas, practically controlling
+the commerce of the Gulf and the navigation of the Mississippi; so
+that, while the people of the United States asserted the right of depot
+at New Orleans and the further right of passage of the river throughout
+its length, their enjoyment of these rights was precarious. Further,
+though the crown had transferred the territory west of the Mississippi,
+its subjects had not quit their efforts for supremacy in trade; their
+influence long outlived the extinction of territorial rights. Bitterly
+hostile to the growth of American ideas, they would certainly do what
+they could to oppose the expedition.
+
+It was with France, however, that our government had to deal directly.
+In 1800 Napoleon had acquired title to Louisiana, trading with Spain,
+giving in exchange the little kingdom of Etruria. But his control of
+the territory was more tacit than actual; he was so busily engaged at
+home that he found no time to reduce his property to possession; his
+dominion west of the Mississippi was never more than potential. War
+between France and England was imminent. Napoleon had in America no
+adequate means for defending his new domain, which would therefore be
+likely to fall into the hands of the British at once upon the outbreak
+of war. He was growing anxious to be rid of the load. Jefferson thought
+it probable that the territory would one day belong to the United
+States,--indeed, negotiations were pending for the transfer when the
+"confidential communication" to Congress was written, in January, 1803.
+Although the outcome was still problematical, Jefferson considered that
+the proper time for discovering what the land held; and this was the
+primary purpose of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
+
+For all of these reasons, and more, it was deemed necessary to cover
+from general view the real character of the enterprise. The
+appropriation by Congress was made for the ostensible and innocent
+purpose of "extending the external commerce of the United States." In
+his letter to Congress, which was for a long time kept secret, Mr.
+Jefferson said that France would regard this as in the nature of a
+"literary pursuit," and that whatever distrust she might feel would be
+allayed. But, though his ulterior purposes were sought to be concealed,
+the powers of France no doubt knew well enough what was in the wind.
+
+It was on June 30, 1803, that Jefferson gave to Captain Lewis detailed
+instructions for the conduct of his work. In the meantime (on April
+30th), treaties had been signed at Paris, ceding Louisiana to the
+United States. That was a distinct triumph for American statecraft. On
+the one hand were ranged Napoleon, Talleyrand, and Marbois; on the
+other, Jefferson, Livingston, and Monroe. The French were at a
+disadvantage; their position was that of holding perishable goods,
+which must be sold to avoid catastrophe. Napoleon said, not without
+reason, that the government of the United States availed itself of his
+distress incident to the impending struggle with England. However that
+may be, the territory changed owners for a consideration of
+$15,000,000.
+
+Formal notification of the transfer was not received in Washington
+until the early part of July, when active preparations for the
+exploration were being made. Its receipt did not alter the character of
+the expedition, though many of the international complications were
+dissipated. Thereafter the work was purely domestic in most of its
+aspects.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+TERMS OF THE COMMISSION
+
+
+Mr. Jefferson's instructions to the young officer showed his own
+farsighted earnestness. Had he who received them been any less in
+earnest, the task assigned to him must have seemed appalling. The
+primary instruction was to blaze a path, more than four thousand miles
+long, through an unstudied wilderness. It was conceived that this could
+best be done by following the Missouri to its head waters, crossing
+"the Highlands" to the navigable waters of the Columbia, and going down
+that river to the Pacific; but this was only conjectural. The map in
+the hands of the explorers, the only basis for a preliminary outline of
+their route, was drawn partly from hearsay, partly from imagination; it
+showed the source of the Missouri to be somewhere in Central
+California; it showed nothing of the mighty barrier of the Rocky
+Mountains. There was one thin, uncertain line of hills, far to the
+west, that might have been the Sierra Nevadas; further than that there
+was nothing but a broad interior plain, seamed with rivers. Practically
+nothing was known of the difficulties that would be encountered. White
+men had ventured for a little way up the Missouri in earlier years, to
+carry on a desultory fur-trade with the Indians; but these traders had
+been mostly happy-go-lucky Frenchmen, who had taken but little thought
+for the morrow. They had no trustworthy information to give that would
+be of service to scientific travelers. So far as sure knowledge of it
+was concerned, the land was virgin, and Lewis and Clark were to be its
+discoverers.
+
+They were directed to explore it in detail. Observations of latitude
+and longitude were to be made at all points of particular interest. The
+native nations and tribes encountered along the way were to be studied
+with care, and record preserved of their names and numbers; the extent
+and boundaries of their possessions; their relations with other tribes
+and nations; their language, traditions, and monuments; their
+occupations, implements, food, clothing, and domestic accommodations;
+their diseases and methods of cure; their physical, social, moral, and
+religious peculiarities and customs; their ideas and practice of
+commerce, and the possibility of extending among them the influences of
+civilization,--in short, every circumstance was to be noted which might
+render future relations with these people intelligent. Particular
+attention was to be given to the state of feeling toward the whites, in
+those tribes which had had experience with the traders. Should the
+expedition succeed in reaching the Pacific, the conditions of trade
+upon the coast were to form a subject of special inquiry. Along the
+route full observations were directed to be made concerning the face of
+the country,--the contour of the land; the character and course of
+streams, their suitability as avenues of commerce, and the means of
+communication between them; and also the points best adapted to the
+establishment of trading-stations and fortifications. The conditions of
+agricultural development were to be noted as fully as might be,--soil,
+water-supply, climate, and change of seasons; and also the natural
+resources of the country, vegetable, animal, and mineral. Nothing was
+to be neglected, knowledge of which might contribute to the success or
+security of later enterprise.
+
+"In all your intercourse with the natives," wrote Mr. Jefferson, "treat
+them in the most friendly and conciliatory manner which their own
+conduct will admit; allay all jealousies as to the object of your
+journey; satisfy them of its innocence; make them acquainted with the
+position, extent, character, peaceable and commercial dispositions of
+the United States; of our wish to be neighborly, friendly, and useful
+to them, and of our dispositions to a commercial intercourse with them;
+confer with them on the points most convenient as mutual emporiums, and
+the articles of most desirable interchange for them and us. If a few of
+their influential chiefs, within practicable distance, wish to visit
+us, arrange such a visit with them, and furnish them with authority to
+call on our officers, on their entering the United States, to have them
+conveyed to this place at the public expense. If any of them should
+wish to have some of their people brought up with us, and taught such
+arts as may be useful to them, we will receive, instruct, and take care
+of them."
+
+As it could not be foreseen in what manner the travelers would be
+received by the Indians, whether with hospitality or hostility, Captain
+Lewis was told to use his own discretion as to persevering with the
+enterprise in the face of opposition; and he was also told that should
+he succeed in getting through to the Pacific, he might choose his own
+means for getting back again,--shipping by way of Cape Horn or the Cape
+of Good Hope, if chance offered; or, in the absence of such
+opportunity, returning overland. A precious liberty, truly, when read
+in the light of the facts! The instructions concluded with this frank
+paragraph:--
+
+"As you will be without money, clothes, or provisions, you must
+endeavor to use the credit of the United States to obtain them; for
+which purpose open letters of credit shall be furnished you,
+authorizing you to draw on the executive of the United States, or any
+of its officers, in any part of the world in which drafts can be
+disposed of, and to apply with our recommendations to the consuls,
+agents, merchants, or citizens of any nation with which we have
+intercourse, assuring them in our name that any aids they may furnish
+you shall be honorably repaid, and on demand."
+
+As events transpired, that paragraph was almost ironical. A letter of
+credit directed to the Man in the Moon would have served quite as well.
+
+The two redoubtable captains were to be soldiers, sailors, explorers,
+geographers, ethnologists, botanists, geologists, chemists, diplomats,
+missionaries, financiers, and historians; also cooks, tailors,
+shoemakers, hunters, trappers, fishermen, scouts, woodcutters,
+boatbuilders, carpenters, priests, and doctors. From the time they left
+St. Louis, in May, 1804, until they returned to that place, in
+September, 1806, the men were cut off from civilization and all its
+aids, and left to work out their own salvation. Not for one moment were
+they dismayed; not in a single particular did they fail to accomplish
+what had been assigned to them.
+
+The congressional appropriation for the purposes of the expedition was
+based upon an estimate made by Captain Lewis himself, which is so
+refreshing as to deserve literal quotation:--
+
+    _Recapitulation of an estimate of the sum necessary to carry
+    into effect the Miss^ie Expedition_
+
+    Mathematical Instruments                        $ 217
+    Arms and accoutrements extraordinary               81
+    Camp Ecquipage                                    255
+    Medicine and packing                               55
+    Means of transportation                           430
+    Indian presents                                   696
+    Provisions extraordinary                          224
+    Materials for making up the various articles
+      into portable packs                              55
+    For the pay of hunters, guides and interpreters   300
+    In silver coin, to defray the expences of
+      the party from Nashville to the last
+      white settlement on the Missisourie             100
+    Contingencies                                      87
+                                                    -----
+    Total                                           $2500
+
+Eighty-seven dollars for the contingencies of a twenty-eight months'
+journey of discovery, more than eight thousand miles in length, with a
+company of forty-five men, and through a land literally unknown!
+
+Captain Lewis set out from Washington in July, 1803, and was joined by
+Captain Clark at Louisville, whence they proceeded to the rendezvous on
+the Mississippi, near St. Louis. They intended to embark upon their
+course in the autumn; but several delays occurred, of one sort and
+another, and the party was not assembled until December. The officers
+wished to establish winter quarters at the last white settlement on the
+Missouri, a few miles above St. Louis; but the Spanish governor of the
+territory had not yet learned of the change in ownership, and would not
+suffer them to proceed. This compelled them to remain in the lower camp
+until spring. The winter months were not lost, however; they were
+passed in drilling and instructing the men in the details of the work
+before them, thus greatly increasing their efficiency and no doubt
+obviating delays at later times.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE START
+
+
+As it was first organized, the party consisted of twenty-nine
+members,--the two officers, nine young Kentuckians, fourteen soldiers
+of the regular army who had volunteered to accompany the expedition,
+two French watermen, an interpreter and hunter, and a negro servant of
+Captain Clark. At St. Louis there were sixteen additional recruits,--an
+Indian hunter and interpreter, and fifteen boatmen, who were to go as
+far as the villages of the Mandan Nation. This brought the total to
+forty-five.
+
+A broadly inclusive statement must suffice to characterize the
+non-commissioned men. They were brave, sturdy, able; amenable to
+discipline, yet full of original resource; ideal subordinates, yet
+almost every one fitted by nature for command, if occasion should
+arise. They proved themselves equal to all emergencies. At least five
+of these men kept journals, and no better index to their character need
+be asked than that afforded by the manuscript records. If ever there
+was temptation to color and adorn a narrative with the stuff that makes
+travelers' tales attractive, it was here; yet in none of the journals
+is there to be found a departure from plain, simple truth-telling.
+Their matter-of-fact tone would render them almost commonplace, if the
+reader did not take pains to remember what it all meant. Nowhere is
+there anything like posing for effect; the nearest approach to it is in
+the initial entry in the diary of that excellent Irishman, Private
+Patrick Gass,--and parts of this have been branded as apocryphal, the
+interpolation of an enthusiastic editor:--
+
+    "On Monday, 14 of May, 1804, we left our establishment at the mouth
+    of the River du Bois, or Wood River, a small river which falls into
+    the Mississippi, on the east side, a mile below the Missouri, and
+    having crossed the Mississippi proceeded up the Missouri on our
+    intended voyage of discovery, under the command of Captain Clarke.
+    Captain Lewis was to join us in two or three days on our
+    passage.... The expedition was embarked on board a batteau and two
+    periogues. The day was showery, and in the evening we encamped on
+    the north bank, six miles up the river. Here we had leisure to
+    reflect on our situation, and the nature of our engagements: and as
+    we had all entered this service as volunteers, to consider how far
+    we stood pledged for the success of an expedition which the
+    government had projected; and which had been undertaken for the
+    benefit and at the expence of the Union: of course of much interest
+    and high expectation.
+
+    "The best authenticated accounts informed us that we were to pass
+    through a country possessed by numerous, powerful, and warlike
+    nations of savages, of gigantic stature, fierce, treacherous, and
+    cruel; and particularly hostile to white men. And fame had united
+    with tradition in opposing mountains to our course, which human
+    enterprize and exertion would attempt in vain to pass. The
+    determined and resolute character, however, of the corps, and the
+    confidence which pervaded all ranks dispelled every emotion of fear
+    and anxiety for the present; while a sense of duty, and of the
+    honor which would attend the completion of the object of the
+    expedition; a wish to gratify the expectations of the government,
+    and of our fellow-citizens, with the feelings which novelty and
+    discovery invariably inspire, seemed to insure to us ample support
+    in our future toils, suffering, and danger."
+
+In Captain Clark's journal there is nothing of this sort. The opening
+entry is a bare memorandum of latitude and longitude, a note as to the
+appearance of the river banks, and a statement of the number of miles
+covered during the day,--a memorable achievement in modesty.
+
+Of the boats in which the party was embarked, the batteau was a
+keel-vessel fifty-five feet in length, carrying a large square sail,
+and manned by twenty-two oars. In the bow and stern, ten-foot decks
+formed forecastle and cabin; and in the middle part were lockers, whose
+tops could be raised to form a line of breastworks along either
+gunwale, in case of attack from Indians. The "periogues" were open
+boats, manned by six and seven oars. Besides these conveyances for the
+men and baggage, horses were led along the banks of the river, to be
+used by the hunters in their daily occupations and for service in
+emergency. The officers had observed the wise rule of travelers, and
+had sought to simplify their equipment to the last degree.
+
+The name of Lower Missouri attached to that part of the river between
+its mouth and the entrance of the Platte. Over so much of the route the
+expedition passed quietly. A few notes from the journals will suffice
+to show the nature of the daily labors.
+
+May 16th the party stopped at the village of St. Charles, a typical
+French settlement of the frontier, twenty-one miles above St. Louis;
+and under that date occurs this admirable note:--
+
+"The inhabitants, about 450 in number, are chiefly descendants from the
+French of Canada. In their manners they unite all the careless gayety
+and amiable hospitality of the best times of France. Yet, like most of
+their countrymen in America, they are but little qualified for the rude
+life of the frontier,--not that they are without talent, for they
+possess much natural genius and vivacity; not that they are destitute
+of enterprise, for their hunting excursions are long, laborious, and
+hazardous; but their exertions are all desultory; their industry is
+without system and without perseverance. The surrounding country,
+therefore, though rich, is not generally well cultivated; the
+inhabitants chiefly subsist by hunting and trade with the Indians, and
+confine their culture to gardening, in which they excel."
+
+It would be difficult to find a juster or more accurate
+characterization of the French as pioneers. Although in the early days
+of settlement along the Mississippi and its tributaries they
+outnumbered the people of other nations, they made no deep impression.
+They got along admirably while they were sustained by the
+tonic-stimulus of excitement and variety; but when that was removed,
+they found the conquest of even the richest of lands too dull for their
+tastes. Lacking stability of nature, they could not achieve solid
+results in prosaic labor. They did not so much as lay a foundation for
+the serious builders of after years.
+
+May 22d, in camp on Good Man's River, the party made its first trade
+with Indians. Some Kickapoos were engaged to procure provisions; they
+brought in four deer, and were given in return two quarts of whiskey,
+which they considered ample requital.
+
+"May 25th.... Stopped for the night at the entrance of a creek on the
+north side, called by the French La Charette, ten miles from our last
+camp, and a little above a small village of the same name. It consists
+of seven small houses, and as many poor families, who have fixed
+themselves here for the convenience of trade. They form the last
+establishment of whites on the Missouri."
+
+La Charette was one of the earliest colonies, and famous as the far
+western home of Daniel Boone. There that immortal frontiersman passed
+the last years of his life, in the sweet luxury of quiet and freedom;
+and there he died in the year 1820.
+
+Throughout those first weeks the journals breathe content. Every man
+was abundantly pleased with his work and his lot; game was plentiful,
+in great variety; the difficulties to be overcome were no more than
+those attending the navigation of a swift and turbulent river, whose
+erratic channel was filled with sand-bars and dead timber. The
+travelers were enjoying a typical prairie season of the lower
+altitudes, which makes an ideal setting for outdoor life. Here and
+there they came in contact with friendly bands of Indians; occasionally
+they encountered boats upon the river, manned by traders, who were
+drifting with the current to St. Louis, bearing the plunder of a
+season's traffic. Upon the banks of the stream were many tokens of the
+inconstancy of purpose of the border life,--abandoned sites of Indian
+villages and deserted fortifications that had been erected by traders
+to serve for temporary convenience and protection. Nowhere was there a
+sign of the American interpretation of the word "enterprise."
+
+On June 26th they reached the mouth of the Kansas River, now marked by
+Kansas City. There they camped for two days; there they fell in with
+the Kansas Indians, with whom they held a pacific conference; and there
+the hunters met for the first time with buffalo. Forty-three days had
+been consumed in crossing what is now the State of Missouri.
+
+July 26th camp was made at the mouth of the Platte River, six hundred
+miles from St. Louis, where the town of Plattsmouth, Neb., stands; and
+that date marked a radical change in the duties and conduct of the
+expedition. The disposition of the Indians of the Lower Missouri was
+already pretty well known, so that no time had been spent in
+establishing relations with them. They were still mostly unspoiled
+savages, to be sure; but they were acquainted with the appearance of
+the whites, at least, and their bearing toward traders and colonists
+had been for the most part decent. But the situation upon the Upper
+Missouri was altogether different. Although the problem might not be
+definitely stated, because many of its factors were unknown, it could
+be foreseen that a solution would tax the genius of civilization. The
+dominant nations of the plains Indians--those whose numerical strength
+and war-like character made them feared by their neighbors--had their
+domain above the Platte. The Sioux in particular had a mighty
+reputation, established by treachery and ferocity in war. Their history
+recorded a constant succession of cruel wars, most of which had had no
+justification save in arrogance and bloody-mindedness. They did not
+want to live at peace; for peace signified to them a state of craven
+inanition. The mission of Lewis and Clark was directed pointedly
+against that manner of behavior; they were not only to secure
+themselves against hostility, but were also to endeavor to reconcile
+the warring tribes and nations to one another. That was an undertaking
+calling for a high degree of tact and courage.
+
+From a camp a few miles above the Platte, where the party remained for
+several days, messengers were sent to the villages of the Pawnees and
+Otoes, fifty miles to the westward, bearing gifts, with an invitation
+to a council. Through wars and other disasters, the Otoes were then
+much reduced in numbers, as in almost every item of the savage code of
+efficiency and independence. In their weakened state they had formed an
+alliance with the Pawnees,--a primitive adaptation of the idea of a
+protectorate. The Pawnees had considerable strength, and they were in
+character much above the Indian average, living in permanent villages,
+where they sustained themselves by cultivating cornfields and hunting
+the buffalo.
+
+After carefully reconnoitring the lower Platte valley and the
+surrounding country, the expedition passed onward, traveling slowly to
+allow the Indians to overtake them. On the 27th they passed the present
+site of Omaha; and on the 30th encamped at a point twelve or fifteen
+miles to the north. It was this camp, pitched where the village of
+Calhoun, Neb., now stands, that received the name of Council Bluff,
+which was later appropriated by an Iowa town. Here, on August 2d,
+appeared a small band of Otoes and Missouris, with a Frenchman who
+resided among them. Presents were exchanged, and the officers requested
+a council upon the following morning.
+
+"August 3d. This morning the Indians, with their six chiefs, were all
+assembled under an awning formed with the mainsail, in presence of all
+our party, paraded for the occasion. A speech was then made announcing
+to them the change in the government, our promise of protection, and
+advice as to their future conduct. All the six chiefs replied to our
+speech, each in his turn, according to rank. They expressed their joy
+at the change in the government; their hopes that we would recommend
+them to their Great Father (the President), that they might obtain
+trade and necessaries; they wanted arms as well for hunting as for
+defense, and asked our mediations between them and the Mahas, with whom
+they are now at war. We promised to do so, and wished some of them to
+accompany us to that nation, which they declined, for fear of being
+killed by them. We then proceeded to distribute our presents. The grand
+chief of the nation not being of the party, we sent him a flag, a
+medal, and some ornaments for clothing. To the six chiefs who were
+present, we gave a medal of the second grade to one Otoe chief and one
+Missouri chief; a medal of the third grade to two inferior chiefs of
+each nation--the customary mode of recognizing a chief being to place a
+medal round his neck, which is considered among his tribe as a proof of
+his consideration abroad. Each of these medals was accompanied by a
+present of paint, garters, and cloth ornaments of dress; and to these
+we added a canister of powder, a bottle of whiskey, and a few presents
+to the whole, which appeared to make them perfectly satisfied. The
+air-gun, too, was fired, and astonished them greatly...."
+
+This was the first important conference with the natives. If it was not
+rich in results, it served at least the temporary purpose of putting
+these allied tribes in a good humor by satisfying their sense of their
+own dignity. Nothing more was to be expected. It is well to say
+outright, as a commentary upon all meetings such as this, that no
+council with Indians, however ceremonious or solemn, has results more
+permanent than those which attend the purely diplomatic relations of
+civilized nations.
+
+In all our intercourse with the Indians, from the very beginning, too
+much stress has been laid upon the importance and the binding
+obligation of formal pow-wows. We have been unduly conscious of our own
+cunning, while undervaluing the craft that is native to all wild
+peoples; we have too often lost sight of the one really imperative
+element in any compact that is to be effective and enduring,--mutuality
+of honorable purpose. Most men, whether civilized or savage, can
+appreciate honest motives and behavior; and so can they detect
+dishonest wiles and artifices. Lewis and Clark knew well enough what
+was before them. The Indians' past experience with the light-minded
+French and the evil-minded Spanish adventurers of the border had left a
+deep impression; it had made them wary, if not distrustful, of white
+men's protestations. This impression was not to be removed by merely
+sitting around in a circle and making speeches; it could only be
+removed by long and intimate association in the affairs of actual life.
+If the whites meant well, they would do well, argued the Indians. To do
+well was a matter of time. The most that Lewis and Clark hoped for was
+to establish peace with the natives, to prepare the way for confidence
+and trust. Meanwhile they knew that they would need to be constantly
+upon their guard.
+
+On August 19th one of the non-commissioned officers, Sergeant Charles
+Floyd, was taken ill, and on the next day he died. This was the only
+death to occur in the party throughout the course of the expedition.
+
+The entries in Captain Clark's journals for those two days are
+thoroughly characteristic of him:--
+
+"August 19.... Serjeant loyd is taken verry bad all at once with a
+Biliose Chorlick we attempt to reliev him without success as yet, he
+gets worse and we are much allarmed at his situation, all attention to
+him...."
+
+"August 20.... Sergeant Floyd much weaker and no better.... Died with a
+great deel of composure, before his death he said to me 'I am going
+away I want you to write me a letter.' We buried him on the top of the
+bluff one-half mile below a small river to which we gave his name, he
+was buried with the Honors of War much lamented, a seeder post with the
+Name Sergt. C. Floyd died here 20th August, 1804, was fixed at the head
+of his grave--This man at all times gave us proofs of his firmness and
+Determined resolution to doe service to his countrey and honor to
+himself after paying all the honor to our Decesed brother we camped in
+the mouth of floyds river about thirty yards wide, a butifull evening."
+
+Upon the death of Floyd, Private Patrick Gass was made a sergeant,--a
+wise choice, determined by the votes of the men.
+
+Besides the death of Floyd, but one other incident occurred in the
+twenty-eight months to affect the integrity of the corps. A man had
+deserted on August 4th; two weeks later he had been recaptured; and for
+the 28th there is this entry in Captain Clark's journal:--
+
+"Proceeded to the trial of Reed, he confessed that he 'deserted & Stold
+a public Rifle shot-pouch Powder & Ball' and requested we would be as
+favorable to him as we could consistently with our Oathes--which we
+were and only sentenced him to run the gantlet four times through the
+Party and that each man with 9 switchies should punish him & for him
+not to be considered in future as one of the Party."
+
+So stanch were the men in their allegiance, and so trustworthy in the
+performance of their duties, that in only one other place in all the
+journals is there mention of an act of discipline.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WITH THE SIOUX
+
+
+Toward the end of August the party reached the Sioux country. Some of
+the tribes of this nation were known to be friendly toward the whites,
+while others had acquired a manner overbearing and insolent, inspired
+by the inferior numbers of the traders who had visited them in the
+past, and by the subservient attitude which these had assumed. From
+such tribes there was good reason to anticipate opposition, or even
+open hostility. But the specific nature of their mission made the
+officers desirous of a personal meeting with all tribes, irrespective
+of their past reputation. There is a saying familiar to Western folk:
+"Show an Indian that you are afraid of him, and he will give you reason
+for fear." The travelers were not afraid. They adopted the custom of
+the traders and set fire to the dry grasses of the prairie, intending
+that the smoke should notify the Indians of their approach and summon
+them to the river. Shortly before this they had encountered upon the
+river one Pierre Dorion, a half-breed son of the notable Old Dorion,
+whose fame is celebrated in Irving's "Astoria." This man was then on
+his way to St. Louis, but was persuaded to return with the expedition
+to his home among the Sioux, there to act as interpreter and
+intermediary, in which service he proved useful.
+
+Relations with the Sioux began on the 29th of August. The meeting was
+attended with elaborate ceremonies. One of the non-commissioned
+officers was dispatched with Dorion to a village twelve miles distant
+from the camp, taking presents of tobacco, corn, and cooking utensils.
+In view of the later history of the Sioux, and because of the intrinsic
+charm of the narrative, the story of this encounter is quoted at length
+from Mr. Biddle's well-edited version:--
+
+"August 29th.... Sergeant Pryor reported that on reaching their
+village, he was met by a party with a buffalo-robe, on which they
+desired to carry their visitors,--an honor which they declined,
+informing the Indians that they were not the commanders of the boats.
+As a great mark of respect, they were then presented with a fat dog,
+already cooked, of which they partook heartily, and found it well
+flavored....
+
+"August 30th.... We prepared a speech and some presents, and then sent
+for the chiefs and warriors, whom we received, at twelve o'clock, under
+a large oak tree, near which the flag of the United States was flying.
+Captain Lewis delivered a speech, with the usual advice and counsel for
+their future conduct. We acknowledged their chiefs, by giving to the
+grand chief a flag, a medal, a certificate, and a string of wampum; to
+which we added a chief's coat--that is, a richly laced uniform of the
+United States Artillery corps, with a cocked hat and red feather. One
+second chief and three inferior ones were made or recognized by medals,
+a suitable present of tobacco, and articles of clothing. We smoked the
+pipe of peace, and the chiefs retired to a bower formed of bushes by
+their young men, where they divided among one another the presents,
+smoked, eat, and held a council on the answer which they were to make
+us to-morrow. The young people exercised their bows and arrows in
+shooting at marks for beads, which we distributed to their best
+marksmen. In the evening the whole party danced until a late hour, and,
+in the course of their amusement, we threw among them some knives,
+tobacco, bells, tape, and binding, with which they were much
+pleased....
+
+"August 31st. In the morning, after breakfast, the chiefs met and sat
+down in a row, with pipes of peace highly ornamented; all pointed
+toward the seats intended for Captains Lewis and Clark. When they
+arrived and were seated, the grand chief, whose Indian name Weucha is
+in English Shake Hand, and in French is called Le Liberateur (The
+Deliverer), rose and spoke at some length, approving what we had said,
+and promising to follow our advice. 'I see before me,' said he, 'my
+Great Father's two sons. You see me and the rest of our chiefs and
+warriors. We are very poor; we have neither powder, nor ball, nor
+knives; and our women and children at the village have no clothes. I
+wish that as my brothers have given me a flag and a medal, they would
+give something to those poor people, or let them stop and trade with
+the first boat which comes up the river. I will bring chiefs of the
+Pawnees and Mahas together, and make peace between them; but it is
+better that I should do it than my Great Father's sons, for they will
+listen to me more readily. I will also take some chiefs to your country
+in the Spring; but before that time I cannot leave home. I went
+formerly to the English, and they gave me a medal and some clothes;
+when I went to the Spanish, they gave me a medal, but nothing to keep
+it from my skin; but now you give me a medal and clothes. But still we
+are poor; and I wish, brothers, that you would give us something for
+our squaws.'
+
+... "They promised to make peace with the Otoes and Missouris, the only
+nations with whom they are now at war. All these harangues concluded by
+describing the distress of the nation; they begged us to have pity on
+them; to send them traders; they wanted powder and ball, and seemed
+anxious that we should supply them with some of their Great Father's
+milk, the name by which they distinguished ardent spirits."
+
+These were the Yanktons, one of the important tribes of the great Sioux
+nation. The Yanktons have always been known to the whites as a people
+of distinction, shrewd, artful, good hunters, good fighters, and
+altogether quite able to take care of themselves. In their inmost
+hearts, they were vain of their prestige amongst their inferior
+neighbors; nor did they really acknowledge the superiority of the
+whites. Their speeches must be taken as declarations of momentary
+policy, and not of fixed principles. Further, they did not express the
+thought of the tribe as a whole, but only the inclinations of those
+chiefs who were for the time in authority, and whose word was for that
+time the tribal law. The bearing of the Yanktons, as of almost every
+other Indian tribe, has been modified or altogether changed, time and
+again, under the will of successive chiefs.
+
+The attention of the expedition was not wholly engrossed with the
+Indians. From day to day the journals are filled with careful and
+valuable notes upon the natural history and physical geography of the
+land, about which nothing had as yet been written. Under the date of
+September 7th there occurs a good description of the prairie-dog; and
+on the 17th the antelope of the Western plains was described. Both of
+these animals were then unknown to science.
+
+September 25th the party walked close to the edge of catastrophe, when
+they met with another tribe of the Sioux,--the Tetons. This was the
+first occasion for an exhibition of the fighting temper of the men. In
+describing the encounter, Captain Clark's journal is as usual
+picturesque and graphic:--
+
+"Envited the Chiefs on board to show them our boat & such curiossities
+as was strange to them, we gave them 1/4 a glass of whiskey which they
+appeared to be verry fond of, sucked the bottle after it was out & soon
+began to be troublesom, one the 2d chief assumeing Drunkness, as a
+Cloaki for his rascally intentions. I went with those chiefs (which
+left the boat with great reluctiance) to shore with a view of
+reconseleing those men to us, as soon as I landed the Perogue three of
+their young men seased the cable of the Perogue, the chiefs soldr.
+Huged the mast, and the 2d chief was verry insolent both in words &
+justures declareing I should not go on, stateing he had not received
+presents sufficient from us, his justures were of such a personal
+nature I felt myself compeled to Draw my sword, at this motion Capt.
+Lewis ordered all under arms in the boat, those with me also showed a
+disposition to Defend themselves and me, the grand chief then took hold
+of the roap & ordered the young warrers away, I felt myself warm &
+spoke in very positive terms. We proceeded about 1 mile & anchored out
+off a willow Island placed a guard on shore to protect the Cooks & a
+guard in the boat, fastened the Perogues to the boat, I call this
+Island Bad Humered Island as we were in a bad humer."
+
+The journals for the next day say:--
+
+"Our conduct yesterday seemed to have inspired the Indians with fear of
+us, and as we were desirous of cultivating their acquaintance, we
+complied with their wish that we should give them an opportunity of
+treating us well, and also suffer their squaws and children to see us
+and our boat, which would be perfectly new to them. Accordingly ... we
+came to on the south side, where a crowd of men, women and children
+were waiting to receive us. Captain Lewis went on shore and remained
+several hours; and observing that their disposition was friendly, we
+resolved to remain during the night for a dance, which they were
+preparing for us."
+
+The two officers were received on shore by ten well-dressed young men,
+who took them up in a decorated robe and carried them in state to the
+council-house. There the pipe of peace was smoked, a ceremonious
+dog-feast was prepared; the chieftains delivered themselves of
+speeches, divided between fawning adulation and flamboyant boasting;
+and then came a sort of state ball, which continued until midnight. The
+next morning the travelers were suffered to proceed.
+
+That was a notable encounter. The Tetons have always been counted among
+the most irresponsible villains of their race, treacherous by first
+impulse, murderous by strongest inclination, thievish according to
+opportunity, combining the effrontery of Italian beggars with the
+boldness begotten by their own sanguinary history. Yet this determined
+little band faced them in the heart of their own land, and overawed
+them.
+
+For many days thereafter, parties of the Tetons appeared from time to
+time upon the river banks, following the boats, begging, threatening,
+doing everything in their power to harass the advance. No doubt they
+had already repented of their brief show of decency, and would have
+made an open demonstration had they dared. Through those days the men
+generally encamped upon islands or sand-bars in mid-stream, deeming it
+wise to avoid further contact with the tribe. It was a decided relief
+to get beyond their territory.
+
+On October 10th they reached the land of the Ricaras, a tribe whose
+conduct, in all domestic and foreign relations, was in striking
+contrast to that of the Sioux, and indeed almost unique. The Ricaras
+could not be induced to drink whiskey!
+
+Soon after the arrival at the Ricara villages, one of the privates was
+tried by court-martial for some act of insubordination, and was
+sentenced to be publicly whipped. The execution of the sentence
+"affected the Indian chief very sensibly, for he cried aloud during the
+punishment." When the matter was explained to him, "he acknowledged
+that examples were necessary, and that he himself had given them by
+punishing with death; but his nation never whipped even children from
+their birth." Universal sobriety, and compassionate tears from the eyes
+of a warrior! Surely, that tribe was curious.
+
+By the last of October the travelers came to the camps of the Mandans
+and Minnetarees, 1600 miles from St. Louis; and there, being warned by
+the calendar and by cold, they prepared to take up winter quarters.
+Their first care was to find a suitable place for building log cabins
+and fortifications. With this work the men were engaged until November
+20th, when Fort Mandan was completed and occupied.
+
+Meanwhile, the officers had sought to extend acquaintance among the
+Indians, and to establish confidence and bring them into sympathy with
+the new conditions of government. So far as pledges were concerned,
+they were fairly successful; the Indians received them hospitably.
+
+The Mandans had once been a powerful nation, living in numerous
+villages down the river; but continued wars with the Sioux, coupled
+with sad ravages of the small-pox, had reduced them to an insignificant
+number, and compelled them to remove out of easy reach of their
+strongest enemies. When Lewis and Clark came upon them, they formed
+only a trifling souvenir of their past grandeur; they had then but two
+poor villages at this remote site, where they lived in a precarious
+hand-to-mouth fashion, having no allies but a small force of
+Minnetarees near by.
+
+But Fate had managed the matter very well, no doubt, in depriving these
+people of effective strength in war; for at this time the head chief of
+the Minnetaree villages was a man who, given opportunity, would have
+made the river run red with the blood of his enemies. This was Le
+Borgne, a one-eyed old despot, of surpassing cruelty and
+bloodthirstiness, whose very name, even in his present position, would
+compel a shiver of apprehension. A chief such as he, at the head of
+forces matched to his ferocious desires, would have changed the history
+of the Upper Missouri. As it was, he spent most of his villainous
+instincts for his own private amusement,--occasionally slaughtering one
+of his warriors who had given him displeasure, or butchering a couple
+of his wives whose society had grown irksome; and between times he
+leered with his solitary evil eye upon the traders, contriving ways for
+getting whiskey with which to bait his passions. The British traders of
+the Hudson Bay and Northwest companies had long before secured a strong
+foothold in this territory, and had sought by every means to monopolize
+the traffic. The ubiquitous French were there also, domiciled in the
+villages, and some of them had taken squaws to wife. With schooling
+from such as these, old Le Borgne had cut his wisdom teeth; he had made
+himself master of many low tricks and subtleties practiced by white
+traders and vagabonds; he was as skillful as the best of them in making
+promises, and as skillful as the worst in breaking them. He was a
+scamp, and a blackguard.
+
+Lewis and Clark succeeded directly in effecting a treaty of peace
+between the Mandans and Ricaras, and among other small tribes of the
+region round about; but they were powerless in trying to reconcile
+these people to the Sioux, who were the bogie-men of the plains, and
+who conducted themselves in every affair of peace or war with the
+arrogance of incontestable power. Not death itself could extinguish the
+hatred that was felt for them by the weaker tribes, compelled to skulk
+and tremble.
+
+Early in November the officers received a visit from two squaws, who
+had been taken prisoners by the Mandans, many years before, in a war
+with the Snake Indians of the Rocky Mountains. One of these squaws was
+named Sacajawea, the "Bird Woman"; she had been but a child at the time
+of her capture, when she had been taken to the Mandan villages and
+there sold to a Frenchman, known as Chaboneau, who kept her until she
+reached womanhood and then married her. She was destined to play a
+considerable part in the later work of the expedition, and to lend to
+it one of its few elements of true romance.
+
+The winter was passed busily, but for the most part quietly. The men
+suffered no serious deprivation. Game was abundant; and one member of
+the party, who was a good amateur blacksmith, set up a small forge,
+where he turned out a variety of tools, implements, and trinkets, which
+were traded to the Indians for corn. Everything went well. The officers
+were as busy as the men, and their occupations were varied and vital.
+
+They found difficulty in getting credit for the news they bore that the
+government of the United States was to be thereafter in fact as well as
+in name the controlling agency in administering the affairs of the
+territory and in regulating trade. To make the Indian mind ready to
+receive this lesson, it was first necessary to correct the evils bred
+by the earlier short-sighted rule of the Spanish, and to uproot a
+strong predisposition in favor of the British traders. The Hudson Bay
+Company had been in existence since 1670, and the Northwest Company
+since 1787; and they were not inclined to surrender their control of
+trade without a struggle.
+
+Aside from this task, the two youthful men-of-all-work were continually
+engaged in gathering material for a report upon the ethnology of the
+Upper Missouri and the plains. They have left to us a remarkably acute
+and accurate monograph upon the subject, which shows that they were
+even then alive to most of the questions likely to arise in the process
+of reducing the land to order. The data thus collected were entered at
+length in the journals; and a fair copy of these was made, for
+transmittal to Washington in the spring. There were maps to be drawn,
+too; and a mass of interesting objects was gathered to illustrate the
+natural history of the route. This material had to be cleaned,
+prepared, assorted and catalogued, and packed for shipment, to
+accompany the report and illuminate its story, so that Mr. Jefferson
+might have a full understanding of what had been accomplished during
+the first year. The five months spent at Fort Mandan did not drag. The
+best part of the winter's work lay in the attitude which was taken in
+dealing with the Indians. In every particular of behavior, the
+strictest integrity was observed. An Indian is as ready as any one to
+recognize genuineness. Before springtime, the Mandans and Minnetarees
+knew that they had found friends.
+
+In March the men began boat-building, preparatory to resuming their
+journey. The batteau was too cumbrous for use toward the head waters of
+the Missouri, and it was to be sent back to St. Louis. To take its
+place, canoes were fashioned from green cottonwood planks. Cottonwood
+lumber is full of whims and caprices,--bending, twisting, cracking like
+brown paper, so as to be wholly unfit for ordinary carpentry; but there
+was no other material available. Six canoes were made to hang together
+somehow; and in these ramshackle structures, together with the two
+periogues, the party covered more than a thousand miles of the roughest
+water of the Missouri. Annoyance was to be expected. The boats were
+continually splitting, opening at the seams, filling, and swamping, so
+that much time was lost in stopping to make repairs and to dry the
+water-soaked cargoes. This was merely an inconvenience, not an
+obstacle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+TO THE FALLS OF THE MISSOURI
+
+
+On the afternoon of April 7, 1805, winter quarters were abandoned. Of
+the original forty-five men two had been lost; but three recruits had
+been gained,--Chaboneau, his squaw Sacajawea, and their infant son,
+born in February. From Fort Mandan fourteen of the men returned to St.
+Louis in the barge, carrying documents, collections, and trophies,
+while thirty-two went onward, to be separated from their kind for
+almost eighteen months. On this day Captain Lewis wrote in his
+journal:--
+
+"This little fleet altho' not quite so rispectable as those of Columbus
+or Capt. Cook, were still viewed by us with as much pleasure as those
+deservedly famed adventurers ever beheld theirs; and I dare say with
+quite as much anxiety for their safety and preservation. We were now
+about to penetrate a country at least two thousand miles in width, on
+which the foot of civilized man had never trodden; the good or evil it
+had in store for us was for experiment yet to determine, and these
+little vessells contained every article by which we were to expect to
+subsist or defend ourselves. However as the state of mind in which we
+are, generally gives the coloring to events, when the imagination is
+suffered to wander into futurity, the picture which now presented
+itself to me was a most pleasing one, entertaining as I do the most
+confident hope of succeeding in a voyage which had formed a darling
+project of mine for the last ten years, I could but esteem this moment
+of our departure as among the most happy of my life."
+
+April 26th they came to the mouth of the Yellowstone River, which
+enters the Missouri 1888 miles above St. Louis. They had had no
+adventure of moment; neither was there cause for immediate anxiety,
+save as they observed signs of the Assiniboins. From the tribes with
+whom they had talked at winter quarters, they had heard stirring tales
+of this cut-throat band, which had inspired the wish to pass unobserved
+through their country. This desire was fulfilled. There was no meeting
+with the Assiniboins.
+
+Of all the wild creatures of the Western wilderness, the one which
+could least be spared from the literature of adventure is the grizzly
+bear. Lewis and Clark were the first white men to give an account of
+this beast. Many of the Indian lodge-tales to which they had listened
+rang with the fame of the grizzly, as a background for the greater fame
+of the narrators. As a matter of course, fact and figment were
+inextricably blended in these tales; but, while they did not show the
+animal as it was, they could not exaggerate its untamable courage, its
+ferocity, or its rugged power of endurance. On April 29th, Captain
+Lewis, with a party of hunters, proved the truth of all that had been
+told him upon these points, and more; and upon many occasions
+thereafter, while the party was making its way from the Yellowstone
+country to the mountains, there were encounters from which the men
+escaped by mere good fortune. The most critical adventures with the
+Indians were but child's play in comparison. Despite their boasting,
+the Indians would seldom venture to provoke a fight with a grizzly,
+except in the most favorable circumstances, and when strength of
+numbers inspired them with bravado. Reckless and headlong as wild
+elephants, nothing would daunt the grizzlies, once they had set about
+fighting; and so hardy were they as often to escape, apparently
+unharmed, though their vital parts were riddled with lead.
+
+Until the Rocky Mountains were reached, there was almost no hardship
+arising from scarcity of food. Early in May, Captain Lewis wrote that
+game of all sorts abounded, being so gentle as to take no alarm of the
+hunters. "The male buffalo particularly will hardly give way to us, and
+as we approach will merely look at us for a moment, as something new,
+and then quietly resume their feeding.... Game is in such plenty that
+it has become a mere amusement to supply the party with provisions." In
+the months that followed, the men carried a blessed memory of that
+abundance.
+
+As they drew near to the foothills, navigation became more and more
+difficult. The river lost the sullen, muddy aspect of its lower course,
+where it flowed between low, sandy banks, and took the character of a
+mountain stream, walled with rock and filled with dangers. Then it was
+that the cottonwood skiffs betrayed their weaknesses. Accidents were of
+almost daily occurrence; and on one occasion the boat containing the
+instruments and papers was nearly lost. They were then more than two
+thousand miles from any place where such a loss could have been
+repaired. To go on would have been idle, without means for making
+accurate observations; they would have been obliged to turn back. In
+the face of this perpetual threat, they had no resource but to take
+their chances with luck; with the best they could do, they could not
+adequately safeguard themselves against calamity. For the time being,
+at least, they were rank fatalists.
+
+On Sunday, May 26th, Captain Lewis left camp on foot, ascended to the
+summit of a ridge of hills near the river, and from the height had his
+first glimpse of the distant ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This was
+about a year and a half before Pike's discovery. The journal entry for
+that day comes near to showing emotion:--
+
+"While I viewed these mountains I felt a secret pleasure in thus
+finding myself so near the head of the hitherto conceived boundless
+Missouri; but when I reflected on the difficulties which this snowey
+barrier would most probably throw in my way to the Pacific, and the
+sufferings and hardships of myself and party in them, it in some
+measure counterballanced the joy I had felt in the first moments in
+which I gazed on them; but as I have always held it a crime to
+anticipate evils I will believe it a good comfortable road until I am
+compelled to believe differently."
+
+Progress grew increasingly hard. Rapids were numerous, over which the
+boats could not be urged with oars; so the men were compelled to walk
+upon the banks, drawing the craft with tow-lines. These lines were made
+mostly of elk-skin, which became softened and rotted by the water and
+often broke under the strain, causing many accidents of a trying and
+serious nature. The banks were sometimes so rocky and precipitous as to
+afford no foothold; then the men took to the water, wading, swimming,
+making headway as they could. One extract from the journals will
+illustrate the severity of their toil:--
+
+"May 31st [a rainy day]. Obstructions continue, and fatigue the men
+excessively. The banks are so slippery in some places, and the mud so
+adhesive, that they are unable to wear their moccasins; one fourth of
+the time they are obliged to be up to their arm-pits in the cold water,
+and sometimes they walk for several hours over the sharp fragments of
+rocks which have fallen from the hills. All this, added to the burden
+of dragging the heavy canoes, is very painful; yet the men bear it with
+great patience and good humour."
+
+On June 3d they came to a point where the river forked; and here, as
+the forks were of nearly equal volume, they were in doubt as to their
+route. Captain Lewis wrote:--
+
+"On our right decision much of the fate of the expedition depends;
+since if, after ascending to the Rocky Mountains or beyond them, we
+should find that the river we were following did not come near the
+Columbia, and be obliged to return, we should not only be losing the
+traveling season, two months of which have already elapsed, but
+probably dishearten the men so much as to induce them either to abandon
+the enterprise, or yield us a cold obedience, instead of the warm and
+zealous support which they have hitherto afforded us.... The fatigues
+of the last few days have occasioned some falling off in the appearance
+of the men; who, not having been able to wear their moccasins, have had
+their feet much bruised and mangled in passing over the stones and
+rough ground. They are, however, perfectly cheerful, and have an
+undiminished ardor for the expedition."
+
+In order to settle the doubt, the officers took each one branch of the
+stream and proceeded to explore it for some distance above the
+confluence, to determine its direction. Captain Lewis, ascending the
+northern fork, became convinced that it was not the main stream; and to
+it he gave the name, which it still bears, of Maria's River. His warmth
+of youth speaks in this paragraph:
+
+"I determined to give it a name and in honour of Miss Maria W--d [Maria
+Wood, his cousin] called it Maria's River. It is true that the hue of
+the waters of this turbulent and troubled stream but illy comport with
+the pure celestial virtues and amiable qualifications of that lovely
+fair one; but on the other hand it is a noble river; one destined to
+become in my opinion an object of contention between the two great
+powers of America and Great Britin, with rispect to the adjustment of
+the North westwardly boundary of the former; and that it will become
+one of the most interesting branches of the Missouri."
+
+Meanwhile, Captain Clark had gone far enough along the southern fork to
+satisfy himself that that was the proper course; and when he rejoined
+Captain Lewis at the confluence, preparations were made for continuing
+the journey. It was then clear that the burdens of the men must be
+lightened; accordingly, considerable quantities of merchandise,
+ammunition, etc., were buried in the earth, or "cached," after a method
+often followed by travelers of the West; care being taken to preserve
+the stores against moisture. One of the periogues also was left at this
+place, securely hidden.
+
+While this work was going on, Captain Lewis, with several of the men,
+proceeded to explore the southern stream more minutely, seeking to
+devise means for passing the canyon at the mouth of which the party was
+encamped. June 13th he heard in the distance the roar of the Great
+Falls of the Missouri; and, after pushing on for several miles, he
+stood at the foot of the lower cascade. Relying upon descriptions which
+had been given by the Indians at the Mandan villages, he now felt
+assured that the right way had been chosen.
+
+He seated himself before the roaring sheet of water, and endeavored to
+put a description of it upon paper; but then he added helplessly:--
+
+"After wrighting this imperfect description I again viewed the falls
+and was so much disgusted with the imperfect idea which it conveyed of
+the scene that I determined to draw my pen across it and begin agin,
+but then reflected that I could not perhaps succeed better than penning
+the first impressions of the mind; I wished for the pencil of a
+Salvator Rosa, or the pen of a Thompson, that I might be enabled to
+give to the enlightened world some just idea of this truly magnificent
+and sublimely grand object, which has from the commencement of time
+been concealed from the view of civilized man; but this was fruitless
+and vain. I most sincerely regreted that I had not brought a
+chimeeobscura with me by the assistance of which I could have hoped to
+have done better but alas this was also out of my reach; I therefore,
+with my pen only endeavored to trace some of the stronger features of
+this seen by the assistance of which and my recollection aided by some
+able pencil I hope still to give to the world some fain idea of an
+object which at this moment fills me with such pleasure and
+astonishment."
+
+On the next day he went ahead, alone, and discovered that this was but
+the first of a long series of cascades, extending for many miles up the
+canyon. It was a day of excitement. While returning to rejoin his party,
+he suffered his gun to remain for a time unloaded; in this plight he
+was surprised by a grizzly bear. Cut off from any other retreat, he was
+forced to take to the water, in which he stood to the depth of his
+armpits, facing the brute upon the bank and preparing to defend himself
+in a hand-to-hand struggle; but, in a manner wholly out of keeping with
+his family traditions, the grizzly was content to walk away without
+attacking. Proceeding about nightfall, the young officer encountered a
+strange beast, probably a wolverine, which showed fight; and a little
+later he was charged by three bulls from a herd of buffalo. Upon waking
+the next morning, he found a large rattlesnake coiled about the trunk
+of the tree beneath which he had slept.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+OVER THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE
+
+
+A messenger was sent back to Captain Clark, detailing what had been
+discovered, and giving such instructions as would best enable him to
+bring up the boats. It is now Captain Clark's turn to bear testimony to
+the spirit of the men:--
+
+"June 15th.... Proceeded with great difficulty, in consequence of the
+increased rapidity of the current. The channel is constantly obstructed
+by rocks and dangerous rapids. During the whole progress, the men are
+in the water holding the canoes, and walking on sharp rocks and round
+stones, which cut their feet or cause them to fall. Rattlesnakes are so
+numerous that the men are constantly on their guard against being
+bitten by them; yet they bear the fatigues with the most undiminished
+cheerfulness."
+
+The severest labor was necessary in making a portage of the falls. The
+remaining periogue was abandoned, the canoes only being carried on. To
+accomplish this, a large cottonwood tree was felled, its trunk being
+cut into short sections to serve as wheels for improvised carriages;
+the mast of the periogue, cut into lengths, being used as axles. Before
+these carriages could be utilized, it was necessary for the men to
+carry the canoes and baggage upon their shoulders to the level plains
+above the canyon walls, where Captain Clark had marked out with stakes
+the easiest path for a portage. This was a trying labor; and the
+portage itself was not less laborious. The journal says:--
+
+"Here [on the plains above the river] they all repaired their
+moccasins, and put on double soles to protect them from the
+prickly-pear, and from the sharp points of earth which have been formed
+by the trampling of the buffalo during the late rains. This of itself
+is enough to render the portage disagreeable to one who has no burden;
+but as the men are loaded as heavily as their strength will permit, the
+crossing is really painful. Some are limping with the soreness of their
+feet; others are scarcely able to stand for more than a few minutes,
+from the heat and fatigue. They are all obliged to halt and rest
+frequently; at almost every stopping-place they fall, and most of them
+are asleep in an instant; yet no one complains, and they go on with
+great cheerfulness."
+
+Notwithstanding this hardship, Lewis's journal entry of June 25th has
+this fine bit:--
+
+"Such as were able to shake a foot amused themselves in dancing on the
+green to the music of the violin, which Cruzatte plays extremely well."
+
+Captain Lewis had brought along in the baggage a steel skeleton or
+framework for a boat, thirty-six feet in length, which he had planned
+to use in shallow water. It was to be completed by stretching over the
+steel ribs a covering of skins, making the whole water-tight by any
+means that might be at hand. This was the place for the experiment.
+Much time was spent in collecting and curing skins, which, when fitted
+to the frame, were smeared with a composition of tallow, beeswax, and
+charcoal. This failed, however. As soon as the mixture dried, it fell
+away in flakes, and the vessel was entirely worthless. But Lewis wrote
+that "the boat in every other rispect completely answers my most
+sanguine expectations"! Then the men were employed for some time in
+making "dugout" canoes from cottonwood logs,--a weary labor,
+considering the tools they had. Not until July 15th was the long
+interruption ended, and the journey resumed.
+
+July 25th Captain Clark, who was in advance of the main party,
+discovered the three forks of the Missouri, which were named the
+Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers. By the westernmost of these,
+the Jefferson, they proceeded, keeping a careful lookout for Indians.
+
+"July 27th [Mr. Biddle's edition of the journals]. We are now very
+anxious to see the Snake Indians. After advancing for several hundred
+miles into this wild and mountainous country, we may soon expect that
+the game will abandon us. With no information of the route, we may be
+unable to find a passage across the mountains when we reach the head of
+the river--at least, such a pass as will lead us to the Columbia. Even
+are we so fortunate as to find a branch of that river, the timber which
+we have hitherto seen in these mountains does not promise us any fit to
+make canoes, so that our chief dependence is on meeting some tribe from
+whom we may procure horses. Our consolation is that this southwest
+branch can scarcely head with any other river than the Columbia; and if
+any nation of Indians can live in the mountains we are able to endure
+as much as they can, and have even better means of procuring
+subsistence."
+
+By the first days of August this fear for the scarcity of game had
+become a reality; they were getting beyond the summer range of deer and
+buffalo, which had been their chief reliance. Through their long season
+of toil they had been plentifully fed; but they were now to know the
+pains of hunger, and the ills which follow upon a meagre diet. The
+hunters were daily reporting increasingly bad luck in the chase; some
+days would yield nothing; upon other days the camp would heartily
+welcome an owl, an eagle, or a bag of insignificant small birds of any
+sort, or even a wolf--anything that had flesh on its bones.
+
+But these deprivations did not one whit abate the zeal for discovery.
+About this time they found the Jefferson River to be formed by three
+minor streams, to which they gave the names of Philosophy,
+Philanthropy, and Wisdom rivers, "in commemoration of those cardinal
+virtues which have so eminently marked that deservedly selibrated
+character." It is a pity to record that this complimentary intention
+was thwarted by time; but Philosophy is now known as Willow Creek,
+Wisdom is now the Big Hole, and Philanthropy bears the hard name of
+Stinking Water.
+
+Since leaving Fort Mandan, in the preceding April, they had seen no
+Indians. They were now somewhat reassured by Sacajawea, the "Bird
+Woman," who said that they were nearing the site of her old home with
+the Snakes. She was as anxious as they for a meeting with her people,
+which she told them must soon occur. But anxiety increased as the days
+passed, and on the 9th of August Captain Lewis, accompanied by several
+of the men, set out in advance of the rest, "with a resolution to meet
+some nation of Indians before they returned, however long they might be
+separated from the party."
+
+Three days later the stream, along which their route had lain for so
+long, was shrunken to such a width that one of the men was able to
+stand with his feet upon opposite banks; and in that posture he thanked
+God that he had lived to bestride the Missouri. Within a little time
+they drank from the icy spring that gave the rivulet its birth. They
+then stood upon the crest of the great Continental Divide, on the
+boundary between the present States of Montana and Idaho. They had run
+the mighty Missouri to its lair!
+
+As if that were not satisfaction enough for one day, they went forward
+for three fourths of a mile, and there "reached a handsome, bold creek
+of cold, clear water, running to the westward." Stooping, they drank of
+the waters of the Lemhi River, one of the upper branches of the
+Columbia.
+
+On the following day, as they were tracing the course of this stream,
+they observed two women, a man, and some dogs, stationed upon the
+summit of a hill at the distance of a mile. Captain Lewis advanced,
+unarmed, displaying a flag. The women retreated at once; and the man,
+after waiting until Lewis had approached to within a hundred paces,
+also disappeared in the thick brush. After following the trail for a
+mile, they came suddenly upon three Indian women. One of these made her
+escape; but the others, an old dame and a child, seated themselves upon
+the ground and bowed their heads, as though expecting to be put to
+death forthwith. Captain Lewis advanced, took the older woman by the
+hand and raised her to her feet, at the same time displaying the white
+skin of his arm,--for exposure had tanned his face and hands as dark as
+those of the natives themselves. He then gave them some trinkets, and
+the other woman being recalled, he painted the faces of the three with
+vermilion, an act understood by all Indians as signifying pacific
+intentions. While he was thus engaged, sixty mounted Shoshone warriors
+galloped up, armed and voicing their war-cry, thinking to do battle
+with Minnetaree foes, for whom they had mistaken the whites. They were
+overjoyed upon discovering the identity of their visitors, saluted them
+heartily, smoked with them the pipe of peace, and offered such
+entertainment as they had. They were without food, excepting some
+indifferent cakes made from service-berries and choke-cherries, dried
+in the sun.
+
+To secure the friendly regard of these people, Captain Lewis tried to
+induce some of them to return with him to the point where he was to
+rejoin Captain Clark and the others, saying that the main party was
+bringing merchandise for trade; and he was at last successful in
+getting a goodly escort.
+
+When he met with the men of the main party, they were still toiling
+heavily up the narrow channel of the Missouri, dragging the canoes.
+Sacajawea at once recognized the members of her tribe. A woman of the
+band ran forward to meet her, and they embraced with signs of
+extravagant joy, for they had been playmates in childhood.
+
+"While Sacajawea was renewing among the women the friendships of former
+days," says the journal, "Captain Clark went on, and was received by
+Captain Lewis and the chief, who, after the first embraces and
+salutations were over, conducted him to a sort of circular tent or
+shade of willows. Here he was seated on a white robe, and the chief
+immediately tied in his hair six small shells resembling pearls, an
+ornament highly valued by these people, who procure them in the course
+of trade from the seacoast. The moccasins of the whole party were then
+taken off, and after much ceremony the smoking began. After this the
+conference was to be opened. Glad of an opportunity of being able to
+converse more intelligibly, they sent for Sacajawea, who came into the
+tent, sat down, and was beginning to interpret, when in the person of
+Cameawait (the chief) she recognized her brother. She instantly jumped
+up and ran and embraced him, throwing over him her blanket, and weeping
+profusely. The chief was himself moved, though not in the same degree.
+After some conversation between them, she resumed her seat and
+attempted to interpret for us; but her new situation seemed to
+overpower her, and she was frequently interrupted by tears."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE LAST STAGE OF THE WESTWARD JOURNEY
+
+
+Should a water route be taken from the Shoshone villages, it would be
+necessary to descend the Lemhi to Salmon River; the Salmon would
+conduct them to the Snake, and that to the Columbia. But they were told
+that this course was impracticable. The Lemhi flowed in an ungovernable
+torrent through wild canyons which the hardiest adventurers from this
+tribe had never succeeded in passing. The description given by the
+Indians of the land route over the mountains was hardly more
+reassuring. The easiest trail to be found would be rough in the
+extreme, strewn with rocks; besides, snow would soon fall upon the
+heights of the mountains, burying the trail many feet deep, and perhaps
+rendering it impassable. The greatest cause for uneasiness lay in the
+inevitable scarcity of food. Even should a crossing of the mountains be
+effected, the men would be obliged to subsist for many days largely or
+wholly upon such roots as they could dig by the way. Of the provisions
+brought from St. Louis,--flour and canned stuff,--there remained barely
+enough to suffice for ten days' emergency rations; and of course they
+could not hope to find game upon the barren mountains, particularly at
+that season of the year. They were just entering upon their severest
+trials.
+
+Captain Clark went ahead to reconnoitre, and found that the Indians had
+rather understated the difficulties of the water route. To descend the
+Lemhi was entirely out of the question. Clark dispatched a messenger to
+Captain Lewis, telling of what he had discovered, and wrote in his
+journal (August 24th):--
+
+"The plan I stated to Captain Lewis if he agrees with me we shall adopt
+is to precure as many horses (one for each man) if possable and to hire
+my present guide who I sent on to him to interegate thro' the Intptr.
+and proceed on by land to some navagable part of the Columbia river, or
+to the Ocean, depending on what provisions we can Precure by the gun
+aded to the small stock we have on hand depending on our horses as the
+last resort."
+
+While he was writing so calmly of his plan, he and his men were
+suffering from hunger, having only a meagre supply of fish and dried
+berries. A day or two later he wrote:--
+
+"These Indians, to whom this life is familiar, seem contented, although
+they depend for subsistence on the scanty provisions of the fishery.
+But our men, who are used to hardships, but have been accustomed to
+have the first wants of Nature regularly supplied, feel very sensibly
+their wretched situation; their strength is wasting away; they begin to
+express their apprehensions of being without food in a country
+perfectly destitute of any means of supporting life, except a few
+fish."
+
+Horses were purchased from the Shoshones, and the men were employed in
+making pack-saddles. As there was no timber to be obtained near by, the
+oars were cut up for boards, and these were fastened into form with
+thongs of rawhide. With the best provision that could be made, however,
+it was apparent that a considerable portion of the baggage must be
+cached and left behind. At a time when the needs of the men would be
+greatest, they were obliged to provide themselves with least.
+
+The Shoshones were hospitable and kindly folk. Throughout these days of
+preparation, the women were engaged in making and repairing moccasins
+and clothing for the men, and the fishermen gave to them a good share
+of the daily catch. Nor was the kindness all upon the one side. The
+white hunters, with their guns, had greater success than the Indians,
+who were armed only with bows and arrows and lances. Share and share
+alike was the rule in the village. Once when the hunters brought in a
+deer, Captain Clark directed that it be given to the women and
+children, who were in an extremity of hunger, and himself went
+supperless to bed.
+
+One of the older men was induced to accompany them as a guide. By the
+middle of September they were deep in the mountains, and also deep in
+peril and suffering. The cold had a depressing effect upon the men,
+overworked and underfed as they were. For several days they got along
+somehow, with a few odds and ends of small game; but on the 14th of
+September, Captain Clark's prevision was fulfilled, and they were
+reduced to supping upon the flesh of one of their ponies. Then on the
+next day,--
+
+"September 15th. Camped near an old snow-bank, some of which was
+melted, in the absence of water; and here the party supped on the
+remains of the colt killed yesterday. Our only game to-day was two
+pheasants; the horses, on which we calculated as a last resource, began
+to fail us, for two of them were so poor and worn out with fatigue that
+we were obliged to leave them behind.
+
+"September 16th. Three hours before daybreak it began to snow, and
+continued all day, so that by evening it was six or eight inches deep.
+This covered the track so completely that we were obliged constantly to
+halt and examine, lest we should lose the route. In many places we had
+nothing to guide us, except the branches of the trees, which, being
+low, had been rubbed by the burdens of the Indian horses.... Wet to the
+skin, and so cold that we were anxious lest our feet should be frozen,
+as we had only thin moccasins to defend them.... We camped on a piece
+of low ground, thickly timbered, but scarcely large enough to permit us
+to lie level. We had now made thirteen miles. We were all very wet,
+cold, and hungry.... Were obliged to kill a second colt for our
+supper."
+
+Of the stock of portable provisions there remained only a few cans of
+soup and about twenty pounds of bear's oil; and there was "no living
+creature in these mountains, except a few pheasants, a small species of
+gray squirrel, and a blue bird of the vulture kind about the size of a
+turtle-dove or jay; even these are difficult to shoot."
+
+Again Captain Clark went ahead. For several days he suffered extremely
+from hunger and exposure; but on the 20th he descended into an open
+valley, where he came upon a band of Nez Perce Indians, who gave him
+food. But after his long abstinence, when he ate a plentiful meal of
+fish his stomach revolted, and for several days he was quite ill.
+
+Matters fared badly with Captain Lewis's party, following on Clark's
+trail. On the day of Clark's departure, they could not leave their
+night's camp until nearly noon, "because, being obliged in the evening
+to loosen our horses to enable them to find subsistence, it is always
+difficult to collect them in the morning.... We were so fortunate as to
+kill a few pheasants and a prairie wolf, which, with the remainder of
+the horse, supplied us with one meal, the last of our provisions; our
+food for the morrow being wholly dependent on the chance of our guns."
+Bearing heavy burdens, and losing much time with the continued straying
+of the horses, they made but indifferent progress, and it was not until
+the 22d that they reached the Nez Perce village and joined Captain
+Clark. Then they, too, almost to a man, suffered severe illness, caused
+by the unwonted abundance of food. From the high altitudes and the
+scant diet of horseflesh to the lower levels of the valley and a
+plentiful diet of fish and camass-root was too great a change.
+
+Two of the men in particular had cause to remember those days. They had
+been sent back to find and bring on some of the horses that were lost.
+Failing to find the animals, after a long search, they started to
+overtake their companions. They had no provisions, nor could they find
+game of any kind. Death by starvation was close upon them, when they
+found the head of one of the horses that had been killed by their
+mates. The head had been thrown aside as worthless; but to these two it
+was a veritable godsend. It was at once roasted, and from the flesh and
+gristle of the lips, ears, and cheeks they made a meal which saved
+their lives.
+
+The Nez Perce villages were situated upon a stream called the
+Kooskooskee, or Clearwater, which the Indians said was navigable for
+canoes throughout its lower lengths; so, on September 26th, the party
+established itself at a point upon the river where a supply of timber
+could be had, and began canoe-making. In this they adopted the Indian
+method of hollowing large logs into form by means of fire; and in ten
+days' time they had made five serviceable boats, and were ready for
+departure. Meanwhile, they had relied upon the Indians for a daily
+supply of food, and this had made a considerable reduction of their
+stock of merchandise for barter. The Nez Perces of that and neighboring
+villages kept a large number of dogs, which were used as beasts of
+burden and otherwise, but were not eaten. The travelers bought some of
+these for food, and found them palatable and nutritious; but this
+practice excited the ridicule of the savages, who gave to the whites
+the name Dog-Eaters,--an odd reversal of the condition of to-day. The
+men were proof against scorn, however, so long as the supply of
+dog-meat held out; and when they were ready to embark, they bought as
+many dogs as they could carry, to be eaten on the voyage.
+
+There was no reason to complain of the Nez Perces. There was a
+noticeable difference, though, between the people of the several
+villages. Some were generous and high-minded to a degree rarely equaled
+by the members of any race, while others were shrewd tradesmen only.
+All seemed worthy of confidence, which was well; for it was necessary
+to put confidence in them. The horses that had been bought from the
+Shoshones and brought across the mountains had now to be left behind,
+and they were surrendered to the care of one of the principal chiefs,
+to be kept by him until they should be reclaimed upon the return from
+the coast, at some indefinite time in the future. He discharged this
+trust with perfect fidelity. Had he failed, the consequences would have
+been disastrous.
+
+On October 16th, after a rapid passage of the Kooskooskee, the party
+entered the Columbia; and from that point to the Pacific the journey
+was without particular adventure, save for the difficulty of passing
+numerous rapids and cascades. Indian villages were everywhere upon the
+banks; but their people were of a very low order,--very jackals of
+humanity; dirty, flea-bitten packs, whose physical and moral
+constitutions plainly showed the debilitating effects of unnumbered
+generations of fish-eating, purposeless life. Physical and moral
+decency usually go hand in hand, even in a state of nature. The
+Columbia tribes had no conception of either; they were in the same
+condition then as now, mean-spirited, and strangers to all those little
+delicacies of behavior that had distinguished the mountain tribes.
+
+The passage of the Narrows, above the Falls of the Columbia, trusting
+to their fire-hollowed logs, demanded much daring and self-possession.
+Captain Clark wrote:--
+
+"As the portage of our canoes over this high rock would be impossible
+with our Strength, and the only danger in passing thro those narrows
+was the whorls and swills arriseing from the compression of the water,
+and which I thought (as also our principal waterman Peter Crusat) by
+good stearing we could pass down safe, accordingly I deturmined to pass
+through this place, not with standing the horred appearance of this
+agitated gut swelling, boiling & whorling in every direction which from
+the top of the rock did not appear as bad as when I was in it; however
+we passed safe to the astonishment of the Inds."
+
+At other times they were not so successful in this sort of undertaking.
+The canoes were often overset in the swift water, by being caught in
+whirlpools or colliding with rocks, causing great inconvenience and
+resulting in some serious losses of baggage. And the men were
+performing this arduous labor upon a diet of dog-meat, and almost
+nothing besides.
+
+No matter what difficulties presented themselves from day to day, the
+officers never lost sight of the chief purpose of their toils. The
+journals of those days are replete with keen notes upon the country,
+its resources, and its people. Soon after passing the Falls, there were
+to be seen occasional signs of previous intercourse between the Indians
+and the white traders who had visited the coast,--the squaws would
+display a bit of colored cloth in their costumes; a few of the men
+carried ancient guns, and occasionally one was decorated with a ruinous
+old hat or the remains of a sailor's pea-jacket. These poor people had
+touched the hem of the garment of civilization, and had felt some of
+its meaner virtue pass into them. They showed daily less and less of
+barbaric manliness; they were becoming from day to day more vicious,
+thievish, and beggarly. The whites had as yet given them nothing worth
+having, and had taught them nothing worth knowing. This was but
+natural, considering the character of those who had visited the
+Columbia region. They were not missionaries nor philanthropists,
+actuated by high desires, but traders pure and simple, with no thought
+but gain, and no scruples about means. They were not different from the
+pioneers of trade in all times and all places.
+
+November 6th there was a meeting with an Indian who spoke a few scrappy
+words of English; and on the 7th, a day of rain and fog, the men caught
+a far glimpse of the Pacific, ... "that ocean, the object of all our
+labors, the reward of all our anxieties. This cheering view exhilarated
+the spirits of all the party, who were still more delighted on hearing
+the distant roar of the breakers." The following day, as the boats
+proceeded upon the waters of the inlet, the waves ran so high that
+several of the men were made sea-sick.
+
+After eighteen months of unparalleled perseverance, the westward
+journey was done.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+WINTER ON THE COAST
+
+
+They had reached the coast in the dismal rainy season, when all the
+life of the region was at the lowest ebb of the year, and when comfort
+was hardly to be found. The extreme bitterness of Eastern winters was
+wanting; but the bracing tonic effect of honest cold was also denied
+them. Through many months they were to suffer from an uninterrupted
+downpour of rain, driven before the raw sea-winds, which drenched their
+ardor and made work of any sort painful.
+
+For a long time they were unable to make further progress, because of
+the persistent storms. Their canoes had not been designed for service
+in tempestuous open water; so they were compelled to camp where luck
+left them, having no shelter from the weather, sodden through and
+through, hungry, cold, many of them ill with a low fever bred by
+exposure, and only sustained by the knowledge that they were at last
+upon the Pacific shore. The neighboring Indians were practically
+amphibious; no stress of weather could hold them in check. They swarmed
+about the camp at all times, stealing, begging, worrying the worn
+spirits of the men into tatters. Here, for the first time since leaving
+St. Louis, it became necessary to abandon conciliatory friendliness,
+and to offset the native insolence with sternness. There were no
+fights, for the Indians were too low-born to possess fighting courage;
+but the necessity for constant alertness was even more trying than open
+conflict.
+
+For a fortnight the men were engaged in getting acquainted with their
+surroundings. The hunters made long trips over the hills and along the
+coast, and such of the others as could be spared from camp went
+tramping about on errands of discovery. The establishment of winter
+quarters was perplexing; but on the 24th of November, after a
+consultation of the whole party, a site was chosen several miles down
+the coast, where timber could be got for building huts, and where, the
+hunters said, game was nearest at hand.
+
+To transport the baggage through the rough breakers was a tedious and
+dangerous undertaking. The men had to wait with patience for the rare
+hours of comparative calm, making headway as they could, and in the
+mean time eating and sleeping on the uncovered earth. Sickness
+increased, until none of the party was wholly free from it. Although in
+the midst of plenty, they were suffering from hunger. The Indians were
+besetting them with offers of trade, having large stores of game, fish,
+and other provisions; but their cupidity was extreme, and, on account
+of the low state of the treasury, which must be conserved against many
+months of the future, but few purchases could be made of even the
+barest necessities. When their own hunters were unsuccessful, the men
+often went empty.
+
+The unintentional irony of Mr. Jefferson's letter of credit now became
+apparent. The trading vessels that were used to making yearly visits to
+this part of the coast from abroad had gone away for the winter, and no
+white face was seen through all those weary months. Considerable
+comment has been passed upon the failure of the government to
+anticipate this contingency by sending a ship to this point to meet the
+travelers and relieve their inevitable distress. This failure could
+hardly have been the result of oversight; most probably it arose from
+the wish of the government to avoid any appearance of meddling in
+international affairs. The Louisiana Territory extended only so far
+west as the Rocky Mountains: so, strictly speaking, the expedition had
+no defensible right upon the coast under Federal patronage. There might
+well have been serious consequences had a vessel under our flag
+appeared in those waters, with such a mission. However that may be, the
+fact remains that no aid was sent, and the men were thrown entirely
+upon their ability to care for themselves. The journals show how they
+managed.
+
+"November 28th. It is now impossible to proceed with so rough a sea. We
+therefore sent several of the men to hunt, and the rest of us remained
+during the day in a situation the most cheerless and uncomfortable. On
+this little neck of land we are exposed, with a miserable covering
+which does not deserve the name of shelter, to the violence of the
+winds; all our bedding and stores, as well as our bodies, are
+completely wet; our clothes are rotting with constant exposure, and we
+have no food except the dried fish brought from the falls. The hunters
+all returned hungry and drenched with rain, having seen neither deer
+nor elk, and the swan and brant were too shy to be approached."
+
+Day after day they subsisted upon this dried fish, mixed with
+sea-water. Captain Clark nearly lost his admirable poise. On the first
+day of December he wrote:--
+
+"24 days since we arrived at the _Great Western_ (for I cannot say
+Pacific) Ocian as I have not seen one pacific day since my arrival in
+this vicinity, and its waters are forming and petially breake with
+emence waves on the sands and rockey coasts, tempestous and horiable."
+
+Two days later one of the hunters killed an elk--the first to be
+secured on the western side of the mountains; and that was a holiday in
+consequence, though the animal was lean and poor enough, and hardly fit
+to be eaten.
+
+Curiously, the greatest trial of that life was the absence of real
+hazard. Adventure and danger, which make discomfort tolerable to such
+men as they, were altogether wanting; in their place was nothing but a
+dull, dead level of endurance, an expenditure of time and strength to
+no apparent end.
+
+But by the middle of December the site of winter quarters was gained,
+and then the log huts began to take form. The men needed this
+consolation. Under date of the 14th, the journal says:--
+
+"Notwithstanding that scarcely a man has been dry for many days, the
+sick are recovering.... It had been cloudy all day, at night began to
+rain, and as we had no cover we were obliged to sit up the greater part
+of the night; for as soon as we lay down the rain would come under us
+and compel us to rise."
+
+"December 17th. It rained all night, and this morning there was a high
+wind; hail as well as rain fell; and on the top of a mountain about ten
+miles to the southeast of us we observed some snow. The greater part of
+our stores is wet; our leathern tent is so rotten that the slightest
+touch makes a rent in it, and it will now scarcely shelter a spot large
+enough for our beds. We were all busy in finishing the insides of the
+huts. The after part of the day was cool and fair. But this respite was
+of very short duration; for all night it continued raining and snowing
+alternately, and in the morning, December 18th, we had snow and hail
+till twelve o'clock, after which it changed to rain. The air now became
+cool and disagreeable, the wind high and unsettled; so that, being
+thinly dressed in leather, we were able to do very little on the
+houses."
+
+"December 20th. A succession of rain and hail during the night. At 10
+o'clock it cleared off for a short time, but the rain soon recommenced.
+We now covered in four of our huts. Three Indians came in a canoe with
+mats, roots, and the berries of the sacacommis. These people proceed
+with a dexterity and finesse in their bargains which, if they have not
+learned it from their foreign visitors, may show how nearly allied is
+the cunning of savages to the little arts of traffic. They begin by
+asking double or treble the value of what they have to sell, and lower
+their demand in proportion to the greater or less degree of ardor or
+knowledge of the purchaser, who, with all his management, is not able
+to procure an article for less than its real value, which the Indians
+perfectly understand."
+
+"December 24th. The whole stock of meat being now spoiled, our pounded
+fish became again our chief dependence. It rained constantly all day,
+but we still continued working, and at last moved into our huts."
+
+"December 25th. We were awaked at daylight by a discharge of firearms,
+which was followed by a song from the men, as a compliment to us on the
+return of Christmas, which we have always been accustomed to observe as
+a day of rejoicing. After breakfast we divided our remaining stock of
+tobacco, which amounted to twelve carrots, into two parts; one of which
+we distributed among such of the men as make use of it, making a
+present of a handkerchief to the others. The remainder of the day was
+passed in good spirits, though there was nothing in our situation to
+excite much gaiety. The rain confined us to the house, and our only
+luxuries in honor of the season were some poor elk, a few roots, and
+some spoiled pounded fish."
+
+The first of January witnessed the completion of the rude
+fortification, which was named Fort Clatsop, in honor of one of the
+better of the tribes near by,--a tribe whose members, according to
+Captain Clark, "sometimes washed their hands and faces." Then, the
+labor of building at an end, life settled into mere routine. The
+hunters were constantly engaged. No matter what fortune they had, they
+could not abate their industry, for the persistent moisture made it
+impossible to keep the meat from spoiling. Other men moved down to the
+shore, where they employed themselves in boiling sea-water, to obtain a
+supply of salt; and others were busy hobnobbing with the natives,
+practicing such wiles as they were masters of, in the effort to obtain
+small supplies of edible roots.
+
+The officers were engaged, as at Fort Mandan the previous winter,
+bringing up their journals and copying them out, and in collecting data
+for a report upon the natural history, ethnology, and trade of the
+coast. All were living by chance. Sometimes they had plenty; at other
+times they were reduced to extremities. Once they thought themselves
+very fortunate in being able to trade for a quantity of whale blubber
+which the Indians had taken from a dead carcass washed ashore near by.
+Captain Clark wrote that he "thanked providence for driving the whale
+to us; and think him much more kind to us than he was to Jonah having
+sent this monster to be swallowed by us, in sted of swallowing of us as
+jonah's did."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+HOMEWARD: IN THE MOUNTAINS
+
+
+Before the end of January, plans were being formed for the homeward
+journey. The men were dressing skins and making them into clothing and
+moccasins, and curing such meat as they could get, so as to be able to
+vary the fish diet of the Columbia. In February Captain Clark completed
+a map of the country between Fort Mandan and Fort Clatsop, and sketched
+a plan he had conceived for shortening the route from the mountains
+east of the Nez Perce villages to the Falls of the Missouri. His
+sagacity in this was marvelous; when it came to the point, his plan was
+found to be perfectly practicable, cutting off 580 miles from the most
+difficult part of the way. He was a born geographer; indeed, his was a
+catholic, a cosmopolitan genius.
+
+The greatest cause for uneasiness now lay in the depleted condition of
+the stock of merchandise intended for trade. On March 16th, when
+preparations for departure were nearing completion, there is this entry
+in the journals:--
+
+"All the small merchandise we possess might be tied up in a couple of
+handkerchiefs. The rest of our stock in trade consists of six blue
+robes, one scarlet ditto, five robes which we have made out of our
+large United States flag, a few old clothes trimmed with ribbons, and
+one artillerist's uniform coat and hat, which probably Captain Clark
+will never wear again. We have to depend entirely upon this meagre
+outfit for the purchase of such horses and provisions as it will be in
+our power to obtain,--a scant dependence, indeed, for such a journey as
+is before us."
+
+It was hard to persuade the coast Indians to sell the canoes that were
+necessary for the first part of the trip. The canoe afforded these
+people their chief means for getting a livelihood, and was valued
+accordingly. A boat and a woman were, by common consent, placed upon an
+equality of value,--certainly not an overestimate of the worth of the
+canoe, if one laid aside chivalry and regarded the squaws
+dispassionately. When Captain Lewis was compelled to give a half-carrot
+of tobacco and a laced coat in exchange for one of the little craft, he
+observed that he considered himself defrauded of the coat. No doubt he
+had in mind the native scale of values.
+
+"Many reasons had determined us to remain at Fort Clatsop until the
+first of April," says the journal entry of March 22d. "Besides the want
+of fuel in the Columbian plains, and the impracticability of passing
+the mountains before the beginning of June, we were anxious to see some
+of the foreign traders, from whom, by means of our ample letters of
+credit, we might have recruited our exhausted stores of merchandise.
+About the middle of March, however, we had become seriously alarmed for
+the want of food; the elk, our chief dependence, had at length deserted
+their usual haunts in our neighborhood and retreated to the mountains.
+We were too poor to purchase other food from the Indians, so that we
+were sometimes reduced, notwithstanding all the exertions of our
+hunters, to a single day's provisions in advance. The men, too, whom
+the constant rains and confinement had rendered unhealthy, might, we
+hoped, be benefited by leaving the coast and resuming the exercise of
+travel. We therefore determined to leave Fort Clatsop, ascend the river
+slowly, consume the month of March in the woody country, where we hoped
+to find subsistence, and in this way reach the plains about the first
+of April, before which time it will be impossible to attempt to cross
+them."
+
+The next day the canoes were loaded, and in the afternoon the party
+took leave of Fort Clatsop.
+
+Though the return along the Columbia was less fraught with danger than
+the descent, it was much more toilsome. Going down, the men had taken
+large chances in shooting the rapids; but coming back, portage had to
+be made of all such places. For this work horses were absolutely
+necessary; and to get a few of these from the Indians, who saw their
+chance for gain, brought the expedition to a state verging upon
+downright bankruptcy. Enough horses were secured, however, to enable
+them to pass step by step over the obstructions in their way, until at
+last the Great Falls were left behind. From that point they meant to
+proceed by land; and as the canoes were of no further use, they were
+cut up for firewood, which could not be otherwise obtained on the
+treeless plains.
+
+Thus far there had been no adventures of note, except such as grew out
+of the ill-nature and rascality of the Indians, who swarmed upon the
+banks of the stream, where they were assembled for their annual
+salmon-fishing. More than once the officers found it necessary to use
+harsh measures, in dealing with cases of theft. In striking contrast to
+these experiences was the meeting with the Walla-Wallas, a short
+distance above the Falls. These people freely gave to the travelers
+from their own scant supply of firewood and food; and the chief
+presented to Captain Clark a superb white horse, a kindness which Clark
+requited by the gift of his artillerist's sword. After leaving this
+hospitable village, the party was overtaken by three young men,
+Walla-Wallas, who had come a day's journey in order to restore a steel
+trap, inadvertently left behind.
+
+May 5th they came again to the lower villages of the Nez Perces, where
+they had stopped in the preceding October to make their dugout canoes.
+By this time they were practically destitute of all resources save
+those of the mind. To secure food, they were obliged to resort to the
+practice of medicine! Luckily, the scheme worked. Their patients were
+almost legion; their fame spread like a prairie fire. Nor was this mere
+quackery. All of the Indians of the Western slope were more or less
+afflicted with rheumatism, inflammation of the eyes, and other ills
+incident to an outdoor life in a humid climate; and the two officers,
+in the course of preparing themselves for their errand across the
+continent, had learned to use some of the simple remedies of the day.
+In some cases they gave relief to the sufferers; in others, wrote
+Captain Lewis, "we conscientiously abstained from giving them any but
+harmless medicines; and as we cannot possibly do harm, our
+prescriptions, though unsanctioned by the faculty, may be useful, and
+are entitled to some remuneration." They were thus enabled to secure
+the day's food, and to provide a little against the morrow. But severe
+trials yet remained.
+
+"May 6th [after taking up the trail].... It was now so difficult to
+procure anything to eat that our chief dependence was on the horse
+which we received yesterday for medicine; but to our great
+disappointment he broke the rope by which he was confined, made his
+escape, and left us supperless in the rain."
+
+Upon falling in again (on May 8th) with the band of Nez Perces in whose
+care they had left their horses in the autumn, they found the animals
+to be now much scattered over the plain, where they had been turned out
+to graze; but the chief promised to have them collected at once. He
+said further that his people had been made aware of the approach of the
+travelers, and of their being without provisions, and that he had a few
+days before dispatched several of his men to meet them, bearing
+supplies; but this relief party had taken another trail, and so missed
+a meeting.
+
+This old chief and his people showed themselves to be genuine friends.
+After two or three days, when their guests had explained their
+situation, and offered to exchange a horse in poor flesh for one that
+was fatter and more fit to be eaten, the chief was deeply offended by
+this conception of his hospitality, remarking that his tribe had an
+abundance of young horses, of which the men might use as many as they
+chose; and some of the warriors soon brought up two young and fat
+animals, for which they would accept nothing in return.
+
+To hold speech with this tribe was awkward. "In the first place," wrote
+Captain Lewis, "we spoke in English to one of our men, who translated
+it into French to Chaboneau; he interpreted it to his wife in the
+Minnetaree language; she then put it into Shoshone, and a young
+Shoshone prisoner explained it to the Chopunnish in their own dialect."
+But the common impulses of humanity found expression in more direct
+ways, without need for interpretation. Whether as friends or foes, the
+Nez Perces have always been celebrated for their generosity; and in
+those hard days they seemed to be just in their element. They could not
+do enough to show their good will.
+
+The expedition went into camp at a little distance from this village,
+waiting for their horses to be assembled, and waiting for the melting
+of the mountain snows, which now rendered further progress impossible.
+In this camp they remained until June 10, unwilling to impose upon
+their hosts, and hence were in sore straits most of the time.
+
+"May 21st. On parceling out the stores, the stock of each man was found
+to consist of only one awl and one knitting-pin, one half ounce of
+vermilion, two needles, and about a yard of ribbon--a slender means of
+bartering for our subsistence; but the men have been so much accustomed
+to privations that now neither the want of meat nor the scanty funds of
+the party excites the least anxiety among them."
+
+Again they were reduced to a diet of wild roots; but the amiable old
+chief discovered their situation, paid them a visit, and informed them
+that most of the horses running at large upon the surrounding plain
+belonged to the people of his village, insisting that if the party
+stood in want of meat, they would use these animals as their own.
+Surely the noble Nez Perces deserved better at the hands of our
+government than they got in later years. The benefits they were so
+ready to confer in time of need were shamelessly forgotten.
+
+June 1st two of the men, who had been sent to trade with the Indians
+for a supply of roots, and who carried all that remained of the
+merchandise, had the misfortune to lose it in the river. Then, says the
+journal, "we created a new fund, by cutting off the buttons from our
+clothes and preparing some eye-water and basilicon, to which were added
+some phials and small tin boxes in which we had once kept phosphorus.
+With this cargo two men set out in the morning to trade, and brought
+home three bushels of roots and some bread, which, in our situation,
+was as important as the return of an East India ship."
+
+"June 8th.... Several foot-races were run between our men and the
+Indians; the latter, who are very active and fond of these races,
+proved themselves very expert, and one of them was as fleet as our
+swiftest runners. After the races were over, the men divided themselves
+into two parties and played prison base, an exercise which we are
+desirous of encouraging, before we begin the passage over the
+mountains, as several of the men are becoming lazy from inaction."
+
+On the 10th they left this camp and moved eastward, drawing slowly
+toward the mountains, and keeping an anxious lookout for hunting
+grounds. In this quest they were not successful; all the wild creatures
+round about had suffered much in the long winter, and the few they were
+able to secure were so much reduced in flesh as to be unfit for food.
+They could only push forward. On the 15th they came to the foothills of
+the Bitter Root Range; and on the 17th they were well into its heart,
+ascending the main ridges. But here they soon discovered the
+impossibility of proceeding in their situation. The snow lay everywhere
+to a depth of twelve or fifteen feet, completely hiding the trail. To
+delay until the snow melted would defeat the intention of getting to
+St. Louis before another winter. To go on was to risk losing themselves
+altogether. As they stated the question to themselves, frankly, it
+seemed like a game of tossing pennies, with Fate imposing the familiar
+catch, "Heads, I win; tails, you lose."
+
+"We halted at the sight of this new difficulty," says Captain Lewis.
+"... We now found that as the snow bore our horses very well, traveling
+was infinitely easier than it was last fall, when the rocks and fallen
+timber had so much obstructed our march." But with the best of fortune,
+at least five days must be spent in getting through this dreadful
+fastness. Unfamiliar as they were with the route, the chances against
+getting through at all were tenfold. "During these five days, too, we
+have no chance of finding either grass or underwood for our horses, the
+snow being so deep. To proceed, therefore, under such circumstances,
+would be to hazard our being bewildered in the mountains, and to insure
+the loss of our horses; even should we be so fortunate as to escape
+with our lives, we might be obliged to abandon our papers and
+collections. It was, therefore, decided not to venture any further; to
+deposit here all the baggage and provisions for which we had no
+immediate use; and, reserving only subsistence for a few days, to
+return while our horses were yet strong to some spot where we might
+live by hunting, till a guide could be procured to conduct us across
+the mountains."
+
+Just at that moment they were almost in despair. The next day two of
+the best men turned back to the Nez Perce villages, to endeavor to
+procure a guide, while the main party moved down toward the plains,
+supporting life meagrely, waiting for something to turn up. They were
+quite powerless until help of some kind should come to them.
+
+To their infinite relief, the messengers returned in a few days,
+bringing guides, who undertook to conduct the party to the Falls of the
+Missouri, for which service they were to be recompensed by two guns.
+Under their care a fresh start was made, and by nightfall of the 26th,
+passing over a perilous trail, they had found a small bit of ground
+from which the snow had melted, leaving exposed a growth of young
+grass, where the horses had pasturage for the night.
+
+"June 27th.... From this lofty spot we have a commanding view of the
+surrounding mountains, which so completely enclose us that, though we
+have once passed them [in the preceding September], we almost despair
+of ever escaping from them without the assistance of the Indians....
+Our guides traverse this trackless region with a kind of instinctive
+sagacity; they never hesitate, they are never embarrassed; and so
+undeviating is their step, that wherever the snow has disappeared, for
+even a hundred paces, we find the summer road."
+
+On the 29th they descended from the snowy mountains to the main branch
+of the Kooskooskee, where they found the body of a deer that had been
+left for them by the hunters, who were working in advance,--"a very
+seasonable addition to our food; for having neither meat nor oil, we
+were reduced to a diet of roots, without salt or any other addition."
+
+The first day of July found them encamped at the mouth of Traveler's
+Rest Creek, where all mountain trails converged. It was from this place
+that Captain Clark's plan for a shorter route to the Falls of the
+Missouri was to be put into execution. But that was not all that lay in
+their minds.
+
+"We now formed the following plan of operations: Captain Lewis, with
+nine men, is to pursue the most direct route to the Falls of the
+Missouri, where three of his party are to be left to prepare carriages
+for transporting the baggage and canoes across the portage. With the
+remaining six, he will ascend Maria's River to explore the country and
+ascertain whether any branch of it reaches as far north as latitude
+50 deg., after which he will descend that river to its mouth. The rest of
+the men will accompany Captain Clark to the head of Jefferson River,
+which Sergeant Ordway and a party of nine men will descend, with the
+canoes and other articles deposited there. Captain Clark's party, which
+will then be reduced to ten, will proceed to the Yellowstone, at its
+nearest approach to the Three Forks of the Missouri. There he will
+build canoes, go down that river with seven of his party, and wait at
+its mouth till the rest of the party join him. Sergeant Pryor, with two
+others, will then take the horses by land to the Mandans. From that
+nation he will go to the British posts on the Assiniboin with a letter
+to Mr. Henry, to procure his endeavors to prevail on some of the Sioux
+chiefs to accompany him to Washington."
+
+It is hard to understand that indomitable humor. Here they were, just
+freed from imminent disaster, worn, half-starved, beggared, yet bobbing
+up like corks from the depths, and forthwith making calm preparations
+for fresh labors of a grave kind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+RECROSSING THE DIVIDE
+
+
+By the route made famous as Lewis and Clark's Pass, Captain Lewis's
+party on July 7th recrossed the Great Divide that separates the
+Atlantic from the Pacific, and upon the next day they again ate of the
+flesh of the buffalo. On the 16th they were at the Falls of the
+Missouri; and two days later they reached the mouth of Maria's River,
+which they were to explore.
+
+Ten days were spent in this exploration, until further progress was
+stopped, on the 26th, by an encounter with a band of the dreaded
+Minnetarees of Fort de Prairie, who had wrought such havoc among the
+Shoshones,--a set of roving outlaws, who held a reign of terror over
+all the tribes of the northwestern plains.
+
+Captain Lewis determined to meet these folk as he had met all others.
+He held a council with them, smoked the pipe of peace, and endeavored
+to explain to them his mission. When night came, whites and Indians
+camped together. Lewis knew that he must be on his guard, and had some
+of his men remain awake throughout the night; but in the early dawn the
+Minnetarees, catching the sentry unawares, stole the guns of the party
+and tried to make off with them. A hand-to-hand fight followed. One of
+the men, in struggling with an Indian and endeavoring to wrest a stolen
+gun from him, killed him by a knife-thrust. The savages then attempted
+to drive off the horses; but in this they were thwarted. Being hard
+pressed, and one of their number shot by Captain Lewis's pistol, they
+were forced to retreat, leaving twelve of their own horses behind. The
+whites were the gainers, for they took away four of the captured
+animals, while losing but one of their own. The Indians had also lost a
+gun, shields, bows and arrows. Most of this stuff was burned; but about
+the neck of the dead warrior, whose body remained upon the field,
+Captain Lewis left a medal, "so that the Indians might know who we
+were." The Minnetarees never forgot or forgave this meeting. For long
+years afterward they nursed the thought of revenge, doing what they
+could to obstruct settlement of the country.
+
+This encounter made it necessary to stop further exploration of Maria's
+River, and to retreat with all speed toward the Missouri, before the
+Indians could recover, gather re-enforcements, and offer battle at
+greater odds. It was not to be supposed that they would pass by the
+shedding of their tribal blood without seeking immediate vengeance. The
+explorers had a fair start, however, and after hard riding reached the
+banks of the Missouri just in time to meet Sergeant Ordway's party
+descending the river with the canoes and baggage that had been
+recovered from the resting place on the Jefferson,--a fortunate
+occurrence indeed. Reunited, the two parties hurried down the river at
+a great rate, the rapid current aiding the oarsmen, and got out of the
+way before the Minnetarees appeared.
+
+On August 7th, after a day's cruise of eighty-three miles, they reached
+the mouth of the Yellowstone, where they found a note that had been
+left by Captain Clark, saying that he would await them a few miles
+below. He waited for several days; but then, fearing that Lewis's party
+had already passed, he moved forward, and the two commands were not
+joined until the 12th.
+
+In the mean time, after the separation at Traveler's Rest Creek,
+Captain Clark's party, too, had found a new pass over the Continental
+Divide,--a road 164 miles in length, suitable for wagon travel. July
+8th they came to the spot upon Jefferson River where the canoes and
+merchandise had been buried the summer before. The boats were raised
+and loaded, and Sergeant Ordway and his men proceeded with them down
+the river, while Captain Clark's party set out overland, with the
+horses, to the Yellowstone. On this trip Captain Clark had an efficient
+guide in Sacajawea, the "Bird Woman," who brought him to the
+Yellowstone on the 15th, at the point where the river issues from the
+mountains through its lower canyon. After traveling for four days along
+the banks, they halted to build canoes, in which they made the passage
+to the Missouri, a distance of eight hundred miles, reaching the
+confluence on August 3d. Aside from the knowledge of the Yellowstone
+country which was acquired, the only important event of the journey was
+the loss of all the horses, which were stolen by prowling bands of
+Indians. This was a serious loss; for they were depending upon the
+horses for barter with the Mandans, in order to procure a supply of
+corn for the journey to St. Louis. But there was no time for mourning.
+The men went into camp at a short distance below the mouth of the
+Yellowstone, where they occupied themselves, while waiting for Lewis's
+party, in hunting and dressing skins, which they meant to offer to the
+Mandans in exchange for needed stores.
+
+While they were thus engaged, on the 11th they hailed a canoe passing
+up stream, that contained two men who had come from the Illinois
+country to hunt upon the Yellowstone. These were the first whites seen
+since April 13, 1805, a period of sixteen months. As a matter of course
+Clark was famished for news from the United States; but what he got
+from the wanderers was not cheerful.
+
+"These two men [who had left the Illinois in the summer of 1804] had
+met the boat which we had dispatched from Fort Mandan, on board of
+which, they were told, was a Ricara chief on his way to Washington; and
+also another party of Yankton chiefs, accompanying Mr. Dorion on a
+visit of the same kind. We were sorry to learn that the Mandans and
+Minnetarees were at war with the Ricaras, and had killed two of them.
+The Assiniboins too are at war with the Mandans. They have, in
+consequence, prohibited the Northwestern Company from trading to the
+Missouri, and even killed two of their traders near Mouse River; they
+are now lying in wait for Mr. McKenzie of the Northwestern Company, who
+had been for a long time among the Minnetarees. These appearances are
+rather unfavorable to our project of carrying some of the chiefs to the
+United States; but we still hope that, by effecting a peace between the
+Mandans, Minnetarees, and Ricaras, the views of our government may be
+accomplished."
+
+This meant that the solemn treaties of peace concluded at Fort Mandan
+amongst the several Indian tribes, under the auspices of the
+expedition, had been broken. The news was displeasing, but probably not
+wholly unexpected.
+
+August 14th, two days after the reunion of the two parties, they came
+again to the home of their acquaintances, the Mandans and the
+Minnetarees. They showed these people every consideration; and the
+swivel gun, which could not be used on the small boats, was presented
+to old Le Borgne, who bore it in state to his lodge, thinking his own
+thoughts. One of the Mandan chiefs joined them here for the journey
+down the river.
+
+Then occurred another brief conference with the Ricaras, with a renewal
+of the old pledges of peace and good will toward all men--excepting the
+Sioux. Reckless as they were in making promises, they, like all their
+neighbors, weak or strong, would not commit themselves to attempting
+conciliation of the Sioux.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+HOME
+
+
+After leaving the Ricara villages, the men were possessed by an ardent
+longing to get home; and the Missouri, as though it had learned to know
+and respect and love them, and could appreciate their ardor, lent them
+its best aid. Upon the swift current, and under pleasant skies, the
+boats flew onward. Seventy-five or eighty miles a day was a common
+achievement; but even that progress did not keep pace with the speed of
+their desires. There was nothing more to be accomplished, no reason for
+lingering by the way; and there was nothing to be guarded against,
+except possible trouble with the Tetons. As the boats passed through
+their country, these people appeared in large numbers upon the banks,
+shouting invitations to land; but the officers felt safer in refusing
+further intercourse. The Tetons were obliged to content themselves with
+trotting along upon the shore, keeping abreast of the boats as well as
+they were able, crying out taunts and imprecations; and one, more
+zealous in his passion, went to the top of a hill and struck the earth
+three times with the butt of his gun,--the registration of a mighty
+oath against the whites, long since abundantly fulfilled.
+
+Occasionally there was a meeting with a trading party from St. Louis or
+elsewhere, with brief exchange of news and gossip; but they were
+growing too eager for loitering. On the 9th of September they passed
+the mouth of the Platte; and on the 12th they met one of their own men
+who had been sent back with the batteau from Fort Mandan, in April,
+1805. This man was now returning to the Ricaras, with a message from
+President Jefferson, and an independent mission to instruct the Ricaras
+in methods of agriculture. A few days later they met with one Captain
+McClellan, an old acquaintance of Captain Clark, who told them that the
+people of the United States had generally given them up for lost,
+though the President still entertained hopes of their return.
+
+"September 20th.... As we moved along rapidly we saw on the banks some
+cows feeding, and the whole party almost involuntarily raised a shout
+of joy at seeing this image of civilization and domestic life. Soon
+after we reached the little French village of La Charette, which we
+saluted with a discharge of four guns and three hearty cheers. We
+landed, and were received with kindness by the inhabitants.... They
+were all equally surprised and pleased at our arrival, for they had
+long since abandoned all hopes of ever seeing us return."
+
+The next day they came to the village of St. Charles; and on the 22d
+they stopped at a cantonment of United States soldiery, three miles
+above the mouth of the Missouri, where they passed the day. The
+concluding paragraphs of the journals must be quoted literally from
+Captain Clark:--
+
+"September 23rd. Took an early brackfast with Colo Hunt and set out,
+descended to the Mississippi and down that river to St. Louis at which
+place we arived about 12 o'clock. We suffered the party to fire off
+their pieces as a Salute to the Town. We were met by all the village
+and received a harty welcom from its inhabitants &c here I found my old
+acquaintance Maj W. Christy who had settled in this town in a public
+line as a Tavern Keeper. He furnished us with storeroom for our baggage
+and we accepted of the invitation of Mr. Peter Choteau and took a room
+in his house. We payed a friendly visit to Mr. Auguste Choteau and some
+of our old friends this evening. As the post had departed from St.
+Louis Capt. Lewis wrote a note to Mr. Hay in Kahoka to detain the post
+at that place until 12 tomorrow which was rather later than his usual
+time of leaveing it.
+
+"Wednesday 24th of September, 1806. I sleped but little last night
+however we rose early and commenced wrighting our letters Capt. Lewis
+wrote one to the presidend and I wrote Gov. Harrison and my friends in
+Kentucky and sent off George Drewyer with those letters to Kohoka &
+delivered them to Mr. Hays &c. We dined with Mr. Chotoux to day and
+after dinner went to a store and purchased some clothes, which we gave
+to a taylor and derected to be made. Capt. Lewis in opening his trunk
+found all his papers wet and some seeds spoiled.
+
+"Thursday 25th of Septr. 1806. had all our skins &c suned and stored
+away in a storeroom of Mr. Caddy Choteau, payed some visits of form, to
+the gentlemen of St. Louis, in the evening a dinner & Ball.
+
+"Friday 26th of Septr. 1806. a fine morning we commenced wrighting,
+&c."
+
+That is the last word in the chronicles of the expedition,--modest,
+unassuming, matter-of-fact--the word of one who had done a difficult
+thing thoroughly and well, and who was at the end, as he had been
+throughout, larger than the mere circumstances of his labor. His
+companion was of the same stalwart stuff. It is hard to choose between
+them in any essential detail of manhood. Nor were the officers much
+exalted in temper above the men of their command. When we are
+celebrating the heroes of our national life, every name upon the roster
+of the Lewis and Clark Expedition deserves to be remembered.
+
+                     *      *      *      *      *
+
+In this brief narrative, we have just touched the hilltops of the
+adventures of the expedition. Much of importance has been suggested
+indirectly; much has been passed by altogether. Each day's work was
+full of value and had a lasting significance.
+
+One thing remains to be said. We must not forget that the undertaking
+was not primarily one of adventure; it was an exploration, in the
+broadest sense of the word. It was not the mere fact of getting across
+the continent and back that gave the work its character, but the
+observations that were made by the way. A book of this size would not
+contain a bare catalogue of the deeds and discoveries of those
+twenty-eight months; nor could any number of volumes do full justice to
+their importance. Whoever reads the journals, from whatever point of
+view, is amazed by what they reveal. Geographers, ethnologists,
+botanists, geologists, Indian traders, and men of affairs, all are of
+one mind upon this point. We must wait long before we find the work of
+Lewis and Clark equaled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+AFTER LIFE
+
+
+It would be a pleasant labor, and one well worth the pains, to record
+the story of the later years of every one of those valiant souls, from
+the highest to the lowest. But that may not be done here. The best
+homage that can be rendered to the subordinates is to speak of their
+common motive: simple-hearted, unselfish devotion to the interests of
+the nation, unstained by ulterior hope of private gain. A bill was
+passed by Congress in 1807, granting to the non-commissioned officers
+and privates, according to rank, a sum of money equal to double pay for
+the period of service, and, in addition, 300 acres of land from the
+public domain. But nothing beyond ordinary pay had been definitely
+pledged in advance. Clearly it was not the expectation of material
+reward which sustained them.
+
+The bill passed by Congress included also a grant of 1500 acres of land
+to Captain Lewis, and of 1000 acres to Captain Clark. It is upon record
+that Lewis, in the spirit which had regulated all of his relations with
+Clark, objected to this discrimination in his favor.
+
+In March, 1804, before the expedition set out, the newly acquired
+Louisiana Territory was divided by Congress, the dividing line being
+the 33d parallel. The southern portion was named the District of New
+Orleans, and the northern, the District of Louisiana; this name being
+changed, a year later, to Louisiana Territory.
+
+On March 3d, 1807, Meriwether Lewis was made governor of this
+territory, with headquarters at the village of St. Louis; and this
+office he held until he died, October 11, 1809, at the age of
+thirty-five years.
+
+Although his service in this position was so untimely short, he did
+much toward laying a firm foundation for the institutions of lawful and
+orderly life. According to Mr. Jefferson, "he found the territory
+distracted by feuds and contentions among the officers of the
+government, and the people themselves divided by these into factions
+and parties. He determined at once to take no side with either, but to
+use every endeavor to conciliate and harmonize them. The even-handed
+justice he administered to all soon established a respect for his
+person and authority, and perseverance and time wore down animosities,
+and reunited the citizens again into one family."
+
+In the newly organized society, events rapidly took form. Governor
+Lewis, with two others (judges of the court), constituted the
+territorial legislature, which concerned itself at once with matters of
+development,--providing for the establishment of towns, laying out
+roads, etc. In 1808 the laws of Louisiana Territory were collected and
+published, under the supervision of the legislature. This was the first
+book printed in St. Louis. A post-office was established also in 1808,
+and soon afterward the first newspaper appeared. From a mere frontier
+trading settlement, whose conduct was regulated by untamed impulses,
+St. Louis was being put in the way of its present greatness.
+
+Aside from these purely administrative duties, the governor was further
+occupied in endeavoring to secure permanent peace with the Indians, and
+to prepare them for receiving the advantages of civilized life. This
+was his largest thought, growing naturally out of all that he had seen
+and done in the years preceding; and in it he was supported and
+inspired by continued association with Captain Clark, who had been
+appointed Indian agent for the territory. He had plenty to do; and in
+such intervals as could be found, he was preparing for publication the
+history of his travels.
+
+The manner of his death is not exactly known. Although several writers
+have given their best efforts to erasing what they seem to consider a
+blot upon his reputation, the weight of opinion appears to sustain Mr.
+Jefferson's statement that he committed suicide while affected by
+hypochondria. Mr. Jefferson wrote in his memoir:--
+
+    "Governor Lewis had from early life been subject to hypochondriac
+    affections. It was a constitutional disposition in all the nearer
+    branches of the family of his name, and was more immediately
+    inherited by him from his father. They had not, however, been so
+    strong as to give uneasiness to his family. While he lived with me
+    in Washington I observed at times sensible depressions of mind;
+    but, knowing their constitutional source, I estimated their course
+    by what I had seen in the family. During his Western expedition,
+    the constant exertion which that required of all the faculties of
+    body and mind suspended these distressing affections; but after his
+    establishment at St. Louis in sedentary occupations, they returned
+    to him with redoubled vigor and began seriously to alarm his
+    friends. He was in a paroxysm of one of these when his affairs
+    rendered it necessary for him to go to Washington."
+
+He proceeded upon this journey, and was crossing through Tennessee when
+death overtook him, at the cabin of a backwoodsman where he had stopped
+for the night. Some of the circumstances point to murder, others to
+suicide; the truth is conjectural. What does it matter, after all? He
+had lived largely; had done a man's work; he has a noble place in
+history.
+
+A better fortune was in store for Captain Clark. He was destined for
+long and honorable service in public life, and a fair old age.
+
+On the 12th of March, 1807, a few days following Captain Lewis's
+appointment as governor of Louisiana Territory, Captain Clark was
+commissioned by President Jefferson as brigadier-general of the
+territorial militia, and as Indian agent. Dr. Coues says in his
+excellent biographical sketch that "in those days this title was not
+synonymous with 'thief,' and the position was one of honor, not to be
+sought or used for dishonest purposes." Then William Clark was the man
+for the place. Throughout his public life there is no stain of any sort
+upon his name. With his strong, decisive, straightforward character,
+which would not suffer him to yield a jot in his ideas of right and
+wrong, he must have excited jealousies and made some enemies; but none
+of these had the hardihood to speak against his integrity.
+
+His best work was accomplished as Indian agent. In that position he was
+in fact and in name the foster-father of all the tribes who lived in
+the territory he had helped to explore. It devolved upon him to
+acquaint the Indians with the nature and purposes of our government,
+and to bring them into obedience to its laws. More than this, he had a
+large task before him in endeavoring to reconcile the traditional
+enmities of the tribes one against another. He succeeded well. He got
+the confidence of the natives, and kept it; from fearing his power,
+most of them came to revere the man. When all is said of the
+Indians,--of their savage craft, their obliquity of moral vision, their
+unsparing cruelty, and their utter remissness in most matters of
+behavior, the fact remains that they know how to appreciate candor and
+honor, and will respond to it as well as they are able. They are slow
+to believe in wordy protestations: they must have signs more tangible.
+They will not trust all men of white complexion merely because they
+have found one trustworthy; each man must prove himself and stand for
+himself. William Clark gave them a rare exhibition of upright,
+downright manliness, and they learned to respect and love him. He was
+soon celebrated from St. Louis to the Pacific, and was called by the
+name "Red-Head." To this day, old men of the Rocky Mountain tribes
+speak of him with fondness, saying that our government has never shown
+another like him.
+
+He was a man of iron; his was an iron rule. In that time, Indian
+affairs were comparatively free from the modern bureaucratic control;
+the agent devised and followed his own plans, unhampered by jealous
+superiors. It has been said that Clark's office was that of an
+autocrat, a condition too dangerous to be generally tolerated. Clark
+was indeed an exception. The most absolute power could be intrusted to
+him with implicit confidence that it would not be abused. The Indians
+themselves, who were the most directly concerned, did not rebel against
+his unbending authority. If he was stern, exacting the utmost, and
+holding them to a strict accountability for violations of law, they
+knew that his least word of promise was certain of fulfillment. They
+did not find his rule too onerous under those conditions. While he held
+sway, the Western Indian country was in an unequaled state of order and
+decency.
+
+Not the least of our debts to Captain Clark lies in the fact that it
+was he who brought the journals of the great expedition to public view.
+Captain Lewis had not been able to finish this work before his death;
+most of the details of arrangement for publication fell to his
+surviving companion, with the admirable editorial supervision of
+Nicholas Biddle. It is often regretted that editorial revision of the
+manuscripts was considered necessary; for what was thus gained
+sometimes in clearness and brevity of statement was more than lost in
+delicious naivete. Mr. Biddle did his part thoroughly, sympathetically;
+and it was he who succeeded in finding a publisher,--a matter hard to
+accomplish in that time, troubled as it was with war and with political
+and commercial uncertainty. The authentic history did not appear until
+the year 1814.
+
+Meanwhile, Captain Clark had passed to fresh honors. Following the
+death of Governor Lewis, Benjamin Howard was appointed as his
+successor. In 1812 the name of the territory was changed to Missouri;
+and in 1813 Captain Clark was appointed by President Madison as its
+governor. After being reappointed by Madison in 1816 and 1817, and by
+Monroe in 1820, he surrendered his office upon the admission of
+Missouri to statehood, when a governor was elected by vote of the
+people. In 1822 he was named by President Monroe to be Superintendent
+of Indian Affairs, and this post he held for sixteen years thereafter,
+until his death.
+
+He died as a man of his make would wish to die. He was sixty-eight
+years of age, but still in harness and able to do his work. He passed
+quietly away at the home of his eldest son, Meriwether Lewis Clark, in
+St. Louis, on the first day of September, 1838.
+
+_And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought
+it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land
+which the Lord our God doth give us._
+
+
+The Riverside Press
+_Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton & Co._
+_Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A._
+
+
+
+
+
+
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