Ch 14B Index Ch 16
The Journals of Lewis And Clark
Chapter 15
Captain Clark thought himself somewhat bilious...
27 July 1805 to 11 August 1805
Captain Clark thought himself somewhat bilious and had not had a passage for several days. I prevailed on him to take a dose of Rush's pills, which I have always found sovereign in such cases, and to bathe his feet in warm water and rest himself. Captain Clark's indisposition was a further inducement for my remaining here a couple of days. I therefore informed the men of my intention, and they put their deer skins in the water in order to prepare them for dressing tomorrow.
We begin to feel considerable anxiety with respect to the Snake Indians. If we do not find them or some other nation who have horses, I fear the successful issue of our voyage will be very doubtful, or at all events much more difficult in its accomplishment. We are now several hundred miles within the bosom of this wild and mountainous country, where game may rationally be expected shortly to become scarce and subsistence precarious without any information with respect to the country, not knowing how far these mountains continue, or where to direct our course to pass them to advantage or intercept a navigable branch of the Columbia; or even were we on such an one, the probability is that we should not find any timber within these mountains large enough for canoes, if we judge from the portion of them through which we have passed.
However, I still hope for the best, and intend taking a tramp myself in a few days to find these yellow 2 gentlemen if possible. My two principal consolations are that from our present position it is impossible that the S.W. fork can head with the waters of any other river but the Columbia, and that if any Indians can subsist in the form of a nation in these mountains with the means they have of acquiring food, we can also subsist.
Captain Lewis, 27 July 1805
My friend Captain Clark was very sick all last night but feels himself somewhat better this morning, since his medicine has operated. I dispatched two men early this morning up the S.E. fork to examine the river, and permitted sundry others to hunt in the neighborhood of this place. Both Captain Clark and myself corresponded in opinion with respect to the impropriety of calling either of these streams the Missouri, and accordingly agreed to name them after the President of the United States and the Secretaries of the Treasury and State, having previously named one river in honor of the Secretaries of War and Navy.
In pursuance of this resolution, we called the S.W. fork- that which we meant to ascend- Jefferson's River, in honor of that illustrious personage, Thomas Jefferson [the author of our enterprise]. The middle fork we called Madison's River, in honor of James Madison; and the S.E. fork we called Gallatin's River, in honor of Albert Gallatin. The two first are 90 yards wide, and the last is 70 yards. All of them run with great velocity and throw out large bodies of water. Gallatin's River is rather more rapid than either of the others, is not quite as deep, but from all appearances may be navigated to a considerable distance.
Captain Clark, who came down Madison's River yesterday and has also seen Jefferson's some distance, thinks Madison's rather the most rapid, but it is not as much so, by any means, as Gallatin's. The beds of all these streams are formed of smooth pebble and gravel, and their waters perfectly transparent; in short, they are three noble streams.
Our present camp is precisely on the spot that the Snake Indians were encamped at the time the Minnetarees of the Knife River first came in sight of them five years since. From hence they retreated about three miles up Jefferson's River and concealed themselves in the woods. The Minnetarees pursued, attacked them, killed four men, four women, a number of boys, and made prisoners of all the females and four boys. Sacagawea, our Indian woman, was one of the female prisoners taken at that time, though I cannot discover that she shows any emotion of sorrow in recollecting this event, or of joy in being again restored to her native country. If she has enough to eat and a few trinkets to wear, I believe she would be perfectly content anywhere.
Captain Lewis, 28 July 1805
Captain Clark set out this morning as usual. He walked on shore a small distance this morning and killed a deer. In the course of his walk he saw a track which he supposed to be that of an Indian from the circumstance of the large toes turning inward. He pursued the track and found that the person had ascended a point of a hill from which his camp of the last evening was visible. This circumstance also confirmed the belief of its being an Indian who had thus discovered them, and ran off.
Captain Lewis, 3 August 1805
We set out this morning very early on our return to the Forks. Having nothing to eat, I sent Drouilliard to the wood-lands to my left in order to kit a deer; sent Sergeant Gass to the right with orders to keep sufficiently near to discover Captain Clark and the party should they be on their way up that stream; and, with Charbonneau, I directed my course to the main Forks through the bottom, directing the others to meet us there.
About five miles above the Forks, I heard the whooping of the party to my left and changed my route toward them. On my arrival, found that they had taken the rapid fork and learned from Captain Clark that he had not found the note which I had left for him at that place and the reasons which had induced him to ascend this stream. It was easiest and more in our direction, and appeared to contain as much water. He had, however, previously to my coming up with him, met Drouilliard, who informed him of the state of the two rivers and was on his return.
One of their canoes had just overset and all the baggage wet- the medicine box, among other articles- and several articles lost, a shot pouch and horn with all the implements for one rifle lost and never recovered. I walked down to the point where I waited their return.
On their arrival, found that two other canoes had filled with water and wet their cargoes completely. Whitehouse had been thrown out of one of the canoes as she swung in a rapid current, and the canoe had rubbed him and pressed him to the bottom as she passed over him, and had the water been two inches shallower must inevitably have crushed him to death. Our parched meal, corn, Indian presents, and a great part of our most valuable stores were wet and much damaged on this occasion. To examine, dry, and arrange our stores was the first object. We therefore passed over to the larboard side, opposite to the entrance of the rapid fork, where there was a large gravelly bar that answered our purposes. Wood was also convenient and plenty. Here we fixed our camp and unloaded all our canoes, and opened, and exposed to dry, such articles as had been wet.
A part of the load of each canoe consisted of the leaden canisters of powder, which were not in the least injured though some of them had remained upwards of an hour under water. About 20 pounds of powder which we had in a tight keg, or at least one which we thought sufficiently so, got wet and entirely spoiled. This would have been the case with the other had it not been for the expedient which I had fallen on of securing the powder by means of the lead, having the latter formed into canisters which were filled with the necessary proportion of powder to discharge the lead when used, and those canisters well secured with corks and wax.
Shannon had been dispatched up the rapid fork this morning to hunt by Captain Clark before he met with Drouilliard or learned his mistake in the rivers. When he returned, he sent Drouilliard in search of him, but he rejoined us this evening and reported that he had been several miles up the river and could find nothing of him. We had the trumpet sounded and fired several guns, but he did not join us this evening. I am fearful he is lost again. This is the same man who was separated from us fifteen days as we came up the Missouri, and subsisted nine days of that time on grapes only.
Whitehouse is in much pain this evening with the injury one of his legs sustained from the canoe today, at the time it upset and swung over him. Captain Clark's ankle is also very painful to him. We should have given the party a day's rest somewhere near this place had not this accident happened, as I had determined to take some observations to fix the latitude and longitude of these forks. Our merchandise, medicine, &c., are not sufficiently dry this evening. We covered them securely for the evening. Captain Clark had ascended the river about nine miles from this place on course of S 30� W before he met with Drouilliard.
We believe that the N.W. or rapid fork is the drain of the melting snows of the mountains, and that it is not as long as the middle fork, and does not at all seasons of the year supply anything like as much water as the other, and that about this season it rises to its greatest height. This last appears from the apparent bed of the river, which is now overflowed, and the water in many places spreads through old channels which have their bottoms covered with grass that has grown this season, and is such as appears on the parts of the bottom not inundated. We therefore determined that the middle fork was that which ought of right to bear the name we had given to the lower portion, or River Jefferson; and called the bold, rapid, and clear stream Wisdom; and the more mild and placid one which flows in from the S.E. Philanthropy, in commemoration of two of those cardinal virtues which have so eminently marked that deservedly celebrated character through life.
Captain Lewis, 6 August 1805
At one o'clock all our baggage was dry. We therefore packed it up, reloaded the canoes, and the party proceeded with Captain Clark up Jefferson's River. I remained with Sergeant Gass to complete the observation of equal altitudes and joined them in the evening at their camp. We have not heard anything from Shannon yet; we expect that he has pursued Wisdom River upwards for some distance, probably killed some heavy animal, and is awaiting our arrival. The large biting fly, or hare fly as they are sometimes called, are very troublesome to us. I observe two kinds of them- a large black species, and a small brown species with a green head.
Captain Lewis, 7 August 1805
The Indian woman recognized the point of a high plain to our right, which, she informed us, was not very distant from the summer retreat of her nation, on a river beyond the mountains which runs to the west. This hill, she says, her nation calls the Beaver's Head, from a conceived resemblance of its figure to the head of that animal. She assures us that we shall either find her people on this river, or on the river immediately west of its source, which, from its present size, cannot be very distant.
As it is now all important with us to meet with those people as soon as possible, I determined to proceed tomorrow with a small party to the source of the principal stream of this river and pass the mountains to the Columbia, and down that river until I found the Indians. In short, it is my resolution to find them or some others who have horses, if it should cause me a trip of one month. For, without horses we shall be obliged to leave a great part of our stores, of which it appears to me that we have a stock already sufficiently small for the length of the voyage before us.
Captain Lewis, 8 August 1805
The morning was fair and fine; we set out at an early hour and proceeded on very well. I walked on shore across the land to a point which I presumed they would reach by 8 A.M., our usual time of halting. The party did not arrive, and I returned about a mile and met them. Here they halted and we breakfasted. While we halted here, Shannon arrived and informed us that, having missed the party the day on which he set out, he had returned the next morning to the place from whence he had set out and, not finding them, that he had supposed that they were above him; that he had then marched one day up Wisdom River, by which time he was convinced that they were not above him, as the river could not be navigated; he had then returned to the Forks and pursued us up this river. He had lived very plentifully this trip, but looked a good deal worried with his march. Captain Lewis, 9 August 1805 We set out very early this morning, but the track which we had pursued last evening soon disappeared. I therefore resolved to proceed to the narrow pass on the creek, about 10 miles west, in hopes that I should again find the Indian road at that place. Accordingly, I passed the river, which was about 12 yards wide and barred in several places entirely across by beaver dams, and proceeded through the level plain directly to the pass. I now sent Drouilliard to keep near the creek to my right and Shields to my left, with orders to search for the road, which if they found, they were to notify me by placing a hat on the muzzle of their gun. I kept McNeal with me. After having marched in this order for about five miles, I discovered an Indian on horseback about two miles distant, coming down the plain toward us. With my glass, I discovered from his dress that he was of a different nation from any that we had yet seen, and was satisfied of his being a Shoshone. His arms were a bow and quiver of arrows, and he was mounted on an elegant horse without a saddle, and a small string which was attached to the under jaw of the horse which answered as a bridle. I was overjoyed at the sight of this stranger, and had no doubt of obtaining a friendly introduction to his nation, provided I could get near enough to him to convince him of our being white men. I therefore proceeded toward him at my usual pace. When I had arrived within about a mile, he made a halt, which I did also; and unloosing my blanket from my pack, I made him the signal of friendship known to the Indians of the Rocky Mountains and those of the Missouri - which is, by holding the mantle or robe in your hands at two corners and then throwing it up in the air higher than the head, bringing it to the earth as if in the act of spreading it, thus repeating three times. This signal of the robe has arisen from a custom among all those nations of spreading a robe or skin for their guests to sit on when they are visited. This signal had not the desired effect. He still kept his position, and seemed to view Drouilliard and Shields, who were now coming in sight on either hand, with an air of suspicion. I would willingly have made them halt, but they were too far distant to hear me, and I feared to make any signal to them lest it should increase the suspicion in the mind of the Indian of our having some unfriendly design upon him. I therefore hastened to take out of my sack some beads a looking glass, and a few trinkets, which I had brought with me for this purpose and, leaving my gun and pouch with McNeal, advanced unarmed toward him. He remained in the same steadfast posture until I arrived in about 200 paces of him, when he turned his horse about and began to move off slowly from me. I now called to him in as loud a voice as I could command, repeating the word "tab-ba-bone," which, in their language, signifies "white man." But, looking over his shoulder, he still kept his eye on Drouilliard and Shields, who were still advancing, neither of them having sagacity enough to recollect the impropriety of advancing when they saw me thus in parley with the Indian. I now made a signal to these men to halt. Drouilliard obeyed; but Shields, who afterward told me that he did not observe the signal, still kept on. The Indian halted again, and turned his horse about as if to wait for me, and I believe he would have remained until I came up with him had it not been for Shields, who still pressed forward. When I arrived within about 150 paces, I again repeated the word, "tab-ba-bone," and held up the trinkets in my hands, and stripped up my shirt sleeve to give him an opportunity of seeing the color of my skin, and advanced leisurely toward him. But he did not remain until I got nearer than about 100 paces, when he suddenly turned his horse about, gave him the whip, leaped the creek, and disappeared in the willow brush in an instant; and with him vanished all my hopes of obtaining horses for the present. I now felt quite as much mortification and disappointment as I had pleasure and expectation at the first sight of this Indian. I felt sorely chagrined at the conduct of the men, particularly Shields, to whom I principally attributed this failure in obtaining an introduction to the natives. I now called the men to me and could not forbear upbraiding them a little for their want of attention, and imprudence, on this occasion. We now set out on the track of the horse, hoping, by that means, to be led to an Indian camp, the trail of inhabitants of which - should they abscond - we should probably be enabled to pursue to the body of the nation, to which they would most probably fly for safety. This route led us across a large island framed by nearly an equal division of the creek in this bottom. After passing to the open ground on the N. side of the creek, we observed that the track made out toward the high hills about 3 miles distant in that direction. I thought it probable that their camp might probably be among those hills and that they would reconnoiter us from the tops of them, and that if we advanced hastily toward them that they would become alarmed and probably run off. I therefore halted in an elevated situation near the creek, had a fire kindled of willow brush, cooked and took breakfast. During this leisure, I prepared a small assortment of trinkets consisting of some moccasin awls, a few strands of several kinds of beads, some paint, a looking glass, &c., which I attached to the end of a pole and planted it near our fire in order that, should the Indians return in search of us, they might from this token discover that we were friendly, and white persons. Before we had finished our meal a heavy shower of rain came on with some hail, which continued about 20 minutes and wet us to the skin. After this shower we pursued the track of the horse, but as the rain had raised the grass which he had trodden down it was with difficulty that we could follow it. We pursued it, however, about 4 miles, it turning up the valley to the left under the foot of the hills. We passed several places where the Indians appeared to have been digging roots today, and saw the fresh tracks of 8 or ten horses, but they had been wandering about in such a confused manner that we not only lost track of the horse which we had been pursuing but could make nothing of them. In the head of this valley we passed a large bog covered with tall grass and moss in which were a great number of springs of cold pure water. We now turned a little to the left along the foot of the high hills and arrived at a small branch on which we encamped for the night, having traveled in different directions about 20 miles and about 10 from the camp of last evening on a direct line. After meeting with the Indian today, I fixed a small flag of the U.S. to a pole which I made McNeal carry, and planted in the ground where we halted or encamped. Captain Lewis, 11 August 1805
Ch 14B Index Ch 16