_Narrative of_ LEWIS _and_ CLARKE'S _Travels from the
Source of the Missouri to the Pacific Ocean._
From the source of the Missouri, we will now accompany these gentlemen
in their journey across the Rocky Mountains, and in their subsequent
navigation of the Oregan or Columbia to the Pacific Ocean.
They had reached the highest ground in the _Rocky Mountains_, or that
elevated part of the continent which constitutes the boundary between
the streams flowing to the Atlantic on the one side, and the Pacific on
the other. Their next object was to prosecute their journey westward,
through this cold and barren track, until they should come to a
navigable stream flowing into the Columbia, the great channel of access
to the western ocean.
They had been told, by Indians in the Mandan country, that, immediately
on crossing the central ridge, they would discover copious rivers
running in a direction towards the Columbia. Captain Lewis accordingly
found a clear stream forty yards wide, and three feet deep, which ran
towards the west. It was bounded on each side by a range of high
mountains, and was so closely confined between them, as not only to be
unnavigable, but to be impassable along its banks. A still more
discouraging circumstance was the total want, in this wintry region, of
timber fit for building canoes.
An old Indian, being consulted respecting these mountains, stated them
to be so inaccessible, that neither he nor any of his nation had ever
attempted to cross them; and another Indian, a native of the south-west
mountains, described them in terms scarcely less terrific. The course to
the Pacific lay, he said, along rocky steeps, inhabited by savages, who
lived in holes, like bears, and fed on roots and on horse-flesh. On
descending from the mountainous ridge, he stated that the traveller
would find himself in a parched desert of sand, where no animals, of a
nature to afford subsistence, could be discovered; and, although this
plain was crossed by a large river running towards the Columbia, its
banks had no timber for the construction of canoes.
After all these mortifying communications, there appeared to be left, to
the present travellers, only one route, that by which some individuals
of the Chopunnish Indians, living to the west of the mountains, find
means to make their way to this elevated region; and the accounts that
had been given of this road, were very discouraging; the Indians being
obliged to subsist for many days on berries, and suffering greatly from
hunger. The commanders of the expedition were not, however,
disheartened; for they were convinced that their men could accomplish a
passage without enduring so much hardship as Indians, who are generally
accompanied by women and children.
Having ascertained that the accounts of the impractibility of navigating
the river were well founded, it became indispensable to take measures
for proceeding on horseback. The men had already begun to suffer from
want of food, for the country afforded very little except berries, and a
few river-fish.
Captain Lewis describes the ravenous propensities of the Indians who
reside in this part of America, to be very extraordinary. While some of
them were with the travellers, a deer was killed. They all hastened to
the spot, like so many beasts of prey, and actually tumbled over each
other, to reach the intestines which had been thrown aside. Each tore
away whatever part he could seize, and instantly began to devour it.
Some had the liver, some the kidneys; in short, no part was left, on
which we are accustomed to look with disgust. One of them, who had
seized about nine feet of the entrails, was chewing, at one end, while,
with his hand, he was diligently clearing his way by discharging the
contents at the other. Yet, though suffering from excessive hunger, they
did not attempt, as they might have done, to take by force the whole
deer, but contented themselves with what had been thrown away by the
hunters. After this, Captain Lewis gave one quarter of the body of the
deer to the Indians; and they immediately devoured it raw. A second deer
was killed, and nearly the whole of it was given to the Indians. This
they also devoured, even to the soft parts of the hoofs; and they
shortly afterwards ate nearly three quarters of a third.
It happened fortunately for the travellers, in the prosecution of their
journey by land, that the horses of the country were good, and that
there was no difficulty in purchasing as many as were necessary, for the
conveyance of themselves and their baggage. They were thus enabled to
set out about the end of August, under the guidance of an old man, who,
notwithstanding the dissuasion of his countrymen, undertook to conduct
them to the Indians who live westward of the mountains.
Arriving, soon afterwards, in a district where no tract could be
discovered, they were obliged to cut their way through thickets of trees
and brushwood, along the sides of hills. Here their horses suffered
great fatigue; and the season was still so little advanced, that the
ground was covered with snow. On the 9th of September they reached the
road or path commonly taken by the Indians in crossing from the Columbia
to the Missouri; and here they learned that they might have lessened the
hardships of the mountain journey, had they laid up their canoes and
struck off to the west, before they navigated the latter river to its
furthest-point. A small creek at this station received the name of
_Traveller's Rest-creek_.
From this spot the party proceeded nearly due west, along the Indian
path; but they still experienced considerable inconvenience, from a
deficiency of provisions. On some days they killed only a few birds;
and, being obliged to turn their horses loose at night to feed, the
morning hours were frequently passed in finding and catching them. On
the 15th of August, they reached the upper parts of the river
_Koos-koos-kee_, which affords one of the most direct channels of
communication with the Columbia; but there is no timber, in its
neighbourhood, of size large enough for canoes; nor did its channel
promise an easy navigation. The travellers were consequently obliged to
continue their journey by land; and on the 19th they were cheered with
the prospect, towards the south-west, of an extensive plain, which,
though still distant, assured them of an outlet from the barren region
which they were traversing. By this time they had suffered so much from
hunger, that horse-flesh was deemed a luxury.
At last, on the 22d, having reached the plain, they found themselves
once more in an inhabited country. They explained their pacific
intentions to the people, who were Indians of a tribe called
_Chopunnish_. The removal, however, from a cold to a warm district, and,
still more, the sudden change from scarcity to an abundance of food,
proved very detrimental to the health of the men; and it was fortunate
that the most laborious part of their task was now, for a time at least,
at an end.
The river Koos-koos-kee being navigable in the place which the party had
now reached, it remained only to build the requisite canoes. The wood
was soon obtained; and such of the men as had sufficient strength for
the undertaking, worked at the canoes, during the intervals of cool
weather, and were not very long in completing them. In this part of the
country the weather was cool during an easterly wind; exactly as, on
the opposite side of the mountains, it had been in a westerly one. Their
horses, to the number of thirty-eight, they consigned to the care of
three Indian chiefs, to be kept till their return; and the saddles, with
a small supply of ammunition, they buried in a hole, dug for the
purpose, near the river.
On the 8th of October, the travellers once more proceeded by water; and
they now occupied five canoes. Exertion was still requisite, in the
shoals and other difficult places; but the change was, on the whole,
extremely favourable to them, and their progress down the current was
proportionally rapid.
This part of the country is inhabited by the _Shoshonees_, a tribe of
_Snake Indians_, which, at present, consists of about a hundred
warriors, and thrice as many women and children. Within their own
recollection these Indians had lived in the plains; but they had been
driven thence by the Pawkees and other powerful tribes, and they now
live a wandering and precarious life. From the middle of May till the
beginning of September they reside on the western waters; but, when the
salmon, on which they chiefly subsist there, disappear, they cross the
ridge and descend, slowly and cautiously, till they are joined, near the
Three Forks, by other bands, either of their own nation, or of the
Flat-heads, who make common cause with them. They then venture to hunt
buffaloes in the plains eastward; but such is their dread of the
Pawkees, that, so long as they can obtain the scantiest subsistence,
they do not leave the interior of the mountains; and, as soon as they
collect a large stock of dried meat, they again retreat: thus they
alternately obtain food at the hazard of their lives, and hide
themselves to consume it. Two-thirds of the year they are forced to live
in the mountains, passing whole weeks with no other subsistence than a
few fish and roots. The salmon were, at this time, fast retiring; roots
were becoming scarce, they had not yet attained strength to hazard a
meeting with their enemies, and nothing could be imagined more wretched
than their condition.
Notwithstanding their miseries they were cheerful, and, in many
important points of character, were superior to any other tribes whom
the travellers had seen. They never begged: they were not tempted to a
single act of dishonesty by the sight of the treasures which their
visitors displayed; and they were ready to share with their guests, the
little which they themselves possessed. They were also a high-spirited
people. The Spaniards, the only white men with whom they had hitherto
had any intercourse, would not supply them with fire-arms, alleging
that, if they were possessed of such weapons, they would only be the
more induced to kill one another. The Shoshonees, perhaps, do not
perceive that policy is the real motive of the Spaniards; but they
clearly see that the plea of humanity is fallacious, and they complain
that they are thus left to the mercy of their enemies the Minnetarees,
who, having fire-arms, plunder them of their horses, and slay them at
pleasure.
Though many of their stock had lately been stolen, the Shoshonees
possessed, at this time, not fewer than seven hundred horses, of good
size, vigorous, and patient of fatigue, as well as of hunger. They had
also a few mules, which had been purchased or stolen from the Spaniards,
by the frontier Indians. These were the finest animals of the kind, that
Captain Clarke had ever seen; even the worst of them was considered
worth the price of two horses.
The horse is a favourite animal with this people. His main and tail,
which are never mutilated, they decorate with feathers, and his ears
they cut into various patterns. A favourite horse, also, is sometimes
painted; and a warrior will suspend, at the breast of his horse, the
finest ornaments which he possesses.
The Shoshonees always fight on horseback. They have a few bad guns among
them, which are reserved, exclusively, for war; but their common weapons
are bows and arrows. The bows that are chiefly prized, are made of the
argali's horn, flat pieces of which are cemented together with glue.
They have also lances, and a formidable sort of club, consisting of a
round stone, about two pounds in weight, fastened, by a short thong, to
a wooden handle. Their defensive armour is a shield of buffalo's hide,
manufactured with equal ingenuity and superstition. The skin must be the
whole hide of a male buffalo, two years old, and never suffered to dry,
since it was flayed off. A feast is held, to which all the warriors, old
men, and jugglers, are invited. After the repast, a hole is dug in the
ground, about eighteen inches deep, and of the same diameter as the
intended shield. Red hot stones are thrown into this hole; and water is
poured upon them, to produce a strong steam. Over this, the skin is
laid, with the fleshy side to the ground; and stretched, in every
direction, by as many persons as can take hold of it. As it becomes
heated, the hair separates, and is taken off; and the skin is, at last,
contracted into the compass designed for the shield. It is then removed,
placed on a dry hide; and, during the remainder of the festival, is
pounded by the bare heels of the guests. This operation sometimes
continues for several days. The shield is then actually proof against
any arrow; and, if the old men and the jugglers have been satisfied with
the feast, they pronounce it impenetrable by bullets also, which many of
the warriors believe. It is ornamented with feathers, with a fringe of
dressed leather, and with paintings of strange figures. This people have
also a sort of arrow-proof mail, with which they cover themselves and
their horses. It is made of dressed antelope-skins, in many folds,
united by a mixture of glue and sand.
The Shoshonees are a diminutive and ill-formed race; with flat feet,
thick ancles, and crooked legs. The hair of both sexes is usually worn
loose over the face and shoulders; some of the men, however, divide it,
by leather thongs, into two equal queues, which they allow to hang over
the ears. Their tippet, or rheno, as it is called, is described to have
been the most elegant article of Indian dress, that the travellers had
ever seen. It is of otter-skin, tasselled with ermine; and not fewer
than an hundred ermine-skins are required for each.
The inhabitants of the plains, to the west of the Rocky Mountains,
appear to differ considerably from their neighbours on the higher
grounds. The _Chopunnish_ or _Pierced Nose nation_, who reside on the
Kooskooskee, and the river now called Lewis's river, are, in person,
stout, portly, and, good-looking men. The women are small, with regular
features; and are generally handsome, though dark. Their chief ornaments
are a buffalo or elk-skin robe, decorated with beads; and sea-shells, or
mother-of-pearl, attached to an otter-skin collar, and hung in the hair,
which falls in front in two queues. They likewise ornament themselves
with feathers and paints of different kinds; principally white, green,
and light blue, all of which they find in their own country. In winter,
they wear a shirt of dressed skins, long painted leggings and moccasins,
and a plat of twisted grass round the neck.
The dress of the women is more simple: it consists of a long shirt of
argali-skin, which reaches down to the ankles, and is without a girdle:
to this are tied shells, little pieces of brass, and other small
articles; but their head is not at all ornamented.
The Chopunnish Indians have very few ornaments; for their life is
painful and laborious; and all their exertions are necessary to earn
their subsistence. During the summer and autumn they are busily occupied
in fishing for salmon, and collecting their winter store of roots. In
the winter, with snow-shoes on their feet, they hunt deer over the
plains; and, towards the spring, they cross the mountains to the
Missouri, for the purpose of trafficking for buffalo-robes.
In descending the _Kooskooskee_, the travellers had many opportunities
of observing the arrangements of the Indians for preserving fish,
particularly salmon, which are here very abundant. In some places,
especially in the Columbia, the water was so clear, that these fish were
seen at the depth of fifteen or twenty feet. During the autumn, they
float down the stream in such numbers, that the Indians have only to
collect, split, and dry them. Scaffolds and wooden houses, piled up
against each other, for the purpose of fishing, were frequently
observed. Indeed fish are here so abundant, that, in a scarcity of wood,
dried salmon are often used as fuel.
A considerable trade is carried on in dried fish, which is thus
prepared. The salmon, having been opened, and exposed some time to the
sun, is pounded between two stones; then packed in baskets, neatly made
of grass and rushes, which are lined and covered with salmon-skins,
stretched and dried for that purpose. In these baskets, the pounded
salmon is pressed down as hard as possible. Each basket contains from
ninety to one hundred pounds; seven baskets are placed side by side, and
five on the top. They are then covered with mats, and corded; and then
again matted, thus forming a stack. In this manner the fish is kept
sweet and sound for many years.
The Koo-koos-kee is greatly augmented by the junction of Lewis's river
from the south; and the united streams, after flowing a considerable
distance, fall into the still larger flood of the Columbia. At their
junction, the width of the Columbia is nine hundred and sixty yards.
The Indians, in this part of America, are called _Solkuks_; and seem to
be of a mild and peaceable disposition, and to live in a state of
comparative happiness. Each man is contented with a single wife, with
whom he shares the labours of procuring subsistence, much more than is
usual among savages. What may be considered as an unequivocal proof of
their good disposition, is the great respect which is shown to old age.
Among other instances of it, the travellers observed, in one of the
houses, an old woman perfectly blind; and who, as they were informed,
had lived more than a hundred winters. In this state of decrepitude she
occupied the best position in the house, seemed to be treated with great
kindness, and whatever was said by her, was listened to with much
attention.
The fisheries supply the _Solkuks_ with a competent, if not an abundant
subsistence. Fish is, indeed, their chief food; except roots, and the
casual supplies of the antelope, which, to those who have only bows and
arrows, must be very scanty. Most of the Solkuks have sore eyes, and
many of them are blind of one or both eyes; and decayed teeth are very
common among them.
The party proceeded down the Columbia. Fish was here so abundant, that
in one day's voyage, they counted no fewer than twenty stacks of dried
salmon.
They passed the falls of this river. These are not great; but, at a
little distance below them, a very remarkable scene is presented to the
view. At a place where the river is about four hundred yards wide, and
where the stream flows with a current more rapid than usual, it widens
into a large bend or basin, at the extremity of which a black rock,
rising perpendicularly from the right shore, seems to run wholly across.
So completely did it appear to block up the passage, that the travellers
could not, as they approached, see where the water escaped; except that
the current appeared to be drawn with peculiar velocity towards the left
of the rock, where there was a great roaring. On landing, to survey it,
they found that, for about half a mile, the river was confined within a
channel only forty-five yards wide, whirling, swelling, and boiling, the
whole way, with the wildest agitation imaginable. Tremendous as the pass
was, they attempted it; and, to the astonishment of the Indians, they
accomplished it in safety.
In the vicinity of this place, a tribe of Indians, called _Echeloots_,
were settled. Here the travellers, for the first time, since they had
left the Illinois country, observed wooden buildings. The floors were
sunk about six feet in the ground, a custom implying at the same time a
cold and dry climate.
Proceeding on their way, they saw an Indian, dressed in a round hat and
a sailor's jacket, with his hair tied. Jackets, brass kettles, and other
European or American articles, were observed to be common. These Indians
are fond of ornamenting their boats and houses with rude sculptures and
paintings. One of the chiefs exhibited, from what was called his great
medicine-bag, fourteen fore-fingers, the trophies taken from as many
enemies, whom he had killed in war. This was the first time that the
travellers had known any other trophy preserved than the scalp. The
great medicine-bag, among these Indians, is an useful invention; for, as
it is deemed sacrilegious for any person, except the owner, to touch it,
this bag serves the purpose of a strong-box, in which the most valuable
articles may safely be deposited.
The Echeloots in their mode of sepulture, differ much from the
generality of North American Indians. They have common cemeteries, where
the dead, carefully wrapt in skins, are laid on mats, in a direction
east and west. The vaults, or rather chambers, in which the bodies are
deposited, are about eighty feet square, and six in height. The whole of
the sides are covered with strange figures, cut and painted; and wooden
images are placed against them. At the top of these sepulchral chambers,
and on poles attached to them, brass-kettles are hung, old frying-pans,
shells, skins, and baskets, pieces of cloth, hair, and other similar
offerings. Among some of the tribes, the body is laid in one canoe and
covered with another. Every where the dead are carefully deposited, and
with like marks of respect. Captain Clarke says it is obvious, from the
different articles which are placed by the dead, that these people
believe in a future state of existence.
On the 2d of November, the travellers perceived the first tide-water;
four days afterwards, they had the pleasure of hearing a few words of
English, spoken by an Indian, who talked of a Mr. Haley, as the
principal trader on the coast; and, on the 7th, a fog clearing off, gave
them a sight of the _Pacific Ocean_.
They suffered great hardships near the mouth of the river. At one place,
where they were detained two nights by the violence of the wind, the
waves broke over them, and large trees, which the stream had carried
along with it, were drifted upon them, so that, with their utmost
vigilance, they could scarcely save the canoes from being dashed to
pieces. Their next haven was still more perilous: the hills rose steep
over their heads, to the height of five hundred feet; and, as the rain
fell in torrents, the stones, upon their crumbling sides, loosened, and
came rolling down upon them. The canoes, in one place, were at the mercy
of the waves; the baggage was in another place; and the men were
scattered upon floating logs, or were sheltering themselves in the
crevices of the rocks.
The travellers, having now reached the farthest limits of their journey,
once more began to look out for winter-quarters. But it was not till
after a long search, that they discovered, at some distance from the
shore, and near the banks of the Columbia, a situation in all respects
convenient. But so incessant was the rain, that they were unable to
complete their arrangements, till about the middle of December. Here, in
latitude 46 degrees, 19 minutes, they passed three months, without
experiencing any thing like the cold of the interior; but they were, in
other respects, exposed to numerous inconveniences. The supply of food
was precarious; being confined to the fish caught along the sea-coasts,
and to a few elks and other animals, which were killed in the adjacent
country.
The Indians, in this part of America, had been accustomed to traffic,
along the shore, with European vessels, and had learned to ask
exorbitant prices for their commodities. Their circulating money
consisted of blue beads; but with these, as well as with other
merchandise, their visitors were, at this time, very scantily supplied.
These Indians were unacquainted with the use of ardent spirits, but they
were no strangers to the vice of gaming.
During the winter, Captains Lewis and Clarke occupied much of their time
in acquiring information concerning the country; and obtained some
account of the number of tribes, languages, and population of the
inhabitants, for about three hundred and sixty miles southward, along
the coast; but of those in an opposite direction, they were unable to
learn any thing more than their names.
The people of the four nations with whom they had the most intercourse;
the _Killamucks_, _Clatsops_, _Chinnoocks_, and _Cathlamahs_, were
diminutive and ill-made. Their complexions were somewhat lighter than
those of the other North American Indians: their mouths were wide, their
lips thick, and their noses broad, and generally flat between the eyes.
All the tribes who were seen west of the Rocky Mountain, have their
foreheads flattened. The child, in order to be thus beautified, has its
head placed in a kind of machine, where it is kept for ten or twelve
months; the females longer than the males. The operation is gradual, and
seems to give but little pain; but if it produces headache, the poor
infant has no means of making its sufferings known. The head, when
released from its bandage, Captain Clarke says, is not more than two
inches thick, about the upper part of the forehead; and still thinner
above. Nothing can appear more wonderful, than that the brain should
have its shape thus altered, without any apparent injury to its
functions.
There is an extensive trade carried on upon the Columbia, which must
have existed before the coast was frequented by foreign traders; but to
which the foreign trade has given a new impulse. The great emporium of
this trade is at the falls, the _Shilloots_ being the carriers between
the inhabitants above and below. The Indians of the Rocky Mountains
bring down bear's-grease, horses, and a few skins, which they exchange
for beads, pounded fish, and the roots of a kind of water-plant, which
are produced, in great abundance, in a tract of land between the
Multomah and a branch of the Columbia. The mode of obtaining these roots
is curious. A woman carries a canoe, large enough to contain herself,
and several bushels of them, to one of the ponds where the plants grow;
she goes into the water breast high, feels out the roots with her feet,
and separates the bulbs from them with her toes. These, on being freed
from the mud, float. The women often continue in the water at this
employment for many successive hours, even in the depth of winter. The
bulbs are about the size of a small potato, and, when roasted in wood
ashes, constitute a palatable food.
These Indians are a very ingenious race. Even with their own imperfect
tools, they make, in a few weeks, a canoe, which, with such implements,
might be thought the work of years. A canoe, however, is very highly
prized: it is considered of equal value with a wife, and is what the
lover generally gives a father in exchange for his daughter. The bow and
stern are ornamented with a sort of comb, and with grotesque figures of
men or animals, sometimes five feet high, composed of small pieces of
wood, skilfully inlaid and morticed, without a spike of any kind. Their
bowls or troughs are scooped out of a block of wood; in these they boil
their food. Their best manufacture is a sort of basket, of straw-work or
cedar bark, and bear-grass, so closely interwoven as to be water-tight.
Further south the natives roast their corn and pulse over a slow
charcoal-fire, in baskets of this description, moving the basket about
in such manner that it is not injured, though every grain within it is
completely browned.
Among these Indians the women are well treated, and enjoy an
extraordinary degree of influence. On many subjects their opinions are
consulted: in matters of trade, their advice is generally asked and
pursued. Sometimes they even take upon themselves a tone of authority;
and the labours of the family are almost equally divided. No account is
given by Captain Lewis of the superstitions of these people; and no
inquiry seems to have been made concerning their religious belief.
_Narrative of the return of Captains_ LEWIS _and_
CLARKE, _from the Pacific Ocean to St. Louis._
The commanders of the expedition were desirous of remaining on the coast
of the Pacific till the arrival of the annual trading ships, hoping from
them to be able to recruit their almost exhausted stores of merchandise;
but, though these were expected in April, it was found impossible to
wait. The elks, on which they chiefly depended for subsistence, had
retreated to the mountains; and, if the Indians could have sold them
food, they were too poor to purchase it. The whole stock of goods, on
which they had to depend, for the purchase of horses and food, during a
journey homeward, of nearly four thousand miles, was so much diminished,
that it might all have been tied in two pocket-handkerchiefs. Their
muskets, however, were in excellent order, and they had plenty of powder
and shot.
On the 23d of March, 1806, the canoes were loaded, and they took a final
leave of their encampment. Previously to their departure, they
deposited, in the hands of the Indian chiefs, some papers specifying the
dates of the arrival and departure of the expedition. This was done in a
hope that at least some one of them might find its way into a civilized
country. The course homeward was, during the first month, by water; the
canoes being dragged, or carried overland, in places where the current
of the Columbia was too strong to be navigated. On these occasions, the
travellers were exposed to much annoyance from the pilfering habits of
the Indians; and their provisions were so scanty that they were obliged
to subsist on dog's-flesh: a diet which, at first, was extremely
loathsome to them, but to which they in time became reconciled.
The difficulties of the navigation made it expedient for them to leave
the canoes at some distance below the junction of the _Columbia_ with
_Lewis's river_, after which they prosecuted their journey on horseback.
Proceeding in an easterly direction, they arrived, on the seventh of
May, within sight of the _Rocky Mountains_, and saw the tops of these
mountains completely covered with snow. Anxious, however, to cross them
as early as they could, they lost no time in recovering their horses
from the Chopunnish Indians, and in extracting their stores from the
hiding places in the ground. Still it was necessary for them to encamp
for a few weeks, that they might occupy themselves in hunting, and that
the health of the invalids might be reinstated.
Here Captains Lewis and Clarke practised physic among the natives, as
one means of supplying themselves with provisions. Their stock of
merchandise was reduced so low, that they were obliged to cut off the
buttons from their clothes, and to present them, with phials and small
tin boxes, as articles of barter with the Indians; and, by means of
these humble commodities, they were enabled to procure some roots and
bread, as provision during their passage over the Rocky Mountains, which
they commenced on the tenth of June.
Towards the middle of June the fall of the rivers showed that the great
body of snow on the mountains was at last melted; and they ventured to
leave their encampment, against the advice of several of the Indians.
They, however, soon found that they had been premature in their motions;
for, on the higher grounds, there was no appearance whatever of
vegetation. The snow, which covered the whole country, was indeed
sufficiently hard to bear the horses, but it was still ten or twelve
feet deep; so that a further prosecution of their journey was, at
present, impossible; and the travellers, after having deposited, in this
upper region, their baggage, and such provisions as they could spare,
reluctantly traced back their steps to the plain. There they remained
ten days; and, on the 26th, they again began to ascend the lofty ridge;
the snow on which had, in the interval, melted nearly four feet, leaving
still a depth of six or seven. They now implicitly followed the steps of
their guides, who traversed this trackless region with a kind of
instinctive sagacity: these men never hesitated respecting the path, and
were never embarrassed. In three days they once more reached the stream
which, in their former journey, they had named _Traveller's Rest Creek_.
Here Captains Lewis and Clarke agreed to separate, for the purpose of
taking a more comprehensive survey of the country in their journey
homeward. It was considered desirable to acquire a further knowledge of
the Yellow-stone, a large river which flows from the south-west, more
than one thousand miles before it reaches the Missouri; and it was of
importance to ascertain, more accurately than they had hitherto done,
the course of Maria's river.
The separation took place on the 3d of July; and Captain Lewis, holding
on an eastern course, crossed a large stream which flowed towards the
Columbia, and which had already been named _Clarke's river_. On the 18th
of July he came to _Maria's river_, the object of his search; and he
continued for several days, his route along its northern bank. After
having ascertained the course of this river, he again set out on his
journey homeward, that he might not lose the opportunity of returning
before the winter.
He and his companions were only four in number; and, in one part of
their journey, they had an alarming intercourse with a party of Indians.
Not very long after this they embarked on the _Missouri_; and, with the
aid of their oars and the current, they proceeded at the rate of between
sixty and eighty miles a day. On the 7th of August they reached the
mouth of the _Yellow-stone river_, the place of rendezvous, appointed
with Captain Clarke. Here, by a note stuck upon a pole, they were
informed that he had accomplished his voyage along that river, and would
wait for them lower down the Missouri.
Captain Clarke, on quitting the central encampment at _Traveller's Rest
Creek_, had marched in a southerly direction, and had traversed a
distance of one hundred and sixty-four miles, to the head of
_Jefferson's river_. This journey was performed, on horseback, and in
six days, over a country by no means difficult; so that, in future, the
passage of this elevated region will be divested of a considerable
portion of its terrors. He also discovered that the communication
between the _Upper Missouri_ and the _Yellow-stone river_, was attended
with little trouble; for Gallatin's river, one of the tributary streams
of the Missouri, approaches within eighteen miles of the Yellow-stone,
and, at a place, where the latter is completely navigable.
Being unable to find wood of sufficient magnitude for the formation of
canoes, Captain Clarke and his men were obliged to proceed on horseback,
about one hundred miles down the side of this river. At length they
succeeded in constructing boats, and sailed down the remainder of this
stream with great rapidity. On the 27th, at the distance of two hundred
miles from the Rocky Mountains, they beheld that elevated region for the
last time. The Yellow-stone being easy of navigation, they reached the
place of rendezvous earlier than they had expected.
The whole party being now assembled below the conflux of the
Yellow-stone and Missouri rivers, they prosecuted the remainder of their
voyage together; experiencing, in the prospect of home, and in the ease
with which they descended the river, a compensation for all their
fatigues; and receiving the visits of various tribes of Indians who
resided upon its banks.
The greatest change which was experienced by them, in their southward
progress, was that of climate. They had passed nearly two years, in a
cool, open country, and they were now descending into wooded plains,
eight or ten degrees further to the south, but differing in heat much
more than is usual in a correspondent distance in Europe. They were
likewise greatly tormented by musquitoes.
On landing at _La Charrette_, the first village on this side of the
United States, they were joyfully received by the inhabitants, who had
long abandoned all hopes of their return. On the 23d of September they
descended the Mississippi to _St. Louis_, which place they reached about
noon; having, in two years and nine months, completed a journey of
nearly nine thousand miles.
* * * * *
At St. Louis we shall resume the narrative of Mr. Pike, who, in the
month of July, 1806, set out from that place on an expedition westward,
through the immense territory of Louisiana, towards New Spain. The chief
objects of this expedition were to arrange an amicable treaty between
the Americans and Indians of this quarter; and to ascertain the
direction, extent, and navigation, of two great rivers, known by the
names of Arkansaw and Red River.
Eighteenth Day's Instruction.