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[Illustration: A Map of Lewis and Clark's Track, Across the Western
Portion of North America, From the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean;
by Order of the Executive of the United States, in 1804, 5&6.
Copied by Samuel Lewis from the Original Drawing by Wm. Clark.]
HISTORY
OF
THE EXPEDITION
UNDER THE COMMAND OF
_CAPTAINS LEWIS AND CLARK,_
TO
THE SOURCES OF THE MISSOURI,
THENCE
ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
AND DOWN THE
RIVER COLUMBIA TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN.
PERFORMED DURING THE YEARS 1804-5-6.
By order of the
GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
PREPARED FOR THE PRESS
BY PAUL ALLEN, ESQUIRE.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
_PHILADELPHIA_
PUBLISHED BY BRADFORD AND INSKEEP; AND
ABM. H. INSKEEP, NEW YORK.
J. Maxwell, Printer
1814.
DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, to wit:
BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-second day of January, in the
thirty-eighth year of the independence of the United States of
America, A.D. 1814, Bradford and Inskeep, of the said district,
have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right
whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit:
"History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and
Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky
Mountains, and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean.
Performed during the Years 1804-5-6, by order of the Government of
the United States. Prepared for the press by Paul Allen, Esquire."
In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled
"An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies
of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such
copies during the times therein mentioned." And also to the act,
entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled, "An act for
the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps,
charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies
during the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits
thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical
and other prints."
DAVID CALDWELL,
Clerk of the District of Pennsylvania.
PREFACE.
In presenting these volumes to the public, the editor owes equally to
himself and to others, to state the circumstances which have preceded
the publication, and to explain his own share in compiling them.
It was the original design of captain Lewis to have been himself the
editor of his own travels, and he was on his way towards Philadelphia
for that purpose when his sudden death frustrated these intentions.
After a considerable and unavoidable delay, the papers connected with
the expedition were deposited with another gentleman, who, in order to
render the lapse of time as little injurious as possible, proceeded
immediately to collect and investigate all the materials within his
reach.
Of the incidents of each day during the expedition, a minute journal was
kept by captain Lewis or captain Clark, and sometimes by both, which was
afterwards revised and enlarged at the different periods of leisure
which occurred on the route. These were carefully perused in conjunction
with captain Clark himself, who was able from his own recollection of
the journey, as well as from a constant residence in Louisiana since his
return, to supply a great mass of explanations, and much additional
information with regard to part of the route which has been more
recently explored. Besides these, recourse was had to the manuscript
journals kept by two of the serjeants, one of which, the least minute
and valuable, has already been published. That nothing might be wanting
to the accuracy of these details, a very intelligent and active member
of the party, Mr. George Shannon, was sent to contribute whatever his
memory might add to this accumulated fund of information.
From these copious materials the narrative was sketched nearly in its
present form, when other pursuits diverted the attention of the writer,
and compelled him to transfer his manuscript, in its unfinished state,
with all the documents connected with it, to the present editor, to
prepare them for the press and superintend the publication. That he may
not seem to arrogate any thing from the exertions of others, he should
therefore state that, although the whole work was thus submitted to his
entire discretion, he found but little to change, and that his labour
has been principally confined to revising the manuscript, comparing it
with the original papers, and inserting such additional matter as
appears to have been intentionally deferred by the writer till the
period of a more mature revisal. These circumstances, which would
otherwise be indifferent to the public, are mentioned merely to account
for imperfections, which are in some degree inseparable from any book of
travels not written by the traveller. In a work of pure description
indeed, like the present, where the incidents themselves are the sole
objects of attraction, the part of an editor is necessarily subordinate,
nor can his humble pretensions aspire beyond the merit of rigid
adherence to facts as they are stated to him. This has been very
diligently attempted, and for this, in its full extent, the editor deems
himself responsible.
The present volumes, it will be perceived, comprise only the narrative
of the journey. Those parts of the work which relate to the various
objects of natural history, observed or collected during the journey, as
well as the alphabets of the Indian languages, are in the hands of
professor Bartou, and will, it is understood, shortly appear.
To give still further interest to the work, the editor addressed a
letter to Mr. Jefferson, requesting some authentic memoirs of captain
Lewis. For the very curious and valuable information contained in his
answer, the public, as well as the editor himself, owe great obligations
to the politeness and knowledge of that distinguished gentleman.
PAUL ALLEN.
PHILADELPHIA, January 1, 1814.
LIFE OF CAPTAIN LEWIS.
_Monticello, August 18, 1813._
SIR,
In compliance with the request conveyed in your letter of May 25, I
have endeavoured to obtain, from the relations and friends of the late
governor Lewis, information of such incidents of his life as might be
not unacceptable to those who may read the narrative of his western
discoveries. The ordinary occurrences of a private life, and those also
while acting in a subordinate sphere in the army, in a time of peace,
are not deemed sufficiently interesting to occupy the public attention;
but a general account of his parentage, with such smaller incidents as
marked his early character are briefly noted; and to these are added, as
being peculiarly within my own knowledge, whatever related to the public
mission, of which an account is now to be published. The result of my
inquiries and recollections shall now be offered, to be enlarged or
abridged as you may think best; or otherwise to be used with the
materials you may have collected from other sources.
Meriwether Lewis, late governor of Louisiana, was born on the eighteenth
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. Happily situated at home, with a wife and young family,
and a fortune placing him at ease, he left all to aid in the liberation
of his country from foreign usurpations, then first unmasking their
ultimate end and aim. His good sense, integrity, bravery, enterprise,
and remarkable bodily powers, marked him as an officer of great promise;
but he unfortunately died early in the revolution. Nicholas Lewis, the
second of his father's brothers, commanded a regiment of militia in the
successful expedition of 1776, against the Cherokee Indians; who,
seduced by the agents of the British government to take up the hatchet
against us, had committed great havoc on our southern frontier, by
murdering and scalping helpless women and children, according to their
cruel and cowardly principles of warfare. The chastisement they then
received closed the history of their wars, and prepared them for
receiving the elements of civilization, which, zealously inculcated by
the present government of the United States, have rendered them an
industrious, peaceable, and happy people. This member of the family of
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
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 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 had 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 ardour of youth, and a passion for more
dazzling pursuits, he engaged as a volunteer in the body of militia
which were called out by general Washington, on occasion of the
discontents produced by the excise taxes in the western parts of the
United States; and from that situation he was removed to the regular
service as a lieutenant in 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. About this time a circumstance occurred which, leading to
the transaction which is the subject of this book, will justify a
recurrence to its original idea. 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 Kamschatka,
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. I interested, in obtaining
that, M. de Simoulin, minister plenipotentiary of the empress at Paris,
but more especially the baron de Grimm, minister plenipotentiary of
Saxe-Gotha, her more special agent and correspondent there in matters
not immediately diplomatic. Her permission was obtained, and an
assurance of protection while the course of the voyage should be through
her territories. Ledyard set out from Paris, and arrived at St.
Petersburgh after the empress had left that place to pass the winter, I
think, at Moscow. His finances not permitting him to make unnecessary
stay at St. Petersburgh, he left it with a passport from one of the
ministers; and at two hundred miles from Kamschatka, was obliged to take
up his winter quarters. He was preparing, in the spring, to resume his
journey, when he was arrested by an officer of the empress, who by this
time had changed her mind, and forbidden his proceeding. He was put into
a close carriage, and conveyed day and night, without ever stopping,
till they reached Poland; where he was set down and left to himself. The
fatigue of this journey broke down his constitution; and when he
returned to Paris his bodily strength was much impaired. His mind,
however, remained firm, and he after this undertook the journey to
Egypt. I received a letter from him, full of sanguine hopes, dated at
Cairo, the fifteenth of November, 1788, the day before he was to set out
for the head of the Nile; on which day, however, he ended his career and
life: and thus failed the first attempt to explore the western part of
our northern continent.
In 1792, I proposed to the American Philosophical Society that we should
set on foot a subscription to engage some competent person to explore
that region in the opposite direction; that is, by ascending the
Missouri, crossing the Stony mountains, and descending the nearest river
to the Pacific. Captain Lewis being then stationed at Charlottesville,
on the recruiting service, warmly solicited me to obtain for him the
execution of that object. I told him it was proposed that the person
engaged should be attended by a single companion only, to avoid exciting
alarm among the Indians. This did not deter him; but Mr. Andre Michaux,
a professed botanist, author of the Flora Boreali-Americana, and of the
Histoire des Chesnes d'Amerique, offering his services, they were
accepted. He received his instructions, and when he had reached Kentucky
in the prosecution of his journey, he was overtaken by an order from the
minister of France, then at Philadelphia, to relinquish the expedition,
and to pursue elsewhere the botanical inquiries on which he was employed
by that government: and thus failed the second attempt for exploring
that region.
In 1803, 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 on 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. 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 too, at Lancaster, 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 Ellicot, 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 offered by a woodland
and uninhabited country.
Deeming it necessary he should have some person with him of known
competence to the direction of the enterprise, in the event of accident
to himself, he proposed William Clarke, brother of general George Rogers
Clarke, who was approved, and, with that view, received a commission of
captain.
In April, 1803, a draught of his instructions was sent to captain Lewis,
and on the twentieth of June they were signed in the following form:
"To Meriwether Lewis, esquire, captain of the first regiment of
infantry of the United States of America:
"Your situation as secretary of the president of the United States,
has made you acquainted with the objects of my confidential message
of January 18, 1803, to the legislature; you have seen the act they
passed, which, though expressed in general terms, was meant to
sanction those objects, and you are appointed to carry them into
execution.
"Instruments for ascertaining, by celestial observations, the
geography of the country through which you will pass, have been
already provided. Light articles for barter and presents among the
Indians, arms for your attendants, say for from ten to twelve men,
boats, tents, and other travelling apparatus, with ammunition,
medicine, surgical instruments, and provisions, you will have
prepared, with such aids as the secretary at war can yield in his
department; and from him also you will receive authority to engage
among our troops, by voluntary agreement, the number of attendants
abovementioned; over whom you, as their commanding officer, are
invested with all the powers the laws give in such a case.
"As your movements, while within the limits of the United States,
will be better directed by occasional communications, adapted to
circumstances as they arise, they will not be noticed here. What
follows will respect your proceedings after your departure from the
United States.
"Your mission has been communicated to the ministers here from
France, Spain, and Great Britain, and through them to their
governments; and such assurances given them as to its objects, as
we trust will satisfy them. The country of Louisiana having been
ceded by Spain to France, the passport you have from the minister
of France, the representative of the present sovereign of the
country, will be a protection with all its subjects; and that from
the minister of England will entitle you to the friendly aid of any
traders of that allegiance with whom you may happen to meet.
"The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, and
such principal streams of it, as, by its course and communication
with the waters of the Pacific ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregan,
Colorado, or any other river, may offer the most direct and
practicable water-communication across the continent, for the
purposes of commerce.
"Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri, you will take observations
of latitude and longitude, at all remarkable points on the river,
and especially at the mouths of rivers, at rapids, at islands, and
other places and objects distinguished by such natural marks and
characters, of a durable kind, as that they may with certainty be
recognised hereafter. The courses of the river between these points
of observation may be supplied by the compass, the log-line, and by
time, corrected by the observations themselves. The variations of
the needle, too, in different places, should be noticed.
"The interesting points of the portage between the heads of the
Missouri, and of the water offering the best communication with the
Pacific ocean, should also be fixed by observation; and the course
of that water to the ocean, in the same manner as that of the
Missouri.
"Your observations are to be taken with great pains and accuracy;
to be entered distinctly and intelligibly for others as well as
yourself; to comprehend all the elements necessary, with the aid of
the usual tables, to fix the latitude and longitude of the places
at which they were taken; and are to be rendered to the war-office,
for the purpose of having the calculations made concurrently by
proper persons within the United States. Several copies of these,
as well as of your other notes, should be made at leisure times,
and put into the care of the most trust-worthy of your attendants
to guard, by multiplying them against the accidental losses to
which they will be exposed. A further guard would be, that one of
these copies be on the cuticular membranes of the paper-birch, as
less liable to injury from damp than common paper.
"The commerce which may be carried on with the people inhabiting
the line you will pursue, renders a knowledge of those people
important. You will therefore endeavour to make yourself
acquainted, as far as a diligent pursuit of your journey shall
admit, with the names of the nations and their numbers;
"The extent and limits of their possessions;
"Their relations with other tribes or nations;
"Their language, traditions, monuments;
"Their ordinary occupations in agriculture, fishing, hunting, war,
arts, and the implements for these;
"Their food, clothing, and domestic accommodations;
"The diseases prevalent among them, and the remedies they use;
"Moral and physical circumstances which distinguish them from the
tribes we know;
"Peculiarities in their laws, customs, and dispositions;
"And articles of commerce they may need or furnish, and to what
extent.
"And, considering the interest which every nation has in extending
and strengthening the authority of reason and justice among the
people around them, it will be useful to acquire what knowledge you
can of the state of morality, religion, and information among them;
as it may better enable those who may endeavour to civilize and
instruct them, to adapt their measures to the existing notions and
practices of those on whom they are to operate.
"Other objects worthy of notice will be--
"The soil and face of the country, its growth and vegetable
productions, especially those not of the United States;
"The animals of the country generally, and especially those not
known in the United States;
"The remains and accounts of any which may be deemed rare or
extinct;
"The mineral productions of every kind, but more particularly
metals, lime-stone, pit-coal, and saltpetre; salines and mineral
waters, noting the temperature of the last, and such circumstances
as may indicate their character;
"Volcanic appearances;
"Climate, as characterized by the thermometer, by the proportion of
rainy, cloudy, and clear days; by lightning, hail, snow, ice; by
the access and recess of frost; by the winds prevailing at
different seasons; the dates at which particular plants put forth,
or lose their flower or leaf; times of appearance of particular
birds, reptiles or insects.
"Although your route will be along the channel of the Missouri, yet
you will endeavour to inform yourself, by inquiry, of the character
and extent of the country watered by its branches, and especially
on its southern side. The North river, or Rio Bravo, which runs
into the gulf of Mexico, and the North river, or Rio Colorado,
which runs into the gulf of California, are understood to be the
principal streams heading opposite to the waters of the Missouri,
and running southwardly. Whether the dividing grounds between the
Missouri and them are mountains or flat lands, what are their
distance from the Missouri, the character of the intermediate
country, and the people inhabiting it, are worthy of particular
inquiry. The northern waters of the Missouri are less to be
inquired after, because they have been ascertained to a
considerable degree, and are still in a course of ascertainment by
English traders and travellers; but if you can learn any thing
certain of the most northern source of the Missisipi, and of its
position relatively to the Lake of the Woods, it will be
interesting to us. Some account too of the path of the Canadian
traders from the Missisipi, at the mouth of the Onisconsing to
where it strikes the Missouri, and of the soil and rivers in its
course, is desirable.
"In all your intercourse with the natives, 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 neighbourly, 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 young people brought up with us, and taught such arts as may
be useful to them, we will receive, instruct, and take care of
them. Such a mission, whether of influential chiefs, or of young
people, would give some security to your own party. Carry with you
some matter of the kine-pox; inform those of them with whom you may
be of its efficacy as a preservative from the small-pox, and
instruct and encourage them in the use of it. This may be
especially done wherever you winter.
"As it is impossible for us to foresee in what manner you will be
received by those people, whether with hospitality or hostility, so
is it impossible to prescribe the exact degree of perseverance with
which you are to pursue your journey. We value too much the lives
of citizens to offer them to probable destruction. Your numbers
will be sufficient to secure you against the unauthorized
opposition of individuals, or of small parties; but if a superior
force, authorized, or not authorized, by a nation, should be
arrayed against your further passage, and inflexibly determined to
arrest it, you must decline its further pursuit and return. In the
loss of yourselves we should lose also the information you will
have acquired. By returning safely with that, you may enable us to
renew the essay with better calculated means. To your own
discretion, therefore, must be left the degree of danger you may
risk, and the point at which you should decline, only saying, we
wish you to err on the side of your safety, and to bring back your
party safe, even if it be with less information.
"As far up the Missouri as the white settlements extend, an
intercourse will probably be found to exist between them and the
Spanish posts of St. Louis opposite Cahokia, or St. Genevieve
opposite Kaskaskia. From still further up the river the traders may
furnish a conveyance for letters. Beyond that you may perhaps be
able to engage Indians to bring letters for the government to
Cahokia, or Kaskaskia, on promising that they shall there receive
such special compensation as you shall have stipulated with them.
Avail yourself of these means to communicate to us, at seasonable
intervals, a copy of your journal, notes and observations of every
kind, putting into cypher whatever might do injury if betrayed.
"Should you reach the Pacific ocean, inform yourself of the
circumstances which may decide whether the furs of those parts may
not be collected as advantageously at the head of the Missouri
(convenient as is supposed to the waters of the Colorado and Oregan
or Columbia) as at Nootka Sound, or any other point of that coast;
and that trade be consequently conducted through the Missouri and
United States more beneficially than by the circumnavigation now
practised.
"On your arrival on that coast, endeavour to learn if there be any
port within your reach frequented by the sea vessels of any nation,
and to send two of your trusty people back by sea, in such way as
shall appear practicable, with a copy of your notes; and should you
be of opinion that the return of your party by the way they went
will be imminently dangerous, then ship the whole, and return by
sea, by the way either of Cape Horn, or the Cape of Good Hope, as
you shall be able. As you will be without money, clothes, or
provisions, you must endeavour 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, on which draughts 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 honourably
repaid, and on demand. Our consuls, Thomas Hewes, at Batavia, in
Java, William Buchanan, in the Isles of France and Bourbon, and
John Elmslie, at the Cape of Good Hope, will be able to supply your
necessities, by draughts on us.
"Should you find it safe to return by the way you go, after sending
two of your party round by sea, or with your whole party, if no
conveyance by sea can be found, do so; making such observations on
your return as may serve to supply, correct, or confirm those made
on your outward journey.
"On reentering the United States and reaching a place of safety,
discharge any of your attendants who may desire and deserve it,
procuring for them immediate payment of all arrears of pay and
clothing which may have incurred since their departure, and assure
them that they shall be recommended to the liberality of the
legislature for the grant of a soldier's portion of land each, as
proposed in my message to congress, and repair yourself, with your
papers, to the seat of government.
"To provide, on the accident of your death, against anarchy,
dispersion, and the consequent danger to your party, and total
failure of the enterprise, you are hereby authorized, by any
instrument signed and written in your own hand, to name the person
among them who shall succeed to the command on your decease, and by
like instruments to change the nomination, from time to time, as
further experience of the characters accompanying you shall point
out superior fitness; and all the powers and authorities given to
yourself are, in the event of your death, transferred to, and
vested in the successor so named, with further power to him and his
successors, in like manner to name each his successor, who, on the
death of his predecessor, shall be invested with all the powers and
authorities given to yourself. Given under my hand at the city of
Washington, this twentieth day of June, 1803.
"THOMAS JEFFERSON,
"_President of the United States of America_."
While these things were going on here, the country of Louisiana, lately
ceded by Spain to France, had been the subject of negotiation at Paris
between us and this last power; and had actually been transferred to us
by treaties executed at Paris on the thirtieth of April. This
information, received about the first day of July, increased infinitely
the interest we felt in the expedition, and lessened the apprehensions
of interruption from other powers. Every thing in this quarter being now
prepared, captain Lewis left Washington on the fifth of July, 1803, and
proceeded to Pittsburg, where other articles had been ordered to be
provided for him. The men too were to be selected from the military
stations on the Ohio. Delays of preparation, difficulties of navigation
down the Ohio, and other untoward obstructions, retarded his arrival at
Cahokia until the season was so far advanced as to render it prudent to
suspend his entering the Missouri before the ice should break up in the
succeeding spring.
From this time his journal, now published, will give the history of his
journey to and from the Pacific ocean, until his return to St. Louis on
the twenty-third of September, 1806. Never did a similar event excite
more joy through the United States. The humblest of its citizens had
taken a lively interest in the issue of this journey, and looked forward
with impatience for the information it would furnish. Their anxieties
too for the safety of the corps had been kept in a state of excitement
by lugubrious rumours, circulated from time to time on uncertain
authorities, and uncontradicted by letters, or other direct information,
from the time they had left the Mandan towns, on their ascent up the
river in April of the preceding year, 1805, until their actual return to
St. Louis.
It was the middle of February, 1807, before captain Lewis, with his
companion captain Clarke, reached the city of Washington, where congress
was then in session. That body granted to the two chiefs and their
followers the donation of lands which they had been encouraged to expect
in reward of their toil and dangers. Captain Lewis was soon after
appointed governor of Louisiana, and captain Clarke a general of its
militia, and agent of the United States for Indian affairs in that
department.
A considerable time intervened before the governor's arrival at St.
Louis. 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 endeavour 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.
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 upon him with redoubled vigour, 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 to the Chickasaw Bluffs, where he arrived on
the sixteenth of September, 1809, with a view of continuing his journey
thence by water. Mr. Neely, agent of the United States with the
Chickasaw Indians, arriving there two days after, found him extremely
indisposed, and betraying at times some symptoms of a derangement of
mind. The rumours of a war with England, and apprehensions that he might
lose the papers he was bringing on, among which were the vouchers of his
public accounts, and the journals and papers of his western expedition,
induced him here to change his mind, and to take his course by land
through the Chickasaw country. Although he appeared somewhat relieved,
Mr. Neely kindly determined to accompany and watch over him.
Unfortunately, at their encampment, after having passed the Tennessee
one day's journey, they lost two horses, which obliging Mr. Neely to
halt for their recovery, the governor proceeded, under a promise to wait
for him at the house of the first white inhabitant on his road. He
stopped at the house of a Mr. Grinder, who not being at home, his wife,
alarmed at the symptoms of derangement she discovered, gave him up the
house and retired to rest herself in an out-house, the governor's and
Neely's servants lodging in another. About three o'clock in the night he
did the deed which plunged his friends into affliction, and deprived his
country of one of her most valued citizens, whose valour and
intelligence would have been now employed in avenging the wrongs of his
country, and in emulating by land the splendid deeds which have honoured
her arms on the ocean. It lost too to the nation the benefit of
receiving from his own hand the narrative now offered them of his
sufferings and successes, in endeavouring to extend for them the
boundaries of science, and to present to their knowledge that vast and
fertile country, which their sons are destined to fill with arts, with
science, with freedom and happiness.
To this melancholy close of the life of one, whom posterity will declare
not to have lived in vain, I have only to add, that all the facts I have
stated are either known to myself, or communicated by his family or
others, for whose truth I have no hesitation to make myself responsible;
and I conclude with tendering you the assurances of my respect and
consideration.
TH. JEFFERSON.
Mr. PAUL ALLEN, Philadelphia.
CONTENTS.
VOL. I.
CHAPTER I.
The party set out on the expedition and pass Wood
river. Description of the town of St. Charles. Osage
Woman river. Gasconade and Osage rivers described.
Character of the Osage Indians; curious traditionary
account of their origin. The party proceed and pass
the Mine river. The two Charitons. The Kanzas,
Nodawa, Newahaw, Neeshuabatona, Little Nemahar, each
of which are particularly described. They encamp at
the mouth of the river Platte. A particular
description of the surrounding country. The various
creeks, bays, islands, prairies, &c. given in the
course of the route. 1