Saturday, 10. Captain Lewis continued his route at an early hour through

the wide bottom along the left bank of the river. At about five miles he

passed a large creek, and then fell into an Indian road leading towards

the point where the river entered the mountain. This he followed till he

reached a high perpendicular cliff of rocks where the river makes its

passage through the hills, and which he called the Rattlesnake cliff,

from the number of that animal which he saw there: here he kindled a

fire and waited the return of Drewyer, who had been sent out on the way

to kill a deer: he came back about noon with the skin of three deer and

the flesh of one of the best of them. After a hasty dinner they returned

to the Indian road which they had left for a short distance to see the

cliff. It led them sometimes over the hills, sometimes in the narrow

bottoms of the river, till at the distance of fifteen miles from the

Rattlesnake cliffs they reached a handsome open and level valley, where

the river divided into two nearly equal branches. The mountains over

which they passed were not very high, but are rugged and continue close

to the river side. The river, which before it enters the mountain was

rapid, rocky, very crooked, much divided by islands, and shallow, now

becomes more direct in its course as it is hemmed in by the hills, and

has not so many bends nor islands, but becomes more rapid and rocky,

and continues as shallow. On examining the two branches of the river it

was evident that neither of them was navigable further. The road forked

with the river; and captain Lewis therefore sent a man up each of them

for a short distance, in order that by comparing their respective

information he might be able to take that which seemed to have been most

used this spring. From their account he resolved to choose that which

led along the southwest branch of the river which was rather the smaller

of the two: he accordingly wrote a note to captain Clarke informing him

of the route, and recommending his staying with the party at the forks

till he should return: This he fixed on a dry willow pole at the forks

of the river, and then proceeded up the southwest branch; but after

going a mile and a half the road became scarcely distinguishable, and

the tracks of the horses which he had followed along the Jefferson were

no longer seen. Captain Lewis therefore returned to examine the other

road himself, and found that the horses had in fact passed along the

western or right fork which had the additional recommendation of being

larger than the other.

This road he concluded to take, and therefore sent back Drewyer to the

forks with a second letter to captain Clarke apprising him of the

change, and then proceeded on. The valley of the west fork through which

he now passed, bears a little to the north of west, and is confined

within the space of about a mile in width, by rough mountains and steep

cliffs of rock. At the distance of four and a half miles it opens into a

beautiful and extensive plain about ten miles long and five or six in

width: this is surrounded on all sides by higher rolling or waving

country, intersected by several little rivulets from the mountains, each

bordered by its wide meadows. The whole prospect is bounded by these

mountains, which nearly surround it, so as to form a beautiful cove

about sixteen or eighteen miles in diameter. On entering this cove the

river bends to the northwest, and bathes the foot of the hills to the

right. At this place they halted for the night on the right side of the

river, and having lighted a fire of dry willow brush, the only fuel

which the country affords, supped on a deer. They had travelled to-day

thirty miles by estimate: that is ten to the Rattlesnake cliff, fifteen

to the forks of Jefferson river, and five to their encampment. In this

cove some parts of the low grounds are tolerably fertile, but much the

greater proportion is covered with prickly pear, sedge, twisted grass,

the pulpy-leafed thorn, southern-wood, and wild sage, and like the

uplands have a very inferior soil. These last have little more than the

prickly pear and the twisted or bearded grass, nor are there in the

whole cove more than three or four cottonwood trees, and those are

small. At the apparent extremity of the bottom above, and about ten

miles to the westward, are two perpendicular cliffs rising to a

considerable height on each side of the river, and at this distance seem

like a gate. In the meantime we proceeded at sunrise, and found the

river not so rapid as yesterday, though more narrow and still very

crooked, and so shallow that we were obliged to drag the canoes over

many ripples in the course of the day. At six and a half miles we had

passed eight bends on the north, and two small bayous on the left, and

came to what the Indians call the Beaver's-head, a steep rocky cliff

about one hundred and fifty feet high, near the right side of the river.

Opposite to this at three hundred yards from the water is a low cliff

about fifty feet in height, which forms the extremity of a spur of the

mountain about four miles distant on the left. At four o'clock we were

overtaken by a heavy shower of rain, attended with thunder, lightning

and hail. The party were defended from the hail by covering themselves

with willow bushes, but they got completely wet, and in this situation,

as soon as the rain ceased, continued till we encamped. This we did at a

low bluff on the left, after passing in the course of six and a half

miles, four islands and eighteen bends on the right, and a low bluff

and several bayous on the same side. We had now come thirteen miles, yet

were only four on our route towards the mountains. The game seems to be

declining, for our hunters procured only a single deer, though we found

another for us that had been killed three days before by one of the

hunters during an excursion, and left for us on the river.

CHAPTER XIV.

Captain Lewis proceeds before the main body in search of the

Shoshonees--his ill success on the first interview--the party with

captain Lewis at length discover the source of the

Missouri--captain Clarke with the main body still employed in

ascending the Missouri or Jefferson river--captain Lewis's second

interview with the Shoshonees attended with success--the

interesting ceremonies of his first introduction to the natives,

detailed at large--their hospitality--their mode of hunting the

antelope--the difficulties encountered by captain Clarke and the

main body in ascending the river--the suspicions entertained of

captain Lewis by the Shoshonees, and his mode of allaying them--the

ravenous appetites of the savages illustrated by a singular

adventure--the Indians still jealous, and the great pains taken by

captain Lewis to preserve their confidence--captain Clarke arrives

with the main body exhausted by the difficulties which they

underwent.

Sunday, August 11. Captain Lewis again proceeded on early, but had the

mortification to find that the track which he followed yesterday soon

disappeared. He determined therefore to go on to the narrow gate or pass

of the river which he had seen from the camp, in hopes of being able to

recover the Indian path. For this purpose he waded across the river,

which was now about twelve yards wide, and barred in several places by

the dams of the beaver, and then went straight forward to the pass,

sending one man along the river to his left, and another on the right,

with orders to search for the road, and if they found it to let him know

by raising a hat on the muzzle of their guns. In this order they went

along for about five miles, when captain Lewis perceived with the

greatest delight a man on horseback at the distance of two miles coming

down the plain towards them. On examining him with the glass, captain

Lewis saw that he was of a different nation from any Indians we had

hitherto met: he was armed with a bow and a quiver of arrows; mounted

on an elegant horse without a saddle, and a small string attached to the

under jaw answered as a bridle. Convinced that he was a Shoshonee, and

knowing how much of our success depended on the friendly offices of that

nation, captain Lewis was full of anxiety to approach without alarming

him, and endeavour to convince him that he was a white man. He

therefore, proceeded on towards the Indian at his usual pace, when they

were within a mile of each other the Indian suddenly stopt, captain

Lewis immediately followed his example, took his blanket from his

knapsack, and holding it with both hands at the two corners, threw it

above his head and unfolded it as he brought it to the ground as if in

the act of spreading it. This signal which originates in the practice of

spreading a robe or a skin, as a seat for guests to whom they wish to

show a distinguished kindness, is the universal sign of friendship among

the Indians on the Missouri and the Rocky mountains. As usual, captain

Lewis repeated this signal three times: still the Indian kept his

position, and looked with an air of suspicion on Drewyer and Shields who

were now advancing on each side. Captain Lewis was afraid to make any

signal for them to halt, lest he should increase the suspicions of the

Indian, who began to be uneasy, and they too distant to hear his voice.

He, therefore, took from his pack some beads, a looking-glass and a few

trinkets, which he had brought for the purpose, and leaving his gun

advanced unarmed towards the Indian. He remained in the same position

till captain Lewis came within two hundred yards of him, when he turned

his horse, and began to move off slowly; captain Lewis then called out

to him, in as loud a voice as he could, repeating the word, tabba bone!

which in the Shoshonee language means white man; but looking over his

shoulder the Indian kept his eyes on Drewyer and Shields, who were still

advancing, without recollecting the impropriety of doing so at such a

moment, till captain Lewis made a signal to them to halt; this Drewyer

obeyed, but Shields did not observe it, and still went forward: seeing

Drewyer halt the Indian turned his horse about as if to wait for captain

Lewis who now reached within one hundred and fifty paces, repeating the

word tabba bone, and holding up the trinkets in his hand, at the same

time stripping up the sleeve of his shirt to show the colour of his

skin. The Indian suffered him to advance within one hundred paces, then

suddenly turned his horse, and giving him the whip, leaped across the

creek, and disappeared in an instant among the willow bushes: with him

vanished all the hopes which the sight of him had inspired of a friendly

introduction to his countrymen. Though sadly disappointed by the

imprudence of his two men, captain Lewis determined to make the incident

of some use, and therefore calling the men to him they all set off after

the track of the horse, which they hoped might lead them to the camp of

the Indian who had fled, or if he had given the alarm to any small

party, their track might conduct them to the body of the nation. They

now fixed a small flag of the United States on a pole, which was carried

by one of the men as a signal of their friendly intentions, should the

Indians observe them as they were advancing. The route lay across an

island formed by a nearly equal division of the creek in the bottom:

after reaching the open grounds on the right side of the creek, the

track turned towards some high hills about three miles distant.

Presuming that the Indian camp might be among these hills, and that by

advancing hastily he might be seen and alarm them, captain Lewis sought

an elevated situation near the creek, had a fire made of willow brush,

and took breakfast. At the same time he prepared a small assortment of

beads, trinkets, awls, some paint and a looking glass, and placed them

on a pole near the fire, in order that if the Indians returned they

might discover that the party were white men and friends. Whilst making

these preparations a very heavy shower of rain and hail came on, and

wet them to the skin: in about twenty minutes it was over, and captain

Lewis then renewed his pursuit, but as the rain had made the grass which

the horse had trodden down rise again, his track could with difficulty

be distinguished. As they went along they passed several places where

the Indians seemed to have been digging roots to-day, and saw the fresh

track of eight or ten horses, but they had been wandering about in so

confused a manner that he could not discern any particular path, and at

last, after pursuing it about four miles along the valley to the left

under the foot of the hills, he lost the track of the fugitive Indian.

Near the head of the valley they had passed a large bog covered with

moss and tall grass, among which were several springs of pure cold

water: they now turned a little to the left along the foot of the high

hills, and reached a small creek where they encamped for the night,

having made about twenty miles, though not more than ten in a direct

line from their camp of last evening.

The morning being rainy and wet we did not set out with the canoes till

after an early breakfast. During the first three miles we passed three

small islands, six bayous on different sides of the river, and the same

number of bends towards the right. Here we reached the lower point of a

large island which we called Three-thousand-mile island, on account of

its being at that distance from the mouth of the Missouri. It is three

miles and a half in length, and as we coasted along it we passed several

small bends of the river towards the left, and two bayous on the same

side. After leaving the upper point of Three-thousand-mile island, we

followed the main channel on the left side, which led us by three small

islands and several small bayous, and fifteen bends towards the right.

Then at the distance of seven miles and a half we encamped on the upper

end of a large island near the right. The river was shallow and rapid,

so that we were obliged to be in the water during a great part of the

day, dragging the canoes over the shoals and ripples. Its course too was

so crooked, that notwithstanding we had made fourteen miles by water, we

were only five miles from our encampment of last night. The country

consists of a low ground on the river about five miles wide, and

succeeded on both sides by plains of the same extent which reach to the

base of the mountains. These low grounds are very much intersected by

bayous, and in those on the left side is a large proportion of bog

covered with tall grass, which would yield a fine turf. There are very

few trees, and those small narrow-leafed cottonwood: the principal

growth being the narrow-leafed willow, and currant bushes, among which

were some bunches of privy near the river. We saw a number of geese,

ducks, beaver, otter, deer and antelopes, of all which one beaver was

killed with a pole from the boat, three otters with a tomahawk, and the

hunters brought in three deer and an antelope.

Monday, 12. This morning as soon as it was light captain Lewis sent

Drewyer to reconnoitre if possible the route of the Indians: in about an

hour and a half he returned, after following the tracks of the horse

which we had lost yesterday to the mountains, where they ascended and

were no longer visible. Captain Lewis now decided on making the circuit

along the foot of the mountains which formed the cove, expecting by that

means to find a road across them, and accordingly sent Drewyer on one

side, and Shields on the other. In this way they crossed four small

rivulets near each other, on which were some bowers or conical lodges of

willow brush, which seemed to have been made recently. From the manner

in which the ground in the neighbourhood was torn up the Indians

appeared to have been gathering roots; but captain Lewis could not

discover what particular plant they were searching for, nor could he

find any fresh track, till at the distance of four miles from his camp

he met a large plain Indian road which came into the cove from the

northeast, and wound along the foot of the mountains to the southwest,

approaching obliquely the main stream he had left yesterday. Down this

road he now went towards the southwest: at the distance of five miles it

crossed a large run or creek, which is a principal branch of the main

stream into which it falls, just above the high cliffs or gates observed

yesterday, and which they now saw below them: here they halted and

breakfasted on the last of the deer, keeping a small piece of pork in

reserve against accident: they then continued through the low bottom

along the main stream near the foot of the mountains on their right. For

the first five miles the valley continues towards the southwest from two

to three miles in width; then the main stream, which had received two

small branches from the left in the valley, turns abruptly to the west

through a narrow bottom between the mountains. The road was still plain,

and as it led them directly on towards the mountain the stream gradually

became smaller, till after going two miles it had so greatly diminished

in width that one of the men in a fit of enthusiasm, with one foot on

each side of the river, thanked God that he had lived to bestride the

Missouri. As they went along their hopes of soon seeing the waters of

the Columbia arose almost to painful anxiety, when after four miles from

the last abrupt turn of the river, they reached a small gap formed by

the high mountains which recede on each side, leaving room for the

Indian road. From the foot of one of the lowest of these mountains,

which rises with a gentle ascent of about half a mile, issues the

remotest water of the Missouri. They had now reached the hidden sources

of that river, which had never yet been seen by civilized man; and as

they quenched their thirst at the chaste and icy fountain--as they sat

down by the brink of that little rivulet, which yielded its distant and

modest tribute to the parent ocean, they felt themselves rewarded for

all their labours and all their difficulties. They left reluctantly

this interesting spot, and pursuing the Indian road through the interval

of the hills, arrived at the top of a ridge, from which they saw high

mountains partially covered with snow still to the west of them. The

ridge on which they stood formed the dividing line between the waters of

the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They followed a descent much steeper

than that on the eastern side, and at the distance of three quarters of

a mile reached a handsome bold creek of cold clear water running to the

westward. They stopped to taste for the first time the waters of the

Columbia; and after a few minutes followed the road across steep hills

and low hollows, till they reached a spring on the side of a mountain:

here they found a sufficient quantity of dry willow brush for fuel, and

therefore halted for the night; and having killed nothing in the course

of the day supped on their last piece of pork, and trusted to fortune

for some other food to mix with a little flour and parched meal, which

was all that now remained of their provisions. Before reaching the

fountain of the Missouri they saw several large hawks nearly black, and

some of the heath cocks: these last have a long pointed tail, and are of

a uniform dark brown colour, much larger than the common dunghill fowl,

and similar in habits and the mode of flying to the grouse or prairie

hen. Drewyer also wounded at the distance of one hundred and thirty

yards an animal which we had not yet seen, but which after falling

recovered itself and escaped. It seemed to be of the fox kind, rather

larger than the small wolf of the plains, and with a skin in which

black, reddish brown, and yellow, were curiously intermixed. On the

creek of the Columbia they found a species of currant which does not

grow as high as that of the Missouri, though it is more branching, and

its leaf, the under disk of which is covered with a hairy pubescence, is

twice as large. The fruit is of the ordinary size and shape of the

currant, and supported in the usual manner, but is of a deep purple

colour, acid, and of a very inferior flavour.

We proceeded on in the boats, but as the river was very shallow and

rapid, the navigation is extremely difficult, and the men who are almost

constantly in the water are getting feeble and sore, and so much wore

down by fatigue that they are very anxious to commence travelling by

land. We went along the main channel which is on the right side, and

after passing nine bends in that direction, three islands and a number

of bayous, reached at the distance of five and a half miles the upper

point of a large island. At noon there was a storm of thunder which

continued about half an hour; after which we proceeded, but as it was

necessary to drag the canoes over the shoals and rapids, made but little

progress. On leaving the island we passed a number of short bends,

several bayous, and one run of water on the right side, and having gone

by four small and two large islands, encamped on a smooth plain to the

left near a few cottonwood trees: our journey by water was just twelve

miles, and four in a direct line. The hunters supplied us with three

deer and a fawn.

Tuesday 13. Very early in the morning captain Lewis resumed the Indian

road, which led him in a western direction, through an open broken

country; on the left was a deep valley at the foot of a high range of

mountains running from southeast to northwest, with their sides better

clad with timber than the hills to which we have been for some time

accustomed, and their tops covered in part with snow. At five miles

distance, after following the long descent of another valley, he reached

a creek about ten yards wide, and on rising the hill beyond it had a

view of a handsome little valley on the left, about a mile in width,

through which they judged, from the appearance of the timber, that some

stream of water most probably passed. On the creek they had just left

were some bushes of the white maple, the sumach of the small species

with the winged rib, and a species of honeysuckle, resembling in its

general appearance and the shape of its leaf the small honeysuckle of

the Missouri, except that it is rather larger, and bears a globular

berry, about the size of a garden pea, of a white colour, and formed of

a soft white mucilaginous substance, in which are several small brown

seeds irregularly scattered without any cell, and enveloped in a smooth

thin pellicle.

They proceeded along a waving plain parallel to this valley for about

four miles, when they discovered two women, a man and some dogs on an

eminence at the distance of a mile before them. The strangers first

viewed them apparently with much attention for a few minutes, and then

two of them sat down as if to await captain Lewis's arrival. He went on

till he reached within about half a mile, then ordered his party to

stop, put down his knapsack and rifle, and unfurling the flag advanced

alone towards the Indians. The females soon retreated behind the hill,

but the man remained till captain Lewis came within a hundred yards from

him, when he too went off, though captain Lewis called out tabba bone!

loud enough to be heard distinctly. He hastened to the top of the hill,

but they had all disappeared. The dogs however were less shy, and came

close to him; he therefore thought of tying a handkerchief with some

beads round their necks, and then let them loose to convince the

fugitives of his friendly disposition, but they would not suffer him to

take hold of them, and soon left him. He now made a signal to the men,

who joined him, and then all followed the track of the Indians, which

led along a continuation of the same road they had been already

travelling. It was dusty and seemed to have been much used lately both

by foot passengers and horsemen. They had not gone along it more than a

mile when on a sudden they saw three female Indians, from whom they had

been concealed by the deep ravines which intersected the road, till they

were now within thirty paces of each other; one of them a young woman

immediately took to flight, the other two, an elderly woman and a

little girl, seeing we were too near for them to escape, sat on the

ground, and holding down their heads seemed as if reconciled to the

death which they supposed awaited them. The same habit of holding down

the head and inviting the enemy to strike, when all chance of escape is

gone, is preserved in Egypt to this day. Captain Lewis instantly put

down his rifle, and advancing towards them, took the woman by the hand,

raised her up, and repeated the word tabba bone! at the sane time

stripping up his shirt sleeve to prove that he was a white man, for his

hands and face had become by constant exposure quite as dark as their

own. She appeared immediately relieved from her alarm, and Drewyer and

Shields now coming up, captain Lewis gave them some beads, a few awls,

pewter mirrors, and a little paint, and told Drewyer to request the

woman to recall her companion who had escaped to some distance, and by

alarming the Indians might cause them to attack him without any time for

explanation. She did as she was desired, and the young woman returned

almost out of breath: captain Lewis gave her an equal portion of

trinkets, and painted the tawny cheeks of all three of them with

vermillion, a ceremony which among the Shoshonees is emblematic of

peace. After they had become composed, he informed them by signs of his

wish to go to their camp in order to see their chiefs and warriors; they

readily obeyed, and conducted the party along the same road down the

river. In this way they marched two miles, when they met a troop of

nearly sixty warriors mounted on excellent horses riding at full speed

towards them. As they advanced captain Lewis put down his gun, and went

with the flag about fifty paces in advance. The chief who with two men

were riding in front of the main body, spoke to the women, who now

explained that the party was composed of white men, and showed

exultingly the presents they had received. The three men immediately

leaped from their horses, came up to Captain Lewis and embraced him with

great cordiality, putting their left arm over his right shoulder and

clasping his back, applying at the same time their left cheek to his,

and frequently vociferating ah hi e! ah hi e! "I am much pleased, I am

much rejoiced." The whole body of warriors now came forward, and our men

received the caresses, and no small share of the grease and paint of

their new friends. After this fraternal embrace, of which the motive was

much more agreeable than the manner, captain Lewis lighted a pipe and

offered it to the Indians who had now seated themselves in a circle

around the party. But before they would receive this mark of friendship

they pulled off their moccasins, a custom as we afterwards learnt, which

indicates the sacred sincerity of their professions when they smoke with

a stranger, and which imprecates on themselves the misery of going

barefoot forever if they are faithless to their words, a penalty by no

means light to those who rove over the thorny plains of their country.

It is not unworthy to remark the analogy which some of the customs of

those wild children of the wilderness bear to those recorded in holy

writ. Moses is admonished to pull off his shoes, for the place on which

he stood was holy ground. Why this was enjoined as an act of peculiar

reverence; whether it was from the circumstance that in the arid region

in which the patriarch then resided, it was deemed a test of the

sincerity of devotion to walk upon the burning sands barefooted, in some

measure analogous to the pains inflicted by the prickly pear, does not

appear. After smoking a few pipes, some trifling presents were

distributed amongst them, with which they seemed very much pleased,

particularly with the blue beads and the vermillion. Captain Lewis then

informed the chief that the object of his visit was friendly, and should

be explained as soon as he reached their camp; but that in the meantime

as the sun was oppressive, and no water near, he wished to go there as

soon as possible. They now put on their moccasins, and their chief,

whose name was Cameahwait, made a short speech to the warriors. Captain

Lewis then gave him the flag, which he informed him was among white men

the emblem of peace, and now that he had received it was to be in future

the bond of union between them. The chief then moved on, our party

followed him, and the rest of the warriors in a squadron, brought up the

rear. After marching a mile they were halted by the chief, who made a

second harangue, on which six or eight young men rode forward to their

camp, and no further regularity was observed in the order of march. At

the distance of four miles from where they had first met, they reached

the Indian camp, which was in a handsome level meadow on the bank of the

river. Here they were introduced into an old leathern lodge which the

young men who had been sent from the party had fitted up for their

reception. After being seated on green boughs and antelope skins, one of

the warriors pulled up the grass in the centre of the lodge so as to

form a vacant circle of two feet diameter, in which he kindled a fire.

The chief then produced his pipe and tobacco, the warriors all pulled

off their moccasins, and our party was requested to take off their own.

This being done, the chief lighted his pipe at the fire within the magic

circle, and then retreating from it began a speech several minutes long,

at the end of which he pointed the stem towards the four cardinal points

of the heavens, beginning with the east and concluding with the north.

After this ceremony he presented the stem in the same way to captain

Lewis, who supposing it an invitation to smoke, put out his hand to

receive the pipe, but the chief drew it back, and continued to repeat

the same offer three times, after which he pointed the stem first to the

heavens, then to the centre of the little circle, took three whiffs

himself, and presented it again to captain Lewis. Finding that this last

offer was in good earnest, he smoked a little, the pipe was then held to

each of the white men, and after they had taken a few whiffs was given

to the warriors. This pipe was made of a dense transparent green stone,

very highly polished; about two and an half inches long, and of an oval

figure, the bowl being in the same situation with the stem. A small

piece of burnt clay is placed in the bottom of the bowl to separate the

tobacco from the end of the stem, and is of an irregularly round figure,

not fitting the tube perfectly close, in order that the smoke may pass

with facility. The tobacco is of the same kind with that used by the

Minnetarees, Mandans and Ricaras of the Missouri. The Shoshonees do not

cultivate this plant, but obtain it from the Rocky mountain Indians, and

some of the bands of their own nation who live further south. The

ceremony of smoking being concluded, captain Lewis explained to the

chief the purposes of his visit, and as by this time all the women and

children of the camp had gathered around the lodge to indulge in a view

of the first white men they had ever seen, he distributed among them the

remainder of the small articles he had brought with him. It was now late

in the afternoon, and our party had tasted no food since the night

before. On apprising the chief of this circumstance, he said that he had

nothing but berries to eat, and presented some cakes made of

serviceberry and chokecherries which had been dried in the sun. On these

captain Lewis made a hearty meal, and then walked down towards the

river: he found it a rapid clear stream forty yards wide and three feet

deep; the banks were low and abrupt, like those of the upper part of the

Missouri, and the bed formed of loose stones and gravel. Its course, as

far as he could observe it, was a little to the north of west, and was

bounded on each side by a range of high mountains, of which those on the

east are the lowest and most distant from the river.

The chief informed him that this stream discharged itself at the

distance of half a day's march, into another of twice its size, coming

from the southwest; but added, on further inquiry, that there was

scarcely more timber below the junction of those rivers than in this

neighbourhood, and that the river was rocky, rapid, and so closely

confined between high mountains, that it was impossible to pass down

it, either by land or water to the great lake, where as he had

understood the white men lived. This information was far from being

satisfactory; for there was no timber here that would answer the purpose

of building canoes, indeed not more than just sufficient for fuel, and

even that consisted of the narrow-leafed cotton wood, the red and the

narrow-leafed willow, the chokecherry, serviceberry and a few currant

bushes such as are common on the Missouri. The prospect of going on by

land is more pleasant; for there are great numbers of horses feeding in

every direction round the camp, which will enable us to transport our

stores if necessary over the mountains. Captain Lewis returned from the

river to his lodge, and on his way an Indian invited him into his bower

and gave him a small morsel of boiled antelope and a piece of fresh

salmon roasted. This was the first salmon he had seen, and perfectly

satisfied him that he was now on the waters of the Pacific. On reaching

this lodge, he resumed his conversation with the chief, after which he

was entertained with a dance by the Indians. It now proved, as our party

had feared, that the men whom they had first met this morning had

returned to the camp and spread the alarm that their enemies, the

Minnetarees of fort de Prairie, whom they call Pahkees, were advancing

on them. The warriors instantly armed themselves and were coming down in

expectation of an attack, when they were agreeably surprised by meeting

our party. The greater part of them were armed with bows and arrows, and

shields, but a few had small fusils, such as are furnished by the

northwest company traders, and which they had obtained from the Indians

on the Yellowstone, with whom they are now at peace. They had reason to

dread the approach of the Pahkees, who had attacked them in the course

of this spring and totally defeated them. On this occasion twenty of

their warriors were either killed or made prisoners, and they lost their

whole camp except the leathern lodge which they had fitted up for us,

and were now obliged to live in huts of a conical figure made with

willow brush. The music and dancing, which was in no respect different

from those of the Missouri Indians, continued nearly all night; but

captain Lewis retired to rest about twelve o'clock, when the fatigues of

the day enabled him to sleep though he was awaked several times by the

yells of the dancers.

Whilst all these things were occurring to captain Lewis we were slowly

and laboriously ascending the river. For the first two and a half miles

we went along the island opposite to which we encamped last evening, and

soon reached a second island behind which comes in a small creek on the

left side of the river. It rises in the mountains to the east and forms

a handsome valley for some miles from its mouth, where it is a bold

running stream about seven yards wide: we called it M'Neal's creek,

after Hugh M'Neal one of our party. Just above this stream and at the

distance of four miles from our camp is a point of limestone rock on the

right, about seventy feet high, forming a cliff over the river. From the

top of it the Beaver's-head bore north 24° east twelve miles distant,

the course of Wisdom river, that is the direction of its valley through

the mountains is north 25° west, while the gap through which the

Jefferson enters the mountains is ten miles above us on a course south

18° west. From this limestone rock we proceeded along several islands,

on both sides, and after making twelve miles arrived at a cliff of high

rocks on the right, opposite to which we encamped in a smooth level

prairie, near a few cottonwood trees; but were obliged to use the dry

willow brush for fuel. The river is still very crooked, the bends short

and abrupt, and obstructed by so many shoals, over which the canoes were

to be dragged, that the men were in the water three fourths of the day.

They saw numbers of otter, some beaver, antelopes, ducks, geese, and

cranes, but they killed nothing except a single deer. They, however,

caught some very fine trout, as they have done for several days past.

The weather had been cloudy and cool during the forepart of the day, and

at eight o'clock a shower of rain fell.

Wednesday 14. In order to give time for the boats to reach the forks of

Jefferson river, captain Lewis determined to remain here and obtain all

the information he could collect with regard to the country. Having

nothing to eat but a little flour and parched meal, with the berries of

the Indians, he sent out Drewyer and Shields, who borrowed horses from

the natives, to hunt for a few hours. About the same time the young

warriors set out for the same purpose. There are but few elk or

blacktailed deer in this neighbourhood, and as the common red-deer

secrete themselves in the bushes when alarmed, they are soon safe from

the arrows, which are but feeble weapons against any animals which the

huntsmen cannot previously run down with their horses. The chief game of

the Shoshonees, therefore, is the antelope, which when pursued retreats

to the open plains, where the horses have full room for the chase. But

such is its extraordinary fleetness and wind that a single horse has no

possible chance of outrunning it, or tiring it down; and the hunters are

therefore obliged to resort to stratagem. About twenty Indians, mounted

on fine horses, and armed with bows and arrows, left the camp; in a

short time they descried a herd of ten antelopes: they immediately

separated into little squads of two or three, and formed a scattered

circle round the herd for five or six miles, keeping at a wary distance,

so as not to alarm them till they were perfectly inclosed, and usually

selecting some commanding eminence as a stand. Having gained their

positions, a small party rode towards the herd, and with wonderful

dexterity the huntsman preserved his seat, and the horse his footing, as

he ran at full speed over the hills, and down the steep ravines, and

along the borders of the precipices. They were soon outstripped by the

antelopes, which on gaining the other extremity of the circle were

driven back and pursued by the fresh hunters. They turned and flew,

rather than ran in another direction; but there too, they found new

enemies. In this way they were alternately pursued backwards and

forwards, till at length, notwithstanding the skill of the hunters, they

all escaped, and the party after running for two hours returned without

having caught any thing, and their horses foaming with sweat. This

chase, the greater part of which was seen from the camp, formed a

beautiful scene; but to the hunters is exceedingly laborious, and so

unproductive, even when they are able to worry the animal down and shoot

him, that forty or fifty hunters will sometimes be engaged for half a

day without obtaining more than two or three antelopes. Soon after they

returned, our two huntsmen came in with no better success. Captain Lewis

therefore made a little paste with the flour, and the addition of some

berries formed a very palatable repast. Having now secured the good will

of Cameahwait, captain Lewis informed him of his wish that he would

speak to the warriors and endeavour to engage them to accompany him to

the forks of Jefferson river, where by this time another chief with a

large party of white men were waiting his return: that it would be

necessary to take about thirty horses to transport the merchandize; that

they should be well rewarded for their trouble; and that when all the

party should have reached the Shoshonee camp they would remain some time

among them, and trade for horses, as well as concert plans for

furnishing them in future with regular supplies of merchandize. He

readily consented to do so, and after collecting the tribe together he

made a long harangue, and in about an hour and a half returned, and told

captain Lewis that they would be ready to accompany him in the morning.

As the early part of the day was cold, and the men stiff and sore from

the fatigues of yesterday: we did not set out till seven o'clock. At the

distance of a mile we passed a bold stream on the right, which comes

from a snowy mountain to the north, and at its entrance is four yards

wide, and three feet in depth: we called it Track creek: at six miles

further we reached another stream which heads in some springs at the

foot of the mountains on the left. Alter passing a number of bayous and

small islands on each side, we encamped about half a mile by land below

the Rattlesnake cliffs. The river was cold, shallow, and as it

approached the mountains formed one continued rapid, over which we were

obliged to drag the boats with great labour and difficulty. By using

constant exertions we succeeded in making fourteen miles, but this

distance did not carry us more than six and a half in a straight line:

several of the men have received wounds and lamed themselves in hauling

the boats over the stones. The hunters supplied them with five deer and

an antelope.

Thursday 15. Captain Lewis rose early, and having eaten nothing

yesterday except his scanty meal of flour and berries felt the

inconveniences of extreme hunger. On inquiry he found that his whole

stock of provisions consisted of two pounds of flour. This he ordered to

be divided into two equal parts, and one half of it boiled with the

berries into a sort of pudding: and after presenting a large share to

the chief, he and his three men breakfasted on the remainder. Cameahwait

was delighted at this new dish; he took a little of the flour in his

hand tasted and examined it very narrowly, asking if it was made of

roots; captain Lewis explained the process of preparing it, and he said

it was the best thing he had eaten for a long time.

This being finished, captain Lewis now endeavoured to hasten the

departure of the Indians who still hesitated, and seemed reluctant to

move, although the chief addressed them twice for the purpose of urging

them: on inquiring the reason, Cameahwait told him that some foolish

person had suggested that he was in league with their enemies the

Pahkees, and had come only to draw them into ambuscade, but that he

himself did not believe it: captain Lewis felt uneasy at this

insinuation: he knew the suspicious temper of the Indians, accustomed

from their infancy to regard every stranger as an enemy, and saw that if

this suggestion were not instantly checked, it might hazard the total

failure of the enterprise. Assuming therefore a serious air, he told the

chief that he was sorry to find they placed so little confidence in him,

but that he pardoned their suspicions because they were ignorant of the

character of white men, among whom it was disgraceful to lie or entrap

even an enemy by falsehood; that if they continued to think thus meanly

of us they might be assured no white men would ever come to supply them

with arms and merchandize; that there was at this moment a party of

white men waiting to trade with them at the forks of the river; and that

if the greater part of the tribe entertained any suspicion, he hoped

there were still among them some who were men, who would go and see with

their own eyes the truth of what he said, and who, even if there was any

danger, were not afraid to die. To doubt the courage of an Indian is to

touch the tenderest string of his mind, and the surest way to rouse him

to any dangerous achievement. Cameahwait instantly replied, that he was

not afraid to die, and mounting his horse, for the third time harangued

the warriors: he told them that he was resolved to go if he went alone,

or if he were sure of perishing; that he hoped there were among those

who heard him some who were not afraid to die, and who would prove it by

mounting their horses and following him. This harangue produced an

effect on six or eight only of the warriors, who now joined their chief.

With these captain Lewis smoked a pipe, and then fearful of some change

in their capricious temper set out immediately. It was about twelve

o'clock when his small party left the camp, attended by Cameahwait and

the eight warriors; their departure seemed to spread a gloom over the

village; those who would not venture to go were sullen and melancholy,

and the woman were crying and imploring the Great Spirit to protect

their warriors as if they were going to certain destruction: yet such

is the wavering inconstancy of these savages, that captain Lewis's party

had not gone far when they were joined by ten or twelve more warriors,

and before reaching the creek which they had passed on the morning of

the 13th, all the men of the nation and a number of women had overtaken

them, and had changed from the surly ill temper in which they were two

hours ago, to the greatest cheerfulness and gayety. When they arrived at

the spring on the side of the mountain where the party had encamped on

the 12th, the chief insisted on halting to let the horses graze; to

which captain Lewis assented and smoked with them. They are excessively

fond of the pipe, in which however they are not able to indulge much as

they do not cultivate tobacco themselves, and their rugged country

affords them but few articles to exchange for it. Here they remained for

about an hour, and on setting out, by engaging to pay four of the party,

captain Lewis obtained permission for himself and each of his men to

ride behind an Indian; but he soon found riding without stirrup more

tiresome than walking, and therefore dismounted, making the Indian carry

his pack. About sunset they reached the upper part of the level valley

in the cove through which he had passed, and which they now called

Shoshonee cove. The grass being burnt on the north side of the river

they crossed over to the south, and encamped about four miles above the

narrow pass between the hills noticed as they traversed the cove before.

The river was here about six yards wide, and frequently dammed up by the

beaver. Drewyer had been sent forward to hunt, but he returned in the

evening unsuccessful, and their only supper therefore was the remaining

pound of flour stirred in a little boiling water and then divided

between the four white men and two of the Indians.

In order not to exhaust the strength of the men, captain Clarke did not

leave his camp till after breakfast. Although, he was scarcely half a

mile below the Rattlesnake cliffs he was obliged to make a circuit of

two miles by water before he reached them. The river now passed between

low and rugged mountains and cliffs formed of a mixture of limestone and

a hard black rock, with no covering except a few scattered pines. At the

distance of four miles is a bold little stream which throws itself from

the mountains down a steep precipice of rocks on the left. One mile

farther is a second point of rocks, and an island, about a mile beyond

which is a creek on the right, ten yards wide and three feet three

inches in depth, with a strong current: we called it Willard's creek

after one of our men, Alexander Willard. Three miles beyond this creek,

after passing a high cliff on the right opposite to a steep hill, we

reached a small meadow on the left bank of the river. During its passage

through these hills to Willard's creek the river had been less torturous

than usual, so that in the first six miles to Willard's creek we had

advanced four miles on our route. We continued on for two miles, till we

reached in the evening a small bottom covered with clover and a few

cottonwood trees: here we passed the night near the remains of some old

Indian lodges of brush. The river is as it has been for some days

shallow and rapid; and our men, who are for hours together in the river,

suffer not only from fatigue, but from the extreme coldness of the

water, the temperature of which is as low as that of the freshest

springs in our country. In walking along the side of the river, captain

Clarke was very near being bitten twice by rattlesnakes, and the Indian

woman narrowly escaped the same misfortune. We caught a number of fine

trout; but the only game procured to-day was a buck, which had a

peculiarly bitter taste, proceeding probably from its favourite food,

the willow.

Friday, 16. As neither our party nor the Indians had any thing to eat,

captain Lewis sent two of his hunters ahead this morning to procure some

provision: at the same time he requested Cameahwait to prevent his young

men from going out, lest by their noise they might alarm the game; but

this measure immediately revived their suspicions: it now began to be

believed that these men were sent forward in order to apprise the enemy

of their coming, and as captain Lewis was fearful of exciting any

further uneasiness, he made no objection on seeing a small party of

Indians go on each side of the valley under pretence of hunting, but in

reality to watch the movements of our two men: even this precaution

however did not quiet the alarms of the Indians, a considerable part of

whom returned home, leaving only twenty-eight men and three women. After

the hunters had been gone about an hour, captain Lewis again mounted

with one of the Indians behind him, and the whole party set out; but

just as they passed through the narrows they saw one of the spies coming

back at full speed across the plain: the chief stopped and seemed

uneasy, the whole band were moved with fresh suspicions, and captain

Lewis himself was much disconcerted, lest by some unfortunate accident

some of their enemies might have perhaps straggled that way. The young

Indian had scarcely breath to say a few words as he came up, when the

whole troop dashed forward as fast as their horses could carry them, and

captain Lewis astonished at this movement was borne along for nearly a

mile before he learnt with great satisfaction that it was all caused by

the spy's having come to announce that one of the white men had killed a

deer. Relieved from his anxiety he now found the jolting very

uncomfortable; for the Indian behind him being afraid of not getting his

share of the feast had lashed the horse at every step since they set

off; he therefore reined him in and ordered the Indian to stop beating

him. The fellow had no idea of losing time in disputing the point, and

jumping off the horse ran for a mile at full speed. Captain Lewis

slackened his pace, and followed at a sufficient distance to observe

them. When they reached the place where Drewyer had thrown out the

intestines, they all dismounted in confusion and ran tumbling over each

other like famished dogs: each tore away whatever part he could and

instantly began to eat it; some had the liver, some the kidneys, in

short no part on which we are accustomed to look with disgust escaped

them: 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. It was indeed impossible

to see these wretches ravenously feeding on the filth of animals, and

the blood streaming from their mouths, without deploring how nearly the

condition of savages approaches that of the brute creation: yet though

suffering with 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 hunter. Captain Lewis now had the deer skinned,

and after reserving a quarter of it gave the rest of the animal to the

chief to be divided among the Indians, who immediately devoured nearly

the whole of it without cooking. They now went forward towards the creek

where there was some brushwood to make a fire, and found Drewyer who had

killed a second deer: the same struggle for the entrails was renewed

here, and on giving nearly the whole deer to the Indians, they devoured

it even to the soft part of the hoofs. A fire being made captain Lewis

had his breakfast, during which Drewyer brought in a third deer: this

too, after reserving one quarter, was given to the Indians, who now

seemed completely satisfied and in good humour. At this place they

remained about two hours to let the horses graze, and then continued

their journey, and towards evening reached the lower part of the cove

having on the way shot an antelope, the greater part of which was given

to the Indians. As they were now approaching the place where they had

been told by Captain Lewis they would see the white men, the chief

insisted on halting: they therefore all dismounted, and Cameahwait with

great ceremony and as if for ornament, put tippets or skins round the

necks of our party, similar to those worn by themselves. As this was

obviously intended to disguise the white men, captain Lewis in order to

inspire them with more confidence put his cocked hat and feather on the

head of the chief, and as his own over-shirt was in the Indian form, and

his skin browned by the sun, he could not have been distinguished from

an Indian: the men followed his example, and the change seemed to be

very agreeable* to the Indians.

In order to guard however against any disappointment captain Lewis again

explained the possibility of our not having reached the forks in

consequence of the difficulty of the navigation, so that if they should

not find us at that spot they might be assured of our not being far

below. They again all mounted their horses and rode on rapidly, making

one of the Indians carry their flag, so that we might recognise them as

they approached us; but to the mortification and disappointment of both

parties on coming within two miles of the forks, no canoes were to be

seen. Uneasy lest at this moment he should be abandoned, and all his

hopes of obtaining aid from the Indians be destroyed, captain Lewis gave

the chief his gun, telling him that if the enemies of his nation were in

the bushes he might defend himself with it; that for his own part he was

not afraid to die, and that the chief might shoot him as soon as they

discovered themselves betrayed. The other three men at the same time

gave their guns to the Indians, who now seemed more easy, but still

wavered in their resolutions. As they went on towards the point, captain

Lewis perceiving how critical his situation had become, resolved to

attempt a stratagem which his present difficulty seemed completely to

justify. Recollecting the notes he had left at the point for us, he sent

Drewyer for them with an Indian who witnessed his taking them from the

pole. When they were brought, captain Lewis told Cameahwait that on

leaving his brother chief at the place where the river issues from the

mountains, it was agreed that the boats should not be brought higher

than the next forks we should meet; but that if the rapid water

prevented the boats from coming on as fast as they expected, his brother

chief was to send a note to the first forks above him to let him know

where the boats were; that this note had been left this morning at the

forks, and mentioned that the canoes were just below the mountains, and

coming slowly up in consequence of the current. Captain Lewis added,

that he would stay at the forks for his brother chief, but would send a

man down the river, and that if Cameahwait doubted what he said, one of

their young men would go with him whilst he and the other two remained

at the forks. This story satisfied the chief and the greater part of the

Indians, but a few did not conceal their suspicion, observing that we

told different stories, and complaining that the chief exposed them to

danger by a mistaken confidence. Captain Lewis now wrote by the light of

some willow brush a note to captain Clarke, which he gave to Drewyer,

with an order to use all possible expedition in ascending the river, and

engaged an Indian to accompany him by a promise of a knife and some

beads. At bedtime the chief and five others slept round the fire of

captain Lewis, and the rest hid themselves in different parts of the

willow brush to avoid the enemy, who they feared would attack them in

the night. Captain Lewis endeavoured to assume a cheerfulness he did not

feel to prevent the despondency of the savages: after conversing gayly

with them he retired to his musquitoe bier, by the side of which the

chief now placed himself: he lay down, yet slept but little, being in

fact scarcely less uneasy than his Indian companions. He was

apprehensive that finding the ascent of the river impracticable, captain

Clarke might have stopped below the Rattlesnake bluff, and the messenger

would not meet him. The consequence of disappointing the Indians at this

moment would most probably be, that they would retire and secrete

themselves in the mountains, so as to prevent our having an opportunity

of recovering their confidence: they would also spread a panic through

all the neighbouring Indians, and cut us off from the supply of horses

so useful and almost so essential to our success: he was at the same

time consoled by remembering that his hopes of assistance rested on

better foundations than their generosity--their avarice, and their

curiosity. He had promised liberal exchanges for their horses; but what

was still move seductive, he had told them that one of their

country-women who had been taken with the Minnetarees accompanied the

party below; and one of the men had spread the report of our having with

us a man perfectly black, whose hair was short and curled. This last

account had excited a great degree of curiosity, and they seemed more

desirous of seeing this monster than of obtaining the most favourable

barter for their horses.

In the meantime we had set out after breakfast, and although we

proceeded with more ease than we did yesterday, the river was still so

rapid and shallow as to oblige us to drag the large canoes during the

greater part of the day. For the first seven miles the river formed a

bend to the right so as to make our advance only three miles in a

straight line; the stream is crooked, narrow, small, and shallow, with

highlands occasionally on the banks, and strewed with islands, four of

which are opposite to each other. Near this place we left the valley, to

which we gave the name of Serviceberry valley, from the abundance of

that fruit now ripe which is found in it. In the course of the four

following miles we passed several more islands and bayous on each side

of the river, and reached a high cliff on the right. Two and a half

miles beyond this the cliffs approach on both sides and form a very

considerable rapid near the entrance of a bold running stream on the

left. The water was now excessively cold, and the rapids had been

frequent and troublesome. On ascending an eminence captain Clarke saw

the forks of the river and sent the hunters up. They must have left it

only a short time before captain Lewis's arrival, but fortunately had

not seen the note which enabled him to induce the Indians to stay with

him. From the top of this eminence he could discover only three trees

through the whole country, nor was there along the sides of the cliffs

they had passed in the course of the day, any timber except a few small

pines: the low grounds were supplied with willow, currant bushes, and

serviceberries. After advancing half a mile further we came to the lower

point of an island near the middle of the river, and about the centre of

the valley: here we halted for the night, only four miles by land,

though ten by water, below the point where captain Lewis lay. Although

we had made only fourteen miles, the labours of the men had fatigued and

exhausted them very much: we therefore collected some small willow brush

for a fire, and lay down to sleep.

CHAPTER XV.

Affecting interview between the wife of Chaboneau and the chief of

the Shoshonees--Council held with that nation, and favourable

result--The extreme navigable point of the Missouri

mentioned--General character of the river and of the country

through which it passes--Captain Clarke in exploring the source of

the Columbia falls in company with another party of Shoshonees--The

geographical information acquired from one of that party--Their

manner of catching fish--The party reach Lewis river--The

difficulties which captain Clarke had to encounter in his

route--Friendship and hospitality of the Shoshonees--The party with

captain Lewis employed in making saddles, and preparing for the

journey.

Saturday, August 17. Captain Lewis rose very early and despatched

Drewyer and the Indian down the river in quest of the boats. Shields was

sent out at the same time to hunt, while M'Neal prepared a breakfast out

of the remainder of the meat. Drewyer had been gone about two hours, and

the Indians were all anxiously waiting for some news, when an Indian who

had straggled a short distance down the river, returned with a report

that he had seen the white men, who were only a short distance below,

and were coming on. The Indians were all transported with joy, and the

chief in the warmth of his satisfaction renewed his embrace to captain

Lewis, who was quite as much delighted as the Indians themselves; the

report proved most agreeably true. On setting out at seven o'clock,

captain Clarke with Chaboneau and his wife walked on shore, but they had

not gone more than a mile before captain Clarke saw Sacajawea, who was

with her husband one hundred yards ahead, began to dance, and show every

mark of the most extravagant joy, turning round him and pointing to

several Indians, whom he now saw advancing on horseback, sucking her

fingers at the same time to indicate that they were of her native tribe.

As they advanced captain Clarke discovered among them Drewyer dressed

like an Indian, from whom he learnt the situation of the party. While

the boats were performing the circuit, he went towards the forks with

the Indians, who as they went along, sang aloud with the greatest

appearance of delight. We soon drew near to the camp, and just as we

approached it a woman made her way through the crowd towards Sacajawea,

and recognising each other, they embraced with the most tender

affection. The meeting of these two young women had in it something

peculiarly touching, not only in the ardent manner in which their

feelings were expressed, but from the real interest of their situation.

They had been companions in childhood, in the war with the Minnetarees

they had both been taken prisoners in the same battle, they had shared

and softened the rigours of their captivity, till one of them had

escaped from the Minnetarees, with scarce a hope of ever seeing her

friend relieved from the hands of her enemies. While Sacajawea was

renewing among the women the friendships of former days, captain Clarke

went on, and was received by captain Lewis and the chief, who after the

first embraces and salutations were over, conducted him to a sort of

circular tent or shade of willows. Here he was seated on a white robe;

and the chief immediately tied in his hair six small shells resembling

pearls, an ornament highly valued by these people, who procured them in

the course of trade from the seacoast. The moccasins of the whole party

were then taken off, and after much ceremony the smoking began. After

this the conference was to be opened, and glad of an opportunity of

being able to converse more intelligibly, Sacajawea was sent for; she

came into the tent, sat down, and was beginning to interpret, when in

the person of Cameahwait she recognised her brother: she instantly

jumped up, and ran and embraced him, throwing over him her blanket and

weeping profusely; the chief was himself moved, though not in the same

degree. After some conversation between them she resumed her seat, and

attempted to interpret for us, but her new situation seemed to

overpower her, and she was frequently interrupted by her tears. After

the council was finished, the unfortunate woman learnt that all her

family were dead except two brothers, one of whom was absent, and a son

of her eldest sister, a small boy, who was immediately adopted by her.

The canoes arriving soon after, we formed a camp in a meadow on the left

side, a little below the forks; took out our baggage, and by means of

our sails and willow poles formed a canopy for our Indian visitors.

About four o'clock the chiefs and warriors were collected, and after the

customary ceremony of taking off the moccasins and smoking a pipe, we

explained to them in a long harangue the purposes of our visit, making

themselves one conspicuous object of the good wishes of our government,

on whose strength as well as its friendly disposition we expatiated. We

told them of their dependance on the will of our government for all

future supplies of whatever was necessary either for their comfort or

defence; that as we were sent to discover the best route by which

merchandize could be conveyed to them, and no trade would be begun

before our return, it was mutually advantageous that we should proceed

with as little delay as possible; that we were under the necessity of

requesting them to furnish us with horses to transport our baggage

across the mountains, and a guide to show us the route, but that they

should be amply remunerated for their horses, as well as for every other

service they should render us. In the meantime our first wish was, that

they should immediately collect as many horses as were necessary to

transport our baggage to their village, where, at our leisure we would

trade with them for as many horses as they could spare.

The speech made a favourable impression: the chief in reply thanked us

for our expressions of friendship towards himself and his nation, and

declared their willingness to render us every service. He lamented that

it would be so long before they should be supplied with firearms, but

that till then they could subsist as they had heretofore done. He

concluded by saying that there were not horses here sufficient to

transport our goods, but that he would return to the village to-morrow,

and bring all his own horses, and encourage his people to come over with

theirs. The conference being ended to our satisfaction, we now inquired

of Cameahwait what chiefs were among the party, and he pointed out two

of them. We then distributed our presents: to Cameahwait we gave a medal

of the small size, with the likeness of president Jefferson, and on the

reverse a figure of hands clasped with a pipe and tomahawk: to this was

added an uniform coat, a shirt, a pair of scarlet leggings, a carrot of

tobacco, and some small articles. Each of the other chiefs received a

small medal struck during the presidency of general Washington, a shirt,

handkerchief, leggings, a knife, and some tobacco. Medals of the same

sort were also presented to two young warriors, who though not chiefs

were promising youths and very much respected in the tribe. These

honorary gifts were followed by presents of paint, moccasins, awls,

knives, beads and looking-glasses. We also gave them all a plentiful

meal of Indian corn, of which the hull is taken off by being boiled in

lye; and as this was the first they had ever tasted, they were very much

pleased with it. They had indeed abundant sources of surprise in all

they saw: the appearance of the men, their arms, their clothing, the

canoes, the strange looks of the negro, and the sagacity of our dog, all

in turn shared their admiration, which was raised to astonishment by a

shot from the airgun: this operation was instantly considered as a

_great medicine_, by which they as well as the other Indians mean

something emanating directly from the Great Spirit, or produced by his

invisible and incomprehensible agency. The display of all these riches

had been intermixed with inquiries into the geographical situation of

their country; for we had learnt by experience, that to keep the savages

in good temper their attention should not be wearied with too much

business; but that the serious affairs should be enlivened by a mixture

of what is new and entertaining. Our hunters brought in very seasonably

four deer and an antelope, the last of which we gave to the Indians, who

in a very short time devoured it. After the council was over, we

consulted as to our future operations. The game does not promise to last

here for a number of days, and this circumstance combined with many

others to induce our going on as soon as possible. Our Indian

information as to the state of the Columbia is of a very alarming kind,

and our first object is of course to ascertain the practicability of

descending it, of which the Indians discourage our expectations. It was

therefore agreed that captain Clarke should set off in the morning with

eleven men, furnished, besides their arms, with tools for making canoes;

that he should take Chaboneau and his wife to the camp of the

Shoshonees, where he was to leave them, in order to hasten the

collection of horses; that he was then to lead his men down to the

Columbia, and if he found it navigable, and the timber in sufficient

quantity, begin to build canoes. As soon as he had decided as to the

propriety of proceeding down the Columbia or across the mountains, he

was to send back one of the men with information of it to captain Lewis,

who by that time would have brought up the whole party, and the rest of

the baggage as far as the Shoshonee village.

Preparations were accordingly made this evening for such an arrangement.

The sun is excessively hot in the day time, but the nights very cold,

and rendered still more unpleasant from the want of any fuel except

willow brush. The appearances too of game, for many days' subsistence,

are not very favourable.

Sunday 18. In order to relieve the men of captain Clarke's party from

the heavy weight of their arms provisions and tools, we exposed a few

articles to barter for horses, and soon obtained three very good ones,

in exchange for which we gave a uniform coat, a pair of leggings, a few

handkerchiefs, three knifes and some other small articles, the whole of

which did not in the United States cost more than twenty dollars: a

fourth was purchased by the men for an old checkered shirt, a pair of

old leggings and a knife. The Indians seemed to be quite as well pleased

as ourselves at the bargains they had made. We now found that the two

inferior chiefs were somewhat displeased at not having received a

present equal to that given to the great chief, who appeared in a dress

so much finer than their own. To allay their discontent, we bestowed on

them two old coats, and promised them that if they were active in

assisting us across the mountains they should have an additional

present. This treatment completely reconciled them, and the whole Indian

party, except two men and two women, set out in perfect good humour to

return home with captain Clarke. After going fifteen miles through a

wide level valley with no wood but willows and shrubs, he encamped in

the Shoshonee cove near a narrow pass where the highlands approach

within two hundred yards of each other, and the river is only ten yards

wide. The Indians went on further, except the three chiefs and two young

men, who assisted in eating two deer brought in by the hunters. After

their departure every thing was prepared for the transportation of the

baggage, which was now exposed to the air and dried. Our game was one

deer and a beaver, and we saw an abundance of trout in the river for

which we fixed a net in the evening.

We have now reached the extreme navigable point of the Missouri, which

our observation places in latitude 43° 30' 43" north. It is difficult to

comprise in any general description the characteristics of a river so

extensive, and fed by so many streams which have their sources in a

great variety of soils and climates. But the Missouri is still

sufficiently powerful to give to all its waters something of a common

character, which is of course decided by the nature of the country

through which it passes. The bed of the river is chiefly composed of a

blue mud from which the water itself derives a deep tinge. From its

junction here to the place near which it leaves the mountains, its

course is embarrassed by rapids and rocks which the hills on each side

have thrown into its channel. From that place, its current, with the

exception of the falls, is not difficult of navigation, nor is there

much variation in its appearance till the mouth of the Platte. That

powerful river throws out vast quantities of coarse sand which

contribute to give a new face to the Missouri, which is now much more

impeded by islands. The sand, as it is drifted down, adheres in time to

some of the projecting points from the shore, and forms a barrier to the

mud, which at length fills to the same height with the sandbar itself;

as soon as it has acquired a consistency, the willow grows there the

first year, and by its roots assists the solidity of the whole: as the

mud and sand accumulate the cottonwood tree next appears; till the

gradual excretion of soils raises the surface of the point above the

highest freshets. Thus stopped in its course the water seeks a passage

elsewhere, and as the soil on each side is light and yielding, what was

only a peninsula, becomes gradually an island, and the river indemnifies

itself for the usurpation by encroaching on the adjacent shore. In this

way the Missouri like the Mississippi is constantly cutting off the

projections of the shore, and leaving its ancient channel, which is then

marked by the mud it has deposited and a few stagnant ponds.

The general appearance of the country as it presents itself on ascending

may be thus described: From its mouth to the two Charletons, a ridge of

highlands borders the river at a small distance, leaving between them

fine rich meadows. From the mouth of the two Charletons the hills recede

from the river, giving greater extent to the low grounds, but they again

approach the river for a short distance near Grand river, and again at

Snake creek. From that point they retire, nor do they come again to the

neighbourhood of the river till above the Sauk prairie, where they are

comparatively low and small. Thence they diverge and reappear at the

Charaton Searty, after which they are scarcely if at all discernible,

till they advance to the Missouri nearly opposite to the Kanzas.

The same ridge of hills extends on the south side, in almost one

unbroken chain, from the mouth of the Missouri to the Kanzas, though

decreasing in height beyond the Osage. As they are nearer the river than

the hills on the opposite sides, the intermediate low grounds are of

course narrower, but the general character of the soil is common to both

sides.

In the meadows and along the shore, the tree most common is the

cottonwood, which with the willow forms almost the exclusive growth of

the Missouri. The hills or rather high grounds, for they do not rise

higher than from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet, are composed

of a good rich black soil, which is perfectly susceptible of

cultivation, though it becomes richer on the hills beyond the Platte,

and are in general thinly covered with timber. Beyond these hills the

country extends into high open plains, which are on both sides

sufficiently fertile, but the south has the advantage of better streams

of water, and may therefore be considered as preferable for settlements.

The lands, however, become much better and the timber more abundant

between the Osage and the Kanzas. From the Kanzas to the Nadawa the

hills continue at nearly an equal distance, varying from four to eight

miles from each other, except that from the little Platte to nearly

opposite the ancient Kanzas village, the hills are more remote, and the

meadows of course wider on the north side of the river. From the Nadawa

the northern hills disappear, except at occasional intervals, where they

are seen at a distance, till they return about twenty-seven miles above

the Platte near the ancient village of the Ayoways. On the south the

hills continue close to the river from the ancient village of the Kanzas

up to Council bluff, fifty miles beyond the Platte; forming high

prairie lands. On both sides the lands are good, and perhaps this

distance from the Osage to the Platte may be recommended as among the

best districts on the Missouri for the purposes of settlers.

From the Ayoway village the northern hills again retire from the river,

to which they do not return till three hundred and twenty miles above,

at Floyd's river. The hills on the south also leave the river at Council

bluffs, and reappear at the Mahar village, two hundred miles up the

Missouri. The country thus abandoned by the hills is more open and the

timber in smaller quantities than below the Platte, so that although the

plain is rich and covered with high grass, the want of wood renders it

less calculated for cultivation than below that river.

The northern hills after remaining near the Missouri for a few miles at

Floyd's river, recede from it at the Sioux river, the course of which

they follow; and though they again visit the Missouri at Whitestone

river, where they are low, yet they do not return to it till beyond

James river. The highlands on the south, after continuing near the river

at the Mahar villages, again disappear, and do not approach it till the

Cobalt bluffs, about forty-four miles from the villages, and then from

those bluffs to the Yellowstone river, a distance of about one thousand

miles, they follow the banks of the river with scarcely any deviation.

From the James river, the lower grounds are confined within a narrow

space by the hills on both sides, which now continue near each other up

to the mountains. The space between them however varies from one to

three miles as high as the Muscleshell river, from which the hills

approach so high as to leave scarcely any low grounds on the river, and

near the falls reach the waters edge. Beyond the falls the hills are

scattered and low to the first range of mountains.

The soil during the whole length of the Missouri below the Platte is

generally speaking very fine, and although the timber is scarce, there

is still sufficient for the purposes of settlers; But beyond that river,

although the soil is still rich, yet the almost total absence of timber,

and particularly the want of good water, of which there is but a small

quantity in the creeks, and even that brackish, oppose powerful

obstacles to its settlement. The difficulty becomes still greater

between the Muscleshell river and the falls, where besides the greater

scarcity of timber, the country itself is less fertile.

The elevation of these highlands varies as they pass through this

extensive tract of country. From Wood river they are about one hundred

and fifty feet above the water, and continue at that height till they

rise near the Osage, from which place to the ancient fortification they

again diminish in size. Thence they continue higher till the Mandan

village, after which they are rather lower till the neighbourhood of

Muscleshell river, where they are met by the Northern hills, which have

advanced at a more uniform height, varying from one hundred and fifty to

two hundred or three hundred feet. From this place to the mountains the

height of both is nearly the same, from three hundred to five hundred

feet, and the low grounds so narrow that the traveller seems passing

through a range of high country. From Maria's river to the falls, the

hills descend to the height of about two or three hundred feet.

Monday 19. The morning was cold, and the grass perfectly whitened by the

frost. We were engaged in preparing packs and saddles to load the horses

as soon as they should arrive. A beaver was caught in a trap, but we

were disappointed in trying to catch trout in our net; we therefore made

a seine of willow brush, and by hauling it procured a number of fine

trout, and a species of mullet which we had not seen before: it is about

sixteen inches long, the scales small; the nose long, obtusely pointed,

and exceeding the under jaw; the mouth opens with folds at the sides; it

has no teeth, and the tongue and palate is smooth. The colour of its

back and sides is a bluish brown, while the belly is white: it has the

faggot bones, whence we concluded it to be of the mullet species. It is

by no means so well flavoured a fish as the trout, which are the same as

those we first saw at the falls, larger than the speckled trout of the

mountains in the Atlantic states, and equally well flavoured. In the

evening the hunters returned with two deer.

Captain Clarke, in the meantime, proceeded through a wide level valley,

in which the chief pointed out a spot where many of his tribe were

killed in battle a year ago. The Indians accompanied him during the day,

and as they had nothing to eat, he was obliged to feed them from his own

stores, the hunters not being able to kill any thing. Just as he was

entering the mountains, he met an Indian with two mules and a Spanish

saddle, who was so polite as to offer one of them to him to ride over

the hills. Being on foot, captain Clarke accepted his offer and gave him

a waistcoat as a reward for his civility. He encamped for the night on a

small stream, and the next morning,

Tuesday, August 20, he set out at six o'clock. In passing through a

continuation of the hilly broken country, he met several parties of

Indians. On coming near the camp, which had been removed since we left

them two miles higher up the river, Cameahwait requested that the party

should halt. This was complied with: a number of Indians came out from

the camp, and with great ceremony several pipes were smoked. This being

over captain Clarke was conducted to a large leathern lodge prepared for

his party in the middle of the encampment, the Indians having only

shelters of willow bushes. A few dried berries, and one salmon, the only

food the whole village could contribute, were then presented to him;

after which he proceeded to repeat in council, what had been already

told them, the purposes of his visit; urged them to take their horses

over and assist in transporting our baggage, and expressed a wish to

obtain a guide to examine the river. This was explained and enforced to

the whole village by Cameahwait, and an old man was pointed out who was

said to know more of their geography to the north than any other person,

and whom captain Clarke engaged to accompany him. After explaining his

views he distributed a few presents, the council was ended, and nearly

half the village set out to hunt the antelope, but returned without

success.

Captain Clarke in the meantime made particular inquiries as to the

situation of the country, and the possibility of soon reaching a

navigable water. The chief began by drawing on the ground a delineation

of the rivers, from which it appeared that his information was very

limited. The river on which the camp is he divided into two branches

just above us, which, as he indicated by the opening of the mountains,

were in view: he next made it discharge itself into a larger river ten

miles below, coming from the southwest: the joint stream continued one

day's march to the northwest, and then inclined to the westward for two

day's march farther. At that place he placed several heaps of sand on

each side, which, as he explained them, represented, vast mountains of

rock always covered with snow, in passing through which the river was so

completely hemmed in by the high rocks, that there was no possibility of

travelling along the shore; that the bed of the river was obstructed by

sharp-pointed rocks, and such its rapidity, that as far as the eye could

reach it presented a perfect column of foam. The mountains he said were

equally inaccessible, as neither man nor horse could cross them; that

such being the state of the country neither he nor any of his nation had

ever attempted to go beyond the mountains. Cameahwait said also that he

had been informed by the Chopunnish, or pierced-nose Indians, who reside

on this river west of the mountains, that it ran a great way towards the

setting sun, and at length lost itself in a great lake of water which

was ill-tasted, and where the white men lived. An Indian belonging to a

band of Shoshonees who live to the southwest, and who happened to be at

camp, was then brought in, and inquiries made of him as to the

situation of the country in that direction: this he described in terms

scarcely less terrible than those in which Cameahwait had represented

the west. He said that his relations lived at the distance of twenty

days' march from this place, on a course a little to the west of south

and not far from the whites, with whom they traded for horses, mules,

cloth, metal, beads, and the shells here worn as ornaments, and which

are those of a species of pearl oyster. In order to reach his country we

should be obliged during the first seven days to climb over steep rocky

mountains where there was no game, and we should find nothing but roots

for subsistence. Even for these however we should be obliged to contend

with a fierce warlike people, whom he called the Broken-moccasin, or

moccasin with holes, who lived like bears in holes, and fed on roots and

the flesh of such horses as they could steal or plunder from those who

passed through the mountains. So rough indeed was the passage, that the

feet of the horses would be wounded in such a manner that many of them

would be unable to proceed. The next part of the route was for ten days

through a dry parched desert of sand, inhabited by no animal which would

supply us with subsistence, and as the sun had now scorched up the grass

and dried up the small pools of water which are sometimes scattered

through this desert in the spring, both ourselves and our horses would

perish for want of food and water. About the middle of this plain a

large river passes from southeast to northwest, which, though navigable,

afforded neither timber nor salmon. Three or four days' march beyond

this plain his relations lived, in a country tolerably fertile and

partially covered with timber, on another large river running in the

same direction as the former; that this last discharges itself into a

third large river, on which resided many numerous nations, with whom his

own were at war, but whether this last emptied itself into the great or

stinking lake, as they called the ocean, he did not know: that from his

country to the stinking lake was a great distance, and that the route

to it, taken by such of his relations as had visited it, was up the

river on which they lived, and over to that on which the white people

lived, and which they knew discharged itself into the ocean. This route

he advised us to take, but added, that we had better defer the journey

till spring, when he would himself conduct us. This account persuaded us

that the streams of which he spoke were southern branches of the

Columbia, heading with the Rio des Apostolos, and Rio Colorado, and that

the route which he mentioned was to the gulf of California: captain

Clarke therefore told him that this road was too much towards the south

for our purpose, and then requested to know if there was no route on the

left of the river where we now are, by which we might intercept it below

the mountains; but he knew of none except that through the barren

plains, which he said joined the mountains on that side, and through

which it was impossible to pass at this season, even if we were

fortunate enough to escape the Broken-moccasin Indians. Captain Clarke

recompensed the Indian by a present of a knife, with which he seemed

much gratified, and now inquired of Cameahwait by what route the

Pierced-nose Indians, who he said lived west of the mountains, crossed

over to the Missouri: this he said was towards the north, but that the

road was a very bad one; that during the passage he had been told they

suffered excessively from hunger, being obliged to subsist for many days

on berries alone, there being no game in that part of the mountains,

which were broken and rocky, and so thickly covered with timber that

they could scarcely pass. Surrounded by difficulties as all the other

routes are, this seems to be the most practicable of all the passages by

land, since, if the Indians can pass the mountains with their women and

children, no difficulties which they could encounter could be formidable

to us; and if the Indians below the mountains are so numerous as they

are represented to be, they must have some means of subsistence equally

within our power. They tell us indeed that the nations to the westward

subsist principally on fish and roots, and that their only game were a

few elk, deer, and antelope, there being no buffaloe west of the

mountain. The first inquiry however was to ascertain the truth of their

information relative to the difficulty of descending the river: for this

purpose captain Clarke set out at three o'clock in the afternoon,

accompanied by the guide and all his men, except one whom he left with

orders to purchase a horse and join him as soon as possible. At the

distance of four miles he crossed the river, and eight miles from the

camp halted for the night at a small stream. The road which he followed

was a beaten path through a wide rich meadow, in which were several old

lodges. On the route he met a number of men, women, and children, as

well as horses, and one of the men who appeared to possess some

consideration turned back with him, and observing a woman with three

salmon obtained them from her, and presented them to the party. Captain

Clarke shot a mountain cock or cock of the plains, a dark brown bird

larger than the dunghill fowl, with a long and pointed tail, and a

fleshy protuberance about the base of the upper chop, something like

that of the turkey, though without the snout. In the morning,

Wednesday 21, he resumed his march early, and at the distance of five

miles reached an Indian lodge of brush, inhabited by seven families of

Shoshonees. They behaved with great civility, gave the whole party as

much boiled salmon as they could eat, and added as a present several

dried salmon and a considerable quantity of chokecherries. After smoking

with them all he visited the fish weir, which was about two hundred

yards distant; the river was here divided by three small islands, which

occasioned the water to pass along four channels. Of these three were

narrow, and stopped by means of trees which were stretched across, and

supported by willow stakes, sufficiently near each other to prevent the

passage of the fish. About the centre of each was placed a basket

formed of willows, eighteen or twenty feet in length, of a cylindrical

form, and terminating in a conic shape at its lower extremity; this was

situated with its mouth upwards, opposite to an aperture in the weir.

The main channel of the water was then conducted to this weir, and as

the fish entered it they were so entangled with each other that they

could not move, and were taken out by untying the small end of the

willow basket. The weir in the main channel was formed in a manner

somewhat different; there were in fact two distinct weirs formed of

poles and willow sticks quite across the river, approaching each other

obliquely with an aperture in each side near the angle. This is made by

tying a number of poles together at the top, in parcels of three, which

were then set up in a triangular form at the base, two of the poles

being in the range desired for the weir, and the third down the stream.

To these poles two ranges of other poles are next lashed horizontally,

with willow bark and wythes, and willow sticks joined in with these

crosswise, so as to form a kind of wicker-work from the bottom of the

river to the height of three or four feet above the surface of the

water. This is so thick as to prevent the fish from passing, and even in

some parts with the help of a little gravel and some stone enables them

to give any direction which they wish to the water. These two weirs

being placed near to each other, one for the purpose of catching the

fish as they ascend, the other as they go down the river, is provided

with two baskets made in the form already described, and which are

placed at the apertures of the weir. After examining these curious

objects, he returned to the lodges, and soon passed the river to the

left, where an Indian brought him a tomahawk which he said he had found

in the grass, near the lodge where captain Lewis had staid on his first

visit to the village. This was a tomahawk which had been missed at the

time, and supposed to be stolen; it was however the only article which

had been lost in our intercourse with the nation, and as even that was

returned the inference is highly honourable to the integrity of the

Shoshonees. On leaving the lodges captain Clarke crossed to the left

side of the river, and despatched five men to the forks of it, in search

of the man left behind yesterday, who procured a horse and passed by

another road as they learnt, to the forks. At the distance of fourteen

miles they killed a very large salmon, two and a half feet long, in a

creek six miles below the forks: and after travelling about twenty miles

through the valley, following the course of the river, which runs nearly

northwest, halted in a small meadow on the right side, under a cliff of

rocks. Here they were joined by the five men who had gone in quest of

Crusatte. They had been to the forks of the river, where the natives

resort in great numbers for the purpose of gigging fish, of which they

made our men a present of five fresh salmon. In addition to this food,

one deer was killed to-day. The western branch of this river is much

larger than the eastern, and after we passed the junction we found the

river about one hundred yards in width, rapid and shoaly, but containing

only a small quantity of timber. As captain Lewis was the first white

man who visited its waters, captain Clarke gave it the name of Lewis's

river. The low grounds through which he had passed to-day were rich and

wide, but at his camp this evening the hills begin to assume a

formidable aspect. The cliff under which he lay is of a reddish brown

colour, the rocks which have fallen from it are a dark brown flintstone.

Near the place are gullies of white sandstone, and quantities of a fine

sand, of a snowy whiteness: the mountains on each side are high and

rugged, with some pine trees scattered over them.

Thursday 22. He soon began to perceive that the Indian accounts had not

exaggerated: at the distance of a mile he passed a small creek, and the

points of four mountains, which were rocky, and so high that it seemed

almost impossible to cross them with horses. The road lay over the sharp

fragments of rocks which had fallen from the mountains, and were strewed

in heaps for miles together, yet the horses altogether unshod,

travelled across them as fast as the men, and without detaining them a

moment. They passed two bold-running streams, and reached the entrance

of a small river, where a few Indian families resided. They had not been

previously acquainted with the arrival of the whites, the guide was

behind, and the wood so thick that we came upon them unobserved, till at

a very short distance. As soon as they saw us, the women and children

fled in great consternation; the men offered us every thing they had,

the fish on the scaffolds, the dried berries and the collars of elk's

tushes worn by the children. We took only a small quantity of the food,

and gave them in return some small articles which conduced very much to

pacify them. The guide now coming up, explained to them who we were, and

the object of our visit, which seemed to relieve the fears, but still a

number of the women and children did not recover from their fright, but

cryed during our stay, which lasted about an hour. The guide, whom we

found a very intelligent friendly old man, informed us that up this

river there was a road which led over the mountains to the Missouri. On

resuming his route, he went along the steep side of a mountain about

three miles, and then reached the river near a small island, at the

lower part of which he encamped; he here attempted to gig some fish, but

could only obtain one small salmon. The river is here shoal and rapid,

with many rocks scattered in various directions through its bed. On the

sides of the mountains are some scattered pines, and of those on the

left the tops are covered with them; there are however but few in the

low grounds through which they passed, indeed they have seen only a

single tree fit to make a canoe, and even that was small. The country

has an abundant growth of berries, and we met several women and children

gathering them who bestowed them upon us with great liberality. Among

the woods captain Clarke observed a species of woodpecker, the beak and

tail of which were white, the wings black, and every other part of the

body of a dark brown; its size was that of the robin, and it fed on the

seeds of the pine.

Friday 23. Captain Clarke set off very early, but as his route lay along

the steep side of a mountain, over irregular and broken masses of rocks,

which wounded the horses' feet, he was obliged to proceed slowly. At the

distance of four miles he reached the river, but the rocks here became

so steep, and projected so far into the river, that there was no mode of

passing, except through the water. This he did for some distance, though

the river was very rapid, and so deep that they were forced to swim

their horses. After following the edge of the water for about a mile

under this steep cliff, he reached a small meadow, below which the whole

current of the river beat against the right shore on which he was, and

which was formed of a solid rock perfectly inaccessible to horses. Here

too, the little track which he had been pursuing terminated. He

therefore resolved to leave the horses and the greater part of the men

at this place, and examine the river still further, in order to

determine if there were any possibility of descending it in canoes.

Having killed nothing except a single goose to-day, and the whole of our

provision being consumed last evening, it was by no means advisable to

remain any length of time where they were. He now directed the men to

fish and hunt at this place till his return, and then with his guide and

three men he proceeded, clambering over immense rocks, and along the

side of lofty precipices which bordered the river, when at about twelve

miles distance he reached a small meadow, the first he had seen on the

river since he left his party. A little below this meadow, a large creek

twelve yards wide, and of some depth, discharges itself from the north.

Here were some recent signs of an Indian encampment, and the tracks of a

number of horses, who must have come along a plain Indian path, which he

now saw following the course of the creek. This stream his guide said

led towards a large river running to the north, and was frequented by

another nation for the purpose of catching fish. He remained here two

hours, and having taken some small fish, made a dinner on them with the

addition of a few berries. From the place where he had left the party,

to the mouth of this creek, it presents one continued rapid, in which

are five shoals, neither of which could be passed with loaded canoes;

and the baggage must therefore be transported for a considerable

distance over the steep mountains, where it would be impossible to

employ horses for the relief of the men. Even the empty canoes must be

let down the rapids by means of cords, and not even in that way without

great risk both to the canoes as well as to the men. At one of these

shoals, indeed the rocks rise so perpendicularly from the water as to

leave no hope of a passage or even a portage without great labour in

removing rocks, and in some instances cutting away the earth. To

surmount these difficulties would exhaust the strength of the party, and

what is equally discouraging would waste our time and consume our

provisions, of neither of which have we much to spare. The season is now

far advanced, and the Indians tell us we shall shortly have snow: the

salmon too have so far declined that the natives themselves are

hastening from the country, and not an animal of any kind larger than a

pheasant or a squirrel, and of even these a few only will then be seen

in this part of the mountains: after which we shall be obliged to rely

on our own stock of provisions, which will not support us more than ten

days. These circumstances combine to render a passage by water

impracticable in our present situation. To descend the course of the

river on horseback is the other alternative, and scarcely a more

inviting one. The river is so deep that there are only a few places

where it can be forded, and the rocks approach so near the water as to

render it impossible to make a route along the waters' edge. In crossing

the mountains themselves we should have to encounter, besides their

steepness, one barren surface of broken masses of rock, down which in

certain seasons the torrents sweep vast quantities of stone into the

river. These rocks are of a whitish brown, and towards the base of a

gray colour, and so hard, that on striking them with steel, they yield a

fire like flint. This sombre appearance is in some places scarcely

relieved by a single tree, though near the river and on the creeks there

is more timber, among which are some tall pine: several of these might

be made into canoes, and by lashing two of them together, one of

tolerable size might be formed.

After dinner he continued his route, and at the distance of half a mile

passed another creek about five yards wide. Here his guide informed him

that by ascending the creek for some distance he would have a better

road, and cut off a considerable bend of the river towards the south. He

therefore pursued a well-beaten Indian track up this creek for about six

miles, when leaving the creek to the right he passed over a ridge, and

after walking a mile again met the river, where it flows through a

meadow of about eighty acres in extent. This they passed and then

ascended a high and steep point of a mountain, from which the guide now

pointed out where the river broke through the mountains about twenty

miles distant. Near the base of the mountains a small river falls in

from the south: this view was terminated by one of the loftiest

mountains captain Clarke had ever seen, which was perfectly covered with

snow. Towards this formidable barrier the river went directly on, and

there it was, as the guide observed, that the difficulties and dangers

of which he and Cameahwait had spoken commenced. After reaching the

mountain, he said, the river continues its course towards the north for

many miles, between high perpendicular rocks, which were scattered

through its bed: it then penetrated the mountain through a narrow gap,

on each side of which arose perpendicularly a rock as high as the top of

the mountain before them; that the river then made a bend which

concealed its future course from view, and as it was alike impossible

to descend the river or clamber over that vast mountain, eternally

covered with snow, neither he nor any of his nation had ever been lower

than at a place where they could see the gap made by the river on

entering the mountain. To that place he said he would conduct captain

Clarke if he desired it by the next evening. But he was in need of no

further evidence to convince him of the utter impracticability of the

route before him. He had already witnessed the difficulties of part of

the road, yet after all these dangers his guide, whose intelligence and

fidelity he could not doubt, now assured him that the difficulties were

only commencing, and what he saw before him too clearly convinced him of

the Indian's veracity. He therefore determined to abandon this route,

and returned to the upper part of the last creek we had passed, and

reaching it an hour after dark encamped for the night: on this creek he

had seen in the morning an Indian road coming in from the north.

Disappointed in finding a route by water, captain Clarke now questioned

his guide more particularly as to the direction of this road which he

seemed to understand perfectly. He drew a map on the sand, and

represented this road as well as that we passed yesterday on Berry creek

as both leading towards two forks of the same great river, where resided

a nation called Tushepaws, who having no salmon on their river, came by

these roads to the fish weirs on Lewis's river. He had himself been

among these Tushepaws, and having once accompanied them on a fishing

party to another river he had there seen Indians who had come across the

rocky mountains. After a great deal of conversation, or rather signs,

and a second and more particular map from his guide, captain Clarke felt

persuaded that his guide knew of a road from the Shoshonee village they

had left, to the great river to the north, without coming so low down as

this on a route impracticable for horses. He was desirous of hastening

his return, and therefore set out early,

Saturday 24, and after descending the creek to the river, stopped to

breakfast on berries in the meadow above the second creek. He then went

on, but unfortunately fell from a rock and injured his leg very much; he

however walked on as rapidly as he could, and at four in the afternoon

rejoined his men. During his absence they had killed one of the mountain

cocks, a few pheasants, and some small fish, on which with haws and

serviceberries they had subsisted. Captain Clarke immediately sent

forward a man on horseback with a note to captain Lewis, apprising him

of the result of his inquiries, and late in the afternoon set out with

the rest of the party and encamped at the distance of two miles. The men

were much disheartened at the bad prospect of escaping from the

mountains, and having nothing to eat but a few berries which have made

several of them sick, they all passed a disagreeable night, which was

rendered more uncomfortable by a heavy dew.

Sunday 25. The want of provisions urged captain Clarke to return as soon

as possible; he therefore set out early, and halted an hour in passing

the Indian camp near the fish weirs. These people treated them with

great kindness, and though poor and dirty they willingly give what

little they possess; they gave the whole party boiled salmon and dried

berries, which were not however in sufficient quantities to appease

their hunger. They soon resumed their old road, but as the abstinence or

strange diet had given one of the men a very severe illness, they were

detained very much on his account, and it was not till late in the day

they reached the cliff under which they had encamped on the

twenty-first. They immediately began to fish and hunt, in order to

procure a meal. We caught several small fish, and by means of our guide,

obtained two salmon from a small party of women and children, who, with

one man, were going below to gather berries. This supplied us with about

half a meal, but after dark we were regaled with a beaver which one of

the hunters brought in. The other game seen in the course of the day

were one deer, and a party of elk among the pines on the sides of the

mountains.

Monday 26. The morning was fine, and three men were despatched ahead to

hunt, while the rest were detained until nine o'clock, in order to

retake some horses which had strayed away during the night. They then

proceeded along the route by the forks of the river, till they reached

the lower Indian camp where they first were when we met them. The whole

camp immediately flocked around him with great appearance of cordiality,

but all the spare food of the village did not amount to more than two

salmon, which they gave to captain Clarke, who distributed them among

his men. The hunters had not been able to kill any thing, nor had

captain Clarke or the greater part of the men any food during the

twenty-four hours, till towards evening one of them shot a salmon in the

river, and a few small fish were caught, which furnished them with a

scanty meal. The only animals they had seen were a few pigeons, some

very wild hares, a great number of the large black grasshopper, and a

quantify of ground lizards.

Tuesday 27. The men, who were engaged last night in mending their

moccasins, all except one, went out hunting, but no game was to be

procured. One of the men however killed a small salmon, and the Indians

made a present of another, on which the whole party made a very slight

breakfast. These Indians, to whom this life is familiar, seem contented,

although they depend for subsistence on the scanty productions of the

fishery. But our men who are used to hardships, but have been accustomed

to have the first wants of nature regularly supplied, feel very sensibly

their wretched situation; their strength is wasting away; they begin to

express their apprehensions of being without food in a country perfectly

destitute of any means of supporting life, except a few fish. In the

course of the day an Indian brought into the camp five salmon, two of

which captain Clarke bought, and made a supper for the party.

Wednesday 28. There was a frost again this morning. The Indians gave

the party two salmon out of several which they caught in their traps,

and having purchased two more, the party was enabled to subsist on them

during the day. A camp of about forty Indians from the west fork passed

us to-day, on their route to the eastward. Our prospect of provisions is

getting worse every day: the hunters who had ranged through the country

in every direction where game might be reasonably expected, have seen

nothing. The fishery is scarcely more productive, for an Indian who was

out all day with his gig killed only one salmon. Besides the four fish

procured from the Indians, captain Clarke obtained some fishroe in

exchange for three small fish-hooks, the use of which he taught them,

and which they very readily comprehended. All the men who are not

engaged in hunting, are occupied in making pack-saddles for the horses

which captain Lewis informed us he had bought.

August 20. Two hunters were despatched early in the morning, but they

returned without killing any thing, and the only game we procured was a

beaver, who was caught last night in a trap which he carried off two

miles before he was found. The fur of this animal is as good as any we

have ever seen, nor does it in fact appear to be ever out of season on

the upper branches of the Missouri. This beaver, with several dozen of

fine trout, gave us a plentiful subsistence for the day. The party were

occupied chiefly in making pack-saddles, in the manufacture of which we

supply the place of nails and boards, by substituting for the first

thongs of raw hide, which answer very well; and for boards we use the

handles of our oars, and the plank of some boxes, the contents of which

we empty into sacks of raw hides made for the purpose. The Indians who

visit us behave with the greatest decorum, and the women are busily

engaged in making and mending the moccasins of the party. As we had

still some superfluous baggage which would be too heavy to carry across

the mountains, it became necessary to make a cache or deposit. For this

purpose we selected a spot on the bank of the river, three quarters of a

mile below the camp, and three men were set to dig it, with a sentinel

in the neighbourhood, who was ordered if the natives were to straggle

that way, to fire a signal for the workmen to desist and separate.

Towards evening the cache was completed without being perceived by the

Indians, and the packages prepared for deposit.

CHAPTER XVI.

Contest between Drewyer and a Shoshonee--The fidelity and honour of

that tribe--The party set out on their journey--The conduct of

Cameahwait reproved, and himself reconciled--The easy parturition

of the Shoshonee women--History of this nation--Their terror of the

Pawkees--Their government and family economy in their treatment of

their women--Their complaints of Spanish treachery--Description of

their weapons of warfare--Their curious mode of making a

shield--The caparison of their horses--The dress of the men and of

the women particularly described--Their mode of acquiring new

names.

Wednesday, August 21. The weather was very cold; the water which stood

in the vessels exposed to the air being covered with ice a quarter of an

inch thick: the ink freezes in the pen, and the low grounds are

perfectly whitened with frost: after this the day proved excessively

warm. The party were engaged in their usual occupations, and completed

twenty saddles with the necessary harness, all prepared to set off as

soon as the Indians should arrive. Our two hunters who were despatched

early in the morning have not returned, so that we were obliged to

encroach on our pork and corn, which we consider as the last resource

when our casual supplies of game fail. After dark we carried our baggage

to the cache, and deposited what we thought too cumbrous to carry with

us: a small assortment of medicines, and all the specimens of plants,

seeds, and minerals, collected since leaving the falls of the Missouri.

Late at night Drewyer, one of the hunters, returned with a fawn and a

considerable quantity of Indian plunder, which he had taken by way of

reprisal. While hunting this morning in the Shoshonee cove, he came

suddenly upon an Indian camp, at which were an old man, a young one,

three women, and a boy: they showed no surprise at the sight of him and

he therefore rode up to them, and after turning his horse loose to

graze sat down and began to converse with them by signs. They had just

finished a repast on some roots, and in about twenty minutes one of the

women spoke to the rest of the party, who immediately went out,

collected their horses and began to saddle them. Having rested himself,

Drewyer thought that he would continue his hunt, and rising went to

catch his horse who was at a short distance, forgetting at the moment to

take up his rifle. He had scarcely gone more than fifty paces when the

Indians mounted their horses, the young man snatched up the rifle, and

leaving all their baggage, whipt their horses, and set off at full speed

towards the passes of the mountains: Drewyer instantly jumped on his

horse and pursued them. After running about ten miles the horses of the

women nearly gave out, and the women finding Drewyer gain on them raised

dreadful cries, which induced the young man to slacken his pace, and

being mounted on a very fleet horse rode round them at a short distance.

Drewyer now came up with the women, and by signs persuaded them that he

did not mean to hurt them: they then stopped, and as the young man came

towards them Drewyer asked him for his rifle, but the only part of the

answer which he understood was Pahkee, the name by which they call their

enemies, the Minnetarees of fort de Prairie. While they were thus

engaged in talking, Drewyer watched his opportunity, and seeing the

Indian off his guard, galloped up to him and seized his rifle: the

Indian struggled for some time, but finding Drewyer getting too strong

for him, had the presence of mind to open the pan and let the priming

fall out; he then let go his hold, and giving his horse the whip escaped

at full speed, leaving the women to the mercy of the conqueror. Drewyer

then returned to where he had first seen them, where he found that their

baggage had been left behind, and brought it to camp with him.

Thursday, 22. This morning early two men were sent to complete the

covering of the cache, which could not be so perfectly done during the

night as to elude the search of the Indians. On examining the spoils

which Drewyer had obtained, they were found to consist of several

dressed and undressed skins; two bags wove with the bark of the silk

grass, each containing a bushel of dried serviceberries, and about the

same quantity of roots; an instrument made of bone for manufacturing the

flints into heads for arrows; and a number of flints themselves: these

were much of the same colour and nearly as transparent as common black

glass, and when cut detached itself into flakes, leaving a very sharp

edge.

The roots were of three kinds, and folded separate from each in hides of

buffaloe made into parchment. The first is a fusiform root six inches

long, and about the size of a man's finger at the largest end, with

radicles larger than is usual in roots of the fusiform sort: the rind is

white and thin, the body is also white, mealy, and easily reducible, by

pounding, to a substance resembling flour, like which it thickens by

boiling, and is of an agreeable flavour: it is eaten frequently in its

raw state either green or dried. The second species was much mutilated,

but appeared to be fibrous; it is of a cylindrical form about the size

of a small quill, hard and brittle. A part of the rind which had not

been detached in the preparation was hard and black, but the rest of the

root was perfectly white; this the Indiana informed us was always boiled

before eating; and on making the experiment we found that it became

perfectly soft, but had a bitter taste, which was nauseous to our taste,

but which the Indians seemed to relish; for on giving the roots to them

they were very heartily swallowed.

The third species was a small nut about the size of a nutmeg, of an

irregularly rounded form, something like the smallest of the Jerusalem

artichokes, which, on boiling, we found them to resemble also in

flavour, and is certainly the best root we have seen in use among the

Indians. On inquiring of the Indians from what plant these roots were

procured, they informed us that none of them grew near this place.

The men were chiefly employed in dressing the skins belonging to the

party who accompanied captain Clarke. About eleven o'clock Chaboneau and

his wife returned with Cameahwait, accompanied by about fifty men with

their women and children. After they had encamped near us and turned

loose their horses, we called a council of all the chiefs and warriors

and addressed them in a speech; additional presents were then

distributed, particularly to the two second chiefs, who had agreeably to

their promises exerted themselves in our favour. The council was then

adjourned, and all the Indians were treated with an abundant meal of

boiled Indian corn and beans. The poor wretches, who had no animal food

and scarcely any thing but a few fish, had been almost starved, and

received this new luxury with great thankfulness. Out of compliment to

the chief we gave him a few dried squashes which we had brought from the

Mandans, and he declared it was the best food he had ever tasted except

sugar, a small lump of which he had received from his sister: he now

declared how happy they should all be to live in a country which

produced so many good things, and we told him that it would not be long

before the white men would put it in their power to live below the

mountains, where they might themselves cultivate all these kinds of food

instead of wandering in the mountains. He appeared to be much pleased

with this information, and the whole party being now in excellent temper

after their repast, we began our purchase of horses. We soon obtained

five very good ones on very reasonable terms; that is, by giving for

each merchandise which cost us originally about six dollars. We have

again to admire the perfect decency and propriety of their conduct; for

although so numerous, they do not attempt to crowd round our camp or

take any thing which they see lying about, and whenever they borrow

knives or kettles or any other article from the men, they return them

with great fidelity.

Towards evening we formed a drag of bushes, and in about two hours

caught five hundred and twenty-eight very good fish most of them large

trout. Among them we observed for the first time ten or twelve trout of

a white or silvery colour, except on the back and head where they are of

a bluish cast: in appearance and shape they resemble exactly the

speckled trout, except that they are not quite so large, though the

scales are much larger, and the flavour equally good. The greater part

of the fish was distributed among the Indians.