Meriwether Lewis and William Clark - History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. I.

M >> Meriwether Lewis and William Clark >> History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. I.

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[Illustration: A Map of Lewis and Clark's Track, Across the Western
Portion of North America, From the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean; by
Order of the Executive of the United States, in 1804, 5&6.
Copied by Samuel Lewis from the Original Drawing by Wm. Clark.]

HISTORY

OF

THE EXPEDITION

UNDER THE COMMAND OF

_CAPTAINS LEWIS AND CLARK,_

TO

THE SOURCES OF THE MISSOURI,

THENCE

ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS

AND DOWN THE

RIVER COLUMBIA TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

PERFORMED DURING THE YEARS 1804-5-6.

By order of the

GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

PREPARED FOR THE PRESS
BY PAUL ALLEN, ESQUIRE.
IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

_PHILADELPHIA_

PUBLISHED BY BRADFORD AND INSKEEP; AND
ABM. H. INSKEEP, NEW YORK.
J. Maxwell, Printer
1814.

DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, to wit:

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-second day of January, in the
thirty-eighth year of the independence of the United States of
America, A.D. 1814, Bradford and Inskeep, of the said district,
have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right
whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit:

"History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and
Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky
Mountains, and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean.
Performed during the Years 1804-5-6, by order of the Government of
the United States. Prepared for the press by Paul Allen, Esquire."

In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled
"An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies
of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such
copies during the times therein mentioned." And also to the act,
entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled, "An act for
the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps,
charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies
during the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits
thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical
and other prints."
DAVID CALDWELL,
Clerk of the District of Pennsylvania.

PREFACE.

In presenting these volumes to the public, the editor owes equally to
himself and to others, to state the circumstances which have preceded
the publication, and to explain his own share in compiling them.

It was the original design of captain Lewis to have been himself the
editor of his own travels, and he was on his way towards Philadelphia
for that purpose when his sudden death frustrated these intentions.
After a considerable and unavoidable delay, the papers connected with
the expedition were deposited with another gentleman, who, in order to
render the lapse of time as little injurious as possible, proceeded
immediately to collect and investigate all the materials within his
reach.

Of the incidents of each day during the expedition, a minute journal was
kept by captain Lewis or captain Clark, and sometimes by both, which was
afterwards revised and enlarged at the different periods of leisure
which occurred on the route. These were carefully perused in conjunction
with captain Clark himself, who was able from his own recollection of
the journey, as well as from a constant residence in Louisiana since his
return, to supply a great mass of explanations, and much additional
information with regard to part of the route which has been more
recently explored. Besides these, recourse was had to the manuscript
journals kept by two of the serjeants, one of which, the least minute
and valuable, has already been published. That nothing might be wanting
to the accuracy of these details, a very intelligent and active member
of the party, Mr. George Shannon, was sent to contribute whatever his
memory might add to this accumulated fund of information.

From these copious materials the narrative was sketched nearly in its
present form, when other pursuits diverted the attention of the writer,
and compelled him to transfer his manuscript, in its unfinished state,
with all the documents connected with it, to the present editor, to
prepare them for the press and superintend the publication. That he may
not seem to arrogate any thing from the exertions of others, he should
therefore state that, although the whole work was thus submitted to his
entire discretion, he found but little to change, and that his labour
has been principally confined to revising the manuscript, comparing it
with the original papers, and inserting such additional matter as
appears to have been intentionally deferred by the writer till the
period of a more mature revisal. These circumstances, which would
otherwise be indifferent to the public, are mentioned merely to account
for imperfections, which are in some degree inseparable from any book
of travels not written by the traveller. In a work of pure description
indeed, like the present, where the incidents themselves are the sole
objects of attraction, the part of an editor is necessarily subordinate,
nor can his humble pretensions aspire beyond the merit of rigid
adherence to facts as they are stated to him. This has been very
diligently attempted, and for this, in its full extent, the editor deems
himself responsible.

The present volumes, it will be perceived, comprise only the narrative
of the journey. Those parts of the work which relate to the various
objects of natural history, observed or collected during the journey,
as well as the alphabets of the Indian languages, are in the hands of
professor Bartou, and will, it is understood, shortly appear.

To give still further interest to the work, the editor addressed a
letter to Mr. Jefferson, requesting some authentic memoirs of captain
Lewis. For the very curious and valuable information contained in his
answer, the public, as well as the editor himself, owe great obligations
to the politeness and knowledge of that distinguished gentleman.

PAUL ALLEN.
PHILADELPHIA, January 1, 1814.

LIFE OF CAPTAIN LEWIS.

_Monticello, August 18, 1813._
SIR,

In compliance with the request conveyed in your letter of May 25, I have
endeavoured to obtain, from the relations and friends of the late
governor Lewis, information of such incidents of his life as might be
not unacceptable to those who may read the narrative of his western
discoveries. The ordinary occurrences of a private life, and those also
while acting in a subordinate sphere in the army, in a time of peace,
are not deemed sufficiently interesting to occupy the public attention;
but a general account of his parentage, with such smaller incidents as
marked his early character are briefly noted; and to these are added, as
being peculiarly within my own knowledge, whatever related to the public
mission, of which an account is now to be published. The result of my
inquiries and recollections shall now be offered, to be enlarged or
abridged as you may think best; or otherwise to be used with the
materials you may have collected from other sources.

Meriwether Lewis, late governor of Louisiana, was born on the eighteenth
of August, 1774, near the town of Charlottesville, in the county of
Albemarle, in Virginia, of one of the distinguished families of that
state. John Lewis, one of his father's uncles was a member of the
king's council, before the revolution. Another of them, Fielding Lewis,
married a sister of general Washington. His father, William Lewis, was
the youngest of five sons of colonel Robert Lewis, of Albemarle, the
fourth of whom, Charles, was one of the early patriots who stepped
forward in the commencement of the revolution and commanded one of the
regiments first raised in Virginia, and placed on continental
establishment. Happily situated at home, with a wife and young family,
and a fortune placing him at ease, he left all to aid in the liberation
of his country from foreign usurpations, then first unmasking their
ultimate end and aim. His good sense, integrity, bravery, enterprise,
and remarkable bodily powers, marked him as an officer of great promise;
but he unfortunately died early in the revolution. Nicholas Lewis, the
second of his father's brothers, commanded a regiment of militia in the
successful expedition of 1776, against the Cherokee Indians; who,
seduced by the agents of the British government to take up the hatchet
against us, had committed great havoc on our southern frontier, by
murdering and scalping helpless women and children, according to their
cruel and cowardly principles of warfare. The chastisement they then
received closed the history of their wars, and prepared them for
receiving the elements of civilization, which, zealously inculcated by
the present government of the United States, have rendered them an
industrious, peaceable, and happy people. This member of the family of
Lewises, whose bravery was so usefully proved on this occasion, was
endeared to all who knew him by his inflexible probity, courteous
disposition, benevolent heart, and engaging modesty and manners. He was
the umpire of all the private differences of his county--selected always
by both parties. He was also the guardian of Meriwether Lewis, of whom
we are now to speak, and who had lost his father at an early age. He
continued some years under the fostering care of a tender mother, of the
respectable family of Meriwethers, of the same county; and was
remarkable even in infancy for enterprise, boldness, and discretion.
When only eight years of age he habitually went out, in the dead of
night, alone with his dogs, into the forest to hunt the raccoon and
opossum, which, seeking their food in the night, can then only be taken.
In this exercise, no season or circumstance could obstruct his
purpose--plunging through the winter's snows and frozen streams in
pursuit of his object. At thirteen he was put to the Latin school, and
continued at that until eighteen, when he returned to his mother, and
entered on the cares of his farm; having, as well as a younger brother,
been left by his father with a competency for all the correct and
comfortable purposes of temperate life. His talent for observation,
which had led him to an accurate knowledge of the plants and animals of
his own country, would have distinguished him as a farmer; but at the
age of twenty, yielding to the ardour of youth, and a passion for more
dazzling pursuits, he engaged as a volunteer in the body of militia
which were called out by general Washington, on occasion of the
discontents produced by the excise taxes in the western parts of the
United States; and from that situation he was removed to the regular
service as a lieutenant in the line. At twenty-three he was promoted to
a captaincy; and, always attracting the first attention where
punctuality and fidelity were requisite, he was appointed paymaster to
his regiment. About this time a circumstance occurred which, leading to
the transaction which is the subject of this book, will justify a
recurrence to its original idea. While I resided in Paris, John Ledyard,
of Connecticut, arrived there, well known in the United States for
energy of body and mind. He had accompanied captain Cook on his voyage
to the Pacific ocean; and distinguished himself on that voyage by his
intrepidity. Being of a roaming disposition, he was now panting for some
new enterprise. His immediate object at Paris was to engage a mercantile
company in the fur-trade of the western coast of America, in which,
however, he failed. I then proposed to him to go by land to Kamschatka,
cross in some of the Russian vessels to Nootka Sound, fall down into the
latitude of the Missouri, and penetrate to, and through, that to the
United States. He eagerly seized the idea, and only asked to be assured
of the permission of the Russian government. I interested, in obtaining
that, M. de Simoulin, minister plenipotentiary of the empress at Paris,
but more especially the baron de Grimm, minister plenipotentiary of
Saxe-Gotha, her more special agent and correspondent there in matters
not immediately diplomatic. Her permission was obtained, and an
assurance of protection while the course of the voyage should be through
her territories. Ledyard set out from Paris, and arrived at St.
Petersburgh after the empress had left that place to pass the winter, I
think, at Moscow. His finances not permitting him to make unnecessary
stay at St. Petersburgh, he left it with a passport from one of the
ministers; and at two hundred miles from Kamschatka, was obliged to take
up his winter quarters. He was preparing, in the spring, to resume his
journey, when he was arrested by an officer of the empress, who by this
time had changed her mind, and forbidden his proceeding. He was put into
a close carriage, and conveyed day and night, without ever stopping,
till they reached Poland; where he was set down and left to himself. The
fatigue of this journey broke down his constitution; and when he
returned to Paris his bodily strength was much impaired. His mind,
however, remained firm, and he after this undertook the journey to
Egypt. I received a letter from him, full of sanguine hopes, dated at
Cairo, the fifteenth of November, 1788, the day before he was to set out
for the head of the Nile; on which day, however, he ended his career and
life: and thus failed the first attempt to explore the western part of
our northern continent.

In 1792, I proposed to the American Philosophical Society that we should
set on foot a subscription to engage some competent person to explore
that region in the opposite direction; that is, by ascending the
Missouri, crossing the Stony mountains, and descending the nearest river
to the Pacific. Captain Lewis being then stationed at Charlottesville,
on the recruiting service, warmly solicited me to obtain for him the
execution of that object. I told him it was proposed that the person
engaged should be attended by a single companion only, to avoid exciting
alarm among the Indians. This did not deter him; but Mr. Andre Michaux,
a professed botanist, author of the Flora Boreali-Americana, and of the
Histoire des Chesnes d'Amerique, offering his services, they were
accepted. He received his instructions, and when he had reached Kentucky
in the prosecution of his journey, he was overtaken by an order from the
minister of France, then at Philadelphia, to relinquish the expedition,
and to pursue elsewhere the botanical inquiries on which he was employed
by that government: and thus failed the second attempt for exploring
that region.

In 1803, the act for establishing trading houses with the Indian tribes
being about to expire, some modifications of it were recommended to
congress by a confidential message of January 18th, and an extension of
its views to the Indians on the Missouri. In order to prepare the way,
the message proposed the sending an exploring party to trace the
Missouri to its source, to cross the Highlands, and follow the best
water-communication which offered itself from thence to the Pacific
ocean. Congress approved the proposition, and voted a sum of money for
carrying it into execution. Captain Lewis, who had then been near two
years with me as private secretary, immediately renewed his
solicitations to have the direction of the party. I had now had
opportunities of knowing him intimately. Of courage undaunted;
possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose which nothing but
impossibilities could divert from its direction; careful as a father of
those committed to his charge, yet steady in the maintenance of order
and discipline; intimate with the Indian character, customs, and
principles; habituated to the hunting life; guarded, by exact
observation of the vegetables and animals of his own country, against
losing time in the description of objects already possessed; honest,
disinterested, liberal, of sound understanding, and a fidelity to truth
so scrupulous, that whatever he should report would be as certain as if
seen by ourselves; with all these qualifications, as if selected and
implanted by nature in one body for this express purpose, I could have
no hesitation in confiding the enterprise to him. To fill up the measure
desired, he wanted nothing but a greater familiarity with the technical
language of the natural sciences, and readiness in the astronomical
observations necessary for the geography of his route. To acquire these
he repaired immediately to Philadelphia, and placed himself under the
tutorage of the distinguished professors of that place, who with a zeal
and emulation, enkindled by an ardent devotion to science, communicated
to him freely the information requisite for the purposes of the journey.
While attending too, at Lancaster, the fabrication of the arms with
which he chose that his men should be provided, he had the benefit of
daily communication with Mr. Andrew Ellicot, whose experience in
astronomical observation, and practice of it in the woods, enabled him
to apprise captain Lewis of the wants and difficulties he would
encounter, and of the substitutes and resources offered by a woodland
and uninhabited country.

Deeming it necessary he should have some person with him of known
competence to the direction of the enterprise, in the event of accident
to himself, he proposed William Clarke, brother of general George Rogers
Clarke, who was approved, and, with that view, received a commission of
captain.

In April, 1803, a draught of his instructions was sent to captain Lewis,
and on the twentieth of June they were signed in the following form:

"To Meriwether Lewis, esquire, captain of the first regiment of
infantry of the United States of America:

"Your situation as secretary of the president of the United States,
has made you acquainted with the objects of my confidential message
of January 18, 1803, to the legislature; you have seen the act they
passed, which, though expressed in general terms, was meant to
sanction those objects, and you are appointed to carry them into
execution.

"Instruments for ascertaining, by celestial observations, the
geography of the country through which you will pass, have been
already provided. Light articles for barter and presents among the
Indians, arms for your attendants, say for from ten to twelve men,
boats, tents, and other travelling apparatus, with ammunition,
medicine, surgical instruments, and provisions, you will have
prepared, with such aids as the secretary at war can yield in his
department; and from him also you will receive authority to engage
among our troops, by voluntary agreement, the number of attendants
abovementioned; over whom you, as their commanding officer, are
invested with all the powers the laws give in such a case.

"As your movements, while within the limits of the United States,
will be better directed by occasional communications, adapted to
circumstances as they arise, they will not be noticed here. What
follows will respect your proceedings after your departure from the
United States.

"Your mission has been communicated to the ministers here from
France, Spain, and Great Britain, and through them to their
governments; and such assurances given them as to its objects, as
we trust will satisfy them. The country of Louisiana having been
ceded by Spain to France, the passport you have from the minister
of France, the representative of the present sovereign of the
country, will be a protection with all its subjects; and that from
the minister of England will entitle you to the friendly aid of any
traders of that allegiance with whom you may happen to meet.

"The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, and
such principal streams of it, as, by its course and communication
with the waters of the Pacific ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregan,
Colorado, or any other river, may offer the most direct and
practicable water-communication across the continent, for the
purposes of commerce.

"Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri, you will take observations
of latitude and longitude, at all remarkable points on the river,
and especially at the mouths of rivers, at rapids, at islands, and
other places and objects distinguished by such natural marks and
characters, of a durable kind, as that they may with certainty be
recognised hereafter. The courses of the river between these points
of observation may be supplied by the compass, the log-line, and by
time, corrected by the observations themselves. The variations of
the needle, too, in different places, should be noticed.

"The interesting points of the portage between the heads of the
Missouri, and of the water offering the best communication with the
Pacific ocean, should also be fixed by observation; and the course
of that water to the ocean, in the same manner as that of the
Missouri.

"Your observations are to be taken with great pains and accuracy;
to be entered distinctly and intelligibly for others as well as
yourself; to comprehend all the elements necessary, with the aid of
the usual tables, to fix the latitude and longitude of the places
at which they were taken; and are to be rendered to the war-office,
for the purpose of having the calculations made concurrently by
proper persons within the United States. Several copies of these,
as well as of your other notes, should be made at leisure times,
and put into the care of the most trust-worthy of your attendants
to guard, by multiplying them against the accidental losses to
which they will be exposed. A further guard would be, that one of
these copies be on the cuticular membranes of the paper-birch, as
less liable to injury from damp than common paper.

"The commerce which may be carried on with the people inhabiting
the line you will pursue, renders a knowledge of those people
important. You will therefore endeavour to make yourself
acquainted, as far as a diligent pursuit of your journey shall
admit, with the names of the nations and their numbers;

"The extent and limits of their possessions;

"Their relations with other tribes or nations;

"Their language, traditions, monuments;

"Their ordinary occupations in agriculture, fishing, hunting, war,
arts, and the implements for these;

"Their food, clothing, and domestic accommodations;

"The diseases prevalent among them, and the remedies they use;

"Moral and physical circumstances which distinguish them from the
tribes we know;

"Peculiarities in their laws, customs, and dispositions;

"And articles of commerce they may need or furnish, and to what
extent.

"And, considering the interest which every nation has in extending
and strengthening the authority of reason and justice among the
people around them, it will be useful to acquire what knowledge you
can of the state of morality, religion, and information among them;
as it may better enable those who may endeavour to civilize and
instruct them, to adapt their measures to the existing notions and
practices of those on whom they are to operate.

"Other objects worthy of notice will be--

"The soil and face of the country, its growth and vegetable
productions, especially those not of the United States;

"The animals of the country generally, and especially those not
known in the United States;

"The remains and accounts of any which may be deemed rare or
extinct;

"The mineral productions of every kind, but more particularly
metals, lime-stone, pit-coal, and saltpetre; salines and mineral
waters, noting the temperature of the last, and such circumstances
as may indicate their character;

"Volcanic appearances;

"Climate, as characterized by the thermometer, by the proportion of
rainy, cloudy, and clear days; by lightning, hail, snow, ice; by
the access and recess of frost; by the winds prevailing at
different seasons; the dates at which particular plants put forth,
or lose their flower or leaf; times of appearance of particular
birds, reptiles or insects.

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