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; Volume 1

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384. Lewis and Clat•ke's Expecliiion then tbey could subsi'it as they had heretofo1·e done. He concluded by saying that there were not horses here sufii~ cient to transpoL~t our goo(h, but that IJC wonld return to the village to-morrow, and bring alJ his own horses, and encou. rage 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 IJe pointed out two of them. We then distributed our presents: to Cameahwait we gave a medal of the small size, with the likeness of pt•esident Jefferson, and on the reverse a figure of hands clasped witb a pipe and tomalaawk: to thjs 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, handl\:Crchief, 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 D10norary gifts were followed by presents of 11aiut, moccasins, awls, knives, beads and looking~glas ses. We also gave them all a plentiful meal of Indian corn, of wltich the bull is taken off by being boiled in lye; aud as this was the first they had ever tasted, they were ycry much pleased with it. 'I'hey had indeed abundant sources of surpiscin all they saw: the appearance of the men, their arms, theit· do­thing, the canoes, the strange looks of the negt·o, and the sa­gacity of our dog, all in turn shared their admir ation, which was raised to astonishment hy a shot ft·om the airgun: this ope­ration was instantly conE!it.lcred as a great medicine, by wlaich 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 geogt·aphical situation of tlteh• counh•y; for we had learnt by experience, that to keep the savages in good tempet· their attention should not be wearied with too much business; but that tl•e Up the Misso1u..;. 385 serious atrairi 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 whicl~ we gave to the Indians, who in a very short time devoured 1t. After the council was over, we consulted as to our future opera­tions. rrhe game does not promise to last here for a nunlber of days, and this circumstance combined with many .oth~rs to induce our going on as soon as possible. Our Indian In­formation as to the state of the Columbia is of a very ~~larm­m. g k"m d , and our fia·st ob"i ect is of cou.r se to ascr.r.t am th. e llractieability of descending it, of wh1ch the lndmns dis-eourage our expectations. It was ther~fore ~greed that cap-t a1· n Clarke should set off in the mornmg w1th el. evto men, furnished, besides their arms, with tools for makmg canoes; that he should take Chaboneau and his wife to the camp of the Shoshonees, where he was to leave them, in order to ha~­ten 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 ca~oes. As soon as he had decided as to the propriety of proceedmg down the Columbia or across the mountains, he was to send back one of the men with information of it to ca11tain Lewis, who by that time would have brought up the whole ~larty, and the J'est of the baggage as far as the Shoshonee ~1llage .. Preparations were accordingly made tl~1s evem~g for such an a1·rangement. The sun is excessively hot 10 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' subsiiteace, are not very favourable. . Sunday t8. In order to relieve the men of capta1n Clarke's party from the heavy weight of their armi, pro­- visions and tools, we exposed a few articles to barter tor hot·ses and soon obtained three very good ones, in exchange ' . for which we gave a uniform coat, a pair of leggmgs, a few handkerchiefs, tht•ee knifes and some other 11wall ar .. VOL. I. 3 :n