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Sacajawea,
our Indian woman, informs us that we are encamped on the precise
spot where her countrymen, the Snake Indians, had their huts
five years ago, when the Minnetarees of Knife river first came
in sight of them, and from which they hastily retreated three
miles up the Jefferson, and concealed themselves in the woods.
The Minnetarees, however, pursued and attacked them, killed
four men, as many women, and a number of boys; and made prisoners
of four other boys, and all the females, of whom Sacajawea was
one: she does not, however, show any distress at these recollections,
nor any joy at the prospect of being restored to her country;
for she seems to possess the folly or the philosophy of not
suffering her feelings to extend beyond the anxiety of having
plenty to eat and a few trinkets to wear.
July 29,
1805
Monday 29. This morning
the hunters brought in some fat deer of the long-tailed red
kind, which are quite as large as those of the United States,
and are, indeed, the only kind we have found at this place:
there are numbers of the sandhill cranes feeding in the meadows;
we caught a young one of the same color as the red deer, which,
though it had nearly attained its full growth could not fly;
it is very fierce and strikes a severe blow with its beak. The
kingfisher has become quite common on this side of the falls:
but we have seen none of the summer duck since leaving that
place. The mallard duck, which we saw for the first time on
the 20th instant, with their young, are now abundant, though
they do not breed on the Missouri, below the mountains. The
small birds already described are also abundant [331]in the
plains; here too, are great quantities of grasshoppers or crickets;
and among other animals, a large ant with a reddish brown body
and legs, and a black head and abdomen, who build little cones
of gravel, ten or twelve inches high, without a mixture of sticks,
and but little earth. In the river we see a great abundance
of fish, but we cannot tempt them to bite by any thing on our
hooks. The whole party have been engaged in dressing skins,
and making them into moccasins and leggings. Captain Clarke's
fever has almost left him, but he still remains very languid
and has a general soreness in his limbs. The latitude of our
camp, as the mean of two observations of the meridian altitude
of the sun's lower limb with octant by back observation is N.
45° 24' 8" 5"'.
July 30,
1805
Tuesday 30. Captain
Clarke was this morning much restored; and, therefore, having
made all the observations necessary to fix the longitude, we
reloaded our canoes, and began to ascend Jefferson river. The
river now becomes very crooked, and forms bends on each side;
the current too is rapid, and cut into a great number of channels,
and sometimes shoals, the beds of which consist of coarse gravel.
The islands are unusually numerous: on the right are high plains
occasionally forming cliffs of rocks and hills; while the left
was an extensive low ground and prairie intersected by a number
of bayous or channels falling into the river. Captain Lewis,
who had walked through it with Charbonneau, his wife, and two
invalids, joined us at dinner, a few miles above our camp. Here
the Indian woman said was the place where she had been made
prisoner. The men being too few to contend with the Minnetarees,
mounted their horses, and fled as soon as the attack began.
The women and children dispersed, and Sacajawea as she was crossing
at a shoal place, was overtaken in the middle of the river by
her pursuers.
As we
proceeded, the low grounds were covered with cottonwood and
a thick underbrush, and on both sides of the river, except where
the high hills prevented it, the ground was divided by bayous,
which are dammed up by the beaver, which are very numerous here.
We made twelve and a quarter miles, and encamped on the north
side. Captain Lewis proceeded after dinner, through an extensive
low ground of timber and meadow land intermixed; but the bayous
were so obstructed by beaver dams, that in order to avoid them
he directed his course towards the high plain on the right.
This he gained with some difficulty, after wading up to his
waist through the mud and water of a number of beaver dams.
When he desired to rejoin the canoes he found the underbrush
so thick, and the river so crooked, that this, joined to the
difficulty of passing the beaver dams, induced him to go on
and endeavor to intercept the river at some point where it might
be more collected into one channel and approach nearer to the
high plain. He arrived at the bank about sunset, having gone
only six miles in a direct course from the canoes: but he saw
no traces of the men, nor did he receive any answer to his shouts
nor the firing of his gun. It was now nearly dark; a duck lighted
near him and he shot it. He then went on the head of a small
island where he found some driftwood, which enabled him to cook
his duck for supper, and he laid down to sleep on some willow
brush. The night was cool, but the driftwood gave him a good
fire, and he suffered no inconvenience except from the mosquitoes.
July 31,
1805
Wednesday 31. The
next morning he waited till after seven o'clock, when he became
uneasy lest we should have gone beyond his camp last evening
and determined to follow us. Just as he had set out with this
intention, he saw one of the party in advance of the canoes;
although our camp was only two miles below him, in a straight
line, we could not reach him sooner, in consequence of the rapidity
of the water and the circuitous course of the river. We halted
for breakfast, after which Captain Lewis continued his route.
At the distance of one mile from our encampment we passed the
principal entrance of a stream on the left, which rises in the
snowy mountains to the southwest, between Jefferson and Madison
rivers, and discharges itself by seven mouths, five below, and
one three miles above this, which is the largest, and about
thirty yards wide: we called it Philosophy river. The water
of it is abundant and perfectly clear, and the bed like that
of the Jefferson consists of pebble and gravel. There is some
timber in the bottoms of the river, and vast numbers of otter
and beaver, which build on its smaller mouths and the bayous
of its neighborhood.
The Jefferson
continues as yesterday, shoaly and rapid, but as the islands
though numerous are small, it is however more collected into
one current than it was below, and is from ninety to one hundred
and twenty yards in width. The low ground has a fertile soil
of rich black loam, and contains a considerable quantity of
timber, with the bullrush and cattail flag very abundant in
the moist parts, while the drier situations are covered with
fine grass, tansy, thistles, onions, and flax. The uplands are
barren, and without timber: the soil is a light yellow clay
intermixed with small smooth pebble and gravel, and the only
produce is the prickly-pear, the sedge, and the bearded grass,
which is as dry and inflammable as tinder. As we proceeded the
low grounds became narrower, and the timber more scarce, till
at the distance of ten miles the high hills approach and overhang
the river on both sides, forming cliffs of a hard black granite,
like almost all those below the limestone cliffs at the three
forks of the Missouri: they continue so for a mile and three
quarters, where we came to a point of rock on the right side,
at which place the hills again retire, and the valley widens
to the distance of a mile and a half. Within the next five miles
we passed four islands, and reached the foot of a mountain in
a bend of the river to the left: from this place we went a mile
and a quarter to the entrance of a small run discharging itself
on the left, and encamped on an island just above it, after
making seventeen and three quarter miles. We observe some pine
on the hills on both sides of our encampment, which are very
lofty. The only game which we have seen are one bighorn, a few
antelopes, deer, and one brown bear, which escaped from our
pursuit. Nothing was, however, killed to-day, nor have we had
any fresh meat except one beaver for the last two days, so that
we are now reduced to an unusual situation, for we have hitherto
always had a great abundance of flesh.
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