Lewis and Clark Return

Today’s installment concludes The Lewis and Clark Expedition,
the name of our combined selection from James Davie Butler and Robert Southey. The concluding installment, by Robert Southey from an essay published in Great Events by Famous People, Vol. 15, was published in 1905.

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Previously in The Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Time: 1806

Captain Lewis’s route was much shorter than that which they had taken on their outward journey. He got once more into the land of mosquitoes; the horses suffered so much from these insects that they were obliged to kindle large fires and place the poor animals in the midst of the smoke. In such myriads were they that they frequently drew them in with their breath, and the very dog howled with the torture they gave him. They came also among their old enemies the bears; but the abundance of buffaloes after their short commons made amends for all. These animals seemed to prefer pools, which were so strongly impregnated with salt as to be unfit for the use of man, to the water of the river. Captain Lewis proceeded far enough to ascertain that no branch of the Maria extended as far north as 50°, and consequently that it would not make the desired boundary. He fell in with a party of Minnetarees of the north; the tribe bore a bad character, and these men did not belie it; for after meeting in apparent friendship and encamping together for the night, they endeavored to rob the Americans of their horses and guns. In the scuffle that ensued one of the Indians was stabbed through the heart, and Captain Lewis shot another in the abdomen; the man, however, rose, and fired in return, and Captain Lewis felt the wind of the ball. He was destined to a narrower escape a few days afterward, when one of his own men mistook him for an elk and shot him through the thigh. When they came to the appointed place of meeting they saw that Captain Clark had been encamped there, but found no letter. These words, however, were traced in the sand: “W. C. a few miles farther down on the right-hand side.” Captain Clark had not intended to trust to a writing in the sand; but another division of the party arriving before Captain Lewis, and thinking that he had preceded them, removed his letter.

Captain Clark, on his part, had reached the Yellowstone a little below the place where it issues from the Rocky Mountains. It now appeared that the communication between these great rivers was short and easy. From the Three Forks of the Missouri to this place was forty-eight miles, chiefly over a level plain; and from the forks of the eastern branch of the Gallatin, which is there navigable for small canoes, it is only eighteen, with an excellent road over a high dry country. The Yellowstone here is a bold, deep, and rapid stream, one hundred twenty yards wide. As no large timber could be found, Captain Clark made two small canoes and lashed them together; they were twenty eight feet long, about eighteen inches deep, and from sixteen to twenty-four inches wide. Sergeant Pryor, with two companions, was then entrusted with the horses to take them to the Mandans, and the rest of the party began their voyage. The buffaloes were here in such numbers that a herd of them one day crossing the river stopped the canoe for an hour; the river, including an island over which they passed, was a mile in width, and the herd stretched as thick as they could swim from one side to another during the whole of that time.

The course of this river, from the point where they reached it till its junction with the Missouri, was computed at more than eight hundred miles, navigable the whole way, without any falls or any moving sandbars (which are very frequent in the Missouri), and only one ledge of rocks, and that not difficult to pass. The point of junction was considered to be one of the best places for an establishment for the Western fur trade. It was impossible to wait here for Captain Lewis because of the mosquitoes; they were in such multitudes that the men could not shoot for them; they could not be kept from the barrel of the rifle long enough for a man to take aim. Pryor and his party soon followed; the horses were stolen from them by some Indians; they then struck for the river, and made skin canoes, or rather coracles, such as they had seen among the Mandans and Ricaras. These vessels were perfect basins, seven feet three in diameter, sixteen inches deep; made of skins stretched over a wooden skeleton; each capable of carrying six or eight men with their loads. They made two that they might divide their guns and ammunition, lest, in case of accident, all should be lost. But in these frail vessels they passed, with perfect security, all the shoals and rapids of the river, without taking in water even during the highest winds. Where a boat is to be committed to the stream, probably no other shape could be so safe.

On August 12th the whole party were once more collected. They found on their return that great changes had taken place in the bed of the Missouri since they ascended it, so shifting are its sands; and they observed that in the course of one thousand miles, though it had received above twenty rivers, some of them of considerable width, besides many smaller streams, its waters were not augmented, so great is the evaporation. When they came to the first village and saw some cows feeding on the bank, the whole party, with an involuntary impulse, raised a shout of joy. Several settlements had been made in this direction during their absence; so fast is the progress of civilization of America, where it is extended by the very eagerness with which men recede from civilized life. On September 22d they reached the spot from where they had set out, after having travelled nearly nine thousand miles, and performed with equal ability, perseverance, and success one of the most arduous journeys that were ever undertaken.

This ends our selections on The Lewis and Clark Expedition by two of the most important authorities of this topic:

• Great Events by Famous People, Vol. 15 by James Davie Butler published in 1905.
• an essay published in Great Events by Famous People, Vol. 15 by Robert Southey published in 1905.

James Davie Butler began here. Robert Southey began here.

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