They Were Unsuccessful, However, But,
Having Found A Part Of Their Game Untouched, They Brought It Back,
And This, With Other Game Killed After Their Chase Of The Sioux,
Gave Them Three Thousand Pounds Of Meat; They Had Killed Thirty-Six Deer,
Fourteen Elk, And One Wolf.
By the latter part of February, the party were able to get
their boats from the ice.
These were dragged ashore,
and the work of making them ready for their next voyage was begun.
As the ice in the river began to break up, the Mandans had great sport
chasing across the floating cakes of ice the buffalo who were tempted
over by the appearance of green, growing grass on the other side.
The Indians were very expert in their pursuit of the animals,
which finally slipped from their insecure footing on the drifting ice,
and were killed.
At this point, April 7, 1805, the escorting party, the voyageurs,
and one interpreter, returned down the river in their barge.
This party consisted of thirteen persons, all told,
and to them were intrusted several packages of specimens
for President Jefferson, with letters and official reports.
The presents for Mr. Jefferson, according to the journal,
"consisted of a stuffed male and female antelope, with their skeletons,
a weasel, three squirrels from the Rocky Mountains, the skeleton
of a prairie wolf, those of a white and gray hare, a male
and female blaireau, [badger] or burrowing dog of the prairie,
with a skeleton of the female, two burrowing squirrels,
a white weasel, and the skin of the louservia [loup-servier,
or lynx], the horns of a mountain ram, or big-horn, a pair
of large elk horns, the horns and tail of a black-tailed deer,
and a variety of skins, such as those of the red fox,
white hare, marten, yellow bear, obtained from the Sioux;
also a number of articles of Indian dress, among which was
a buffalo robe representing a battle fought about eight years
since between the Sioux and Ricaras against the Mandans
and Minnetarees, in which the combatants are represented on
horseback. . . . Such sketches, rude and imperfect as they are,
delineate the predominant character of the savage nations.
If they are peaceable and inoffensive, the drawings usually
consist of local scenery and their favorite diversions.
If the band are rude and ferocious, we observe tomahawks,
scalping-knives, bows and arrows, and all the engines
of destruction. - A Mandan bow, and quiver of arrows;
also some Ricara tobacco-seed, and an ear of Mandan corn:
to these were added a box of plants, another of insects,
and three cases containing a burrowing squirrel, a prairie hen,
and four magpies, all alive." . . .
The articles reached Mr. Jefferson safely and were long on view at his
Virginia residence, Monticello. They were subsequently dispersed,
and some found their way to Peale's Museum, Philadelphia. Dr. Cones,
the zealous editor of the latest and fullest edition of Lewis and
Clark's narrative, says that some of the specimens of natural history
were probably extant in 1893.
Chapter VII
From Fort Mandan to the Yellowstone
Up to this time, the expedition had passed through regions from
which vague reports had been brought by the few white men who,
as hunters and trappers in pursuit of fur-bearing game,
had dared to venture into these trackless wildernesses.
Now they were to launch out into the mysterious unknown,
from which absolutely no tidings had ever been brought by white men.
The dim reports of Indians who had hunted through some parts
of the region were unreliable, and, as they afterwards proved,
were often as absurdly false as if they had been fairy tales.
Here, too, they parted from some of their comrades who were to return
to "the United States," as the explorers fondly termed their native country,
although the strange lands through which they were voyaging were now a part
of the American Republic. The despatches sent to Washington by these men
contained the first official report from Lewis and Clark since their departure
from St. Louis, May 16, 1803; and they were the last word from the explorers
until their return in September, 1806. During all that long interval,
the adventurers were not heard of in the States. No wonder that croakers
declared that the little party had been cut off to perish miserably
in the pathless woods that cover the heart of the continent.
But they set out on the long journey with light hearts.
In his journal, whose spelling and punctuation are not always
models for the faithful imitation of school-boys, Captain Lewis
set down this observation: -
"Our vessels consisted of six small canoes, and two large perogues.
This little fleet altho' not quite so rispectable as those of Columbus
or Capt. Cook, were still viewed by us with as much pleasure as
those deservedly famed adventurers ever beheld theirs; and I dare
say with quite as much anxiety for their safety and preservation.
we were now about to penetrate a country at least two thousand miles
in width, on which the foot of civilized man had never trodden;
the good or evil it had in store for us was for experiment yet
to determine, and these little vessells contained every article
by which we were to expect to subsist or defend ourselves.
however as the state of mind in which we are, generally gives the colouring
to events, when the immagination is suffered to wander into futurity,
the picture which now presented itself to me was a most pleasing one.
entertaing as I do the most confident hope of succeeding in a voyage
which had formed a darling project of mine for the last ten years,
I could but esteem this moment of our departure as among the most happy
of my life."
The barge sent down the river to St. Louis was in command
of Corporal Wharfington; and with him were six private soldiers,
two French voyageurs, Joseph Gravelines (pilot and interpreter),
and Brave Raven, a Ricara (or Arikara) chief who was to be
escorted to Washington to visit the President.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 16 of 105
Words from 15684 to 16700
of 110166
