The Explorers Were About To Plunge Into Vast Solitudes Of
Which White People Knew Less Than We Know Now About The North Polar Country.
Wild And Extravagant Stories Of What Was To Be Seen In Those Trackless
Regions Were Circulated In The States.
For example, it was said that Lewis
and Clark expected to find the mammoth of prehistoric times still living
And wandering in the Upper Missouri region; and it was commonly reported
that somewhere, a thousand miles or so up the river, was a solid mountain
of rock salt, eighty miles long and forty-five miles wide, destitute of
vegetation and glittering in the sun! These, and other tales like these,
were said to be believed and doted upon by the great Jefferson himself.
The Federalists, or "Feds," as they were called, who hated Jefferson,
pretended to believe that he had invented some of these foolish yarns,
hoping thereby to make his Louisiana purchase more popular in the Republic.
In his last letter to Captain Lewis, which was to reach the explorers
before they started, Jefferson said: "The acquisition of the
country through which you are to pass has inspired the country
generally with a great deal of interest in your enterprise.
The inquiries are perpetual as to your progress. The Feds alone
still treat it as a philosophism, and would rejoice at its failure.
Their bitterness increases with the diminution of their numbers
and despair of a resurrection. I hope you will take care
of yourself, and be a living witness of their malice and folly."
Indeed, after the explorers were lost sight of in the wilderness
which they were to traverse, many people in the States declaimed
bitterly against the folly that had sent these unfortunate men
to perish miserably in the fathomless depths of the continent.
They no longer treated it "as a philosophism," or wild prank,
but as a wicked scheme to risk life and property in a search
for the mysteries of the unknown and unknowable.
As a striking illustration of this uncertainty of the outcome
of the expedition, which exercised even the mind of Jefferson,
it may be said that in his instructions to Captain Lewis he said:
"Our Consuls, Thomas Hewes, at Batavia in Java, William Buchanan
in the isles of France and Bourbon, and John Elmslie at the Cape of
Good Hope, will be able to supply your necessities by drafts on us."
All this seems strange enough to the young reader of the present day;
but this was said and done one hundred years ago.
Chapter III
From the Lower to the Upper River
The party finally set sail up the Missouri River on Monday, May 21,
1804, but made only a few miles, owing to head winds.
Four days later they camped near the last white settlement on
the Missouri, - La Charrette, a little village of seven poor houses.
Here lived Daniel Boone, the famous Kentucky backwoodsman,
then nearly seventy years old, but still vigorous, erect, and strong
of limb.
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