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Entries For April 19:

1806:

Captain Lewis (current)

Captain Lewis:
April 19, 1806

There was great joy with the natives last night, in consequence of the arrival of the salmon. One of those fish was caught. This was the harbinger of good news to them. They informed us that these fish would arrive in great quantities in the course of about five days. This fish was dressed and, being divided into small pieces, was given to each child in the village. This custom is founded on a superstitious opinion that it will hasten the arrival of the salmon. With much difficulty we obtained four other horses from the Indians today. We were obliged to dispense with two of our kettles in order to acquire those. We now have only one small kettle to a mess of eight men.

In the evening Captain Clark set out with four men to the Eneeshur village at the Grand Falls in order to make a further attempt to procure horses. These people are very faithless in their contracts. They frequently receive the merchandise in exchange for their horses and, after some hours, insist on some additional article being given them or revoke the exchange. They have pilfered several small articles from us this evening.

I directed the horses to be hobbled and suffered to graze at a little distance from our camp under the immediate eye of the men who had them in charge. One of the men, Willard, was negligent in his attention to his horse and suffered it to ramble off. It was not to be found when I ordered the others to be brought up and confined to the pickets. This, in addition to the other difficulties under which I labored, was truly provoking. I reprimanded him more severely for this piece of negligence than had been usual with me. I had the remaining horses well secured by pickets.

Reprinted by permission of the American Studies Programs at the University of Virginia.
The complete text can also be downloaded for printing from their website.

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