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Peek Inside...Entries For June 18:
1805:
Captain Clark
Captain Lewis (current)
1806:
Captain Lewis:
June 18, 1805
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This morning I employed all hands in drawing the pirogue on shore in a thick bunch of willow bushes some little distance below our camp. Fastened her securely, drove out the plugs of the gauge holes of her bottom, and covered her with bushes and driftwood to shelter her from the sun. I now selected a place for a cache and set three men at work to complete it and employed all others - except those about the wagons - in overhauling, airing, and repacking our Indian goods, ammunition, provision, and stores of every description which required inspection. Examined the frame of my iron boat and found all the parts complete except one screw, which the ingenuity of Shields can readily replace - a resource which we have very frequent occasion for.
About twelve o'clock, the hunters returned. They had killed ten deer but no elk. I begin to fear that we shall have some difficulty in procuring skins for the boat. I would prefer those of the elk because I believe them more durable and strong than those of the buffalo, and that they will not shrink so much in drying.
We saw a herd of buffalo come down to water at the sulfur spring this evening. I dispatched some hunters to kill some of them, and a man also for a cask of mineral water. The hunters soon killed two of them, in fine order and returned with a good quantity of the flesh, having left the remainder in a situation that it will not spoil provided the wolves do not visit it. The wagons are completed this evening, and appear as if they would answer the purpose very well if the axletrees prove sufficiently strong. The wind blew violently this evening, as they frequently do in this open country where there is not a tree to break or oppose their force.
The Indian woman is recovering fast. She sat up the greater part of the day, and walked out for the first time since she arrived here. She eats heartily, and is free from fever or pain. I continue same course of medicine and regimen except that I added one dose of 15 drops of the oil of vitriol today, about noon.
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.
