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Peek Inside...Entries For June 2:
1805:
1806:
Captain Lewis (current)
Captain Lewis:
June 2, 1806
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McNeal and York were sent on a trading voyage over the river this morning. Having exhausted all our merchandise, we are obliged to have recourse to every subterfuge in order to prepare in the most ample manner in our power to meet that wretched portion of our journey, the Rocky Mountains, where hunger and cold in their most rigorous forms assail the wearied traveler. Not any of us has yet forgotten our suffering in those mountains in September last, and I think it probable we never shall.
Our traders McNeal and York were furnished with the buttons which Captain Clark and myself cut off our coats, some eye-water and basilican which we made for that purpose, and some phials and small tin boxes which I had brought out with phosphorus. In the evening they returned with about three bushels of roots and some bread.
Drouilliard arrived this morning with Neeshneparkkeook and Hohastillpilp, who had accompanied him to the lodges of the persons who had our tomahawks. He obtained both the tomahawks, principally by the influence of the former of these chiefs. The one which had been stolen we prized most, as it was the private property of the late Sergeant Floyd, and Captain Clark was desirous of returning it to his friends. The man who had this tomahawk had purchased it from the Indian that had stolen it, and was himself, at the moment of their arrival, just expiring. His relations were unwilling to give up the tomahawk as they intended to burn it with the deceased owner, but were at length induced to do so for the consideration of a handkerchief, two strands of beads, which Captain Clark sent by Drouilliard, gave there, and two horses given by the chiefs to be killed, agreeably to their custom, at the grave of the deceased.
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.
