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Peek Inside...Entries For August 28:
1804:
Captain Clark (current)
Captain Clark:
August 28, 1804
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Set out under a stiff breeze from the south, and proceeded on past a willow island at two miles. Several sand bars. The river wide and shallow. At four miles passed a short white bluff of about 70 or 80 feet high. Below this bluff the prairie rises gradually from the water, back to the height of the bluff, which is on the starboard side. Here the Indian who was in the boat returned to the Sioux camp on the river Jacques. Captain Lewis and myself much indisposed owing to some cause for which we cannot account. One of the pirogues ran a snag through her and was near sinking, in the opinions of the crew. We came to below the Calumet bluff and formed a camp in a beautiful plain near the foot of the high land, which rises with a gradual ascent near this bluff. I observe more timber in the valleys and on the points than usual. The pirogue which was injured, I had unloaded, and the loading put into the other pirogue, which we intended to send back, and changed the crew. After examining her and finding that she was unfit for service, determined to send her back by the party. Some load which was in the pirogue much injured.
The wind blew hard this afternoon from the south. J. Shields and J. Field, who were sent back to look for Shannon and the horses, joined us and informed that Shannon had the horses ahead and that they could not overtake him. This man not being a first-rate hunter, we determined to send one man in pursuit of him, with some provisions.
Orderly Book
The commanding officers direct that the two messes who form the crews of the pirogues shall select each one man from their mess for the purpose of cooking, and that these cooks, as well as those previously appointed to the messes of the barge crew, shall in future be exempted from mounting guard, or any detail for that duty. They are therefore no longer to be held on the roster.
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.
