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Peek Inside...Entries For September 22:
1804:
1805:
Captain Clark
Captain Lewis (current)
1806:
Captain Lewis:
September 22, 1805
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We had proceeded about two and a half miles when we met Reuben Fields, one of our hunters, whom Captain Clark had dispatched to meet us with some dried fish and roots that he had procured from a band of Indians, whose lodges were about eight miles in advance. I ordered the party to halt for the purpose of taking some refreshment. I divided the fish, roots, and berries, and was happy to find a sufficiency to satisfy completely all our appetites. Fields also killed a crow.
After refreshing ourselves, we proceeded to the village - due west 7 1/2 miles - where we arrived at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Our route was through lands heavily timbered, the larger wood entirely pine. The country, except the last 3 miles, was broken and descending. The pleasure I now felt in having triumphed over the Rocky Mountains, and descending once more to a level and fertile country, where there was every rational hope of finding a comfortable subsistence for myself and party, can be more readily conceived than expressed. Nor was the flattering prospect of the final success of the expedition less pleasing.
On our approach to the village, which consisted of eighteen lodges, most of the women fled to the neighboring woods on horseback with their children - a circumstance I did not expect, as Captain Clark had previously been with them and informed them of our pacific intentions toward them, and also the time at which we should most probably arrive. The men seemed but little concerned, and several of them came to meet us at a short distance from their lodges, unarmed.
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.
