Monday August 11th. 1806.
We set out very early this morning, it being my wish to
arrive at the birnt hills by noon in order to take the latitude
of that place as it is the most northern point of the Missouri,
I enformed the party of ray design and requested that they
would exert themselves to reach the place in time as it would
save us the delay of nearly one day; being as anxious to get
forward as I was they plyed their oars faithfully and we proceeded
rapidly. I had instructed the small [c]anoes that if
they saw any game on the river to halt and kill it and follow
on; however we saw but little game untill about 9 A.M. when
we came up with a buffaloe swiming the river which I shot
and killed; leaving the small canoes to dress it and bring on
the meat I proceeded, we had gone but little way before I
saw a very large grizzly bear and put too in order to kill it,
but it took wind of us and ran off. the small canoes overtook
us and informed that the flesh of the buffaloe was unfit for
uce and that they had therefore left it. half after n A.M. we
saw a large herd of Elk on the N. E. shore and I directed the
men in the small canoes to halt and kill some of them and
continued on in the perogue to the birnt hills; when I arrived
here it was about 20 minutes after noon and of course the observation
for the ☉'s meridian Altitude was lost. jus[t] opposite
to the birnt hills there happened to be a herd of Elk on a
thick willow bar and finding that my observation was lost for
the present I determined to land and kill some of them
accordingly we put too and I went out with Cruzatte only.
we fired on the Elk I killed one and he wounded another, we
reloaded our guns and took different routs through the thick
willows in pursuit of the Elk; I was in the act of firing on the
Elk a second time when a ball struck my left thye about an
inch below my hip joint, missing the bone it passed through
the left thye and cut the thickness of the bullet across the
hinder part of the right thye; the stroke was very severe; I
instantly supposed that Cruzatte had shot me in mistake for an
Elk as I was dressed in brown leather and he cannot see very
well; under this impression I called out to him damn you, you
have shot me, and looked towards the place from whence the
ball had come, seeing nothing I called Cruzatte several times
as loud as I could but received no answer; I was now preswaded
that it was an Indian that had shot me as the report of
the gun did not appear to be more than 40 paces from me and
Cruzatte appeared to be out of hearing of me; in this situation
not knowing how many indians there might be concealed in
the bushes I thought best to make good my retreat to the
perogue, calling out as I ran for the first hundred paces as loud
as I could to Cruzatte to retreat that there were indians hoping
to allarm him in time to make his escape also; I still retained
the charge in my gun which I was about to discharge at
the moment the ball struck me. when I arrived in sight of
the perogue I called the men to their arms to which they flew
in an instant, I told them that I was wounded but I hoped
not mortally, by an indian I beleived and directed them to
follow me that I would return & give them battle and releive
Cruzatte if possible who I feared had fallen into their hands;
the men followed me as they were bid and I returned about
a hundred paces when my wounds became so painfull and my
thye so stiff that I could scarcely get on; in short I was compelled
to halt and ordered the men to proceed and if they found
themselves overpowered by numbers to retreat in order keeping
up a fire. I now got back to the perogue as well as I
could and prepared my self with a pistol my rifle and air-gun
being determined as a retreat was impracticable to sell my life
as deerly as possible. in this state of anxiety and suspense I
remained about 20 minutes when the party returned with
Cruzatte and reported that there were no indians nor the appearance
of any; Cruzatte seemed much allarmed and declared
if he had shot me it was not his intention, that he had shot an
Elk in the willows after he left or seperated from me. I asked
him whether he did not hear me when I called to him so frequently
which he absolutely denied. I do not beleive that the
fellow did it intentionally but after finding that he had shot me
was anxious to conceal his knowledge of having done so. the
ball had lodged in my breeches which I knew to be the ball
of the short rifles such as that he had, and there being no person
out with me but him and no indians that we could discover
I have no doubt in my own mind of his having shot me.
with the assistance of Serg
t. Gass I took off my cloaths and
dressed my wounds myself as well as I could, introducing tents
of patent lint into the ball holes, the wounds blead considerably
but I was hapy to find that it had touched neither bone
nor artery. I sent the men to dress the two Elk which Cruzatte
and myself had killed which they did in a few minutes
and brought the meat to the river. the small canoes came up
shortly after with the flesh of one Elk. my wounds being so
situated that I could not without infinite pain make an observation
I determined to relinquish it and proceeded on. we
came within eight miles of our encampment of the 15
th. of
April 1805 and encamped on N. E. side. as it was painfull
to me to be removed I slept on board the perogue; the pain
I experienced excited a high fever and I had a very uncomfortable
night. at 4 P. M. we passed an encampment which
had been evacuated this morning by Capt. Clark, here I
found a note from Capt. C. informing me that he had left a
letter for me at the entrance of the Yelow stone river, but that
Serg
t. Pryor who had passed that place since he left it had taken
the letter; that Serg
t. Pryor having been robed of all his horses
had decended the Yelowstone river in skin canoes and had
overtaken him at this encampment. this I fear puts an end to
our prospects of obtaining the Sioux Cheifs to accompany us
as we have not now leasure to send and engage M
r. Heney on
this service, or at least he would not have time to engage them
to go as early as it is absolutely necessary we should decend the
river.
