[Lewis:]
Wednesday April 2ed. 1806.
This morning we came to a resolution to remain at our
present encampment or some where in this neighbourhood
untill we had obtained as much dryed meat as would be necessary
for our voyage as far as the Chopunnish. to exchange
our perogues for canoes with the natives on our way to the
great falls of the columbia or purchase such canoes from them
for Elkskins and Merchandize as would answer our purposes.
these canoes we intend exchanging with the natives of the
plains for horses as we proceed untill we obtain as many as
will enable us to travel altogether by land. at some convenient
point, perhaps at the entrence of the S.E. branch of the
Columbia, we purpose sending a party of four or five men a
head to collect our horses that they may be in readiness for us
by our arrival at the Chopunnish; calculating by thus acquiring
a large stock of horses we shall not only secure the means of
transporting our baggage over the mountains but that we will
also have provided the means of subsisting; for we now view
the horses as our only certain resource for food, nor do we
look forward to it with any detestation or horrow [horror], so
soon is the mind which is occupyed with any interesting object,
reconciled to it's situation. The men who were sent in quest
of the Elk and deer that were killed yesterday returned at
8 A.M. this morning. we now enformed the party of our
intention of laying in a store of meat at this place, and immediately
dispatched two parteis consisting of nine men to the
opposite side of the river. five of those we sent below the
Quicksand river and 4 above. we also sent out three others
on this side, and those who remained in camp were employed
in collecting wood making a scaffoald and cutting up the meat
in order to dry it. about this time several canoes of the
natives arrived at our camp and among others one from below
which had on board eight men of the Shah-ha-la nation these
men informed us that 2 young men whom they pointed out
were Cash-hooks and resided at the falls of a large river which
discharges itself into the Columbia on it's South side some
miles below us. we readily prevailed on them to give us a
sketch of this river which they drew on a mat with a coal. it
appeared that this river which they called Mult-no-mâh
[35]
discharged
itself behind the Island which we called the image canoe
Island and as we had left this island to the S. both in ascending
and decending the river we had never seen it. they informed
us that it was a large river and run a considerable distance to
the South between the mountains. Cap
t. Clark determined to
return and examine this river accordingly he took a party
of seven men and one of the perogues and set out 1/2 after
11 A.M., he hired one of the Cashhooks, for a birning glass,
to pilot him to the entrance of the Multnomah river and took
him on board with him. in their manners dress language and
stature these people are the same with the quathlahpohtle
nation and others residing in the neighbourhood of wappetoe
Island. near the entrance of Multnomah river a considerable
nation resides on the lower side of that stream by the same
name. as many as ten canoes with natives arrived at our camp
in the course of the day; most of them were families of men
women and children decencing the river. they all gave the
same account of the scarcity of provision above. I shot my
air gun with which they were much astonished. one family
consisting of ten or twelve persons remained near us all night.
they conducted themselves in a very orderly manner. the
three hunters on this side of the river returned in the evening
they had killed two deer, tho' they were so poor and at such
a distance from camp that they brought in their skins only.
the night and morning being cloudy I was again disappointed
in making the observations I wished. at noon I observed the
Meridian Altitude of the ☉'s U.L.
with sextant by the direct obsn. |
99°· 20′· 45″· |
Latitude deduced from this observation [blank space in MS.]
This observation may be depended on to 15″ of a degree.
Fir is the common growth of the uplands, as is the cottonwood,
ash, large leafed ash and sweet willow that of the bottom
lands. the huckleburry, shallon, and the several evergreen
shrubs of that speceis which bear burries have seased to appear
except that speceis which has the leaf with a prickly margin.
among the plants of this prarie in which we are encamped I
observe the passhequo, Shannetahque, and compound firn the
roots of which the natives eat; also the water cress, strawburry,
flowering pea not yet in blume, the sinquefoil, narrow dock,
sand rush which are luxuriant and abundant in the river
bottoms; a speceis of the bearsclaw of which I preserved a
specemine it is in blume. the large leafed thorn has also disappeared.
the red flowering currant is found here in considerable
quantities on the uplands. the hunters inform me that
there are extensive praries on the highlands a few miles back
from the river on this side, the land is very fertile.
