[Lewis:]
Tuesday May 14th. 1805.
Some fog on the river this morning, which is a very rare
occurrence; the country much as it was yesterday with this
difference that the bottoms are somewhat wider; passed some
high black bluffs. saw immence herds of buffaloe today also
Elk deer wolves and Antelopes. passed three large creeks one
on the Stard. and two others on the Lard. side, neither of which
had any runing water. Capt Clark walked on shore and killed
a very fine buffaloe cow. I felt an inclination to eat some
veal and walked on shore and killed a very fine buffaloe calf
and a large woolf, much the whitest I had seen, it was quite as
white as the wool of the common sheep. one of the party
wounded a brown bear very badly, but being alone did not
think proper to pursue him. In the evening the men in two
of the rear canoes discovered a large brown bear lying in the
open grounds about 300 paces from the river, and six of them
went out to attack him, all good hunters; they took the advantage
of a small eminence which concealed them and got
within 40 paces of him unperceived, two of them reserved
their fires as had been previously conscerted, the four others
fired nearly at the same time and put each his bullet through
him, two of the balls passed through the bulk of both lobes of
his lungs, in an instant this monster ran at them with open
mouth, the two who had reserved their fir[e]s discharged their
pieces at him as he came towards them, boath of them struck
him, one only slightly and the other fortunately broke his
shoulder, this however only retarded his motion for a moment
only, the men unable to reload their guns took to flight, the
bear pursued and had very nearly overtaken them before they
reached the river; two of the party betook themselves to a
canoe and the others seperated an[d] concealed themselves
among the willows, reloaded their pieces, each discharged his
piece at him as they had an opportunity they struck him
several times again but the guns served only to direct the bear
to them, in this manner he pursued two of them seperately
so close that they were obliged to throw aside their guns and
pouches and throw themselves into the river altho' the bank
was nearly twenty feet perpendicular; so enraged was this
anamal that he plunged into the river only a few feet behind
the second man he had compelled [to] take refuge in the
water, when one of those who still remained on shore shot him
through the head and finally killed him; they then took him
on shore and butch[er]ed him when they found eight balls
had passed through him in different directions; the bear
being old the flesh was indifferent, they therefore only took
the skin and fleece, the latter made us several gallons of oil;
it was after the sun had set before these men come up with
us, where we had been halted by an occurrence, which I have
now to recappitulate, and which altho' happily passed without
ruinous injury, I cannot recollect but with the utmost trepidation
and horror; this is the upseting and narrow escape of the
white perogue. It happened unfortunately for us this evening
that Charbono was at the helm of this Perogue, in stead of
Drewyer, who had previously steered her; Charbono cannot
swim and is perhaps the most timid waterman in the world;
perhaps it was equally unluckey that Cap
t. C. and myself were
both on shore at that moment, a circumstance which rarely
happened; and tho' we were on the shore opposite to the
perogue, were too far distant to be heard or to do more than
remain spectators of her fate; in this perogue were embarked,
our papers, Instruments, books medicine, a great part of our
merchandize and in short almost every article indispensibly
necessary to further the views, or insure the success of the
enterprize in which we are now launched to the distance of
2200 miles. surfice it to say, that the Perogue was under sail
when a sudon squawl of wind struck her obliquely, and turned
her considerably, the steersman allarmed, in stead of puting,
her before the wind, lufted her up into it, the wind was so
violent that it drew the brace of the squarsail out of the hand
of the man who was attending it, and instantly upset the
perogue and would have turned her completely topsaturva,
had it not have been from the resistance mad[e] by the oarning
[awning] against the water; in this situation Capt. C. and
myself both fired our guns to attract the attention if possible
of the crew and ordered the halyards to be cut and the sail
hawled in, but they did not hear us; such was their confusion
and consternation at this moment, that they suffered the
perogue to lye on her side for half a minute before they took
the sail in, the perogue then wrighted but had filled within an
inch of the gunwals; Charbono still crying to his god for
mercy, had not yet recollected the rudder, nor could the repeated
orders of the Bowsman, Cruzat, bring him to his recollection
untill he threatend to shoot him instantly if he did not
take hold of the rudder and do his duty, the waves by this
time were runing very high, but the fortitude resolution and
good conduct of Cruzat saved her; he ordered 2 of the men
to throw out the water with some kettles that fortunately were
convenient, while himself and two others rowed her as[h]ore,
where she arrived scarcely above the water; we now took
every article out of her and lay them to drane as well as we
could for the evening, baled out the canoe and secured her.
there were two other men beside Charbono on board who
could not swim, and who of course must also have perished
had the perogue gone to the bottom. while the perogue lay
on her side, finding I could not be heard, I for a moment forgot
my own situation, and involluntarily droped my gun, threw
aside my shot pouch and was in the act of unbuttoning my
coat, before I recollected the folly of the attempt I was about
to make; which was to throw myself into the river and inde[a]vour
to swim to the perogue; the perogue was three
hundred yards distant the waves so high that a perogue could
scarcely live in any situation, the water excessively could, and
the stream rappid; had I undertaken this project therefore,
there was a hundred to one but what I should have paid the
forfit of my life for the madness of my project, but this had
the perogue been lost, I should have valued but little. After
having all matters arranged for the evening as well as the
nature of circumstances would permit, we thought it a proper
occasion to console ourselves and cheer the sperits of our men
and accordingly took a drink of grog and gave each man a gill
of sperits.
Courses and distances of May 14th. 1805.
| S. 55°. W. |
Along the Stard. side, water swift |
1. |
| S. 35°. W. |
Along the Lard. side, opposite the lower point of an
Island in a bend on Stard. |
½ |
| S. 20°. W. |
Along the Lard. side passing the head of an Island
opposite to which a large creek falls in on the
Stard. side, or Gibson's Creek. |
½ |
| S. 12°. E. |
to a point of timber on the Stard. side opposite to a
high hill on Lard. |
3. |
| S. 20°. W. |
to a point of timbered land on the Stard. side, a bluff
point of rocks on Lard. passing a creek on Lard.
called Stick Lodge C. |
2 ½ |
| S. 80°. W. |
to a point of timbered land on the Lard. passing a
point of woodland Stard. at 1. M. |
3 |
| S. 85°. W. |
to a point of timbered land on the Lard. passing a
large dry creek Lard. the Brown bear defeat. |
2 ½ |
| S. 62°. W. |
to a point of woodland on the Stard. side at which
place our perogue had very nearly been lost |
3 ½ |
|
Miles |
16 ½ |
