The Mammoth Book of Travel in Dangerous Places (62 page)

Meriwether Lewis. Courtesy of the Mary Evans Picture Library.

Monday, 12th
This morning, as soon as it was light, Captain Lewis sent Drewyer to reconnoitre if possible the route of the Indians; in about an hour and a half he
returned, after following the tracks of the horse which we had lost yesterday to the mountains, where they ascended and were no longer visible. Captain Lewis now decided on making the circuit along
the foot of the mountains which formed the cove, expecting by that means to find a road across them, and accordingly sent Drewyer on one side and Shields on the other. In this way they crossed four
small rivulets near each other, on which were some bowers or conical lodges of willow brush, which seemed to have been made recently. From the manner in which the ground in the neighbourhood was
torn up, the Indians appeared to have been gathering roots; but Captain Lewis could not discover what particular plant they were searching for, nor could he find any fresh track, till at the
distance of four miles from his camp he met a large plain Indian road which came into the cove from the northeast, and wound along the foot of the mountains to the southwest, approaching obliquely
the main stream he had left yesterday. Down this road he now went towards the southwest; at the distance of five miles it crossed a large run or creek, which is a principal branch of the main
stream into which it falls, just above the high cliffs or gates observed yesterday, and which they now saw below them; here they halted and breakfasted on the last of the deer, keeping a small
piece of pork in reserve against accident; they then continued through the low bottom along the main stream, near the foot of the mountains on their right. For the first five miles the valley
continues towards the southwest from two to three miles in width; then the main stream, which had received two small branches from the left in the valley, turns abruptly to the west through a
narrow bottom between the mountains. The road was still plain, and as it led them directly on towards the mountain the stream gradually became smaller, till after going two miles it had so greatly
diminished in width that one of the men in a fit of enthusiasm, with one foot on each side of the river, thanked God that he had lived to bestride the Missouri. As they went along their hopes of
soon seeing the waters of the Columbia arose almost to painful anxiety; when, after four miles from the last abrupt turn of the river, they reached a small gap formed by the high mountains which
recede on each side, leaving room for the Indian road. From the foot of one of the lowest of these mountains, which rises with a gentle ascent of about half a mile, issues the remotest water of the
Missouri. They had now reached the hidden sources of that river, which had never yet been seen by civilized man; and as they quenched their thirst at the chaste and icy fountain, – as they
sat down by the brink of that little rivulet, which yielded its distant and modest tribute to the parent ocean, – they felt themselves rewarded for all their labours and all their
difficulties. They left reluctantly this interesting spot, and pursuing the Indian road through the interval of the hills, arrived at the top of a ridge, from which they saw high mountains
partially covered with snow still to the west of them. The ridge on which they stood formed the dividing line between the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They followed a descent much
steeper than that on the eastern side, and at the distance of three-quarters of a mile reached a handsome bold creek of cold clear water running to the westward. They stopped to taste for the first
time the waters of the Columbia; and after a few minutes followed the road across steep hills and low hollows, till they reached a spring on the side of a mountain; here they found a sufficient
quantity of dry willow brush for fuel, and therefore halted for the night; and having killed nothing in the course of the day, supped on their last piece of pork, and trusted to fortune for some
other food to mix with a little flour and parched meal, which was all that now remained of their provisions.

Tuesday, 13th
Very early in the morning Captain Lewis resumed the Indian road, which led him in a western direction, through an open broken country; on the left was a
deep valley at the foot of a high range of mountains running from southeast to northwest, with their sides better clad with timber than the hills to which we have been for some time accustomed, and
their tops covered in part with snow.

They proceeded along a waving plain parallel to this valley for about four miles, when they discovered two women, a man, and some dogs, on an eminence at the distance of a mile before them. The
strangers first viewed them apparently with much attention for a few minutes, and then two of them sat down as if to await Captain Lewis’s arrival. He went on till he reached within about
half a mile, then ordered his party to stop, put down his knapsack and rifle, and unfurling the flag advanced alone towards the Indians. The females soon retreated behind the hill, but the man
remained till Captain Lewis came within a hundred yards from him, when he, too, went off, though Captain Lewis called out tabba bone! loud enough to be heard distinctly. He hastened to the top of
the hill, but they had all disappeared. The dogs, however, were less shy, and came close to him; he therefore thought of tying a handkerchief with some beads round their necks, and then let them
loose to convince the fugitives of his friendly disposition, but they would not suffer him to take hold of them, and soon left him. He now made a signal to the men, who joined him, and then all
followed the track of the Indians, which led along a continuation of the same road they had been already travelling. It was dusty, and seemed to have been much used lately both by foot passengers
and horsemen. They had not gone along it more than a mile when on a sudden they saw three female Indians, from whom they had been concealed by the deep ravines which intersected the road, till they
were now within thirty paces of each other; one of them, a young woman, immediately took to flight; the other two, an elderly woman and a little girl, seeing we were too near for them to escape,
sat on the ground, and holding down their heads seemed as if reconciled to the death which they supposed awaited them. Captain Lewis instantly put down his rifle, and advancing towards them, took
the woman by the hand, raised her up, and repeated the words tabba bone! at the same time stripping up his shirt sleeve to prove that he was a white man, for his hands and face had become by
constant exposure quite as dark as their own. She appeared immediately relieved from her alarm, and Drewyer and Shields now coming up, Captain Lewis gave them some beads, a few awls, pewter
mirrors, and a little paint, and told Drewyer to request the woman to recall her companion who had escaped to some distance, and by alarming the Indians might cause them to attack him without any
time for explanation. She did as she was desired, and the young woman returned, almost out of breath; Captain Lewis gave her an equal portion of trinkets, and painted the tawny cheeks of all three
of them with vermilion, a ceremony which among the Shoshonees is emblematic of peace. After they had become composed, he informed them by signs of his wish to go to their camp in order to see their
chiefs and warriors; they readily obeyed, and conducted the party along the same road down the river. In this way they marched two miles, when they met a troop of nearly sixty warriors, mounted on
excellent horses, riding at full speed towards them. As they advanced Captain Lewis put down his gun, and went with the flag about fifty paces in advance. The chief, who, with two men, were riding
in front of the main body, spoke to the women, who now explained that the party was composed of white men, and showed exultingly the presents they had received. The three men immediately leaped
from their horses, came up to Captain Lewis and embraced him with great cordiality, putting their left arm over his right shoulder and clasping his back; applying at the same time their left cheek
to his, and frequently vociferating ah hi e! ah hi e! “I am much pleased, I am much rejoiced.” The whole body of warriors now came forward, and our men received the caresses, and no
small share of the grease and paint, of their new friends. After this fraternal embrace, of which the motive was much more agreeable than the manner, Captain Lewis lighted a pipe and offered it to
the Indians, who had now seated themselves in a circle around the party. But before they would receive this mark of friendship they pulled off their moccasins, a custom, as we afterwards learnt,
which indicates the sacred sincerity of their professions when they smoke with a stranger, and which imprecates on themselves the misery of going barefoot forever if they are faithless to their
words, a penalty by no means light to those who rove over the thorny plains of their country. After smoking a few pipes, some trifling presents were distributed amongst them, with which they seemed
very much pleased, particularly with the blue beads and the vermilion. Captain Lewis then informed the chief that the object of his visit was friendly, and should be explained as soon as he reached
their camp; but that in the meantime, as the sun was oppressive and no water near, he wished to go there as soon as possible. They now put on their moccasins, and their chief, whose name was
Cameahwait, made a short speech to the warriors. Captain Lewis then gave him the flag, which he informed him was among white men the emblem of peace and now that he had received it was to be in
future the bond of union between them. The chief then moved on, our party followed him, and the rest of the warriors, in a squadron, brought up the rear. After marching a mile they were halted by
the chief, who made a second harangue, on which six or eight young men rode forward to their camp, and no further regularity was observed in the order of march. At the distance of four miles from
where they had first met they reached the Indian camp, which was in a handsome level meadow on the bank of the river. Here they were introduced into an old leathern lodge which the young men who
had been sent from the party had fitted up for their reception. After being seated on green boughs and antelope skins, one of the warriors pulled up the grass in the centre of the lodge so as to
form a vacant circle of two feet diameter, in which he kindled a fire. The chief then produced his pipe and tobacco, the warriors all pulled off their moccasins, and our party was requested to take
off their own. This being done, the chief lighted his pipe at the fire within the magic circle, and then retreating from it began a speech several minutes long, at the end of which he pointed the
stem towards the four cardinal points of the heavens, beginning with the east and concluding with the north.

The ceremony of smoking being concluded, Captain Lewis explained to the chief the purposes of his visit, and as by this time all the women and children of the camp had gathered around the lodge
to indulge in a view of the first white man they had ever seen, he distributed among them the remainder of the small articles he had brought with him. It was now late in the afternoon, and our
party had tasted no food since the night before. On apprising the chief of this circumstance, he said that he had nothing but berries to eat, and presented some cakes made of serviceberry and
chokecherries which had been dried in the sun. On these Captain Lewis made a hearty meal, and then walked down towards the river. He found it a rapid clear stream, forty yards wide and three feet
deep; the banks were low and abrupt, like those of the upper part of the Missouri, and the bed formed of loose stones and gravel. Its course, as far as he could observe it, was a little to the
north of west, and was bounded on each side by a range of high mountains, of which those on the east are the lowest and most distant from the river.

Captain Lewis returned from the river to his lodge, and on his way an Indian invited him into his bower and gave him a small morsel of boiled antelope and a piece of fresh salmon roasted. This
was the first salmon he had seen, and perfectly satisfied him that he was now on the waters of the Pacific. On reaching this lodge he resumed his conversation with the chief, after which he was
entertained with a dance by the Indians. It now proved, as our party had feared, that the men whom they had first met this morning had returned to the camp and spread the alarm that their enemies,
the Minnetarees of fort de Prairie, whom they call Pahkees, were advancing on them. The warriors instantly armed themselves and were coming down in expectation of an attack, when they were
agreeably surprised by meeting our party. The greater part of them were armed with bows and arrows and shields, but a few had small fusils, such as are furnished by the north-west company traders,
and which they had obtained from the Indians on the Yellowstone, with whom they are now at peace. They had reason to dread the approach of the Pahkees, who had attacked them in the course of this
spring and totally defeated them. On this occasion twenty of their warriors were either killed or made prisoners, and they lost their whole camp except the leathern lodge which they had fitted up
for us, and were now obliged to live in huts of a conical figure made with willow brush. The music and dancing, which was in no respect different from those of the Missouri Indians, continued
nearly all night; but Captain Lewis retired to rest about twelve o’clock, when the fatigues of the day enabled him to sleep, though he was awaked several times by the yells of the
dancers.