Lewis: August 25, 1805

Sunday August 25th 1805. This morning loaded our horses and set out a
little after sunrise; a few only of the Indians unengaged in assisting us
went on as I had yesterday proposed to the Cheif. the others flanked us on
each side and started some Antelope which they pursued for several hours
but killed none of them. we proceeded within 2 Ms. of the narrow pass or
seven miles from our camp of last evening and halted for dinner. Our
hunters joined us at noon with three deer the greater part of which I gave
the indians. sometime after we had halted, Charbono mentioned to me with
apparent unconcern that he expected to meet all the Indians from the camp
on the Columbia tomorrow on their way to the Missouri. allarmed at this
information I asked why he expected to meet them. he then informed me that
the 1st Cheif had dispatched some of his young men this morning to this
camp requesting the Indians to meet them tomorrow and that himself and
those with him would go on with them down the Missouri, and consequently
leave me and my baggage on the mountain or thereabouts. I was out of
patience with the folly of Charbono who had not sufficient sagacity to see
the consequencies which would inevitably flow from such a movement of the
indians, and altho he had been in possession of this information since
early in the morning when it had been communicated to him by his Indian
woman yet he never mentioned it untill the after noon. I could not forbear
speaking to him with some degree of asperity on this occasion. I saw that
there was no time to be lost in having those orders countermanded, or that
we should not in all probability obtain any more horses or even get my
baggage to the waters of the Columbia. I therefore Called the three Cheifs
together and having smoked a pipe with them, I asked them if they were men
of their words, and whether I could depent on the promises they had made
me; they readily answered in the affermative; I then asked them if they
had not promised to assist me with my baggage to their camp on the other
side of the mountains, or to the place at which Capt. Clark might build
the canoes, should I wish it. they acknowledged that they had. I then
asked them why they had requested their people on the other side of the
mountain to meet them tomorrow on the mountain where there would be no
possibility of our remaining together for the purpose of trading for their
horses as they had also promised. that if they had not promised to have
given me their assistance in transporting my baggage to the waters on the
other side of the mountain that I should not have attempted to pass the
mountains but would have returned down the river and that in that case
they would never have seen anymore white men in their country. that if
they wished the white men to be their friends and to assist them against
their enemies by furnishing them with arms and keeping their enemies from
attacking them that they must never promis us anything which they did not
mean to perform. that when I had first seen them they had doubted what I
told them about the arrival of the party of whitemen in canoes, that they
had been convinced that what I told them on that occasion was true, why
then would they doubt what I said on any other point. I told them that
they had witnessed my liberality in dividing the meat which my hunters
killed with them; and that I should continue to give such of them as
assisted me a part of whatever we had ourselves to eat. and finally
concluded by telling them if they intended to keep the promisses they had
made me to dispatch one of their young men immediately with orders to
their people to remain where they were untill our arrival. the two
inferior cheifs said that they wished to assist me and be as good as their
word, and that they had not sent for their people, that it was the first
Chief who had done so, and they did not approve of the measure. Cameahwait
remained silent for some time, at length he told me that he knew he had
done wrong but that he had been induced to that measure from seeing all
his people hungary, but as he had promised to give me his assistance he
would not in future be worse than his word. I then desired him to send
immediately and countermand his orders; acordingly a young man was sent
for this purpose and I gave him a handkerchief to engage him in my
interest. this matter being arranged to my satisfaction I called all the
women and men together who had been assisting me in the transportation of
the baggage and gave them a billet for each horse which they had imployed
in that service and informed them when we arrived at the plaice where we
should finally halt on the river I would take the billet back and give
them merchandize for it. every one appeared now satisfyed and when I
ordered the horses loaded for our departure the Indians were more than
usually allert. we continued our march untill late in the evening and
encamped at the upper part of the cove where the creek enters the
mountains; here our hunters joined us with another deer which they had
killed, this I gave to the women and Children, and for my own part
remained supperless. I observed considerable quantities of wild onions in
the bottom lands of this cove. I also saw several large hares and many of
the cock of the plains.

Capt. Clark set out early this morning and continued his rout to the
indian camp at the entrance of fish Creek; here he halted about an hour;
the indians gave himself and party some boiled salmon and hurries. these
people appeared extreemly hospitable tho poor and dirty in the extreem. he
still pursued the track up the river by which he had decended and in the
evening arrived at the bluff on the river where he had encamped on the
21st Inst. it was late in the evening before he reached this place. they
formed their camp, and Capt. C. sent them in different directions to hunt
and fish. some little time after they halted a party of Indians passed by
on their way down the river, consisting of a man a woman and several boys;
from these people the guide obtained 2 salmon which together with some
small fish they caught and a beaver which Shannon killed furnished them
with a plentifull supper. the pine grows pretty abundantly high up on the
sides of the mountains on the opposite side of the river. one of the
hunters saw a large herd of Elk on the opposite side of the river in the
edge of the timbered land.Winsor was taken very sick today and
detained Capt C. very much on his march. three hunters whom he had sent on
before him this morning joined him in the evening having killed nothing;
they saw only one deer.

The course and the distances, of Capt. Clark’s rout down this branch of
the Columbia below this bluff, commencing opposite to an Island, are as
follow.

This morning while passing through the Shoshone cove Frazier fired his
musquet at some ducks in a little pond at the distance of about 60 yards
from me; the ball rebounded from the water and pased within a very few
feet of me. near the upper part of this cove the Shoshonees suffered a
very severe defeat by the Minnetares about six years since. this part of
the cove on the N. E. side of the Creek has lately been birned by the
Indians as a signal on some occasion.