Posted on 08/18/2005 12:31:26 PM PDT by socal_parrot
Captain Meriwether Lewis, along with Captain William Clark and the Corps of Discovery had left St. Louis 15 months earlier. Under his leadership, the Corps had traveled further west than any other Americans. Lewis had catalogued hundreds of plants and animals that were previously unknown to science. They had forged trading compacts with several Indian tribes and while they did have some contentious meetings with the Indians, especially the Teton Sioux, they had not yet fired their weapons in anger. Days earlier, Lewis had led them to the source of the Missouri River and the Continental Divide. Using his medical training, the Corps had lost only one member, Sgt. Charles Floyd, due to a burst appendix. Still Captain Lewis felt he hadn’t accomplished enough.
Since reaching the headwaters of the Missouri River, the Corps had been looking for the Shoshone Indians. They new the Shoshone would have the horses they would need to cross the Bitterroot Mountains before winter hit. Lewis and Clark split their party in hope of finding the Indians. On August 13, 1805, Lewis party had found a band of Shoshone and while they were able to communicate with them through sign language, they had no luck negotiating for the horses. Lewis knew that when Clark found them, they might have better luck because of the fact the Shoshone woman they had brought with them from Fort Mandan, Sacagawea, would be able to communicate better with them.
The Shoshone were getting impatient. They wanted to start traveling to the plains in the east to hunt for Buffalo. Lewis continued to delay them. One of the tactics he employed was to tell them of the wonder of the black man, Clark’s slave York, they would see when the other party arrived. On August 17, Clark finally found them and one of the most fortuitous events in American history took place. Almost immediately, an old woman recognized Sacagawea as a girl who was kidnapped years earlier by the Hidasta tribe. The old woman brought the leader of the group Cameahwait to the group and he recognized Sacagawea as his lost sister. Because of the reunion Lewis and Clark were able to negotiate for the much needed horses. The Captains named their camp "Camp Fortunate".
The negotiations were accomplished through a lengthy translation chain. Lewis would relate his request in English to Private Francois LaBiche. LaBiche would then translate in French to Sacagawea’s husband Toussaint Charbonneau. Charbonneau would that speak to Sacagawea in Mandan/Hidasta. Finally, Sacagawea would translate to Cameahwait in Shoshone. This chain was repeated back and forth several times until, as Lewis recorded in his journal, he:
“obtained three very good horses. for which I gave an uniform coat, a pair of legings, a few handkerchiefs, three knives and some other small articles the whole of which did not cost more than about 20$ in the U' States. the Indians seemed quite as well pleased with their bargin as I was. the men also purchased one for an old checked shirt a pair of old legings and a knife.”
The Corps had obtained the horses they needed…and in the nick of time. The next day there was the first frost of the season and three days later, their drinking water was freezing over in the night.
On the evening after the negotiations, the night of his 31st birthday, Lewis wrote his now famous passage…
“This day I completed my thirty first year, and conceived that I had in all human probability now existed about half the period which I am to remain in this Sublunary world. I reflected that I had as yet done but little, very little, indeed, to further the hapiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. I viewed with regret the many hours I have spent in indolence, and now soarly feel the want of that information which those hours would have given me had they been judiciously expended. but since they are past and cannot be recalled, I dash from me the gloomy thought, and resolved in future, to redouble my exertions and at least indeavour to promote those two primary objects of human existence, by giving them the aid of that portion of talents which nature and fortune have bestoed on me; or in future, to live for mankind, as I have heretofore lived for myself.”
A few days later, the Corps left to cross the Bitterroots and then moved on to the Pacific Ocean.
My other threads about the Lewis and Clark bicentennial-
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau (Happy Birthday Pomp! 02/11/1805)
Sgt. Charles Floyd (RIP Aug. 20, 1804)
Lewis and Clark's List: Opium and 'Portable Soup'(May 14, 1804)
Other Free Republic Threads about the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial-
Lewis had to know the expedition so far had been a success. He had sent back hundreds of plant specimens, live animals, maps and Indian representatives to Jefferson from Fort Mandan in the spring. He knew that one of the reasons for his mission, a navigable water route to the Pacific Ocean was not going to be accomplished. They had found the Missouri’s source, a trickle of water coming from a spring, high in the Rockies. Maybe this was the reason for his self doubt. Or maybe it was due to a bought with depression or the fact that the whiskey and opium had been gone for some time.
Didn't he own a slave?............../Soledad O'Brian impersonation..........
I believe he did. As did most farmers of stature in Virginia at the time.
I mention the fact only because I remember the aformentioned Soledad O'Brainless has a habit of using that question whenever someone brings up a historical figure, like Jefferson or Washington..........
Yeah, I know. They try to make it trump any and all accomplishments. I can also hear them saying...
"Three horses for $20 and a shirt? Boy did they rip off the Indidans!"
I had no idea they carried whiskey and opium. Much less that it might have run out.
I take vicodin for pain (3-4 a day by prescription), and have the occasional bout of depression myself, which I attribute to the meds. It's strong stuff. I never mix it with alcohol, which is the fastest way to toxicity.
Perhaps, though, he simply suffered from intellectual giftedness, a topic I have come to understand recently as awfully debilitating. Perfectionism and low self esteem are typical in the gifted individual.
The first thing I noticed was his superior command of the language.
Happy 200th Birthday M. Lewis!
Is this the best book on the expedition?
Hey.
Great. Thanks.
I'll read the Ambrose.
Hey who is this Lewis N Clark you are talking about anyway? Didn't he sing back up for Lou Reed when he sang "You'll Never Find"?
Did I tell you I went to where Lewis and Clark met-up in Indiana prior to their stay in St. Louis? It was at George Clark's house. It is right outside Louisville, Kentucky (on the Indiana side of the Ohio river). They claim it is the official starting place of the Corps of Discovery.
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