Day-by-Day

December 7, 1803

Cahokia arrivals

Memorial Archive Originally published at lewis-clark.org. Authored by Robert Heacock (1957–2025); preserved here with permission of his family. Read the original →

Meeting Hay and Jarrot

Cahokia, December 19th 1803

I arrived at Cahokia on the 7th and immediately took occasion to make myself acquainted with Mr. John Hay (The Post Master of this place) and a Mr. Jarrot, in whom from previous information I had every confidence; both these Gentleman are well acquainted with the English & French languages, a necessary qualification to enable them to be serviceable on the present occasion as the Spanish Commandant cannot speak the English Language, and I am unfortunately equally ignorant of that of the French—

MERIWETHER LEWIS Capt.
1st U.S. Regt. Infty.[2]Lewis to Jefferson, Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 145.

Delassus Stops Lewis

The 7th of this month Mr. Merryweather Lewis, Captain of the United States army and former secretary of the President of them presented himself at this post.

. . . his intention was to continue his trip penetrating the Missouri in order to fulfill his mission of discoveries and observations. I have hinted to him that my orders did not permit me to consent to his passing to enter the Missouri River and that I was opposing it in the name of the King, my master.

. . . in view of my proposition has agreed to wait for Your Excellencies’ determination and he is going to spend the winter on the Dubois River.

May God keep Your Excellencies many years.

St. Louis, Illinois, December 9, 1803

Carlos Dehault Delassus

Señores Brigadiers of the Royal Armies
Don J. Manuel de Salcedo and Marqués de Casa Calvo.[3]Delassus to Salcedo and Casa Calvo, St. Louis, 9 December 1803 in Before Lewis and Clark: Documents Illustrating the History of the Missouri 1785–1804, ed. A. P. Nasatir, Bison Books edition. … Continue reading

Related: Spanish Opposition

Violent Winds

about 10 oClock the wind changed to the S, E, and gave us an oppertunity to Sailing passd an Island on the Starbd Side, at 12 oClock the wind was So violent as to take off one of the Mast’s
—William Clark

Related: Weather Observations

Cahokia Landing

I came to at 3 oClock at the Kohokia Landing, which is at the mouth of Kohokia Creek ¾ of a mile from the Town, and in view of St Louis which is about 2½ miles distant.
—William Clark

The barge (called boat, barge, and bateau but never keelboat) and pirogues had wooden masts but Clark does not say which boat suffered the broken mast.

 
logo: Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
logo: National Park Service

Old Cahokia Courthouse is a High Potential Historic Site along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail managed by the U.S. National Park Service. The site is managed by the State of Illinois and is open to the public.

Notes

Notes
↑1 According to Delassus, Lewis arrived in Cahokia on 6 December and visited him in St. Louis 7 December. Lewis’s dates—given in a letter on 19 December—differ slightly.
↑2 Lewis to Jefferson, Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 145.
↑3 Delassus to Salcedo and Casa Calvo, St. Louis, 9 December 1803 in Before Lewis and Clark: Documents Illustrating the History of the Missouri 1785–1804, ed. A. P. Nasatir, Bison Books edition. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990), 719–20.

About this archive. Robert Heacock contributed extensively to the Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation's lewis-clark.org. After his passing in July 2025, this database has preserved his writings as a memorial archive. The original article remains the canonical source: https://lewis-clark.org/day-by-day/7-dec-1803/.

See more of Robert's work: Robert Heacock contributor page · All Heacock writings.

Our Partners