Canoe Camp on Clearwater River — John Ordway: September 30, 1805
On a fair morning, the expedition continued working with the canoes, but the party was so weakened that progress was slow. Toward evening, the hunters returned, with one having killed a deer and a pheasant. This entry marks the close of the first section of Ordway's journal, originally found among the Biddle family papers in 1913. The section ended with tables of distances and latitudes between the Missouri's mouth, Fort Mandan, and the Pacific, compiled from information provided by Captains Lewis and Clark.
fair morning, we continued on with the work, the party so
weak that we git along Slow with the canoes, towards evening
our hunters returned one of them had killed a deer and a pheas-
ant.1
1 The entry for September 30 is the last in the first section of Ordway’s
journal — the portion first discovered among the Biddle family papers in the
autumn of 1913. At the end of this section of the narrative journal, occurs
three tables; one of distances of various points, chiefly river mouths, from the
mouth of the Missouri to Fort Mandan; another of distances from the head of
the Missouri to the Pacific; and a third of latitudes of “Different remarkable
places,” between the mouth of the Missouri and Fort Mandan. Since Ord-
way obviously depended on the captains for this information, and since it is
given in much greater detail in the Thwaitcs edition (Vol. VI) of the journals,
it is not included here. The initial entry in the first of the two smaller volumes
of the journal is for October 1. 1805. Preceding it is the following preface:
“Serg* Ordways Journal Commencing the first Oc* 1805
“It being a minute relation of the various transactions and occurrences which
took place during a voiage of two years 4 months and 9 days from the United
States to the Pacific Ocean through the interior of the continent of North America.
“A Seatch of the begining of Serg* John Ordways journal which commenced
at River Duboise in the Year 1801, 1 1th of May under the directions of Cap1
Meriwether Lewis and Cap1 William Clark, and patronised by the Government
of the U. States. The individuals who composed the party engaged to essay
the. difficulties dangers & fatigues of this enterprise with the said officers; consists
of the persons whose Names are in the later part of this book as well as the
begining as above, not bein room here. So all that is on each Side of this
leaf is coppied in the later end of this book and this is no account.”
1805] SERGEANT ORDWAY’S JOURNAL 293
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Fair morning. We continued on with the work. The party was so weak that we got along slowly with the canoes. Towards evening our hunters returned; one of them had killed a deer and a pheasant.
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