Lewis: June 9, 1806
The party tried to swap several horses with sore backs but only managed one trade. Chiefs Hohastillpilp and Broken Arm departed to join their nation gathering on Lewis's River, while Cutnose rode out and returned with two young grey eagles he planned to raise for feathers. Another young chief arrived to camp overnight. Out of meat, the men ate only roots but stayed cheerful, racing and playing games in eager anticipation of heading home. The falling river suggested mountain snows were melting, though Lewis judged the trail still too wet and steep to risk leaving yet.
Monday June 9th 1806. This morning we had all our horses brought up and
indeavoured to exchange five or shix with the Indians in consequence of
their having unsound backs but succeeded in exchanging one only.
Hohastillpilp with several of the natives who visited us yesterday took
leave of us and set out for the plains near Lewis’s river where the nation
are about to assemble themselves. The broken arm made us a short visit
this morning and took leave of us, being about to set out with his village
today in order to join the nation at their rendezvouz on Lewis’s R. The
Cutnose or Neeshneeparkkeeook borrowed a horse and rode down the
Kooskooske River a few miles this morning in quest of some young eagles
which he intends raising for the benifit of their feathers; he returned
soon after with a pair of young Eagles of the grey kind; they were nearly
grown and prety well feathered. in the evening the young Chief who gave
both Capt. C. and myself a horse some time since, came to our camp with a
party of young men and remained all night. this evening one of our party
obtained a very good horse for an indifferent one by giving the indian an
old leather shirt in addition. we eat the last of our meat yesterday
evening and have lived on roots today. our party seem much elated with the
idea of moving on towards their friends and country, they all seem allirt
in their movements today; they have every thing in readiness for a move,
and notwithstanding the want of provision have been amusing themselves
very merrily today in runing footraces pitching quites, prison basse &c.
the river has been falling for several days and is now lower by near six
feet than it has been; this we view as a strong evidence that the great
body of snow has left the mountains, though I do not conceive that we are
as yet loosing any time as the roads is in many parts extreemly steep
rocky and must be dangerous if wet and slippry; a few days will dry the
roads and will also improve the grass.
Read this entry in modern English AI-translated
Monday, June 9th, 1806. This morning we had all our horses brought up and tried to exchange five or six of them with the Indians because they had sore backs, but we succeeded in exchanging only one. Hohastillpilp, along with several of the natives who visited us yesterday, took leave of us and set out for the plains near Lewis's River, where the nation is about to assemble. The Broken Arm paid us a short visit this morning and took leave of us, as he was about to set out with his village today in order to join the nation at their rendezvous on Lewis's River. The Cutnose, or Neeshneeparkkeeook, borrowed a horse and rode down the Kooskooske River a few miles this morning in search of some young eagles, which he intends to raise for the benefit of their feathers. He returned soon after with a pair of young eagles of the grey kind; they were nearly grown and pretty well feathered.
In the evening, the young chief who gave both Capt. C. (Capt. Clark) and myself a horse some time ago came to our camp with a party of young men and stayed all night. This evening one of our party obtained a very good horse in exchange for an indifferent one by giving the Indian an old leather shirt in addition. We ate the last of our meat yesterday evening and have lived on roots today. Our party seems much elated at the idea of moving on toward their friends and country; they all seem alert in their movements today. They have everything in readiness for a move, and despite the lack of provisions, they have been amusing themselves very merrily today by running footraces, pitching quoits, playing prison base, etc.
The river has been falling for several days and is now lower by nearly six feet than it has been. We view this as strong evidence that the great body of snow has left the mountains, though I do not believe that we are losing any time yet, as the road is in many places extremely steep and rocky, and must be dangerous if wet and slippery. A few days will dry the roads and will also improve the grass.
This modernization is AI-generated for accessibility. The original above is the authoritative version.
Entities mentioned in this entry
Auto-extracted from the entry text. Hover any entity for context.
