In St. Louis, former Spanish Lt. Governor Dehault Delassus delivers a speech to several Indians informing them of the transfer of Upper Louisiana from Spain to the United States. Meriwether Lewis witnesses the event.
Bód-a-sin, Chief of the Tribe
George Catlin (1796-1872)
Oil on canvas, 29 x 24 in. (73.7 x 60.9 cm). Courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.274
Bód-a-sin, a Lenape Delaware, likely sat for Catlin at Fort Leavenworth in 1830.
Speech to the Indians
Delawares, Abenakis, Saquis and others:
Your old fathers, the Spaniards and the Frenchmen, who grasp by the hand your new father, the head chief of the United States, by an act of their good will, and in virtue of their last treaty, have delivered up all of these lands. The new father will keep and defend the lands and protect all of the white and red skins who live thereon. You will live as happily as if the Spaniard was still here.
I have informed your new father, who here takes my place, that since I have been here the Delawares, Shawnees and Saquis [Sauks] have always conducted themselves well; that I have always received them kindly; that the chiefs always restrained their young men as much as possible. I have recommended thee, Takinoea, as chief of the natives; that thou hast always labored much and well to maintain a sincere friendship with the whites and that, in consequence of thy good services, I recently present to thee a medal with the portrait of thy great father, the Spaniard, and letters patent reciting thy good and loyal services. For several days past we have fired off cannon shots that we may announce to all the nations your father, the Spaniard, is going, his heart happy to know that you will be protect and sustained by your new father, and that the smoke of the powder may ascend to the Master of Life, praying him to shower on you all a happy destiny and prosperity in always living in good union with the whites.
—Carlos Dehault Delassus[1]Walter B. Stevens, St. Louis: The Fourth City, 1764–1911 (St. Louis: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911), 288.
Weather Diary
Therm at rise
weather wind Therm at 4 Oclk weather wind River 22 above 0 fair N E 24 above 0 fair N E rise 1 ½ in. —Meriwether Lewis and William Clark[2]To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the date column, merged the “River” columns, and spelled out some abbreviations.
Experience the Lewis and Clark Trail
The Lewis and Clark Trail Experience—our sister site at lewisandclark.travel—connects the world to people and places on the Lewis and Clark Trail.
Plan a trip related to March 12, 1804:
- Winter Camp at Wood River (Camp Dubois)
- Along the Mississippi (Inspiration Trip)
- Around St. Louis (Inspiration Trip)
Winter Camp at Wood River (Camp Dubois) is a High Potential Historic Site along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail managed by the U.S. National Park Service. The site, near Hartford, Illinois, is managed as Lewis and Clark State Historic Site and is open to the public.
In present St. Louis, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial “commemorates Thomas Jefferson’s vision of the continental expansion of the United States” and is a High Potential Historic Site
