Day-by-Day / September 14, 1803

September 14, 1803

Helpless sailors

In Marietta, two of the crew are so drunk that Lewis must assist them to the boat. Moving down the Ohio, Lewis’s dog, Seaman, catches squirrels swimming the river, and Lewis notes that many settlers suffer from malaria and ague.

Fevers and Ague

Peruvian Bark

Cinchona officinalis L.

photograph of various reddish barks from the Cinchona plant

By H. Zell who has licensed it under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.

The fever and ague and bilious fevers here commence their banefull oppression and continue through the whole course of the river with increasing violence as your approach it’s mouth—
—Meriwether Lewis

Cinchona officinalis L. was one of several species of South American trees that yielded “Peruvian” or “Jesuit’s” bark for the treatment of malaria—Lewis’s “fever and ague.” Malaria had significant consqequences on many travelers on the Ohio and lower Mississippi rivers. For Lewis, it may have been fatal.

Related: Mosquito Ills and Cures | The Botanical Medicines | Medicine on the Trail | The Last Journey of Meriwether Lewis

Drunken Sailors

Set out this morning at 11 oClock was prevented seting out earlyer in consequence of two of my men geting drunk and absenting themselves. I f[i]nally found them and had them brought on board, so drunk that they were unable to help themselves passed several riffles and lay all night on the N. W. shore—
—Meriwether Lewis

Related: Alcohol Rations

Also on this day . . .

Lewis’s dog, Seaman, hunts squirrels swimming across the river, likely the Eastern gray squirrel.

 

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.

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Discover More

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.

This page was funded in part by the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, U.S. National Park Service.

This site is provided as a public service by the
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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).