November 2, 1806

Clark on the Buffalo Trace

As a soldier in Hardin’s 1789 campaign, William Clark wrote of his company’s trek along the Buffalo Trace. At present French Lick, Indiana, his company encountered several buffalo:

22 Day we went up white River a few miles and left the River— went Through Indifrant Land and camped within 3 miles of the big Bufaloe Lick

32. D [23rd] . . . we arrived at the Lick we there Saw about 40 Bufaloes we killd one The Lick appears to be the best I ever Saw it is large and a fine fresh water and salt water springs running with in a few yards of each other a large Creek running close to the Lick the Lands about this Lick was better there
—William Clark^[2]Journal of Hardin’s Campaign, 5 Aug 1789–5 Mar 1790, William Clark Papers, Missouri Historical Society.

For more on Lewis and Clark’s military careers prior to the expedition, see Prior Military Careers.
Also related: The American Buffalo

News Reaches China

Canton, January, 1807.

I wrote you last by the Governor Strong, Cleveland, for Boston; the present is by the brig Lydia Hill, of the same place.

Captain Hill, while on the coast, met some Indian natives near the mouth of the Columbia river, who delivered to him a paper, of which I enclose you a copy. It had been committed to their charge by Captains Clarke and Lewis, who had penetrated to the Pacific ocean. The original is a rough draft with a pen of their outward route, and that which they intended returning by. Just below the junction of Madison’s river, they found an immense fall of three hundred and sixty-two feet perpendicular. This, I believe, exceeds in magnitude any other known. From the natives Captain Hill learned that they were all in good health and spirits; had met many difficulties on their progress, from various tribes of Indians, but had found them about the sources of the Missouri very friendly, as were those on Columbia river and the coast.^[3]Nicholas Biddle, History of the Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark, 1804-5-6, James Hosmer, ed. (Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1917), 2:216–217, … Continue reading

In the above extract, both the author and recipient remain anonymous. Nevertheless, the story is plausible as the Lydia had visited the mouth of the Columbia the previous summer, and the captains had distributed copies of the 18 March 1806 notice among the local villages with instructions to show them to any visiting ships. Despite some lingering doubts about the letter’s factualness, the connection between Hill’s Lydia and the expedition “has been part of the Expedition’s literature almost from the beginning”. See Arlen Large, The Empty Anchorage.

News Sent to England

Anthony Merry writes to Charles James Fox saying that the two captains are due to arrive in Washington with:

the journals of their interesting Travels, which will, I understand, be communicated to the Public as soon as possible.^[4]“Anthony Merry to Charles James Fox, November 2, 1806”, Public Record Office, F05, Vol. 49, pp. 215-221.

For Britain’s reactions to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, see “Lewis and Clark’s American Travels: The View from Britain”, We Proceeded On 35 no. 1 (May 2009), p. 7–15, lewisandclark.org/wpo/pdf/vol35no2.pdf#page=7.