Meriwether Lewis anxiously awaits completion of the barge so that he can head down the Ohio River. At the Falls of the Ohio, William Clark writes Lewis to tell him that the best interpreters, hunters, and boatmen can be hired at St. Louis and Cahokia.
Final Inspection
Watercolor by Steve Ludeman
© 2023 by Steve Ludeman, www.steveludemanfineart.com. Used by permission.
Above: Seaman watches Captain Lewis and the boat builder discuss the completion of the military barge. The final inspection would not come until 7:00am on 31 August 1803. See Building the Barge.
Louisville August 21st 1803.
Dr. Lewis
Am happy to find you are at Pittsburgh and that all the articles furnished yr. outfit have arrived at that place. The low water will retard your progress.
The young men that I have engaged or rather promised to take on this experdition are (four &c) the best woodsmen & Hunters . . . . A judicious choice of our party is of the greatest importance to the success of this vast enterprise . . . .
I know one or two Dellaways [Lenape Delawares] prime hunters which might be got to go . . . . I do not think we shall find much dificuelty in precureing the best Interpreters at St. Louey or Kohokoha as also prime water men if they should be necessary.
I shall write you next post &c.
W. C.[1]Clark to Lewis in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., ed. Donald Jackson (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 117–18.
Notes
| ↑1 | Clark to Lewis in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., ed. Donald Jackson (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 117–18. |
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- 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.
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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).