At winter camp across from the mouth of the Missouri, the barge and a pirogue are taken for a shakedown cruise a few miles up the Mississippi. In New Orleans, the former governor of Spanish Louisiana urges his Commandant General to arrest Meriwether Lewis.
The White Pirogue Under Sail
20″ x 30″ oil on canvas
© 2009 by Charles Fritz. Used by permission.
Shakedown Cruise
Load the Boat & one perogue to Day. Verry hot day, after Loading the Boat maned her with 20 oares & went the middle of the river & up the Mississippi a fiew miles, took the different Courses of the rivrs in the point,
—William Clark
Spanish Hurry to Arrest Lewis
[8 May 1804]
Most Excellent Sir:
. . . . .
I sent a party of Comanche Indians or others of those who are affected to us to reconnoitre the country as far as the banks of the Missouri river in order to examine if the expedition of Merry has penetrated into these territories . . . .
[Enclosure with the above:]
This step on the part of the United States . . . ; its haste to instruct itself and to explore the course of the Missouri whose origins they claim belongs to them . . . forces us necessarily to become active and to . . . preserve undamaged [intact] the dominions of the King and to prevent ruin and destruction of the Provincias Internas and of the Kingdom of New Spain.
The only means which present itself is to arrest Captain Merry Weather and his party, which cannot help but pass through the nations neighboring New Mexico . . . .
May God keep Your Excellency many years.
Most Excellent Sir
Nemesio Salcedo[1]Juan Manuel de Salcedo to Pedro Cevallos, New Orleans, May 8, 1804 in Before Lewis and Clark: Documents Illustrating the History of the Missouri 1785–1804, ed. A. P. Nasatir, Bison Books edition. … Continue reading
Weather Diary
Thermometer at rise
Weather Wind at Thermometer at 4 oCk. P.M. Weather Wind at 4 oCk. P.M River 52 above fair N. E 70 above fair S W fall 4 in. —Meriwether Lewis[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.
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.
Notes
| ↑1 | Juan Manuel de Salcedo to Pedro Cevallos, New Orleans, May 8, 1804 in Before Lewis and Clark: Documents Illustrating the History of the Missouri 1785–1804, ed. A. P. Nasatir, Bison Books edition. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990), 730–32. |
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| ↑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. |
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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.
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.
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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).