Potential new member Dr. Patterson fails to appear, so at 3:00 pm Lewis decides to leave Wheeling without him. He says goodbye to fellow river traveler Thomas Rodney and heads down the Ohio. During the night, it rains so hard that he is unable to keep the cargo dry.
Our Barge at Rest
10″ x 6″ oil on board
© 2009 by Charles Fritz. Used by permission. Originally titled “Our Keelboat at Rest.”
Waiting for the Doctor
The Dr. could not get ready I waited untill thre this evening and then set out had some difficulty in geting over a riffle one mile below the town, got on six miles and brought too
—Meriwether Lewis
Rodney Bids Farewell
Just after diner Captain Lewis called on me to bid me farewell. The Major, Shields, and I went down and took a parting drink and part of a water Mellon on board his boat and then bid him adieu and stayed on shore to see him depart, and I waited till I saw him over the first ripple.
—Thomas Rodney[1]9 September 1803. Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), … Continue reading
Rodney Predicts Delays
Captain Lewes is a stout young man but not so robust as to look able to fully accomplish the object of his mission, nor does he seem to set out in the manner that promises a fulfilment of it. He sits out in a vessel 56 feet long and completely equipped with sails and 18 oars, with as many soldiers and riverman as are necessary to man her . . . . His vessel fitted with very nice and comfortable accommodations with great stores of baggage and cargo so that she draws 2½ feet water and will be very heavy to go up against the stream of the Misisipi and other rivers. This will be the cause of great delay . . . .
—Thomas Rodney[2]Ibid., 52.
Notes
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.
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
Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance
with cooperation and funding from the following organizations:
- Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
- Montana Committee for the Humanities
- Idaho Governor's Lewis and Clark Trail Committee
- The Capital Gallery (Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Foundation)
- Yellowstone Public Radio
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).