This Operation Was Instantly Considered
`Great Medicine,' By Which They, As Well As The Other Indians,
Mean Something Emanating Directly From The Great Spirit, Or Produced
By His Invisible And Incomprehensible Agency.
.
. .
"After the council was over we consulted as to our future operations.
The game did not promise to last here for many days; and this circumstance
combined with many others to induce our going on as soon as possible.
Our Indian information as to the state of the Columbia was of a very alarming
kind; and our first object was, of course, to ascertain the practicability
of descending it, of which the Indians discouraged our expectations.
It was therefore agreed that Captain Clark should set off in the morning
with eleven men, furnished, besides their arms, with tools for making canoes:
that he should take Chaboneau and his wife to the camp of the Shoshonees,
where he was to leave them, in order to hasten the collection of horses;
that he should then lead his men down to the Columbia, and if be found
it navigable, and the timber in sufficient quantity, begin to build canoes.
As soon as he had decided as to the propriety of proceeding down the Columbia
or across the mountains, be was to send back one of the men with information
of it to Captain Lewis, who by that time would have brought up the whole
party, and the rest of the baggage, as far as the Shoshonee village.
Preparations were accordingly made at once to carry out the arrangement.
. . . . . . . . .
"In order to relieve the men of Captain Clark's party
from the heavy weight of their arms, provisions, and tools,
we exposed a few articles to barter for horses, and soon
obtained three very good ones, in exchange for which we gave
a uniform coat, a pair of leggings, a few handkerchiefs,
three knives, and some other small articles, the whole of which
did not, in the United States, cost more than twenty dollars;
a fourth was purchased by the men for an old checkered shirt,
a pair of old leggings, and a knife.
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