The Indians Seemed To Be
Quite As Well Pleased As Ourselves At The Bargain They Had Made.
We Now Found
That the two inferior chiefs were somewhat displeased
at not having received a present equal to that given to the
Great chief, who appeared in a dress so much finer than their own.
To allay their discontent, we bestowed on them two old coats,
and promised them if they were active in assisting us across
the mountains they should have an additional present.
This treatment completely reconciled them, and the whole
Indian party, except two men and two women, set out in perfect
good humor to return to their home with Captain Clark."
Chapter XIV
Across the Great Divide
Captain Clark had now left the water-shed of the Missouri behind him,
and was pressing on, over a broken, hilly country, to the lands
from which issue the tributaries of the Columbia. The Indian village
which Captain Lewis had previously visited had been removed two miles up
the stream on which it was situated, and was reached by Clark on August 20.
The party was very ceremoniously received by Chief Cameahwait, and all hands
began to explain to the white men the difficulties of the situation.
How to transport the canoes and baggage over the mountains to some
navigable stream leading into the Columbia was now the serious problem.
The Indian chief and his old men dwelt on the obstacles in the way
and argued that it was too late in the season to make the attempt.
They even urged the white men to stay with them until another spring,
when Indian guides would be furnished them to proceed on
their journey westward.
On the twenty-first, Clark passed the junction of two streams, the Salmon
and the Lemhi, which is now the site of Salmon City, Idaho. As Captain Lewis
was the first white man who had seen these waters, Clark gave to the combined
water-course the name of Lewis' River. The mountains here assumed
a formidable aspect, and the stream was too narrow, rapid, and rock-bound
to admit of navigation. The journal says of Captain Clark: -
He soon began to perceive that the Indian accounts had not
been exaggerated. At the distance of a mile he passed a small creek
[on the right], and the points of four mountains, which were rocky,
and so high that it seemed almost impossible to cross them with horses.
The road lay over the sharp fragments of rocks which had fallen
from the mountains, and were strewed in heaps for miles together;
yet the horses, altogether unshod, travelled across them as fast
as the men, without detaining them a moment. They passed two
bold running streams, and reached the entrance of a small river,
where a few Indian families resided, who had not been previously
acquainted with the arrival of the whites; the guide was behind,
and the woods were so thick that we came upon them unobserved,
till at a very short distance.
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