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[at-l] Clark's Lost Umbrella
Hello to all,
I was sent this information from a member of the Lewis & Clark Foundation
and found it very interesting. My county library doesn't offer these
volumes so I guess I'll have to purchase them one at a time. If they all
read as this excerpt I am excited. Talk about taking a journey. What a
journey these people took. Plus I like they way they spell and use grammar.
We must have gone to the same school just at a different time. :)
If anybody knows where I can get these volumes for a discount please advise me.
Sure hope all enjoy this excerpt as much as I did so here we go.
>As to your question: The event you refer to occurred on June 29th, 1805. I
>will first quote from Clark's journal, as published in Moulton, The Journals
>of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Volume 4, pp. 342-343. You can more
>readily find it in DeVoto, The Journals of Lewis and Clark, pp. 151-152.
>This latter is available in paper at any large book store for ten or fifteen
>dollars; the former is part of a 13-volume set and the single volume is
>probably around $60.
>
>The original spelling and punctuation are preserved; the single paragraph
>has been broken apart to make the reading a little easier..
>
>[Clark] June 29th Satturday 1805
>
>a little rain verry early this morning after Clear, finding that the Prarie
>was So wet as to render it impossible to pass on to the end of the portage,
>deturmined to Send back to the top of the hill at the Creek for the
>remaining part of the baggage left at that place yesterday, leaveing one man
>to take care of the baggage at this place. I deturmined my Self to proceed
>on to the falls and take the river, according we all Set out, I took my
>Servent & one man Chabono our Interpreter & his Squar accompanied,
>
>Soon after I arrived at the falls, I perceived a Cloud which appeared black
>and threaten imediate rain, I looked out for a Shelter but Could See no
>place without being in a great danger of being blown into the river if the
>wind Should prove as turbelant as it is at Some times about 1/4 of a mile
>above the falls I obsd [observed] a Deep rivein in which was Shelveing rocks
>under which we took Shelter near the river and placed our guns the Compass
>&c. &c. under a Shelveing rock on the upper Side of the Creek, in a place
>which was verry Secure from the rain,
>
>the first Shower was moderate accompanied with a violent wind, the effects
>of which we did not feel, Soon after a torrent of rain and hail fell more
>violent than ever I Saw before, the rain fell like one voley of water
>falling from the heavens and gave us time only to get out of the way of a
>torrent of water which was Poreing down the hill in the rivin with emence
>force tareing every thing before it takeing with it large rocks & mud, I
>took my gun & Shot pouch in my left hand, and with the right Scrambled up
>the hill pushing the Interpreters wife (who had her Child in her arms)
>before me, the Interpreter himself makeing attempts to pull up his wife by
>the hand much Scared and nearly without motion-- we at length retched the
>top of the hill Safe where I found my Servent in Serch of us greatly
>agitated, for our welfar--
>
>before I got out of the bottom of the revein which was a flat dry rock when
>I entered it, the water was up to my waste & wet my watch. I Scrcely got
>out before it raised 10 feet deep with a torrent which turrouble to behold,
>and by the time I reached the top of the hill, at least 15 feet water, I
>directed the party to return to the Camp at the run as fast as possible to
>get to our lode where Clothes Could be got to Cover the Child whose Clothes
>were all lost, and the woman who was but just recovering from a Severe
>indisposition, and was wet and cold, I was fearfull of a relaps I caused
>her as also the others of the party to take a little Spirits, which my
>Servent had in a Canteen, which revived verry much.
>
>on arrival at the Camp on the willow run--met the party who had returned in
>great Confusion to the run leaveing their loads in the Plain, the hail &
>wind being So large and violent in the plains, and them naked, they were
>much brused, and Some nearly killed one knocked down three times, and others
>without hats or any thing on their heads bloodey & Complained verry much; I
>refreshed them with a little grog-- Soon after the run began to rise and
>rose 6 feet in a few minits--.
>
>I lost at the river in the torrent the large Compas, an eligant fusee,
>Tomahawk Humbrello [umbrella], Shot pouh, & horn wih powder & Ball,
>mockersons, & the woman lost her Childs Bear [bier: cradleboard] & Clothes
>bedding &c.-- The Compass is a Serious loss; as we have no other large one.
>
>The plains are So wet that we Can do nothing this evining particilarly as
>two deep reveins are between ourselves &Load
>
>* * * * *
>
>On the next day, Clark reports the following:
>
>[Clark] June 30th Sunday 1805.
>
>...The two men dispatched in Serch of the articls lost yesterday returned
>and brought the Compass which they found in the mud & Stones near the mouth
>of the revein, no other articles found, the place I sheltered under filled
>up with hugh Rocks...Great numbers of Buffalow in every direction, I think
>10,000 may be Seen in a view.
>
>Patrick Gass, in his 1807 publication of his own journals, describes the
>events from his vantage point elsewhere on the 18-mile portage:
>
>Saturday 29th. We had a very hard gust of wind and rain in the morning;
>but a fine forenoon after it. Captain Lewis and a hunter went down the
>river about 7 miles, to see a very large spring which rises out of the bank
>of the Missouri on the south side. In the afternoon there was another heavy
>shower of rain, and after it a fine evening. Captain Lewis came to camp,
>but drenched with rain.
>
>Monday 1st July, 1805. A fine day. In the afternoon, Captain Clarke and
>the men came with all the baggage except some they had left six miles back.
>The hail that fell on the 27th [Gass may be referring to the 29th] hurt some
>of the men very badly. Captain Clarke, the interpreter, and the squaw and
>child, had gone to see the spring at the falls; and when the storm began,
>they took shelter under a bank at the mouth of a run; but in five minutes
>there was seven feet water in the run and they were very near being swept
>away. They lost a gun, an umbrella and Surveyor's compass, and barely
>escaped with their lives.
>
>Tuesday 2nd. [Gass may have still been two days off on his dates] A fine
>morning. The Surveyer's compass, which had been lost was found today...
>
>Lewis also preserved Clark's account of the violent storm. His entry for
>June 29th goes on nearly three times the length of Clark's and is
>substantially more literary although it is not a first-person account. He
>ends with the droll statement: "Capt. C. gave the party a dram to console
>them in some measure for their general defeat."
>
>I hope this is helpful to you. Jim Ronda, a Lewis and Clark scholar who
>wrote *Lewis and Clark among the Indians*, noted last summer that William
>Clark was the first person to use in umbrella in the state of
>Montana--another of the firsts for Lewis and Clark.
>
>I hope you will consider joining the Foundation. There is more information
>on the web site at http://www.lewisandclark.org
I didn't post this for the purpose of rekindling the "U" thing, it was mainly
to pass on an exciting challenge a group of people took upon themselves
almost 200 years ago. Try and imagine what it was like to enter land few if
any before had traveled. No planned re-supplys, no mail, NO E-MAIL and just
what you could carry on your back.
Now look at us today. We have so much to assist us to make our journey more
pleasuable and successfull. Then again in their day they had the best that
was offered to make their journey pleasurable and successfull. So who had
it better? You decide.
Take care,
John
John O E-mail johno@mail.monmouth
Brick, New Jersey
60 miles north of Atlantic City 60 miles south of New York City
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