two, expressing himself sententiously with Doric simplicity and vigor of phrase, and often amusingly eccentric orthography; Lewis, in more correct diction, inclined to expatiate on details, especially with regard to Indians and natural history, and frequently revealing a poetic temperament and a considerable fund of humor.
In February, 1806, when the expedition was upon the Pacific Coast, President Jefferson sent to Congress a message inclosing, among other matters, a letter from Lewis dated at Fort Mandan (near the present Bismarck, N. Dak.) in the previous April, just as the explorers were leaving for the upper country. At that point the party had passed their first winter. The communication, describing the experiences of the expedition as far as Fort Mandan, was accompanied by brief reports of explorations on the Red and Washita rivers by Doctor Sibley, Doctor Hunter, and William C. Dunbar, together with statistics of the Western tribes and other data of the kind; the ill-assorted whole being promptly published as a public document.[1] Based upon this fragmentary publication, there soon sprung up, both in England arid America, a long list of popular compilations, telling the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition during its first year, expanded with miscellaneous information about the Western Indians, picked up here and there—some of it singularly inaccurate.
A year later (early in 1807), only a few months after
- ↑ Message from the President of the United States, communicating discoveries made in exploring the Missouri, Red River, and Washita, by Captains Lewis and Clark, Doctor Sibley, and Mr. Dunbar; with a statistical account of the countries adjacent (Washington, 1806).
The only gap in the Clark journals is the brief period from February 3 to 12 (inclusive), 1805 = 10 days.
Whether the missing Lewis entries (441 days, as compared with Clark; but we may eliminate 41 for the period when he was disabled, thus leaving 400) are still in existence or not, is unknown to the present writer. There appears to be no doubt that he regularly kept his diary. It is possible that the missing notes, in whole or in part, were with him when he met his death in Tennessee, and were either accidentally or purposely destroyed by others.
