There was also a want of meat, for no buffalo were to be found; and though elk are very abundant, yet their fat and flesh is more difficult to dry in the sun, and is also much more easily spoiled than the meat or fat of either deer or buffalo.
"Captain Clark therefore determined to go on to some spot which should be free from mosquitoes and furnish more game. Having written a note to Captain Lewis, to inform him of his intention, and stuck it on a pole at the confluence of the two rivers, he loaded the canoes at five in the afternoon, proceeded down the river to the second point, and camped on a sand-bar; but here the mosquitoes seemed to be even more numerous than above.
The face of the Indian child was considerably puffed up and swollen with their bites; the men could procure scarcely any sleep during the night, and the insects continued to harass them next morning, as they proceeded.
On one occasion Captain Clark went on shore and ascended a hill after one of the bighorns; but the mosquitoes were in such multitudes that he could not keep them from the barrel of his rifle long enough to take aim.
About ten o'clock, however, a light breeze sprung up from the northwest, and dispersed them in some degree. Captain Clark then landed on a sand-bar, intending to wait for Captain Lewis, and went out to hunt.
But not finding any buffalo, he again proceeded in the afternoon; and having killed a large white bear, camped under a high bluff exposed to a light breeze from the southwest, which blew away the mosquitoes.
About eleven o'clock, however, the wind became very high and a storm of rain came on, which lasted for two hours, accompanied with sharp lightning and loud peals of thunder.
"The party rose, next day, very wet, and proceeded to a sand-bar below the entrance of Whiteearth River. Just above this place the Indians, apparently within seven, or eight days past, had been digging a root which they employ in ****** a kind of soup. Having fixed their tents, the men were employed in dressing skins and hunting.
They shot a number of deer; but only two of them were fat, owing probably to the great quantities of mosquitoes which annoy them while feeding."
On the eleventh of August the Clark party came up with the two white traders from Illinois, of whom we have already made mention as having been met by the Lewis party on their way down the river.
These were the first white men they had seen (except themselves) since they parted with the three French trappers, near the Little Missouri, in April, 1805, From them the wayworn voyagers received the latest news from the United States. From them they also had some unfavorable tidings.
The journal says:--"These men had met the boat which we had despatched from Fort Mandan, on board of which, they were told, was a Ricara chief on his way to Washington; and also another party of Yankton chiefs, accompanying Mr. Durion on a visit of the same kind. We were sorry to learn that the Mandans and Minnetarees were at war with the Ricaras, and had killed two of them.
The Assiniboins too are at war with the Mandans. They have, in consequence, prohibited the Northwestern Company from trading to the Missouri, and even killed two of their traders near Mouse River; they are now lying in wait for Mr. McKenzie of the Northwestern Company, who has been for a long time among the Minnetarees. These appearances are rather unfavorable to our project of carrying some of the chiefs to the United States; but we still hope that, by effecting a peace between the Mandans, Minnetarees, and Ricaras, the views of our Government may be accomplished."
Next day, August 12, 1806, the party, slowly descending the river, were overjoyed to see below them the little flotilla of Captain Lewis and his men.
But they were alarmed when they discovered that Lewis was not with them; as the boats landed at the shore, the captain was not to be seen.
Captain Clark's party, on coming up with their friends, were told that Lewis was lying in the pirogue, having been accidentally wounded.
The whole party were now happily reunited, and they were soon joined by the two Illinois traders whom they had met up the river; these men wished to accompany the expedition down the river as far as the Mandan nation, for the purpose of trading; they were more secure with a large party of white men than they would be if left to themselves.