May 14, 1804

    We have ventured off on our journey.  I’m not quite sure how long it’s going to take.  I am guessing 2 to 3 years because I have to find a path to the Pacific Ocean and explore the uncharted West.  I’m nervous yet excited.  It will be a great journey.  Some of the supplies we’ve brought:

• surveyor’s compass
• hand compass
• quadrants
• telescope
• thermometers
• 2 sextants
• set of plotting instruments
• chronometer (needed to calculate longitude)

Camp Supplies:

• 150 yards of cloth to be oiled and sewn into tents and sheets
• pliers
• chisels
• 30 steels for striking to make fire
• handsaws
• hatchets
• whetstones
• iron corn mill
• two dozen tablespoons
• mosquito curtains
• 10 1/2 pounds of fishing hooks and fishing lines
• 12 pounds of soap
• 193 pounds of "portable soup" (a thick paste concocted by boiling down beef, eggs and vegetables)
• three bushels of salt
• writing paper, ink and crayons

Presents for Indians:

• 12 dozen pocket mirrors
• 4,600 sewing needles
• 144 small scissors
• 10 pounds of sewing thread
• silk ribbons
• ivory combs
• handkerchiefs
• yards of bright-colored cloth
• 130 rolls of tobacco
• tomahawks that doubled as pipes
• 288 knives
• 8 brass kettles
• vermilion face paint
• 33 pounds of tiny beads of assorted colors

Clothing:

• 45 flannel shirts
• coats
• frocks
• shoes
• woolen pants
• blankets
• knapsacks
• stockings

Arms and Ammunition:

• 15 prototype Model 1803 muzzle-loading .54 caliber rifles
• knives
• 500 rifle flints
• 420 pounds of sheet lead for bullets
• 176 pounds of gunpowder packed in 52 lead canisters
• 1 long-barreled rifle that fired its bullet with compressed air, rather than by flint, spark and powder

Medicine and Medical Supplies:

• 50 dozen Dr. Rush’s patented "Rush’s pills"
• lancets
• forceps
• syringes
• tourniquets
• 1,300 doses of physic
• 1,100 hundred doses of emetic
• 3,500 doses of diaphoretic (sweat inducer)
• other drugs for blistering, salivation and increased kidney output

Traveling Library:

• Barton’s Elements of Botany
• Antoine Simon Le Page du Pratz’s History of Louisiana
• Richard Kirwan’s Elements of Mineralogy
• A Practical Introduction to Spherics and Nautical Astronomy
• The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris
• a four-volume dictionary
• a two-volume edition of Linnaeus (the founder of the Latin classification of plants)
• tables for finding longitude and latitude
• map of the Great Bend of the Missouri River

           My crew is made up of men who are loyal, hardworking, trustworthy and have different skills.  We have John Ordway, who will be keeping a journal as Clark and I will, we have Indian Affairs people, topographers, botanists, zoologists, York, and Seaman, our dog.                         

                                                Captain Lewis

May 15, 1804

     We’re still headed down the Missouri River.  The wind is blowing in our faces and every once in a while it sends a chill down my spine, almost as if someone was tickling my back.  I haven’t seen much wildlife besides a few sparrows and a fox.  I’m hoping I’ll see more.  Right now, I’m sitting on the bow of the boat.  Oh, as we speak, I see a deer taking a big drink of water.  It’s a male, a buck.  I bet it’s close to dinner.  I feel grumbling in my stomach.   It is time to go to shore and find a place to settle for the evening.  The crew is tired.  We have been traveling in the keelboat and have people in the two smaller pirogues.  Time to camp.

                                       Captain Lewis   

May 19, 1804

    Good day!  I’m having a great day.  I saw a deer, a squirrel, a mother moose with her baby, and a miraculous bird.  I named it Lewis’s woodpecker.   I thought the name was very appropriate!  Clark and I are still on the Missouri.  To tell you the truth, I’m very excited and anxious to see what were going to find in the unknown West!  Though I’m not quite sure what were going to face, I think of it as a great journey!  I love a great journey!  We’re on our sixth day of the expedition.  I love the study of zoology because I love animals.  I’m really hoping to see an elk, but that’s not the only thing I want to see.  I want to discover new animals and species.  It will be exciting!  I have to be going now.
                                  Captain Lewis

May 31, 1804

    Wonderful day for some zoology, ay!  Well, I think so! Today Clark and I saw some astounding animals.  We saw Lewis’s woodpecker, and Clark’s crow, which are two wonderful little birds.  That’s not all.  We saw bison, white salmon trout, and eulachon, which is a new fish that we discovered.  This fish has many bright colors. 

                                   Captain Lewis

July 4,1804

    Well, we had the first Fourth of July celebration.  We had it west of the Mississippi River.  We celebrated by firing one of the keelboat’s cannons, drinking extra whiskey, and finished up by naming the creek Independence Creek.  It was totally astonishing, basically it was a great celebration.

                                      Captain Lewis

September 24, 1806

    We’ve arrived home!  It feels great to be home.  I saw my wife!  We are home now. A part of me is so glad yet another is a bit sad that the expedition is finished.  Clark and I had a wonderful journey.  I had a great time with Clark.  We’re still friends even though the journey is done.  I’m so glad I got the opportunity to go on this journey as it’s taught me so much.    I am so grateful to be home.  I thank president Thomas Jefferson for the opportunity.  It is truly an honor. 

       I will always remember Sacagewea, our Shoshone Indian guide.  She, her husband Charbonneau, and her baby, were with us for a good part of the journey.   I will always remember helping deliver Jean Baptiste.  When Sacagewea was in great pain, I gave her a potion made by crushing the rings of a rattlesnake’s rattle into powder.  She helped many times, even saving the lives of our Corps from danger …from Indians and the river.         I will also remember when the Mandans performed their sacred buffalo calling ceremony.  A few days later, a herd of buffalo showed up.  It seemed like magic.

       We made it to the Pacific Ocean and back.  We felt great joy when we viewed the water crashing against the rocks.  We saw water that was so crystal clear.

       To my wonderful partner, Captain William Clark, I thank you.  We really did what we hoped we would.  It was an honor to have you on my crew.  I thank you all.

                                  Sincerely,

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