They had ample
letters of credit from the Government at Washington, and if they had met
with white traders on the seacoast, they could have bought anything that
money would buy. They had spent nearly all their stock in coming across
the continent. This is Captain Lewis's summary of the goods on hand just
before leaving Fort Clatsop:--
"All the small merchandise we possess might be tied up in a couple
of handkerchiefs. The rest of our stock in trade consists of six blue
robes, one scarlet ditto, five robes which we made out of our large
United States flag, a few old clothes trimmed with ribbons, and one
artillerist's uniform coat and hat, which probably Captain Clark will
never wear again. We have to depend entirely upon this meagre outfit for
the purchase of such horses and provisions as it will be in our power to
obtain--a scant dependence, indeed, for such a journey as is before us."
One of their last acts was to draw up a full list of the members of
the party, and, making several copies of it, to leave these among the
friendly Indians with instructions to give a paper to the first white
men who should arrive in the country. On the back of the paper was
traced the track by which the explorers had come and that by which
they expected to return. This is a copy of one of these important
documents:--
"The object of this list is, that through the medium of some civilized
person who may see the same, it may be made known to the informed
world, that the party consisting of the persons whose names are hereunto
annexed, and who were sent out by the government of the U'States in May,
1804, to explore the interior of the Continent of North America, did
penetrate the same by way of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, to the
discharge of the latter into the Pacific Ocean, where they arrived on
the 14th of November, 1805, and from whence they departed the 23d day of
March, 1806, on their return to the United States by the same rout they
had come out.
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