They landed
to greet us, and after turning our horses loose, we embarked with our
baggage, and went down to the spot where we had made a deposite. This,
after reconnoitring the adjacent country, we opened; but, unfortunately,
the cache had caved in, and most of the articles were injured. We took
whatever was still worth preserving, and immediately proceeded to the
point, where we found our deposits in good order. By a singular good
fortune, we were here joined by Sergeant Gass and Willard from the
Falls, who had been ordered to come with the horses here to assist in
procuring meat for the voyage, as it had been calculated that the canoes
would reach this place much sooner than Captain Lewis's party. After a
very heavy shower of rain and hail, attended with violent thunder and
lightning, we started from the point, and giving a final discharge to
our horses, went over to the island where we had left our red pirogue,
which, however, we found much decayed, and we had no means of repairing
her. We therefore took all the iron work out of her, and, proceeding
down the river fifteen miles, encamped near some cottonwood trees, one
of which was of the narrow-leafed species, and the first of that kind we
had remarked in ascending the river.
"Sergeant Ordway's party, which had left the mouth of Madison River on
the thirteenth, had descended in safety to White Bear Island, where he
arrived on the nineteenth, and, after collecting the baggage, had left
the falls on the twenty-seventh in the white pirogue and five canoes,
while Sergeant Gass and Willard set out at the same time by land with
the horses, and thus fortunately met together.
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