We had made but twenty-two
miles, but in the course of the day had killed a mule-deer, an animal
we were very anxious to obtain. About eleven in the evening the wind
shifted to the northwest, and it began to rain, accompanied by thunder
and lightning, after which the wind changed to the southwest, and blew
with such violence that we were obliged to hold fast the canoes, for
fear of their being driven from the sand-bar: still, the cables of two
of them broke, and two others were blown quite across the river; nor was
it till two o'clock that the whole party were reassembled, waiting in
the rain for daylight."
The party now began to meet white men in small detachments coming up the
river. On the third of September, for example, they met the first men
who were able to give them news of home. This party was commanded by a
Mr. James Airs (or Ayres), from Mackinaw, by the way of Prairie du Chien
and St. Louis. He had two canoes loaded with merchandise which he was
taking up the river to trade with the Indians. Among the items of news
gathered from him, according to the private journal of one of the Lewis
and Clark party, was that General James Wilkinson was now Governor
of Louisiana Territory, and was stationed at St. Louis. This is the
Wilkinson who fought in the American Revolution, and was subsequently to
this time accused of accepting bribes from Spain and of complicity with
Aaron Burr in his treasonable schemes. Another item was to this effect:
"Mr. Burr & Genl.
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