2£2 JOURNAL; 
We bad on board a Frenchman named Charbonet, with his 
wife, an Indian woman of the Snake nation, both of whom had 
accompanied Lewis and Clark to the pacific, and were of great 
service. The woman, a good creature, of a mild and gentle dis¬ 
position, greatly attached to the whites, whose manners and 
c|ress she tries to imitate, but she had become sickly, and long¬ 
ed to revisit her native country; her husband, also, who had 
spent many years amongst the Indians, was become weary of a 
civilized life. So true, it is, that the attachment to the savage 
state, or the state of nature, (with which appellation it has com* 
monly been dignifi’ed,) is much stronger than to that of civili¬ 
sation, with all its comforts, its refinements, and its security. 
Wednesday dftril 3 d. About two o’clock in the afternoon, 
having at length succeeded in getting all hands on board, we 
proceeded on our voyage. Found an excessive current, aug¬ 
mented by the state of the waters. Having come about six miles* 
encamped. In the course of this evening, had 3$. much reason 
to admire the dexterity of our Canadians and creoles, as I had 
before to condemn their frivolity. 1 believe an American could 
not be brought to support with patience the fatiguing labors, 
apd submission, which these men endure. At this season, when 
the water is exceedingly cold, they leap in without a moment’s 
hesitation. Their food consists of lied corn homony for break¬ 
fast, a slice of fat pork and biscuit for dinner, and a pot of mush 
for supper, with a pound of taliow in it. Yet this is better than 
the common fare; but we were about to make an extraordinary 
voyage, the additional expense was not regarded. 
Thursday 4 fh. Last night we were completely drenched 
by the rain; the whole party, the bark itself, in a bad condi¬ 
tion this morning. Weather somewhat cloudy—clearing up.— 
A short distance from our encampment,’ the hills approach the 
river N. E. side; they are not high, but rocky, and do not con¬ 
tinue more than a mile, when the alluvion again commences.— 
About 8 a line breeze S. E—sailed until 12—-passed several 
plantations S. W. side. The bottoms very extensive on the low¬ 
er part of this river, the banks high, far above the reach of in¬ 
undation. Timber, principally cotton wood; a few of the trees 
intermixed with it, are beginning to vegetate. The red-bud, 
