o it, taken by such of his relations as had visited it, was up the
river on which they lived, and over to that on which the white people
lived, and which they knew discharged itself into the ocean. This route
he advised us to take, but added, that we had better defer the journey
till spring, when he would himself conduct us. This account persuaded us
that the streams of which he spoke were southern branches of the
Columbia, heading with the Rio des Apostolos, and Rio Colorado, and that
the route which he mentioned was to the gulf of California: captain
Clarke therefore told him that this road was too much towards the south
for our purpose, and then requested to know if there was no route on the
left of the river where we now are, by which we might intercept it below
the mountains; but he knew of none except that through the barren
plains, which he said joined the mountains on that side, and through
which it was impossible to pass at this season, even if we were
fortunate enough to escape the Broken-moccasin Indians. Captain Clarke
recompensed the Indian by a present of a knife, with which he seemed
much gratified, and now inquired of Cameahwait by what route the
Pierced-nose Indians, who he said lived west of the mountains, crossed
over to the Missouri: this he said was towards the north, but that the
road was a very bad one; that during the passage he had been told they
suffered excessively from hunger, being obliged to subsist for many days
on berries alone, there being no game in that part of the mountains,
which were broken and rocky, and so thickly covered with timber that
they could scarcely pass. Surrounded by difficulties as all the other
routes are, this seems to be the most practicable of all the passages by
land, since, if the Indians can pass the mountains with their women and
children, no difficulties which they could encounter could be formidable
to us; and if the Indians below the mountains are so numerous as they
are represented to be, they must have some means of subsistence equally
within our power. They tell us indeed that the nations to the westward
subsist principally on fish and roots, and that their only game were a
few elk, deer, and antelope, there being no buffaloe west of the
mountain. The first inquiry however was to ascertain the truth of their
information relative to the difficulty of descending the river: for this
purpose captain Clarke set out at three o'clock in the afternoon,
accompanied