On this or the previous day, Lewis meets with Dehault Delassus, the Spanish Lt. Governor of Upper Louisiana, and all agree that the expedition should spend the winter near Cahokia.[1]According to Delassus, Lewis arrived in Cahokia on 6 December and visited him in St. Louis 7 December. Lewis’s dates—given in a letter on 19 December—differ slightly.
Carlos Dehault Delassus
Courtesy Missouri History Museum.
The Spanish Governor
Cahokia, December 19th 1803
Dear Sir,
[T]he next day (the 8th) set out . . . to visit Colo. Lasuse; I proceeded to make him acquainted with the objects of my visit . . . his duty as an Officer . . . forbad his granting me permission at this time to asscend the Missouri river; finally as friend advised my remaining at Cahokia untill the next spring, alledging that by that time he had no doubt the Govrs. consent would be obtained and that then all obstructions would be removed to my asscending the Missouri.
MERIWETHER LEWIS Capt.
1st U.S. Regt. Infty.[2]Lewis to Jefferson, Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 146.
Delassus’s Recommendation
Cahokia, December 19th 1803
Dear Sir,
I concluded by thanking him for the personal friendship he had evinced, in recommending to me a winter residence . . . . I had selected for this purpose (provided it answered the description I had received of it, the mouth of a small river called Dubois on the E Side of the Mississippi opposite to the mouth of the Missouri.
MERIWETHER LEWIS Capt.
1st U.S. Regt. Infty.[3]Ibid., 147.
Evening Socializing
Cahokia, December 19th 1803
Dear Sir,
Thus defeated in my application, tho’ not much disappointed nor at all diverted from my future views, I spent the evening with the Commandant and returned the next day to join Capt. Clark who had just arrived in Cahokia.
MERIWETHER LEWIS Capt.
1st U.S. Regt. Infty.[4]Ibid.
Old Cahokia Courthouse is a High Potential Historic Site along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail managed by the U.S. National Park Service. The site is managed by the State of Illinois and is open to the public.
Notes
| ↑1 | According to Delassus, Lewis arrived in Cahokia on 6 December and visited him in St. Louis 7 December. Lewis’s dates—given in a letter on 19 December—differ slightly. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Lewis to Jefferson, Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 146. |
| ↑3 | Ibid., 147. |
| ↑4 | Ibid. |
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- The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
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- The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.
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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).