Journals of the
Lewis & Clark Expedition

1. The date is all Clark has written for this entry. His party remained at Cahokia until December 10. His only journal entries after the seventh until the trip was resumed are astronomical observations recorded on the tenth. He left the remainder of this page blank and also the next page, perhaps intending to cover the missing days later. Lewis rejoined the party on the ninth, having visited the Spanish "commandant" in St. Louis, Carlos Dehault Delassus, lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana, who would not grant permission to ascend the Missouri without permission from his superiors. Having already decided to winter at Wood River, and knowing that the region would be transferred to the United States in a few months, Lewis was not particularly distressed. Dehault Delassus to Juan Manuel de Salcedo and the Marques de Casa Calvo, December 9, 1803, Lewis to Jefferson, December 19, 1803, Jackson (LLC), 1:142–47. (back)