The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark

  XXIX

  _TO WASHINGTON_

  There were hurried days at St. Louis, a village that knew not hastebefore. The skins were sunned and stored in the rooms of CadetChouteau. Boxes of specimens were packed for the Government. CaptainLewis opened his trunk and found his papers all wet. The hermeticallysealed tin cases that held the precious journals alone had saved thesefrom destruction.

  The Captains had their hands full. The restless men must be paid anddischarged. Nine of the adventurers within a week after the return toSt. Louis sold their prospective land claims for a pittance. Seven ofthese claims were bought by their fellow soldiers; Sergeant JohnOrdway took several of the men and settled on the site of the presentcity of New Madrid.

  Robert Frazer received two hundred and fifty dollars for his claim,and prepared to publish his travels,--a volume that never saw thelight. In addition to land grants, the men received double payamounting altogether to eleven thousand dollars.

  A grand dinner, given by St. Louis, a ball and farewell, and theCaptains were on the way with their Mandan chief, Big White, and hisIndians, and Gass, Shannon, Ordway, Pryor, and Bratton.

  "The route by which I propose travelling to Washington is by way ofCahokia, Vincennes, Louisville, the Crab Orchard, Fincastle, Staunton,and Charlottesville," Captain Lewis had written in that letter toJefferson. "Any letters directed to me at Louisville will mostprobably meet me at that place."

  With well-filled saddle-bags, the returning heroes crossed to Cahokiaand set out across Illinois in the Indian summer of 1806.

  Governor Harrison was at Vincennes, and Vigo, and a hundred others towelcome.

  "Hurrah for old Kentucky!" cried Clark, as he caught sight of itslimestone shores. On many a smiling hilltop, the log cabin hadexpanded into a baronial country seat, with waxed floors and pianos.Already the stables were full of horses, the halls were full of music.

  Clark, Lewis, and Big White climbed the cliff to the Point of Rock.Who but chiefs should visit there?

  With newspapers around him, sat George Rogers Clark, following thecareer of Napoleon. That calm and splendid eye kindled at sight of hisbrother. His locks had grown longer, his eye a deeper black under theshaggy brows, but the Revolutionary hero shone in every lineament ashe took the hands of the two explorers.

  With the dashing waters at their feet, upon the lonely Point of Rock,above the Falls of the Ohio, William Clark stopped first to greet hisbrother from the great expedition. Painters may find a theme here, andfuture romancers a page in drama.

  Without delay, taking his rusty three-cornered _chapeau_ from its peg,and donning his faded uniform, the conqueror of Illinois accompaniedthe explorers to Locust Grove, ablaze that night with welcome.

  Lucy, Fanny, Edmund were there; and Jonathan from Mulberry Hill; MajorCroghan, the courtly host of old; and the lad, George Croghan, now inhis fifteenth year. All too quickly fled the hours; the hickory flamedand the brass andirons shone not brighter than the happy faces.

  Spread around for exhibition were Mandan robes, fleeces of themountain goat, Clatsop hats, buffalo horns, and Indian baskets,Captain Clark's "tiger-cat coat," Indian curios, and skins of grizzlybears,--each article suggestive of adventure surpassing Marco Polo orthe Arabian nights. Another huge box, filled with bones for thePresident, had been left with George Rogers Clark at the Point ofRock.

  Louisville received the explorers with bonfires and cannonry. A grandball was given in their honour, in which the Indians, especially,shone in medals and plumage.

  The next day there was a sad visit to Mill Creek, where lamentingparents received the last token and listened to the final wordconcerning their beloved son, Sergeant Charles Floyd.

  A cold wind and a light fall of snow warned them no time must be lostin crossing the Kentucky mountains; but encumbered with the Indianretinue they made slow progress along that atrocious road, on whichthe followers of Boone had "sometimes paused to pray and sometimesstopped to swear."

  A few days beyond Cumberland Gap, Clark's heart beat a tattoo; theyhad come to Fincastle! Among its overhanging vines and trees, theHancock mansion was in holiday attire,--Harriet Kennerly had just beenmarried to Dr. Radford of Fincastle.

  Colonel Hancock had been proud to entertain George Rogers Clark, stillmore was he now delighted with the visit of the famous explorers.

  "La!" exclaimed Black Granny at the announcement of Captain Clark."Miss Judy?" Black Granny had nursed Miss Judy from the cradle.

  Sedately Miss Judy came down the long staircase,--not the child thatClark remembered, but a woman, petite, serious. The chestnut browncurls with a glint of gold were caught with a high back comb, and asweeping gown had replaced the short petticoats that lately trippedover the foothills of the Blue Ridge.

  "My pretty cousin going to marry that ugly man?" exclaimed Harriet,when she heard of the early engagement.

  There was nothing effeminate about Clark, nor artificial. His featureswere rugged almost to plainness; his head was high from the ear to thetop, a large brain chamber.

  "Absolutely beautiful," said Judy to herself, associating thosebronzed features with endless winds that blew on far-off mountains.

  Behind the respectable old Hancock silver, Judy's mother turned thetea and talked. Turning up his laced sleeves to carve the mutton,Colonel Hancock asked a thousand questions regarding that wonderfuljourney.

  "We passed the winter on the Pacific, then crossed the mountains, andmy division came down the Yellowstone," Clark was saying. "By the way,Judy, I have named a river for you,--the Judith."

  A peal of laughter rang through the dining-room.

  "Judith! Judith, did you say? Why, Captain Clark, my name is Julia."

  Clark was confounded. He almost feared Judy was making fun of him.

  "Is it, really, now? I always supposed Judy stood for Judith."

  Again rang out the infectious peal, in which Clark himself joined; butto this day rolls the river Judith in Montana, named for Clark'smountain maid of Fincastle.

  "That I should live to see you back from the Pacific!" was AuntMolly's greeting at "The Farm," at Charlottesville. "I reckoned thecannibal savages would eat you. We looked for nothing less than thefate of Captain Cook."

  But Maria, whose eyes had haunted Lewis in many a long Montana day,seemed strangely shy and silent. In fact, she had another lover,perhaps a dearer one.

  Uncle Nicholas was sick. He was growing old, but still directed thenegroes of a plantation that extended from Charlottesville to theFluvanna.

  It was sunset when Captain Lewis reached the home at Locust Hill, andwas folded to his mother's bosom. With daily prayer had LucyMeriwether followed her boy across the Rocky Mountains.

  Meriwether's little pet sister, Mary Marks, had blossomed into abewitching rose.

  "Here is a letter from the President."

  Captain Lewis read his first message from Jefferson in more than twoyears and a half.

  Turning to Big White, the chief, who at every step had gazed withamazement at the white man's country,--

  "The President says 'Tell my friend of Mandan that I have alreadyopened my arms to receive him."

  "Ugh! Ugh!" commented Big White, with visions of barbaric splendour inhis untutored brain.

  That afternoon the entire party rode over to Monticello to show thechief the President's Indian hall, where all their gifts and tokenshad been arranged for display. The next day, by Richmond,Fredericksburg, and Alexandria, the party set out for the nationalcapital. Every step of the way was a triumphal progress.