Samuel Latham Mitchill's letters describe Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, the ague, other interesting persons, and facts of interest to his wife, Catherine Akerly Mitchill. These excerpts are drawn from the Mitchill Collection, Museum of the City of New York.
1. DECEMBER 2, 1801—FOLDER 41.321.17
…just arrived in Philadelphia.
2. DECEMBER 4, 1801—FOLDER 41.321.18
…just arrived in Baltimore. Going to take tea with the Smiths.
3. DECEMBER 7, 1801—FOLDER 41.321.4
…to dine with Thomas Jefferson today.
4. DECEMBER 21, 1801—FOLDER 41.321.30
I have been to one of the Washington Balls. They are held alternately at Washington near the Capitol, and at Georgetown. Tho’ the territory of these two places is contiguous or is joined together at their extreme parts by bridge over Rock-Creek, yet the compact part of Georgetown is distant from the Hill where the Capitol stands, and near which the assemblies are held, about three miles…. A Capt. Lewis—master of ceremonies.
5. JANUARY 2, 1802—FOLDER 41.321.7
Yesterday, New Year's Day, I dined again with President Jefferson. The Company was not numerous….
6. JANUARY 10, 1802—FOLDER 41.321.36
I have had several opportunities of seeing and conversing with him [Thomas Jefferson] since my arrival at Washington. He is tall in stature and rather spare in flesh. His dress and manners are very plain. He is grave or rather sedate; but without any tincture of pomp, ostentation or pride. And occasionally can smile; and both hear and relate lively anecdotes or humorous stories as well as any other man of social feelings. At the moment he has a more press of care and solicitude because Congress and Senate are in Session and he is anxious to know in what manner the Representatives will act upon his Message and how the communications he expects soon to make to the Senate will be recd…. He has generally a Company of eight or ten persons to dine with him every day. Our Company were Eustis, Varnum, Randolph, Genl. Smith & Mitchill of NY, Baldwin, Brackinridge of Kentucky, the President and his secretary, Capt. Lewis made the party.
7. FEBRUARY 4, 1802—FOLDER 41.321.28 [PARAPHRASE]
[Mitchill appointed Professor of Chemistry and Natural History—January 1, 1802 to New York Hospital. He replied January 12, 1802, from Washington, thanking them.] My relations to scientific institutions are so various, and my correspondence with learned men so extensive…[Also dined with Jefferson].
8. FEBRUARY 8, 1802—FOLDER 41.321.35 [PARAPHRASE]
[Mitchill] to dine with Thomas Jefferson this afternoon.
9. FEBRUARY 10, 1802—FOLDER 41.321.40
On Tuesday, I dined with Thomas Jefferson. The company consisted of myself, & Captain Lewis, his Secretary, Gen Smith of Long Island, Brackenridge, Sumpter, Jones of Philadelphia, Varnum and one or two more. His cook is a Frenchman…. Ice-Creams are produced in the form of Balls of the Frozen materials in covers of warm pastry…. [He was on a Committee] on the Memorials concerning Perpetual Motion.
10. MARCH 17, 1802—FOLDER 41.321.48
It does not seem to be healthy here…. The Season for Agues has not arrived, or it is probable we should have many cases of that disorder. In 50 years it is predicted Washington will have 200,000 inhabitants—but there is a wide tract of low and marshy land between the River Potomack and Pennsylvania & New Jersey Avenues. In Autumn intermittents prevail over this Region. The circulation of the water is very slow & sluggish; it has no tincture of salt…. There seems to be something unwholesome in the fogs & damps which overhang situations on the east sides of the Rivers…. Washington built on the east side of the Potomac.
11. APRIL 28, 1802—FOLDER 41.321.9
Dining with Thomas Jefferson today.
12. APRIL 29, 1802—FOLDER 41.321.10
Thomas Jefferson's mansion is about a mile and three quarters from the Capitol. Dined with Thomas Jefferson yesterday. Took a Hackney Coach. The remoteness of Buildings renders it necessary to have many of those vehicles in Washington.
The party consisted of Thomas Jefferson, Mason, Mitchill, Baldwin, Macon, Stone, Eustis, Appeton, and Pichon.
I went into the President's Council Chamber with Captain Lewis his Secretary. There I saw two heads or Busts of Indian Hatuary, lately found near the Mississippi. I did not know until I saw these that sculpture had advanced so far among the Native red-men of North America. These are rude figures of men, considerably defaced but still bearing a nearer resemblance to the human form than you would suppose. There is another curious little stone image, as if of a man on his hands and knees. This is carved so oddly as to look considerably like a Tortoise, with his large head…a good way beyond his shell. Whether they were Idols, or likenesses, or Symbols, I do not know.
13. MAY 3, 1802—FOLDER 41.321.2
…leaving town.
14. DECEMBER 6, 1802—FOLDER 41.321.26
Arrived here last evening and stayed in Philadelphia and attended a lecture of Dr. Rush “on faculties of the Mind.” Then went to Woodhouse's classroom. Rush escorted him to Dr. Caldwell's classroom and then to the Anatomical Theater where Dr. Wistar had invited him to attend his lecture on Osteology. Then had dinner and paid for passage for Baltimore.
During the recess, Washington has been very sickly. Dr. May informs me that not merely intermittent but remittent fevers of an obstinate kind had been very prevalent and in several instances fatal.
15. DECEMBER 8, 1802—FOLDER 41.321.8
Thomas Jefferson has not yet made his speech. This day I am to dine with Thomas Jefferson. His two daughters, Mr. Randolph and Mr. Eppes said to be with him.
16. DECEMBER 11, 1802—FOLDER 41.321.54
Dined with Gallatin and met for the first time the celebrated Thomas Paine….
17. DECEMBER 15, 1802—FOLDER 41.321.53
Just heard the President's address which is full of peace and plenty. Our affairs are represented as very prosperous both at home and abroad….
18. JANUARY 5, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.259
I send you a likeness of poor Tom Smith. Mrs. S. H. Smith gave it to me a few evenings when I called at their house and passed part of an evening in Chat by the fire-side. She has been tormented almost a year with the ague; and has more or less of it every day at this time….
19. JANUARY 31, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.265
My Dear Kate
I write you from a secret conclave of Congress; for the House of Representatives is now setting with closed doors. The Galleries were cleared a little while ago to receive a confidential communication. After receiving it, a Debate arose whether it ought to be considered as a secret any longer or whether the Injunction of Secrecy should be taken off. And that discussion is now going on. So I thought I would write you, my dear, a few lines to let you know there was a considerable portion of Free-Masonry in Politics. Perhaps I might let you know something about this Political Secret, was I not restrained by my own decision because I have just set down after making a Speech against taking off the Injunction of Secrecy. You must however not imagine any thing about it, nor pretend to suppose that a secret expedition is meditated up the river Missouri to its source, thence across the Northern Andes and down the Western water-courses to the Pacific Ocean, and that the reason of keeping it secret is that the English and Spaniards may not find it out and frustrate it….
20. FEBRUARY 3, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.263
Monroe departing for Europe in his ministerial mission. I have subscribed to it with many other Republican Members of Congress…. On Saturday I am to dine with Genl. Dearborn, the Secretary of War….
21. FEBRUARY 9, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.85
Dinner at [unreadable] Tavern for Monroe—subscribers only—and some of the ministers. Burr not invited—Republicans have ceased to confide in him….
22. FEBRUARY 11, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.272
…no ladies present. Dined with Thomas Jefferson and Monroe who will be leaving for France about the 1st March….
23. FEBRUARY 14, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.257
Valentine's Day…
24. FEBRUARY 22, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.254
Several gentlemen have made an arrangement to return to Philadelphia by a route we never travelled before by way of Annapolis, Maryland.
After the House adjourns, I am to go and take my dinner with Mr. Jefferson who continues to give his elegant entertainments with as much regularity and agreeableness as ever….
25. FEBRUARY 28, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.252
This day I have spent pretty much in Congressional Business, and this evening Judges Verplanck and I sallied out to Mrs. Dr. Thornton's.
26. MARCH 3, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.106
…close of Congress.
27. MARCH 3, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.248
The Committee of Ways and Means are making a grave report which I must listen to. All is anxiety and bustle.
28. OCTOBER 17, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.247
At Fredericktown I felt a little aguish and feared a return of my disease, but as it has not returned I hope to escape it….
29. OCTOBER 18, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.249
Verplanck and I are living together. Verplanck and I are accommodated in the same Chamber…. My fever has not returned and I hope has left me entirely.
30. OCTOBER 25, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.245
After church I visited Gen. Dearborn. Met his son who, just out of college, had been ill of a fever, and nearly as they feared, at the point of death. The family was more comfortable knowing that one of its members is recovering from a dangerous fit of sickness.…I am to dine with Thomas Jefferson which I accepted on Saturday.
31. OCTOBER 27, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.244
The setting of the House did not adjourn until half past seven and did not arrive at Mr. Jefferson's until eight. Dinner was kept waiting until the Company came…. His late Secy. Capt. Lewis has gone on the public expedition through Louisiana, up the great River Missouri…. Congress passed the bill to take Louisiana voting 89 to 23….
32. NOVEMBER 8, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.240
…horseraces at Washington….
33. NOVEMBER 21, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.235
[Mitchill's] speech on the Louisiana Treaty published in the National Intelligencer this morning….
34. NOVEMBER 23, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.234
Dining with Thomas Jefferson.
35. NOVEMBER 24, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.232
Among the remarkable things told of Louisiana is the existence of a Mountain of salt on the River Missouri. This extraordinary production of nature is mentioned in the Message sent to Congress on 15 November 1803. It is there stated to be 1000 miles above the place where that River falls into the Mississippi. Several respectable and enterprizing traders have visited it. They have brought several bushels of this natural salt down to the settlement of St. Louis. A sample of it has been forwarded to Marietta. The mountain or country of salt…is alledged to be 180 miles in length and 45 in width….
Lest the account of such a body of Common salt should appear fabulous, I send you a specimen of the real article, which Mr. Jefferson received from the westward a few days ago; and which he presented to me. The arrival of the sample at the seat of government assists in dispelling the doubts which might exist and reduces the story to a certainty…Mr. Shoto a respectable man is quoted as the witness that the sample I now lend you….
I herewith also send you a piece of gypsum which came from Upper Louisiana. This was likewise given me by Mr. Jefferson. It is striated or crystallized form of plaster of paris and is very pure. It is very rare here & must be imported from Nova Scotia and France. In Louisiana, it appears that Plaster of Paris is one of the natural productions.…It comes from 450 miles up the Missouri.
36. NOVEMBER 25, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.231
[Mitchill goes on a long discourse on the length and breadth of Louisiana. He states that the Northern Andes (Rocky Mountains) are the western limit of Louisiana.]
I ought to mention to you also that part of my geographical information (besides Arrowsmith, John Mitchill, Pawnall's, and Carleton maps) is derived from 3 manuscript maps of which I obtained examination since I hade been at the seat of government. And from Manuscript Maps, has our Executive department also, derived no small part of the knowledge it possesses. An entire map of such an unknown and wild territory cannot be soon expected….
In the course of two years, it may be expected we shall know more about this land of Curiousity. Under an appropriation of Money made for the purpose during the last Session of Congress, a Voyage of Exploration and discovery is now going on. Captain Meriwether Lewis late private Secretary to the President and W. Clark son of Genl. Clark accompanied by a select Corps of 12 Men, have departed on this fatiguing mission. They have already passed down the Ohio, and are expected to ascend the Mississippi as far as Kahokia, and there to pass the Winter. Tho’ if the Autumn should be mild, they have the discretion given them of passing up the Missouri as far as they can and of finding winter-quarters on its banks. Next spring they are to start as early as possible and after tracing the Missouri or one of its streams to its source, they are to traverse the chain of mountains and transport themselves on one of the rivers running westward from it to the Pacific Ocean. This will be a Summer's work. They are to pass the next winter somewhere in that region, and set out on their homeward bound Voyage in the spring of 1805 and get back in the autumn of that year. They are to note the Rivers, Mountains, People, Port, and Productions, and in short every thing a rational Mind can seize and apprehend. I confess when I consider the hardships and dangers of such an undertaking, I tremble for the fate of the adventurers. On mentioning my fears to Mr. Jefferson, he said the Commanders and Crew were well selected and with great care for the purpose in view, and were uncommonly zealous to perform the service. I am sure I wish them success.
I may further assure you that Government has not published the entire volume of information on hand, relative to Louisiana. Some portion of the intelligence is so alluring that it was deemed improper to publish…it under governmental sanction or by public authority. It was feared the descriptions might be too romantic and that our citizens might be tempted to remove thither injuriously to themselves….
37. NOVEMBER 29, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.72
Col. Varnum he knew a French gentleman who returned from a voyage of about 1500 miles up the Missouri, five years ago. This traveller, who was a general officer told him that on the bank of the river he saw a whitish mountain of great size…found to be an entire body of Common Salt.
Hoge of Pittsburgh relates that he has conversed with several persons who have seen the Mountain of Salt on the Missouri. An acquaintance of his examined separately 3 traders who had travelled upon the western expeditions along that river. They all agreed in the reality of the Salt-mountain.
[Mitchill spoke with other members of Congress] who affirmed the story of the Salt Mountain.
38. DECEMBER 8, 1803—FOLDER 41.321.280
I see that the editor of the American Citizen has published your specimen of Salt from the Missouri with your name. I find that General Collot a Frenchman who went up that River a few years ago, declares the reality of the Mountain….
39. JANUARY 20, 1804—FOLDER 41.321.309
Now the microscope has taught us that these sparks of oceanic fire….
40. JANUARY 22, 1804—FOLDER 41.321.311
Went to dine with Mr. Jefferson. I went early and had a good deal of conversation. He shewed me a new french Work on geology by Fanjas de Saint-Fond [naturalist].
41. FEBRUARY 26, 1804—FOLDER 41.321.328
Dr. Morse the Geographer has been kind enough to send me the half sheets of his new Edition of the American Gazeteer, which contains his Account of Louisiana….
42. FEBRUARY 29, 1804—FOLDER 41.321.329
I have been reading O'Reilly's and Carondelet's Laws, to prepare for a speech on it today [regarding Louisiana].
43. MARCH 6, 1804—FOLDER 41.321.332
I have made a Review of the President Publication on Louisiana for the Med. Rep. [Medical Repository] and prepared various articles of intelligence for that work, which have been transmitted to my colleague.
44. MARCH 15, 1804—FOLDER 41.321.337
Today I enclose for you something on the propriety of having the unknown parts of Louisiana explored. You see that I sieze opportunities as they offer, of promoting Industry and Research. In this paper you will find stranger things than the Salt Mountain. Here is a Salt River, and Minerals of Gold & Silver. I might have added a Volcano, for you know you have in your collection, a fine parcel of the Pumice Stone, which is the evidence of a burning Mountain, that was found floating on the Missouri…corroborated by documents in my possession and by good parole evidence.
45. MARCH 19, 1804—FOLDER 41.321.339
Dined for the last time at the Presidents….
46. MARCH 20, 1804—FOLDER 41.321.340
…retroceded parts of Maryland & Virginia to create the territory of Columbia.
47. MARCH 21, 1804—FOLDER 41.321.341
[Mitchill broke his arm.]
48. NOVEMBER 5, 1804—FOLDER 41.321.346
…just arrived in Washington.
49. NOVEMBER 6, 1804—FOLDER 41.321.347
Gen. Dearborn has left his family in Maine…Washington has been miserably sickly and is far from being entirely healthy at this Day. The Parts of Virginia which lie between the North & South Mountains and along the River Shenandoah have been dreadfully infected with a malignant distemper accompanied with Black Vomiting in various instances…I have put on one of my flannel shirts, and find it rather too warm but shall continue to wear it. [Rush and others thought that wearing flannel would reduce an attack of ague.]
50. NOVEMBER 10, 1804—FOLDER 41.321.348
Washington has been very sickly this season. Remitting fevers have been frequent and violent and numbers have been cut off by them. The inhabitants of the Capitol-Hill look very sickly and some of them are yet in their sick-beds. The unhealthiness of the situation seems to be owing to the noxious exhalations from a marsh which lies to the Southward of it and between it and the Potomack the Southwardly breezes waft these deleterious has in a direct line to the Capitol-Hill. Along New Jersey Avenue, where I use to live, the sickness has been very distressing and the people who survived look miserable yet. The fever has not been so prevalent at Georgetown. This unwholesomeness of its situation is a woeful impediment to the growth & prosperity in Washington.
51. NOVEMBER 26, 1804—FOLDER 41.321.357
A few days ago I dined with President Jefferson. He treated us with water from the Mississippi and Mammoth Cheese of Cheshire (Map?)…. Thomas Jefferson shewed me various specimens of the Lead ores from the great mines of Louisiana. They were Galenas [grades], with cubes of different sizes and surfaces of various splendor like those in your cabinet. He showed several other Galenas too, from the Osage-River. And he also exhibited two pieces of Grey Silver Ore from Mexico. He had “dates” on the Table among the fruits brought on with the Dessert. I mentioned to him the rarity of that fruit in our Country and even in Europe and asked him where he procured it. He said they were produced from Marseilles….
52. DECEMBER 17, 1804—FOLDER 41.321.366
Dined at Jefferson's. He gave me a plural of Water and a Stalactite from the hot spring up the Washita River in Louisiana. This spring is nearly the temperature of boiling water and constantly emits a cloud of vapour…. From Mr. Dunbar who has gone to visit it, we may expect a very correct & scientific report.
53. DECEMBER 25, 1804—FOLDER 41.321.369
No session of Congress….
54. DECEMBER 2, 1805—FOLDER 41.321.405
Samuel Smith, President of the Senate pro Tempore.
55. DECEMBER 5, 1805—FOLDER 41.321.407
Some Choctaw Indians have just arrived…the [?] man had a conversation with them and wished to know what God they worshipped. They said the Great Spirit.
56. DECEMBER 19, 1805—FOLDER 41.321.415
I send you the abstract I have made from Mr. Dunbar's Voyage into Louisiana. It is intended for the Medical Repository. But will not be wanted immediately….
57. JANUARY 2, 1806—FOLDER 41.321.422
Yesterday being New Year's Day there was no sitting of Congress.…In the evening, I received the visits, at my lodgings of three Indian interpreters from the Northwest and the Missouri. With them I discoursed on the geography of the remote regions west of us, on their Rivers & productions, on the manners of the savages, & & I gathered from them a considerable amount of information; and expect to procure an Osage Song on War….
58. JANUARY 29, 1806—FOLDER 41.321.430
I have for several evenings been engaged in translating some french Manuscripts containing interesting intelligence from the upper country lying towards the head of the River Missouri: And I am getting a MSS map of some part of those Regions, copied. I put the Indians at work the other evening with Chalk to make me a delineation of their Country, on the floor. And I am exceedingly pleased with the correspondence there is between their rude marks and the fine strokes of a Surveyor.
59. FEBRUARY 10, 1806—FOLDER 41.321.435
I send you a map of another part of Louisiana. Some time ago I sent you a delineation of the Washita. Now I forward you a manuscript chart of the upper branches of the Arkansas River and of the Great and Little Osage Rivers with sketches of the Mississippi, Missouri, Maramec, Gasconade, and some others.
The great salines or natural magazines of salt, four in number are here specially delineated. These are all on the streams of the Arkansas; for it is now ascertained that the Mountain of salt on the Missouri does not exist! But vast beds of strata of Sal Gen or native rock salt exist on the plains and vallies marked on the map, as being in the vicinity of the upper streams of the Arkansas. The memoir which explains the map was translated from the French by myself.
You see how hard it is to get good information concerning that Western Country. Scraps and fragments of geography, are hitherto all we can obtain. But soon there will be sent to Congress a better Map of Louisiana than ever appeared, compiled under the eye of Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Dearborn from the communication of Capts. Lewis and Clark and other manuscript maps & documents of travellers. It is ascertained that there is no foundation for the story of Indians up the Missouri speaking the Welch language. The Welch descendants and the Mountain of Salt are both fabulous; tho’ in favor of the latter, we may alledge that there are mines and plains of salt, which amount substantially to the same thing.
…a few nights ago I obtained a beautiful confirmation of the Matters solicited on the Map from several Osage Indians that invited me. I asked them to draw with chalke on the floor, villages, rivers and paths of their country. They performed this with great readiness and in a manner nearly corresponding with the present performance of Mr. Soulard, Surveyor General of Louisiana. The proficiency made by our Redmen in Geography, I mean of their own regions, is very remarkable.
60. FEBRUARY 19, 1806—FOLDER 41.321.440
I took a walk this morning between the hour of breakfast and prayer, to the Presidents House. There I saw an Indian curiousity—It is a map done by the Missouri natives, on a fine dressed Buffaloe skin. The skin is dressed after the manner of a Deer-skin, and it is of the same whitish on buff colour on this soft and clean hide which is as large as that of an Ox. There is a delineation by an Aboriginal hand of the vast River Platte & Missouri, and of the Principal streams, mountains, villages and minerals, lying between those prodigious water-courses. Among these remarkable things are marked four mines of Platina, several of copper, and a volcano. It is really a pleasing proof of the Geographical Knowledge of these self-educated People. It was a short time ago sent to Mr. Jefferson by Gov. Wilkinson of Louisiana.
61. DECEMBER 3, 1806—FOLDER 41.321.450
Saw Thomas Jefferson who had an accident. Arm in a sling—fingernail torn off.
62. DECEMBER 8, 1806—FOLDER 41.321.451
[Mitchill invited to dinner at Thomas Jefferson's.] Thomas Jefferson in fine health [told Mitchill that] Pike's map & Freeman's were in an engraver's hands at Philadelphia. And that Congress would soon have the printed copies laid before them.
63. DECEMBER 18, 1806—FOLDER 41.321.457
This morning I went to the War Office and saw Lieut. Pike's Map of the Mississippi…. We shall soon have the map and Memoir of Mr. Pike's laid before Congress….
64. DECEMBER 21, 1806—FOLDER 41.321.458
The Osages who came with Capt. Lewis have arrived here. Last evening I saw them. They are tall and whitish like the rest whom we have seen. The Capt. has gone to Virginia to visit his relations after his journey to the Pacific Ocean and will probably be here in a few weeks….
65. DECEMBER 23, 1806—FOLDER 41.321.90
Burr's expedition engrosses almost all of the intervals between the battles of Buonoparte; and the eyes of our Politicians are alternately directed to the Ohio and Principia [illegible].
66. DECEMBER 30, 1806—FOLDER 41.321.464
Capt. Lewis has reached this place after the performance of a journey across the Continent of North America, quite across to the Pacific Ocean, and back again. The distance is computed to be considerably more than three thousand miles across. He and his party went away from Washington in the Summer of 1803, and owing to the lowness of the water in the Ohio, got no farther than Kahokia on the Mississippi, and wintered there. The ensuing spring, he reached Mandane, near the great Bend of the Missouri and passed the cold season at that place [1804–1805]. Thence he proceeded westward, and crossing the Northern Andes, near some of the sources of the Missouri, travelled before the Vigorous Weather set in, as far as the Ocean, near the mouth of the Columbia River. Here he remained during the inclement part of 1805–6; and as soon as the spring was far enough advanced for Marching, he started for home. And here, he is once in good health & spirits. I feel rejoiced on his own account; an account of Geography & Natural History; and on account of the Character and Honour of Country that this expedition has been successfully performed. They were so pinched for food while passing the snows of the Rocky Mountains that they fed upon their Horses and Dogs, until they arrived to more benignant [beneficial] regions.
67. JANUARY 1, 1807—FOLDER 41.321.74
New Year's Day is the time of the greatest exhibition that usually occurs in Washington. Both houses of Congress adjourned from Wednesday to Friday for the purpose of enjoying it the better. The Weather has been very fine, and pursuant to a standing custom during the present administration, all the great and fashionable folks went to pay their compliments to Mr. Jefferson at the President's House on the Palatine Hills….
…While I was looking round and meditating what to do with myself, the Miss Johnsons…expressed a desire to be escorted to the side of the room where the newly arrived Indians were. I at once became their pioneer and showed them the King and Queen of the Mandanes, who with a child of theirs, have come a journey of about 1600 miles down the Missouri to see their great Father the President. His majests were gaily dressed in a regimental coat, &, but his Consort was wrapped in a blanket, and had not the smallest ornament about her. She resembled exceedingly one of our Long Island squaws. There was also another Mandane woman there, who was wife to a Canadian White man, that acted as interpreter. She had two children with her. We also looked at the five Osages and the one Delaware warriors of whom I wrote you before….
68. JANUARY 7, 1807—FOLDER 41.321.75
I have just written a Note to Capt. Lewis to dine with me on Saturday.—In a late conversation I had with him, he gave me a description of the burning plains up the Missouri….1
69. JANUARY 12, 1807—FOLDER 41.321.62
…this evening I am to call upon Capt. Lewis at the Presidents House & see his new Map of Louisiana and his specimens of Natural History….
70. JANUARY 16, 1807—FOLDER 41.321.103
A few evenings ago, I went to the Presidents House to see the specimens of Natural History brought by Capt. Lewis from Louisiana, and his Map of the regions he has visited between the Mississippi and the Pacific. He has several non-descript animals, among which are five species of quails, partridges and grous that are probably new to naturalists; three or four sorts of squirrels besides those which are found in the Atlantic regions; and a white-coated quadruped of a character somewhat between the Sheep and Goat, having both hair and wool for a fleece; it is probably the Virginia sheep of Spanish America, now for the first time found in the Freedish dominions. He often saw the mountain-ram.
He has brought with him the seeds of many plants; and shewed me several presses of dried plants in fine preservation. These make an instructive herbarium of the Regions to which he passed.
Few of his minerals have arrived. But they are on their way hither.
But his Map of those parts of North America is the most instructive of his bounties. It gives an enlarged and Comprehensive view River Missouri, and of the vast streams, which under the names of Osage, Kanzas, Platte, &c. fall into it. Of these the Platte alone is larger than the Mississippi above Kaskaskias. The distance from the Source of the Missouri to its junction with the Gulf of Mexico is computed to be more than 4000 miles and it runs the greater part of this distance without a Cataract. The mountains whence the Head Waters issue are not high & continued chains like the Andes, but Elevations of not perhaps more than 3000 feet, and so broken & irregular that the streams which run eastward toward the Missouri inter lock with those that run westward with the Columbia River. The Waters are more precipitous on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. Their descent is too Great to render them navigable by boats even in their passage downward. The travellers were obliged to purchase horses from the Indians; for in those parts the Natives all have these animals to ride. Here there are few inhabitants; but as soon as they arrived to the Plains on the Columbia River, that are visited by the Tide-waters there is an uncommon number of inhabitants…. The article of the highest value among these people is the Blue-bead…blue ones will purchase their sea-otter skins, or any thing they possess. This journey has not only enlarged our knowledge of Natural History and Geography but dis dessed to our men of monied enterprize a view and hitherto unexplored Country for Beaver skins and the fur-trade. For the beavers exist on the upper waters of the Missouri in almost incredible numbers, and a long series of Years will elapse before they are extin ported (exported). Hence our Merchants have the encouraging prospect of large fortunes to be made by encouraging the Indians and other hunters to kill them and bring their skins to market….
71. JANUARY 31, 1807—FOLDER 41.321.112
Last winter my dear…I prepared for you two curious morsels of Aboriginal North American Poetry. They were, you may remember, a War song and a Peace song of the Osage Indians. I now send you another. It was translated from the original by Mr. Chouteau, a different person from him who made a version of the former. He performed this talk at the request of Mrs. Smith. To this lady, I am indebted for the French manuscript and at her suggestion I have attempted to turn this third morsel of our native composition into English. Mrs. Smith is engaged in making another translation; and then she and I are to compare our performances and examine which has succeeded best…. [Mitchill then transcribes song of the Osage for his wife]
72. FEBRUARY 5, 1807—FOLDER 41.321.77
French Minister…General Turreau's dining Party yesterday was well attended…Capt. Lewis were the principal member of the Party [mentioned Vice-President Clinton], my colleague Smith and myself from New York, including Madison and Gallatin.
73. FEBRUARY 7, 1807—FOLDER 41.321.55
…3 above zero….
74. FEBRUARY 18, 1807—FOLDER 41.321.69
After the [congressional] adjournment, I went to dine with Mr. Jefferson. There I found Capt. Clarke the traveller to the Pacific Ocean. He is a fine-looking soldierly man, and very conversant with the North American Indians. My seat at the table was between the President and him. So of course I could converse, by turns, with each. I improved the opportunity to inquire of Capt. C. concerning the manners and Customs of the native tribes he had visited on the Missouri. He told me many things and among…. [following page missing]
75. DECEMBER 18, 1808—FOLDER 41.321.192
…the sickness of Mr. Madison has retarded the negotiation with Mr. Rose. He has been ill for several days.