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at a distance |
a short distance beyond this captain lewis |
along the musselshell the country was covered with wild roses and small honeysuckle |
the mosquitoes annoying the noonday sun uncomfortably hot and the nights very cold the missouri river along which they were still traveling was now heading to the southwest |
most of which seemed to have been deserted for five or six weeks from this fact they judged that they were following a band of about |
they knew that the minnetarees of the missouri often |
fastening the skin of the head |
thus disguised the indian would take a position between a herd of buffalo and the precipice overlooking a river the other hunters would steal back of the herd and at a given signal chase them |
the buffaloes would run in the direction of the disguised brave who would lead them |
as he reached the edge he would quickly hide himself in some crevice |
who in their turn would be closely pursued by the hunters the whole herd therefore would usually rush over the cliff and the hunters |
this method of hunting was very extravagant but at that time the indians had no thought of preserving the buffaloes one of the rivers lewis passed in this region he named the slaughter river on account of this way of hunting |
when the missouri turned southward the explorers came to many steep rapids around which the canoes had to be carried which made traveling slow |
in the opening spring even in that bare country lewis found places near the river filled with choke cherries yellow currants wild roses and prickly pears in full bloom in the distance the mountains |
ahmateahza or missouri which they had said approached very near to the columbia river lewis knew that the success of his expedition depended largely upon choosing the right stream because |
had ascended the rocky mountains beyond they should find that the river they had taken did not bring them near the columbia they would have to return and thereby would lose a large part of the summer which was the only season when they could travel |
and if he had not been able to catch himself with his mountain stick |
and had slipped down to the very edge of the precipice where he lay with his right arm and leg over the cliff |
lewis saw the danger but calmly told the other to take his knife from his belt with his right hand |
with great presence of mind the man did this and getting a foothold raised himself on his knees |
his knife in one hand and his rifle in the other in this manner the man regained a secure place on the cliff captain lewis considered that this method of traveling was too dangerous |
where the water was only breast high this adventure taught them the danger of crossing the slippery heights above the stream but as the plains were broken by ravines almost as difficult to pass |
they therefore hid their heaviest boat |
the river three hundred yards wide was shut in by steep cliffs and for ninety yards from the left cliff the water fell |
the rest of the river shot forward with greater force and being broken by projecting rocks sent clouds of foam into the air as the water struck the basin below the falls |
and lewis found that for three miles |
was one line of rapids and cascades overhung by bluffs five miles above the first falls the whole river was blocked by one straight shelf of rock over which the water ran in an even sheet a majestic sight |
this part of the missouri however offered great difficulties to their travel |
of steep falls and rapids |
and the carpenter built a carriage to transport the boats |
meantime clark studied the river and found that a series of rapids made a perilous descent and that a portage of thirteen miles would be necessary |
they had to stop and search for a substitute and finally found willow trees which provided them with enough wood to patch up the boat carriage |
half a mile from their new camping place the carriage broke again and this time they found it easier to carry boat and baggage than to build a new conveyance captain lewis described |
the men he wrote are loaded as heavily as their strength will permit the crossing is really painful |
for more than a few minutes from the heat and fatigue they are all obliged to halt and rest frequently and at almost every stopping place they fall and many of them are asleep in an instant |
while they were busy making this portage they had several narrow escapes from attacks by grizzly bears |
the sleeping men were in danger from their claws a tremendous storm added to their discomfort and the hailstones were driven so furiously by the high wind that they wounded some of the men |
chaboneau and his indian wife and young child |
protected by shelving rocks under which they could take refuge |
rain and hail beat upon their shelter |
her husband also caught at her and pulled her along but he was so much frightened at the noise and danger that but for clark's steadiness he with his wife and child would probably have been lost |
had they waited a minute longer they would have been swept into the missouri just above the great falls they reached the top in safety and there found york |
they pushed on to camp where the rest of the party had already taken shelter and had abandoned all work for that day while the men were building a new boat of skins captain lewis spent |
much time studying the animals trees and plants of the region making records of them to take home |
it is heard at different periods of the day and night lewis wrote |
in quick succession it is loud |
of ordnance at the distance of three miles the minnetarees frequently mentioned this noise like thunder |
superstition or perhaps a falsehood |
by the philosophy of the watermen |
it may be supposed from what has just been said that the love of physical gratifications must constantly urge the americans to irregularities in morals |
disturb the peace of families and threaten the security of society at large such is not the case the passion for physical gratifications produces in democracies effects very different from those which it occasions |
in aristocratic nations it sometimes happens that wearied with public affairs and sated with opulence amidst the ruin of religious belief and the decline of the state the heart of an aristocracy |
may by degrees be seduced to the pursuit of sensual enjoyments only at other times the power of the monarch or the weakness of the people without stripping the nobility of their fortune |
compels them to stand aloof from the administration of affairs and whilst the road to mighty enterprise is closed abandons them to the inquietude of their own desires |
they then fall back heavily upon themselves and seek in the pleasures of the body oblivion of their former greatness when the members of an aristocratic body are thus exclusively devoted to the pursuit of physical gratifications |
they commonly concentrate in that direction all the energy which they derive from their long experience of power such men are not satisfied with the pursuit of comfort |
they require sumptuous depravity and splendid corruption the worship they pay the senses is a gorgeous one and they seem to vie with each other in the art of degrading their own natures |
the stronger the more famous and the more free an aristocracy has been the more depraved will it then become and however brilliant may have been the lustre of its virtues |
i dare predict that they will always be surpassed by the splendor of its vices the taste for physical gratifications leads a democratic people into no such excesses |
the love of well being is there displayed as a tenacious exclusive universal passion but its range is confined to build enormous palaces to conquer or to mimic nature |
to plant an orchard to enlarge a dwelling to be always making life more comfortable and convenient to avoid trouble and to satisfy the smallest wants without effort and almost without cost these are small objects |
but the soul clings to them it dwells upon them closely and day by day till they at last shut out the rest of the world and sometimes intervene between itself and heaven this it may be said |
can only be applicable to those members of the community who are in humble circumstances wealthier individuals will display tastes akin to those which belonged to them in aristocratic ages i contest |
the proposition in point of physical gratifications the most opulent members of a democracy will not display tastes very different from those of the people whether it be that springing from the people they really share those tastes |
or that they esteem it a duty to submit to them in democratic society the sensuality of the public has taken a moderate and tranquil course to which all are bound to conform |
it is as difficult to depart from the common rule by one's vices as by one's virtues rich men who live amidst democratic nations are therefore more intent on providing for their smallest wants |
than for their extraordinary enjoyments they gratify a number of petty desires without indulging in any great irregularities of passion thus they are more apt to become |
the especial taste which the men of democratic ages entertain for physical enjoyments is not naturally opposed to the principles of public order nay it often stands in need of order that it may be gratified |
nor is it adverse to regularity of morals for good morals contribute to public tranquillity and are favorable to industry |
men wish to be as well off as they can in this world without foregoing their chance of another some physical gratifications cannot be indulged in without crime from such they strictly abstain |
the enjoyment of others is sanctioned by religion and morality to these the heart the imagination and life itself are unreservedly given up till in snatching at these lesser gifts |
men lose sight of those more precious possessions which constitute the glory and the greatness of mankind the reproach i address to the principle of equality |
is not that it leads men away in the pursuit of forbidden enjoyments but that it absorbs them wholly in quest of those which are allowed by these means a kind of virtuous materialism |
may ultimately be established in the world which would not corrupt but |
causes of fanatical enthusiasm in some americans although the desire of acquiring the good things of this world is the prevailing passion of the american people certain |
momentary outbreaks occur when their souls seem suddenly to burst the bonds of matter by which they are restrained and to soar impetuously towards heaven |
in all the states of the union but especially in the half peopled country of the far west wandering preachers may be met with who hawk about the word of god from place to place |
whole families old men women and children cross rough passes and untrodden wilds coming from a great distance to join a camp meeting where they totally forget for several days and nights in listening to these discourses |
the cares of business and even the most urgent wants of the body here and there in the midst of american society you meet with men full of a fanatical and almost wild enthusiasm which hardly exists in europe |
from time to time strange sects arise which endeavor to strike out extraordinary paths to eternal happiness religious insanity is very common in the united states nor ought these facts to surprise us |
it was not man who implanted in himself the taste for what is infinite and the love of what is immortal those lofty instincts are not the offspring of his capricious will |
their steadfast foundation is fixed in human nature and they exist in spite of his efforts he may cross and distort them destroy them he cannot |
the soul has wants which must be satisfied and whatever pains be taken to divert it from itself it soon grows weary restless and disquieted amidst the enjoyments of sense |
if ever the faculties of the great majority of mankind were exclusively bent upon the pursuit of material objects it might be anticipated that an amazing reaction would take place in the souls of some men |
they would drift at large in the world of spirits for fear of remaining shackled by the close bondage of the body it is not then wonderful if in the midst of a community whose thoughts tend earthward |
a small number of individuals are to be found who turn their looks to heaven i should be surprised if mysticism did not soon make some advance amongst a people solely engaged in promoting its own worldly welfare |
i should rather say that it was by the luxuries of rome and the epicurean philosophy of greece |
if their social condition their present circumstances and their laws did not confine the minds of the americans so closely to the pursuit of worldly welfare |
it is probable that they would display more reserve and more experience whenever their attention is turned to things immaterial and that they would check themselves without difficulty |
but they feel imprisoned within bounds which they will apparently never be allowed to pass |
that the americans apply the principle of interest rightly understood to religious matters if the principle of interest rightly understood had nothing but the present world in view it would be very insufficient |
for there are many sacrifices which can only find their recompense in another and whatever ingenuity may be put forth to demonstrate the utility of virtue |
it will never be an easy task to make that man live aright who has no thoughts of dying it is therefore necessary to ascertain whether the principle of interest rightly understood is easily compatible with religious belief |
the philosophers who inculcate this system of morals tell men that to be happy in this life they must watch their own passions and steadily control their excess that lasting happiness |
can only be secured by renouncing a thousand transient gratifications and that a man must perpetually triumph over himself in order to secure his own advantage the founders of almost all religions |
have held the same language the track they point out to man is the same only that the goal is more remote instead of placing in this world the reward of the sacrifices they impose |
they transport it to another nevertheless i cannot believe that all those who practise virtue from religious motives |
i have known zealous christians who constantly forgot themselves |
and i have heard them declare that all they did was only to earn the blessings of a future state i cannot but think that they deceive themselves i respect them too much to believe them |
christianity indeed teaches that a man must prefer his neighbor to himself in order to gain eternal life but christianity also teaches that men ought to benefit their fellow creatures for the love of god |
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