Day-by-Day / May 28, 1804

May 28, 1804

Drying wet cargo

The expedition hunts and dries items that got wet in the red pirogue. Having met with Captains Lewis and Clark on 25 May, trader Régis Loisel is now in St. Louis warning Spain of American encroachments on the Missouri River and its tributaries.

Day-by-Day with Lewis and Clark[1]Originally aired weekdays by Yellowstone Public Radio during the Bicentennial observance of 2003-2006. Narrated by Hal Hansen. Scripts by Whit Hansen and Ed Jacobson. Produced by Leni Holliman. © … Continue reading

Wet Cargo

onloaded the large Perogue on board of which was 8 french hands   found many things wet by their cearlenessness, put all the articles which was wet out to Dry—
William Clark

Hunting Report

Several men out hunting &C. Reuben Fields killed a Deer.
John Ordway

Loisel Warns Spain

Three days after receiving valuable information from Régis Loisel at Lacharrette, the fur trader demonstrates his loyalty to Spain by writing the following letter.

St. Louis, Illinois, May 28, 1804

To Don Carlos de Hault de Lassus, Colonel of the Infantry Regiment of Louisiana and its dependencies, etc.

. . . . .

At the present time when the United States of America have negotiated for this province of Louisiana, their undertakings are so much more to be feared, for they believe that their boundaries ought to be considered as the sources of the various rivers which empty by different branches into the Mississippi, although many of those rivers take their rise in the midst of Spanish settlements.

The Americans are enterprising and ambitious, in their power to win the minds of the savage nations, and will endeavour to erase by cunning arguments the fine impressions of our government that they have received.

Régis Loisel.[2]Loisel to Delassus, St. Louis, May 28, 1804 in Before Lewis and Clark: Documents Illustrating the History of the Missouri 1785–1804, ed. A. P. Nasatir, Bison Books edition. (Lincoln: University of … Continue reading

Failed Observations

this day So Cloudy that no observations could be taken, the river begin to rise, examine the mens arms and equapage, all in Order
—William Clark

 

Notes

Notes
1 Originally aired weekdays by Yellowstone Public Radio during the Bicentennial observance of 2003-2006. Narrated by Hal Hansen. Scripts by Whit Hansen and Ed Jacobson. Produced by Leni Holliman. © 2003 by Yellowstone Public Radio.
2 Loisel to Delassus, St. Louis, May 28, 1804 in Before Lewis and Clark: Documents Illustrating the History of the Missouri 1785–1804, ed. A. P. Nasatir, Bison Books edition. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990), 735–40.

Discover More

  • 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.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.