Meriwether Lewis met Nicholas Jarrot in Cahokia on 7 December 1803. The next day, he and Cahokia postmaster John Hay served as translators when Lewis met the Spanish Governor of Upper Louisiana, Carlos Dehault Delassus. In early April 1804, he and Lewis traveled to St. Louis, and the former continued to Prairie du Chien, his base in the Upper Mississippi fur trade.
Related Pages
December 7, 1803
Cahokia arrivals
Meramec River, MO to Cahokia, IL
Lewis traveling by land, and Clark by river, arrive at Cahokia. Lewis meets two useful locals, John Hay and Nicholas Jarrot who help him negotiate entering Spanish territory.
December 8, 1803
Spanish resistance
Cahokia, IL On or near this day, Lewis meets with Dehault Delassus, the Spanish Governor of Upper Louisiana, and all agree that the expedition should spend the winter near Cahokia.
Sugaring at River Dubois
Surrounded by maple trees at Camp Dubois, tapping and boiling the sweet, watery sap until it crystallized into sugar could begin as soon as the days warmed enough to get the sap rising in the trees.
April 2, 1804
Northward-bound traders
At winter camp across from the mouth of the Missouri, Clark says the men are “a cleaning to Day.” A boat bound for Prairie du Chien and owned by Mississippi River trader Nicholas Jarrot stops for the night.
April 3, 1804
A Letter for Prairie du Chien
At sunrise, Nicholas Jarrot‘s trade boat leaves the expedition’s winter camp at the Wood River headed to Prairie du Chien. Clark has the enlisted men pack corn meal, flour, and salted pork.
The Charbonneaus in St. Louis
by Robert J. Moore
In 1809, Toussaint, Sacagawea, and Jean Baptiste Charbonneau traveled to St. Louis. Jean Baptiste’s baptism began a new era in his life, is father would try to become a farmer, and Sacagawea would become sickly.
