[139] Lewis and Clark reached the mouth of Columbia River on the 15th of November 1805, and wintered at "Fort Clatsop," as they called their dwelling among the then numerous Clatsop Indians, until the 23rd of March 1806, when they began the return journey. The Indians have long ago vanished from the lower Columbia, the remnant of the Clatsops, and the Chinooks on the opposite side, now wearing out the tribal existence in inland Reservations. But it is still possible to come across one of the medals which the explorers distributed amongst them.
[140] It is clear, therefore, from this statement that Lewis and Clark had left Fort Clatsop much more than a fortnight before the vessel in which Jewitt was arrived there; for it is impossible to suppose that the latter took from April to November to get at spars and make the return voyage to Nootka. But the journal of Lewis and Clark was not published until 1814, so that, when Jewitt wrote, he had no ready means of checking the Indians' statement, though neither he nor his editor seems to have troubled books much.
[141] The cavalier manner in which Jewitt abandons his family is quite in the fur-trader's fashion. It does not seem that he even asked to see his Indian "princess!"
[142] If Jewitt's information about the departure of Lewis and Clark from the Columbia River is even approximately accurate, the date must be wrong by a year, and the subsequent one quite as far out of the due reckoning. 1806 may be a misprint for 1807.
APPENDIX
I. The "Boston's" Crew
Names of the Crew of the Ship Boston, belonging to Boston in Massachusetts, owned by Messrs. F. and T. Amory, Merchants of that place—All of whom, excepting two, were on the 22nd of March, 1803, barbarously murdered by the savages of Nootka.