68 pages • 2 hours read
Undaunted Courage: The Pioneering First Mission to Explore America's Wild Frontier
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Chapters 9-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide features discussion of graphic violence, racism, including enslavement and anti-Indigenous violence, colonialism, and suicide, along with period-specific terminology and attitudes toward Indigenous/First Nation peoples and enslaved individuals.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Down the Ohio: September-November 1803”
Lewis made his way down the Ohio River, stopping to discuss the expedition with curious observers and moving the heavy new boat through the mud when it got stuck. At this time, Lewis made his first journal entry, initiating what Ambrose calls “one of America’s literary treasures” (108). The observations of both Lewis and Clark are notable for their accuracy, vividness, and detail. However, Ambrose notes that Lewis’s journal entries have several prominent gaps, each covering several months, throughout the entire expedition. It’s possible that he stopped writing for those periods, but it’s also possible that the journals have simply gone missing and might still perhaps be unearthed.
Lewis’s crew was small and stopgap at this point: he wanted Clark’s recommendations and approval on the men who would officially form the expedition. Malaria afflicted some of the crewmembers, and Lewis stocked up on quinine as a treatment. The boat also carried mercury, considered a vital medicine at the time, though it is now recognized as toxic.
News of the expedition spread quickly, and Lewis found himself inundated with volunteers, mostly young men who wished to be part of history and prove themselves. However, Lewis did not promise a spot in the crew to anyone until he met with Clark.
