July 4, 1805
Not having seen the Snake Indians or knowing in fact whether to calculate on their friendship or hostility we have conceived our party sufficiently small and therefore have concluded not to dispatch a canoe with a part of our men to St. Louis … and all appear perfectly to have made up their minds to succeed in the expedition or perish in the attempt.
This evening we gave the men a drink of spirits, it being the last of our stock, (and some of them appeared a little sensible of its effects.) The fiddle was played, and they danced very merrily… We had a very comfortable dinner of bacon, beans, sweet dumplings, and buffalo beef. In short we had no just cause to covet the sumptuous feasts of our countrymen on this day.
--Meriwether Lewis.
View video stream of journal entry.