Chapter 9 Down the Ohio September - November 1803 Summary and Analysis

Lewis begins the trip by boarding the newly constructed keelboat and proceeding down the Ohio River. The extreme lateness of the season (Lewis had hoped to be leaving months previously) insured that the Ohio's waters were very low. Thus, the initial stages of the trip were very slow and the keelboat made only ten or so miles each day. Lewis begins recording in his journal on August 31, the day he left. The text then considers the nature of the journals; Lewis never recorded whether the journals were written during or after the expedition. Further, there are frequent large gaps in the journals where nothing is recorded—for example, May 14, 1804 to April 7, 1805. Modern histories do not know if these journals are lost or if Lewis simply did not record...