SAVED BY SEAMAN
Wednesday, May 29, 1805
Captain Lewis
Last night we were all allarmed by a large buffaloe Bull, which
swam over from the opposite shore and coming alongside of the white
perogue [canoe], climbed over it to land, he then allarmed ran up
the bank in full speed directly towards the fires, and was within
18 inches of the heads of some of the men who lay sleeping before
the centinel could allarm him or make him change his course, still
more allarmed, he now took his direction immediately towards our
lodge, passing between 4 fires and within a few inches of the heads
of one range of the men as they yet lay sleeping, when he came near
the tent, my dog saved us by causing him to change his course a
second time, which he did by turning a little to the right, and
was quickly out of sight, leaving us by this time all in an uproar
with or [our] guns in our hands, enquiring of each other the case
[cause] of the alarm, which after a few moments was explained by
the centinel: we were happy to find no one hirt. (Passage excerpted
from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, edited by Bernard DeVoto.
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