# Alexander Wilson, "Particulars of the Death of Capt. Lewis" (letter to Alexander Lawson, dated Natchez, "May 28th, 1811" in this printing), The Port Folio, January 1812

CITATION: The Port Folio (Philadelphia), new series [3d ser.] vol. 7, no. 1 (January 1812), pp. 34-38+ ("Particulars of the Death of Capt. Lewis", "For the Port Folio"). The addressee is not named in the Port Folio; Ord (1828) and Grosart (1876) print it as "To Mr. Alexander Lawson" dated "Natchez, Mississippi Territory, May 18th, 1810".
URL fetched: https://archive.org/download/sim_port-folio_1812-01_7_1/sim_port-folio_1812-01_7_1_djvu.txt (Internet Archive, Serials in Microfilm item sim_port-folio_1812-01_7_1)
DATE FETCHED: 2026-09-14
TRANSCRIPTION: OCR of a microfilm scan of the original 1812 magazine printing; OCR quality fair (e.g. "Missisififi" = Mississippi, "gravye" = grave). This is the earliest printing of Wilson's account. Compare Ord 1828 and Grosart 1876 files.

---- VERBATIM TEXT (OCR of the scan; line breaks and page headers as in the scan; runs of spaces collapsed; OCR errors NOT corrected) ----

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rally attributed to his pen, bear the marks of a sagacious under- 
standing, and cultivated taste. His intellectual eye is clear, pene- 
trating, and eminently adapted to the detection of faults. With 
a génius rather discriminative than comprehensive, severe than 
graceful, his writings are chiefly characterised by soundness of 
thinking, and vigorous perspicuity of style. His critical strictures, 
(which form the basis of his reputation,) display acuteness of per- 
ception, accuracy of judgment, extent of knowledge, a ready come 
mand of language, galling severity of animadversion, and strong¢ 
powers of irony. 

FOR THE PORT FOLIO. 
PARTICULARS OF THE DEATH OF CAPT. LEWIS. 

Tue following letter, from the author of American Ornithology, while on 
his late western expedition in search of new subjects for his elegant publi- 
cation, has excited much interest in the private circles to which it has hitherto 
been confined, and for which alone it was originally intended. The writer 
has yielded to our solicitations for its appearance here; and the reader of taste 
and feeling, will find both gratified, by the perusal of this simple, and, in some 
parts, affecting narrative. 

Natchez, Missisififi Ter., May 28th, 1811. 
Dear Sir, 

Axzovur three weeks ago I wrote you from Nashville, inclosing 
three sheets of drawings, which I hope you have received.* [ 
was at that time on the point of setting out for St. Louis; but be- 
ing detained a week by constant and heavy rains, and considers 
ing that it would add four hundred miles to my journey, and detain 
me at least a month; and the season being already far advanced and 
no subscribers to be expected there, I abandoned the idea, and 
prepared for a journey through the wilderness. I was advised 
by many not to attempt it alone; that the Indians were dangerous, 
the swamps and rivers almost impassable without assistance, and a 
thousand other hobgoblins were conjured up to dissuade me from 
going aione. But I weighed all these matters in my own mind; 
and attributing a great deal of this to vulgar fears and exagge> 

* These drawings, we are informed, never came to hand. 

—, 
% a eae ed 
Se OR ex 

DEATH OF CAPT. LEWIS. 35 

guest No —— — 

rated reports, I equipt myself for the attempt. I rode an excel- 
ient horse, on whom I could depend; I had a loaded pistol in 
each pocket, a loaded musket belted across my shoulder, a pound 
of gunpowder in my flask, and five pound of shot in my belt, 
I bought some biscuit and dried beef, and on Friday morning, 
May 4th, I left Nashville. About half a mile from town I ob- 
served a poor negro with ¢wo wooden legs building himself a 
cabin in the woods. Supposing that this journey might afford 
you and my friends some amusement I kept a particular ac- 
count of the various occurrences, and shall transcribe some of 

the most interesting, omitting every thing relative to my Orni- 
thological excursions and discoveries as more suitable for an- 
other occasion. Eleven miles from Nashville I came to the 
Great Harpath, a stream of about fifty yards, which was running 
with great violence. I could not discover the entrance of the 

ford, owing to the rains and inundations. There was no time to 

be lost, I plunged in, and almost immediately my horse was 
swimming. I set his head aslant the current, and being strong, 
he soon landed me on the other side. As the weather was 
warm, I rode in my wet clothes without any inconvenience. The 
country to day was a perpetual succession of steep hills and low 
botioms; I crossed ten or twelve large creeks, one of which swam 
my horse, where he was near being entangled among some bad 
drift wood. Now and then a solitary farm opened from the woods, 
where the negro children were running naked about the yards. 
I also passed along the north side of ahigh hill, where the whole 
timber had been prostrated by some terrible hurricane. I lodged 
this night ina miner’s, who told me he had been engaged in 
forming no less than thirteen companies for hunting mines, all 
of whom had left him. I advised him to follow his farm as the 
surest vein of ore he could work. Next day (Saturday) I first ob- 
served the cane growing, which increased until the whole woods 
were full of it. The road this day winded along the high ridges 
of mountains that divide the waters of the Cumberland from 
those of the Tennesce. I passed few houses to day; but met seve- 
ral parties of boatmen returning from Natchez and New-Orleans; 
who gave me such an account of the road, and the difficulties 
they had met with, as served to stiffen my resolution to be pre- 

36 PARTICULARS OF THE 

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pared for every thing. These men were as dirty as Hottentots; 
their dress a shirt and trowsers of canvass, black, greasy, and 
sometimes in tatters; the skin burnt wherever exposed to the 
sun; each with a budget, wrapt up in an old blanket; their beards, 
eighteen days old, added to the singularity of their appearance, 

which was altogether savage. These people came from the va- 
rious tributary streams of the Ohio, hired at forty or fifty dollars 
a trip, to return back on their ownexpenses. Some had upwards 
of eight hundred miles to travel. When they come to a stream 
that is unfordable, they coast it for a fallen tree: if that cannot be 
had, they enter with their budgets on their heads, and when they 
lose bottom, drop it on their shoulders, and take to swimming. 
They have sometimes fourteen or fifteen of such streams to pass 
in a day, and morasses of several miles in length, that I have 
never seen equalled in any country. I lodged this night in one 
Dobbins’s, where ten or twelve of these men lay on the floor. As 
they scrambled up in the morning, they very generally complain- 
ed of being unwell, for which they gave an 6dd reason, lying with- 
in doors, it being the first of fifteen nights they had been so in- 
duiged. Next morning (Sunday) I rode six miles to a man’s of the 
name of Grinder, where our poor friend Lewis perished. Inthe 
same room where he expired, I took down from Mrs. Grinder the 
particulars of that melancholy event, which affected me extreme- 
ly. This house or cabin is seventy-two miles from Nashville, and is 
the last white man’s as you enter the Indian country. Governor 
Lewis, she said, came there about sun-set, alone, and inquired if 
he could stay for the night; and, alighting, brought his saddle into 
the house. He was dressed in aloose gown, white, striped with 
blue. On being asked if he came alone, he replied that there 
were two servants behind, who would soon be up. He called for 
some spirits, and drank a very little. Whenthe servants arrived, 
one of whom was a negro, he inquired for his powder, saying he 
was sure he had some powder in acanister. The servant gave 
no distinct reply, and Lewis, in the mean while, walked backwards 
and forwards before the door, talking to himself. Sometimes, 
she said, he would seem as if he were walking up to her; and 
would suddenly wheel round, and walk back as fast as he could. 
Supper being ready he sat down, but had not eat but a few mouth- 

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DEATH OF CAPT. LEWIS. 37 

fuls when he started up, speaking to himself in a violent man- 
ner. At these times, she says, she observed his face to flush as 
if it had come on him ina fit. He lighted his pipe, and drawing 
a chair to the door sat down, saying to Mrs. Grinder, in a kind 
tone of voice, ‘* Madam this is a very pleasant evening.” He 
smoked for some time, but quitted his seat and traversed the yard 
as before. He again sat down to his pipe, seemed again composed, 
and casting his eyes wishfully towards the west, observed what a 
sweet evening it was. Mrs. Grinder was preparing a bed for 
him; but he said he would sleep on the floor, and desired the ser- 
vant to bring the bear skins and buffaloe robe, which were im- 
mediately spread out tur him; and it being now dusk the woman 
went off to the kitchen, and the two men to the barn, which stands 
about two hundred yards off. The kitchen is only a few paces 
from the room where Lewis was, and the woman being consi- 
derably alarmed by.the behaviour of her guest could not sleep, 
but listened to him walking backwards and forwards, she thinks, 
for several hours, and taiking aloud, as she said, * like a law- 
yer.” She then heard the report of a pistol, and something fall 
heavily on the floor, and the words “ O Lord!” Immediately af- 
terwards she heard another pistol, and in a few minutes she 
heard him at her door calling out “ O madam! give me some 
water, and healmy wounds.” The logs being open, and unplas- 
tered, she saw him stagger back and fall against a stump that 
stands between the kitchen and room. He crawled for some dis- 
tance, raised himself by the side of a tree, where he sat about a 
minute. He once more got to the room; afterwards he came to 
the kitchen door, but did not speak; she then heard him scraping 
the bucket with a gourd for water; but it appears that this cool- 
ing eiement was denied the dying man! As soonas day broke and 
not before, the terror of the woman having permitted him to re- 
main for two hours in this most deplorable situation, she sent 
two of her chiidren to the barn, her husband not being at home, 
to bring the servants; and on going in they found him lying on 
the bed; he uncovered his side and shewed them where the bullet 
had entered; a piece of the foreiiead was blown off, and had ex- 
posed the brains, without having bled much. He begged they 
would take his rifle and blow out his brains, and he would give 

as PARTICULARS OF THE 

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them all the money he had in his trunk. He often said, “I am 
no coward; but I am so strong, so hard to die.” He begg’d the 
servant not to be afraid of him, for that he would not hurt him. 
He expired in about two hours, or just as the sun rose above the 
trees. He lies buried close by the common path, with a few loose 

rails thrown over his grave. I gave Grinder money to put a post 
fence round it, to shelter it from the hogs, and from the wolves; 
and he gave me his written promise he would doit. I left this 
place ina very melancholy mood, which was not much allayed 
by the prospect of the gloomy and savage wilderness which I was 
just entering alone. 

My thoughts dwelt with sad, but unavailing regret, on the fate 
of my unfortunate friend; and I endeavoured to give vent to the 
despondence of my mind in the following verses, which I wished 
to dedicate to his memory. 

Far hence be each accusing thought! | 
Let tears of silent sorrow flow; : 
Pale Pity consecrates the spot 
Where poor lost Lewis now lies low! 

This lonely gravye—this bed of clay, 
Neglected—dug the pathway near; 
Unfenc’d from midnight beasts of prey, 

Excites Affliction’s bitterest tear. 

The soldier brave, of dauntless heart, 
The chief belov’d, the comrade dear; 

Of honour’d worth the mortal part 
Moulders in sacred silence here. 

His was the peril, glory, pride, 
First of his country to explore 
Whence vast Missouri’s currents glide, 
Where white man never trod before. 

Her roaring cataracts he scal’d, 
Her mountains of eternal snow; 

There his brave band the rivers hail’d 

That westward to the ocean flow. 

DEATH OF CAPT. LEWIS. 

ois 

Subdu’d by boldness, and amazed 
At daring deeds unknown before, 
The hordes of Indian warriors gaz’d, 

And loved them for the hearts they bore. 

Far down Columbia’s foamy steeps, 
He ied his brave adventurous band; 

Plough’d the Pacrric’s billowy deeps, 
And stood triumphant on the strand!