American Indians hunting grizzly bears, by George Catlin (1796-1872) |
Lewis and his
men looked forward to meeting some of these brown bears. With an air of
superiority, he wrote that the Indians had only bows and arrows or “the indifferent guns with which the traders
furnish them, with these they shoot with such uncertainty and at so short a
distance that they frequently miss their aim & fall a sacrifice to the
bear,” as noted in Stephen Ambrose’s 1996 book Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West. Lewis also noted that the Indians prepared for a
bear encounter with the same types of ceremonies in which they prepared for
battle against other men, but felt certain that the animals would be no match
for his men’s superior arms and expertise in using them.
The
expedition’s first encounter with the grizzly was a little disconcerting. Lewis and another man, walking on the shore of the river on which their
boats traveled, shot two bears. One ran away, but the other charged Lewis and
pursued him for about 80 yards. He and the other man were able to reload their
guns and shoot the animal again, killing it. Although this bear was not
full-grown, it began to earn some respect for its species from Lewis, who wrote
that it is “astonishing to see the wounds
they will bear [certainly he meant no pun?] before they can be put to death.” He added, though, that “in the hands of a skilled rifleman [the
bears] are by no means as formidable or dangerous” as the Indians believe,
Ambrose reported in his book.
The next
encounter, a few days later, ended with the death of another bear, but it wasn’t
easy. Lewis described “a most tremendious
[correct spelling wasn’t Lewis’ strongpoint] looking anamal, and extremely hard to kill notwithstanding he had five
balls through his lungs and five other in various parts he swam more than half
the distance across the river to a sandbar & it was at least twenty minutes
before he died.”
The
expedition came across another grizzly a week later, but it ran away before it
could be attacked, to which Lewis wrote that “I find that the curiosity of our party is pretty well satisfied with respect
to this anamal.” The bears’ size and ferocity “has staggered the resolution [of] several of [the men], others however
seem keen for action with the bear,” Lewis added.
Of those who
looked forward to additional encounters with the grizzlies, Lewis added a bit
of humor: “I expect these gentlemen will give us some amusement shotly as [the bears]
begin now to coppolate.”