The party now began to meet white men in small detachments coming up the river.  On the third of September, for example, they met the first men who were able to give them news of home.  This party was commanded by a Mr. James Airs (or Ayres), from Mackinaw, by the way of Prairie du Chien and St. Louis.  He had two canoes loaded with merchandise which he was taking up the river to trade with the Indians.  Among the items of news gathered from him, according to the private journal of one of the Lewis and Clark party, was that General James Wilkinson was now Governor of Louisiana Territory, and was stationed at St. Louis.  This is the Wilkinson who fought in the American Revolution, and was subsequently to this time accused of accepting bribes from Spain and of complicity with Aaron Burr in his treasonable schemes.  Another item was to this effect:  “Mr. Burr & Genl.  Hambleton fought a Duel, the latter was killed.”  This brief statement refers to the unhappy duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, at Weehawken, New Jersey, July 11, 1804.  This interesting entry shows with what feelings the long-absent explorers met Mr. Airs:—­

“After so long an interval, the sight of anyone who could give us information of our country was peculiarly delightful, and much of the night was spent in making inquiries into what had occurred during our absence.  We found Mr. Airs a very friendly and liberal gentleman; when we proposed to him to purchase a small quantity of tobacco, to be paid for in St. Louis, he very readily furnished every man of the party with as much as he could use during the rest of the voyage, and insisted on our accepting a barrel of flour.  This last we found very agreeable, although we have still a little flour which we had deposited at the mouth of Maria’s River.  We could give in return only about six bushels of corn, which was all that we could spare.”

Three days later, the voyagers met a trading-boat belonging to Mr. Augustus Chouteau, the founder of a famous trading-house in St. Louis.  From this party the captains procured a gallon of whiskey, and with this they served out a dram to each of their men.  “This,” says the journal, “is the first spirituous liquor any of them have tasted since the Fourth of July, 1805.”  From this time forward, the returning explorers met trading parties nearly every day; and this showed that trade was following the flag far up into the hitherto unexplored regions of the American continent.

The explorers, hungry for news from home, would have tarried and talked longer with their new-found friends, but they were anxious to get down to civilization once more.  Their journal also says:  “The Indians, particularly the squaws and children, are weary of the long journey, and we are desirous of seeing our country and friends.”  This quotation from the journal gives us our first intimation that any Indians accompanied Big White to the United States.  He appears to have had a small retinue of followers men, women, and children—­with him.